Professor Dawson is a Physician-Scientist, Program Head, and an Associate Director of Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1999, and subsequently trained as a haematologist in Melbourne, Australia. After his clinical training, he was awarded a prestigious General Sir John Monash Fellowship and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Fellowship, which he used to complete his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Following his PhD, as the top ranked candidate in the UK for a Wellcome Trust Fellowship, he was awarded the inaugural Wellcome Beit Prize Fellowship to pursue his research into epigenetic regulation of leukaemia stem cells. He returned to Melbourne in 2014 where his current research interest is studying chromatin regulation in haematopoiesis and cancer. His research has helped define key molecular mechanisms that underpin the initiation, maintenance, and progression of cancer.

These insights have led to the development of several first-in-class epigenetic therapies that have been translated into various clinical trials across the world. He is a Professor at the University of Melbourne, the Sir Edward Dunlop Fellow for the Cancer Council of Victoria and a HHMI International Scholar.

In recognition of his research achievements, he has been awarded several awards and prizes including the McCulloch & Till Award from the International Society of Experimental Hematology and the Prime Ministers Prize for Science as Life Scientist of the Year 2020. He has been elected to the Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). Professor Dawson was recently awarded an NHMRC Investigator Grant, Manipulating the Epigenome for Therapeutic Gain.