Michael Lazarou, PhD, contributed to landmark discoveries in the field of PINK1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy. He was awarded his PhD from La Trobe University and conducted his postdoctoral research studies at the National Institutes of Health, working on mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD). His research on PINK1/Parkin mitophagy led to him receiving the 2013 ASBMB Boomerang Award and the 2022 ASBMB Shimadzu Research Medal. Dr. Lazarou is currently a lab head at WEHI where he is deputy head (research) of WEHI's PD research centre. He also has a co-appointment at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University. Dr. Lazarou is currently a Rebecca Cooper Medical Research Foundation fellow and a National Health and Medical Research Investigator fellow. He uses multiple imaging modalities, including AI-directed volumetric electron microscopy, combined with gene editing and biochemistry of cells and induced neurons, to understand the intricate mechanisms of mitophagy and mitochondrial quality control.