Dr. Wakefield has served as associate dean of research at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Medicine in Sydney, Australia, since November 2007. He joined the UNSW Faculty of Medicine in 1983. In 1989, he was a visiting scientist at the Department of Medical Microbiology at Turku University in Turku, Finland, and in 1990, he was a visiting scientist at the National Eye Institute.
Dr. Wakefield is a graduate of UNSW, where he received First Class Honors and the University Medal for Medicine in 1976. He was awarded a Doctor of Medicine from UNSW in 1984 for research in inflammatory eye disease. Dr. Wakefield initially trained in internal medicine in Sydney before undergoing specialty training in immunology at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. After completing fellowships in internal medicine and pathology, he completed his doctoral studies on immunological mechanisms in inflammatory eye disease.
Dr. Wakefield's major interest is immune mechanisms in inflammatory eye disease. He is also interested in the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of diseases, including neurological disorders and chronic fatigue syndrome. He has received continuous research grant support since 1982 from Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council and has served as the author of more than 200 scientific publications.