From virus to science, creativity gives edge to innovator
Hit for six with Epstein-Barr virus and unable to sit his uni exams, a young John Kapeleris shifted focused – to building a career to fight infectious diseases.
“I could not believe I was so dilapidated by such a small virus that you can't even see,” the biomedical innovator explains.
“I was already studying science, but that experience was a realisation that I needed to do more around viruses, bacteria and mycoses - I just had this passion, that I needed to help people with those diseases in particular.”
Now Dr John Kapeleris, a medical immunologist and CEO of innovative ag-tech company BirdSol, he’s spent decades ensuring scientific breakthroughs achieve maximum impact.
And CQUniversity has recognised his life-changing contribution, naming Dr Kapeleris the 2025 Alumnus of the Year for Social Impact.
The Brisbane-based innovator completed his Graduate Diploma of Management with CQU in 1995, and said the decision to study business marked a key shift in his career, and his approach.
“One of the courses I did was decision making, and that changed my life, and set me on a lifelong journey of studying creativity, and how it feeds into the innovation process,” he said.
Learning about a nine-step decision-making tool, he adapted his own six-step creative problem-solving process, and began implementing it in his work at Panbio Pty Ltd.
With Panbio, he developed 16 new-to-the-world medical diagnostic assays for infectious diseases to humans, including a rapid antigen test for dengue fever.
“At that time, I’d travelled through the hospitals and pathology laboratories of southeast Asia during a massive outbreak of dengue, seeing bodies coming into hospitals and they were dying so fast they’d just pile them up in the corner,” he said.
The work of the Brisbane-based team was hailed as life-saving, and globally recognised by leaders including the Princess of Thailand.
His role grew to business development, helping to transform Panbio into a global enterprise.
“Selling was then a very important part (of what I did) – selling our capabilities, our successes. You needed to know the basis of selling,” he said.
Most recently, Dr Kapeleris has traded bio-tech for ag-tech, founding BirdSol Pty Ltd to offer farmers an AI-based bird deterrent system, called CherrpTM.
“The technology detects bird species through visual and auditory recognition, then actually produces their own ‘language’ to guide them away from crops and towards alternative, native feeding sites,” he explained.
“On average, 30 to 40 per cent of productive horticulture is lost to birds, so if we were to change just 10 per cent of that globally, we could feed an additional 2.3 billion people!”
Dr Kapeleris said the system was also successful in encouraging birds back to their natural habitats, to also recreate biodiversity and natural ecology.
Reflecting on his career, Dr Kapeleris said motivation to do good, keep learning, and think creatively, were key to his impact
“My definition of success at the start was work hard, make a lot of money!” he said.
“But at the same time, I knew that if I could do it while actually solving major human problems, then I'd be really happy about the outcome,”
The Alumni Award recognises Dr Kapeleris for significant contributions to strategic leadership and biotechnology-based innovation across diverse fields, driving outcomes such as improved global health and enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainability.
Learn more about CQUniversity's 2025 Alumni Award recipients here.
