Dr. Heath is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. In 1988, he received his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Melbourne in Australia. He did postdoctoral work in the United States in the Immunology Department of the Scripps Research Institute. In 1990, he received a CRI fellowship and returned to Australia to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute where he remained until 2008. In 1993, he received an Australian Research Fellowship; in 1998, he was awarded the Burnet Prize from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. In 2008 he was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and was awarded a Federation Fellowship from the Australian Research Council to take up a new appointment at the University of Melbourne. This is his second HHMI International Research Scholar award.

William Heath is investigating the effects of the interaction between malarial parasites and dendritic cells, which initiate immunity, on the disease's ability to overcome the efforts of a competent immune system. Heath is studying which specific types of dendritic cells capture malaria and how these important immune cells are affected by a full-fledged infection by Plasmodium. His research could lay the groundwork for development of new and more effective treatments for human malarial infections.