Prof Kotecha is a clinician-scientist who obtained a MB ChB degree with honours from the University of Leicester, England. Prof Kotecha obtained postgraduate clinical qualifications from both the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (UK) and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and has been working as a Consultant in Paediatric Haematology/Oncology at Perth Children’s Hospital since 2012.
Rishi developed an expertise of preclinical models and molecular genetic analyses during a laboratory-based PhD which was conferred by the University of Western Australia in 2014 and awarded a place on the Dean’s list in recognition of an outstanding thesis across all disciplines. Rishi currently co-leads the preclinical WA Leukaemia Translational Research program, has raised over $12 million dollars in research support as CIA and published more than 115 original research articles.
Prof Kotecha was named the 2024 Cancer Council of WA Early Career Researcher of the year and has been awarded two NHMRC Investigator Fellowships. Rishi is an integral member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the international BFM study group, Interfant study group and ITCC Hema Committee which are responsible for the design and implementation of clinical trials for children with leukaemia worldwide. He is co-chair of the global COG AALL2321 trial for infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Prof Kotecha is an inaugural member of the National Blood Cancer Taskforce, established in 2019 by the federal government to commission a National Action Plan, and launched in 2020 to improve the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of blood cancers. In 2021, Rishi was appointed Leukaemia-Lymphoma co-chair of the national Zero2 Precision Medicine trial for children with cancer. Prof Kotecha is the clinical lead for paediatric blood cancer for WA and is the current Chair of the Australian & New Zealand Children’s Leukaemia-Lymphoma group.