The Australian scientist Peter Doherty,the winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine and the 1997 Australian of the Year,swore an oath of allegiance to the US on Monday in a naturalisation ceremony in Memphis,Tennessee.
Professor Doherty,who heads a research team at the University of Melbourne,told theHerald he became a US citizen for financial and family reasons,and to simplify his commute to the US,where he spends about four months a year in his lab at St Jude Children's Research Hospital.
After a change in the law in 2002 allowing Australians to have dual citizenship,"it seemed a very obvious and sensible thing to do",he said."I have enormous affection for Australia and enormous affection for the United States."
Professor Doherty,65,had worked overseas,mostly in the US,for 20 years before he moved back to Australia four years ago.
Now he was an American,he had no immediate plans to spend more time there,but this could change."I do science for a living and you go where the action is."
In Memphis,he works on bird flu and US citizenship would give him with greater legal protection in the case of a laboratory disaster,he said."These are extremely dangerous viruses,"he said."Because I could be subject to prosecution,I guess I could be sent to Guantanamo Bay if something went wrong[as a non-citizen]."
Professor Doherty and his wife,Penny,who also took US citizenship,have a son and two grandchildren in Seattle,and a son and three grandchildren in Melbourne."We live between two cultures basically,"Professor Doherty said."It's the reality of the globalised workforce."
Most of his retirement benefits were invested in the US."I'll be paying US taxes for the rest of my life."He had also been in the"ridiculous situation"until Monday of potentially losing his US residency status if he stayed out of the country too long.
"Since September 11,2001,travelling backwards and forwards between the US and Australia,if you're working in both situations,has also become more difficult."
Another great benefit of US citizenship was that he could at last vote in a society where he had spent much of his life.
Predictions of increased spending for medical research in Australia's budget were"fantastic",he said."I'm absolutely delighted by the news they are going to rebuild the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra where we did our[Nobel-winning] work."