John Bremner was born in Perth, Western Australia and after completion of his undergraduate studies at the University of Western Australia he undertook a PhD at the Australian National University. After a further year at Harvard University as a Research Fellow he returned to Australia to take up a Lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Tasmania. Later, on sabbatical leave, he completed a Diploma in Chemical Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh. In 1991 he was appointed as Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Wollongong in NSW, Australia. He retired in 2007 and is now an Emeritus Professor of the University of Wollongong. He is a Fellow of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute and received a Distinguished Fellow Award of the RACI in 2011. In 2001 he received the Adrien Albert Award in medicinal chemistry. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.