Peter Hersey was appointed Professor of Oncology at the University of Newcastle in 1984 and currently holds the positions of Research Director of the Newcastle Melanoma Unit and Consultant Immunologist to the Sydney Melanoma Unit.  He is a Member of the WHO Melanoma study group, the Society of Biological Therapy, the National Cancer Research Advisory Group and Cancer Care Australia.  He is Chairman of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Group of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia.

Dr Hersey was the principal investigator of a large Australian trial of adjuvant immunotherapy and is principal investigator in a dendritic cell vaccine trial in melanoma.  Since 1998 he has contributed extensively to studies on sensitivity of Melanoma cells to apoptosis induced by the immune system and treatments which sensitise melanoma to therapy. 

Dr Hersey on the editorial board of a number of international journals and has contributed extensively to melanoma research.  He is author of over 200 papers on original research related to melanoma.  Clinical research is conducted by Peter Hersey through the Sydney Melanoma Unit and the Newcastle Melanoma Unit.