Professor George Murrell was appointed Director of the Orthopaedic Research Institute at St George Hospital and Associate Professor at the UNSW in September 1995. He graduated from Adelaide University and was the 1984 South Australian Rhodes Scholar. At Oxford he completed a DPhil (PhD) thesis on "Dupuytren's Contracture" and was awarded the Royal College of Surgeons Arris and Gale medal for this work.

Professor Murrell completed his orthopaedic training at Duke University, USA where he also established a research program on tendon healing and was supported by the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation. He then completed a two year fellowship in sports medicine, shoulder surgery and research at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York. During this time he gained a National Institutes of Health First Award, an American Orthopaedic Association North American Travelling Fellowship.

Professor Murrell specialises in shoulder surgery and has a special interest in arthroscopic methods to repair and restore damaged ligaments and tendons. His team have made major advances in diagnosing and managing shoulder instability, frozen shoulder, calcific tendonitis, rotator cuff tears, acromio-clavicular injuries and arthritis.