Professor Merlin Crossley AM is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality at UNSW Sydney. His lab works on CRISPR gene editing to treat inherited blood diseases. He is known for his work on Hemophilia B Leyden, his contributions to cloning new genes for transcription factors and their cofactors, including KLF3, KLF8, KLF17, Eos (IKZF4), Pegasus (IKZF5), CtBP2, Fog (ZFPM1) and Fog2 (ZFPM2), and for characterising natural mutations associated with Hereditary Persistence of Fetal Hemoglobin. He is an enthusiastic science communicator, Chair of the Editorial Board of The Conversation, Chair of UNSW Press, Deputy Director of the Australian Science Media Centre, and an Honorary Associate of the Australian Museum. He has received multiple awards, including a Rhodes Scholarship, the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Medical Biological Science, and in 2021 a new species of iridescent butterfly bobtail squid was named in his honour – Iridoteuthis merlini – Merlin’s bobtail squid.