Professor Graham Cooksley graduated in medicine from the University of Queensland in 1963. He was RMO at the Royal Brisbane Hospital before returning to a position at the University of Queensland in 1969, where he specialised in internal medicine and gastroenterology and completed a research doctorate as a National Health and Medical Research Council scholar.

In 1973-1974 he worked on regulation of hepatic protein synthesis at the Clinical Research Centre, Harrow, UK as the Nuffield Travelling Fellow for Australia in the Medical Sciences.

He was appointed Senior Lecturer in 1975 and subsequently Associate Professor in Medical Biochemistry from 1979 to 1988 at the University of Queensland with research interests in cobalamin metabolism, hepatic drug metabolism and auto-immune hepatitis. He was appointed Director of the Clinical Research Centre, Royal Brisbane Hospital Foundation and Professor at the University of Queensland from 1987-2002.

On returning from England in 1974 Cooksley had an NHMRC grant and when he went to renew it, the Chairman (an RACP Fellow) read out one of the referee's reports and said "if Dr. Cooksley continues to work in this area he is not just wasting his time he is wasting his life". His Head of Dept said "you must work on the most important problem in your discipline". Cooksley decided that was hepatitis B, but not many at that time was working in hepatitis B. However, he went to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland in 1981 on sabbatical leave which was one of the few places researching hep B. He subsequently was involved in research on the immunopathology of chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C and enjoyed an international reputation on chronic hepatitis. He was Convenor of 3rd International Meeting on Hepatitis C and Related Viruses, 5th International Meeting on Hepatitis D and 7th International Meeting on Hepatitis C and was Chairman of the Steering Committee on the Control of Infectious Diseases in Asia.

Cooksley’s major research interests were in pathogenesis and treatment of chronic hepatitis. He has more than 200 publications in the international literature, gave numerous oral presentations at scientific meetings and has given over 170 invited lectures at international and national meetings. His publications have been cited more than 12,000 times in the international literature.

On his retirement he was appointed Emeritus Professor at The University of Queensland.