Research into areas as diverse as avocados, batteries and climate change has shared in a $515,182 total pool in ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s awards.
Six early to mid-career researchers and two supervisors were honoured last night at ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s annual and the at Customs House.
The awards were presented by ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj and guest speaker from the University of Melbourne.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robyn Ward said the awards would help these early career researchers advance their excellent research endeavours.
“All of the winners show exceptional promise to become discovery leaders of the future,” Professor Ward said.
“These awards recognise that our early career researchers are pursuing important work and developing innovations that create change for people all over the world.”
The ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ Foundation Research Excellence Awards – now in their 17th year – recognise excellence and the promise of future success in research for ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s early to mid-career researchers.
The 2015 winners are:
($95,733) from ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ's , who aims to create a biodegradable, non-toxic, non-GM spray to induce root formation in avocadoes, aiming to help the industry meet growing consumer demand and make avocadoes more affordable.
Alice Hayward from on .
($79,283), from ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s , who is developing a totally plastic battery to power future flexible and wearable electronic devices that is suitable and safe to dispose in the recycling bin.
Zhongfan Jia from on .
($90,500), from ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s , who is investigating ways to transform organic waste into renewable fuel, including developing an innovative platform for storing and transporting liquid bio-products.
Bing-Jie Ni from on .
($52,660), from ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s , who is examining ‘Big History’, which brings together findings from astronomy, geology, biology and anthropology to place human history within the larger story of all life – beginning with the Big Bang.
Ian Hesketh from on .
($99,796), from ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s , who is developing methods to detect when climate predictions fail to capture how the climate is actually changing. The research will contribute to saving plant and animal species that would otherwise go extinct as a result of climate change.
Eve McDonald-Madden from on .
($97,210), from ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s , who is analysing genetic data to help understand how the mutations that occur in people’s DNA contribute to disease susceptibility. This knowledge could then be translated to clinical practice to improve patient care.
Joseph Powell from on .
View all the winners' videos .
The awards will enable the researchers to further their exciting research endeavours.
Two higher degree supervisors received ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ Awards for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision.
They are , from the , and , from the Schools of , and . The Commendation award was presented to , from the .
Watch a of research at ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ.
Media: Caroline Bird, ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ Communications, 07 3365 1130, c.bird1@uq.edu.au