Winners for 2019
Research Leadership Award
The award for excellence in research leadership was awarded to Professor Hamish McCallum, Environmental Futures Research Institute.
Professor McCallum is the Leader of the Planetary Health platform within the Environmental Futures Research Institute. Professor McCallum’s core research area is disease ecology that takes the principles of ecology and applies them to understanding and managing infectious diseases, both in wildlife and in humans and is internationally recognised for his work on infectious disease in free ranging wildlife.
Since taking up the position of Head of School of Environment at Griffith nearly 10 years ago, Professor McCallum has developed an extensive externally funded research program investigating infectious disease in both conservation biology and in zoonotic infections with major research projects funded by the US National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Professor McCallum led an international Hendra virus program project funded from 2012- 2016, to develop models for Hendra virus dynamics in flying foxes. He was part of a team investigating the spill over of viruses from bats in eastern Australia, Bangladesh, Ghana and Madagascar and involves collaborators from multiple international institutions. The project funded by the Preventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats program with a US$9m grant with $1m coming to Griffith.
Professor McCallum has been a leader of research into Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease since 2006. This led to a team, of which he was the senior member, being awarded the prestigious Eureka for environmental research in 2011. In association with international colleagues, Professor McCallum successfully developed a US National Science Foundation grant under the joint NSF – NIH Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program (2013-2018) aimed at understanding the evolution of this infectious cancer.
Early Career Researcher Award
Dr Lee Morgenbesser from the Griffith Asia Institute and the Centre for Governance and Public Policy is the winner of the award for excellence for an early career researcher.
Lee was appointed as a research fellow with the Griffith Asia Institute and the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University in 2014 where he has further developed his strong track record based on his PhD and which resulted in the publication of his monograph Behind the Façade: Elections under authoritarianism in Southeast Asia in 2016. It is the first book-length comparative analysis on why authoritarian regimes hold elections. This achievement has been supplemented by four conference presentations, four invited talks and a further four journal articles – in Contemporary Politics, European Journal of East Asian Studies and Pacific Review. In January 2018, he began his current position as an ARC Discovery Early Career Award on the topic of The Rise of Sophisticated Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia (2018-2020). Since taking up the DECRA, he has published a further four journal articles, twelve invited talks and one conference presentation.
Research Supervision Award
Professor Saroja Selvanathan, from the Griffith Asia Institute, was recognised for her distinguished record in research supervision.
In addition to achieving excellent results as a supervisor with 7 PhD completions in the last 4 years, Professor Selvanathan exemplifies outstanding supervisory practice by meeting weekly with students, encouraging and assisting PhD students to present their work at national and international conferences and publishing in high quality journals while undertaking their PhD. Students are encouraged to gain experience presenting their work at her fortnightly PhD seminar groups where they receive immediate feedback on their work and answer audience questions. The result of this are seen in a number of her students winning competitions such as the 3 Minute Thesis competition. As a HDR Convenor she has organised HDR Symposiums, helped junior academic staff to take on co-supervision with accredited staff and organised a Statistics and Research Design Support training for HDR students.
Research Group / Team Award
Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research team, Menzies Health Institute Queensland – Team members: Professor Claire Rickard, Professor Marie Cooke, Associate Professor Andrew Bulmer, Dr Amanda Ullman, Mrs Nicole Marsh, Ms Tricia Kleidon, Associate Professor Josh Byrnes, Dr Gillian Ray-Barruel and Ms Jessica Schults
AVATAR specialises in the science of accessing the veins and arteries for medical treatment. This includes many devices and therapies, in settings as diverse as cancer, anaesthesia, emergency, outpatient treatment, and dialysis. The Group undertakes a significant program of research consisting of clinical trials, laboratory studies, systematic reviews, economic evaluations, and knowledge implementation. Their vision is to make vascular access complications history. This is significant, given 25%-50% of the 2 billion devices used globally each year fail from complications such as infection, vein damage and accidental dislodgement. AVATAR aims to eliminate ineffective healthcare practices and replace them with innovative solutions, thereby providing patients with a better healthcare experience and saving healthcare providers billions of dollars. In the last 5 years the team has received over $7.3 million in research funding, produced 390 peer reviewed publications and supervised 25 HDR students to completion thus training the next generation of health professionals.
Mid-Career Researcher Awards
The awards for excellence for an individual mid-career went to Associate Professor Tara McGee, Griffith Criminology Institute and Associate Professor Jun Zhou, Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems.
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Associate Associate Professor Jun Zhou
Dr Zhou researches in the areas of image processing, computer vision, and pattern recognition with a focus on hyperspectral imaging, novel imaging technology and image processing methods for the light wavelengths beyond the human visible capability and is a leading researcher and pioneer in the field of hyperspectral computer vision.
He has led his research team in developing methods for hyperspectral image processing, pattern recognition, and machine learning that can be used and applied in agriculture, medicine, and environmental monitoring. His research on hyperspectral computer vison forms a key technology adopted in the recently successful ARC Industrial Transformation Hub project application entitled “ARC Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention”. Dr Zhou’s research in hyperspectral imaging contributes to a number of research tasks, such as monitoring the growth stage of bay lobsters and early detection of crop diseases. He is also chief investigator on the ARC Linkage Project on “Precise recognition for automated harvesting and grading of strawberries”. Dr Zhou has published 102 papers over the last 5 years, including 1 book, 2 book chapters, 37 journal articles, and 62 conference papers.
Associate Professor Tara McGee
Associate Professor McGee's research focuses on the development of offending over the life-course as well as developmental crime prevention.
Her greatest contribution is in the area of understanding the development of antisocial behaviour and offending over the life course. Her work on adult-onset offending was the first research to show that many people who are first detected by the criminal justice system as adults have offended previously without being caught.
She has held an ARC DECRA for the project Offending across the life-course: Testing developmental and life-course theories of crime and is currently a Chief Investigator on an ARC Linkage project on Creating pathways to child wellbeing in disadvantaged communities.
She has published 2 edited books; 1 co-authored book; 18 book chapters; 22 peer-reviewed journal articles; 3 published conference papers; 10 reports for the Criminal Justice Commission; and 5 reports for government agencies.
Remarkable minutes competition winning entries
Dr Diana Tolmie
Explore the lives of musicians who contribute to the economic and cultural growth of Australia.
Dr Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore
Women in tourism and gender equality.
Previous award winners
Research Leadership Award
| 2017 | Professor Nam Trung | Director, Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre. |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Professor Paul Tacon | Director, Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit |
| 2015 | Professor Ron Quinn AM | Foundation Director, Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery |
| 2014 | Professor Huijun Zhao | Director of the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Deputy Director of the Environmental Futures Research Institute |
| 2013 | Professor Wendy Chaboyer | Centre of Research Excellence in Nursing, Menzies Health Institute Queensland |
| 2012 | Professor Mark Von Itzstein | Director, Institute for Glycomics |
| 2011 | Professor Debra Bernhardt | Director, Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre |
| 2010 | Professor Stuart Bunn | Director, Australian Rivers Institute |
| 2009 | Professor Patrick Weller | Director, Centre for Governance and Public Policy |
| 2009 | Professor Ron Quinn | Director, Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery |
Research Supervision Award
| 2017 | Professor Rod Garrett | School of Allied Health, Menzies Health Institute Queensland |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Professor Cordia Chu | Centre for Environment and Population Health, Menzies Health Institute Queensland |
| 2015 | Professor Donna Pendergast | School of Education and Professional Studies |
| 2014 | Associate Professor Michael Haugh | School of Languages and Linguistics |
| 2013 | Professor Jane Hughes | Australian Rivers Institute |
Mid-Senior Career Researcher Award
| 2017 | Dr Lara Herrero | Institute for Glycomics |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Associate Professor Guillermo Diaz Pulido | Australian Rivers Institute |
| 2016 | Professor Vicky Avery | Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery |
| 2015 | Professor Shanqing (Eddie) Zhang | Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Environmental Futures Research Institute |
| 2014 | Professor Diego de Leo AO | Director of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention |
| 2013 | Professor Geoff Pryde | Centre for Quantum Dynamics |
| 2012 | Professor Adrian Wilkinson | Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing |
| 2011 | Professor David Lambert | Australian Rivers Institute |
| 2010 | Professor Alfred Lam | Griffith Health Institute |
| 2009 | Professor Lyn Griffiths | Griffith Health Institute |
Early Career Researcher Award
| 2017 | Dr Amanda Ullman | Menzies Health Institute Queensland |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Dr Lyndel Bates | School of Criminology and Criminal Justice |
| 2015 | Dr Lauren Ball | Menzies Health Institute Queensland |
| 2014 | Dr Kyra Hamilton | School of Applied Psychology |
| 2013 | Dr Olivera Simic | Socio-Legal Research Centre |
| 2012 | Dr Wendy Steele | Urban Research Program |
| 2011 | Dr Jennifer Whitty | Population and Social Health Research |
| 2010 | Dr Keith Townsend | Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing |
| 2009 | Dr Elena Marchetti | Socio-Legal Research Centre |
Research Group or Team Award
| 2017 | Cancer Survivor Collaborative Research Group, Menzies Health Insistute | Led by Professors Suzanne Chambers and Tamara Onsworth |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Laboratory for Vaccines for the Developing World, Institute for Glycomics | Led by Professor Michael Good |
| 2015 | Centre for Applied Health Economics | Led by Professor Paul Scuffham |
| 2014 | Advancing Life-Course Criminology, Queensland Linkage Project, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice | Led by Professor Anna Stewart |
| 2013 | Applied Cognitive Neuroscience - Improving Human Functioning by Understanding Brain-Behaviour Relationships, Behavioural Basis of Health | Led by Professor David Shum |
| 2012 | Highly Commended: Assessment, Literacy and Equity team; and | Led by Professor Joy Cumming |
| 2012 | Highly Commended: Enhancing treatment outcomes for childhood anxiety disorders: A multidisciplinary approach to innovative interventions | Led by Associate Professor Alison Waters |
| 2011 | Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre | Led by Professor Huib Schippers |
| 2010 | Quantum Information Science, Centre for Quantum Dynamics | Led by Professor Howard Wiseman |
| 2009 | Health Places Healthy People research program | Led by Professor Elizabeth Kendall |
Outstanding Research Achievement Award
| 2014 | Associate Professor Maxime Aubert | Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Associate Professor Adam Brumm | Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute |
Remarkable Minutes Competition Winners
| 2017 | Mr Chris Little | School of Engineering and Queensland College of Art for 'Creating Windows Into our Past' |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Dr Jason van de Merwe | Australian Rivers Institute for 'Marine Wildlife Cell-based Toxicology' |
*Re-dating of the award ceremony resulted in a one year gap.