Forrest Research Foundation supports new discoveries

Early career researches from The University of Western Australia investigating how to support migrant aged care workers, develop therapeutics to reduce cancer recurrence and new superconducting materials, have been awarded prestigious 2021 Prospect Fellowships.

Prospect Fellowships, awarded by the Forrest Research Foundation, were introduced to combat decreasing research funding due to COVID-19.

The fellowships provide early career researchers with 18 months of funding and access to mentoring and professional development programs.

Fellows who will undertake research at The University of Western Australia include:

• Dr Andrea Rassell’s research will examine the use of media art to explain and educate the public about the uses of nanotechnology and nanomedicine.
• Dr Arman Siahvashi, from UWA’s School of Engineering, will work to develop large-scale hydrogen liquefaction technologies in Australia.
• Dr Ben McAllister, from UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, aims to develop single photon counters and new superconducting materials and applications.
• Dr Catriona Stevens, from UWA’s School of Social Sciences, will work to understand our migrant aged-care workforce to create a safer, healthier future for older Western Australians.
• Dr Francesco De Toni, from UWA’s School of Humanities, will study health emotion language to better understand the way people use emotion to describe health and illness.
• Dr Lucy Furfaro, from the UWA Medical School, will examine bacteriophages in the womb, and their potential in regulating bacterial infections.
• Dr Rachael Zemek, will investigate how wound healing after cancer surgery can follow cancer-activating and immune-activating pathways, which will help develop therapeutics that could reduce cancer recurrence after surgery.
• Dr Samuel Lymbery, will discover more about how the biology of ant colonies and their reliance on internally produced neuropeptides can be used to destroy them from the inside.
• Dr Samantha Winter will search for a connection between the gastrointestinal biome and the immune system to investigate the role of unconventional T-cells.
• Dr Shannon Algar will launch a research project that focuses on swarm intelligence for animal welfare, examining data-driven prediction and simulation.

The Forrest Research Foundation aims to attract the brightest minds to conduct research in Western Australia. The Foundation also provides support to leading researchers who are at the start of their career by providing postdoctoral fellowships.

More information is available on the Forrest Research Foundation website.