University of Western Australia
A clinical researcher who has helped save people from a crippling lung condition and an agricultural scientist whose work has boosted grain production in dry lands have been announced as WA Scientist of the Year finalists in the 2022 Premier’s Science Awards.
Professor YC Gary Lee and Hackett Professor Kadambot Siddique AM are among 12 scientists from The University of Western Australia named finalists in the prestigious awards, which honour the best in their field in six categories.
“It is an honour to be named a finalist alongside my UWA colleague Professor YC Gary Lee and Curtin University Professor Kliti Grice for this prestigious award,” Professor Siddique said.
Professor Lee said he too was honoured to be a finalist.
“I am delighted to show we can perform world-leading medical research from Western Australia that improves outcomes of patients with pleurisy worldwide,” Professor Lee said.
Four UWA scientists: Associate Professor Hayley Christian, Dr Ana Micaela Martins Sequeira, Professor Ajmal Mian and Associate Professor Danail Obreschkow, were announced as finalists in the HBF Mid-Career Scientist of the Year category.
Associate Professor Christian, from the UWA-affiliated Telethon Kids Institute, has focused on making a positive difference to children's health by promoting more active childhoods.
Dr Sequeira, a marine ecologist based at UWA’s Oceans Institute, leads breakthrough research in the field of marine megafauna conservation.
Associate Professor Obreschkow, an astrophysicist and ARC Future Fellow with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and head of UWA’s International Space Centre, researches the dynamics of galaxies, which hold important clues to understanding our own existence in the cosmos.
Professor Mian has discovered new knowledge in Artificial Intelligence and collaborates with multiple disciplines to make advances in medicine, psychology, marine science, agriculture and mining.
Three UWA scientists, Dr Qi Fang, Dr Nicole Hill and Dr Rachael Zemek, are finalists for the Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year.
Dr Fang, from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, has contributed to the commercialisation of cancer imaging probes while Dr Hill, a Forrest Prospect Fellow at Telethon Kids Institute, works to reduce the number of young lives lost to suicide. Dr Zemek, also from Telethon Kids Institute, has developed unique techniques and made breakthrough discoveries to understand why some cancer patients are cured by immunotherapy and others are not.
The UWA finalists in the ExxonMobil Student Scientist of the Year are Nikhilesh Bappoo from Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and Azadeh Ebrahimi Madiseh. PhD student James Hill from Telethon Kids Institute was also named a finalist in the Shell Aboriginal STEM Student of the Year category.
The winners will be announced during National Science Week on August 15.
Image: Professor YC Gary Lee and Hackett Professor Kadambot Siddique AM