Four new Forrest Research Fellows to drive discovery in 2023

From advancing the search for gravitational waves and studying children’s attitudes towards nature, to exploring galactic collisions and writing the first history of Australian literary philanthropy, recipients of the 2023 Forrest Fellowships have set themselves big challenges.

“Bringing together such divergent research areas is what makes the Foundation unique as it creates a research environment that is driven by excellence as well as curiosity, sharing of ideas and exploration that will directly benefit the people of Western Australia."

Forrest Research Foundation Director, Professor James Arvanitakis

New Zealander Dr Fiona Panther will join Canadian Dr Connor Bottrell and Australians Dr Karri Neldner and Joseph Steinberg in taking up the prestigious Forrest Research Foundation Fellowships at The University of Western Australia next year.

A postdoctoral researcher at UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, Dr Panther will spend her time as a Forrest Research Fellow searching for gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, created by the product of binary neutron star mergers.  

Dr Panther said the computer algorithms she would develop to search for the gravitational wave signals would help inform how the next generation of gravitational wave detectors should be built and optimised.

Dr Neldner, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, will use her time at UWA’s School of Psychological Science to investigate the factors that influence children’s feelings of connectedness to, or responsibility for, the environment.

She said understanding how children think about the natural world, and how this changes as they develop, can reveal insights into how our society values, or devalues, nature and are critical for developing relevant interventions that can encourage future environmental and societal change.

Dr Connor Bottrell has spent the past two years as a Kavli Fellow and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Scholar at the University of Tokyo.

He will take up his Fellowship at the UWA International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research where he’ll use computer simulations to track galaxies backward in time to the beginning of the universe, to explore galactic collisions and their impact on how galaxies evolved.  

As a doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge,  UWA alumnus Joseph Steinberg currently teaches courses in modern, contemporary and postcolonial literatures, with his research examining how the form of the novel has been shaped by pedagogical practices.  

His postdoctoral project at the School of English and Literary Studies (Westerly Research Group) will examine and evaluate a wide array of governmental and philanthropic initiatives that have supported Australian literature, to develop an understanding of how and why past efforts to support Australian writers have succeeded and failed. 

The Forrest Research Foundation was established in 2014, by Andrew and Nicola Forrest through their Minderoo Foundation. Forrest Research Foundation Fellowships are available for outstanding international and Australian researchers, to continue their work at one of five Western Australian universities.

Forrest Research Foundation Director Professor James Arvanitakis congratulated the new Forrest Fellows and said they were excited to be fostering their development and relationships over the next three years.

“Bringing together such divergent research areas is what makes the Foundation unique as it creates a research environment that is driven by excellence as well as curiosity, sharing of ideas and exploration that will directly benefit the people of Western Australia,” Professor Arvanitakis said.

Minderoo Foundation Research Chair Fiona David said she was also looking forward to welcoming the four brilliant minds to the Western Australian research community. 

“From supporting astrophysics to Australian literature, Forrest Research Foundation is helping unleash energy - the energy of incredible minds, who are committed to collaboration, and to solving pressing problems,” Ms David said.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Amit Chakma said through the support of the Foundation, the University was able to help early-career researchers expand their world-class research across a diverse range of fields.

“UWA looks forward to helping these talented individuals to extend the boundaries of knowledge as they tackle some of the biggest challenges in science and contribute novel research to not only WA, but our region and the world,” Professor Chakma said.

More information is available on the Forrest Research Foundation website.

Caption for photographs at top of page: 2023 Forrest Research Fellows (left to right) Dr Fiona Panther, Joseph Steinberg, Dr Karri Neldner and Dr Connor Bottrell.