Robson and Robertson Awards
OI SCHOLARSHIPThe Robson & Robertson Awards
ABOUT THE AWARD
Robson & Robertson Awards
Thanks to the generous contributions of the Jock Clough Marine Foundation, the UWA Oceans Institute is proud support the next generation of marine researchers. The Robson and Robertson Awards honour the late Professor Alan Robson AO CitWA and Emeritus Professor Alistar Robertson for their integral role in the establishment of UWA’s Oceans Institute.
Young Scholar Program
The Robson and Robertson Awards are designed to encourage early career researchers across any marine discipline. This award supports a cohort of PhD students with funding up to $15,000 each.
The award is allocated after assessment by established leaders in marine science in Western Australia, based on the credentials of the researcher, quality of the project, alignment with identified strategic area, and the potential research impact. The funding covers experiment expenses, training, conference attendance, fieldwork, further study, and other opportunities to start these emerging scholars on strong research foundation.
Just like the leaders that these Awards honour, recipients contribute significantly to research into the future of our oceans.
Meet the 2025 Award Winners
Congratulations to the 2025 Award Winners
This year fourteen PhD students were awarded a total of $141,000 through the 2025 Robson and Robertson Young Scholar Program to further their doctorate research.
- Teresa Baptista Nobre, School of Earth and Oceans, Enhancing adaptive genetic variation through selective breeding in Acropora tenuis and Acropora millepora in Ningaloo Reef
- Bassey Bassey, School of Molecular Sciences, From Ocean Microbe to Biodegradable Plastic Cell Factories: A Sustainable Approach to Marine Pollution Reduction
- Teigan Collins, School of Earth and Oceans, A Social-Ecological Approach to Managing Coastal Erosion for Resilient Coastlines
- Paolo Cortelezzi, School of Biological Sciences, Continental shelves as vaults of organic carbon: research visit to the University of Montpellier
- Laura-Marie Dehne, School of Biological Sciences, Whale Shark Body Condition as Nature Positive Pilot and Transferable Health Metric for Marine Megafauna
- Lise Fournier-Carnoy, School of Biological Sciences, Case studies in ecology, monitoring, and management of Wadandi Sea Country following Two-Way Science principles
- Ilaria Gliottone, School of Earth and Oceans, The Geographies of Institutions: Mapping social-ecological networks and dynamics in Protected Areas
- Marisol Irias Mata, School of Earth and Oceans, Advancing seaweed canopy representation in physical and numerical wave models
- Tess Jenkins, School of Biological Sciences, The Evolution of Reproductive Behaviours in Coral Associated Reef Fishes
- Valeria Mendez Angarita, School of Earth and Oceans, Enhancing coastal resilience through equitable access to conservation benefits in remote Western Australia
- Max Moonier, School of Molecular Sciences, Monitoring Intraspecific genetic diversity of Acropora coral from eDNA using a multiplex PCR SNP panel
- Jenny Wainwright, Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Exploring Kiribati’s Deep Ocean: Species discovery in the Nova-Canton Trough
- Luka Wright, School of Biological Sciences, Towards a robust kelp carbon burial model
- Matthaus Zering, School of Earth and Oceans, Isolating nonlinear hydrodynamic forces for controlled ocean renewable energy structures
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2023 Awardees
Ten PhD students were awarded a total of $116,000 through the 2023 Robson and Robertson Young Scholar Program to further their doctorate research.
- Vania Andreoli, School of Biological Sciences, Harmful fisheries subsidies exacerbate inequities in access to seafood nutrients- The 2024 UN Ocean Conference
- Océane Attlan, School of Biological Sciences, Coral Expansion at the Expense of Kelp Forests: Unveiling Ecological Transformations in Temperate Reefs
- Amy Carmignani, School of Biological Sciences, Investigating the role of coral-dwelling fish as nutritional boosters for corals under climate change
- Ben D'Antonio, Oceans Graduate School, The biophysical drivers of shark movement
- Jane Edgeloe, School of Biological Sciences, Winding back time: Unravelling the hidden effects of climate change on a climate threatened seaweed
- Grace Edwards, School of Biological Science, Nutrient metabolism of seaweeds of Australia: Uncovering the potential of seaweeds to act as biofilters
- Anna Faber, School of Molecular Sciences, Developing biotechnological solutions to foster microbial microplastic PET degradation in the fast-growing, marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens
- Nico Fassbender, School of Biological Sciences, Pristine reefs, pristine shark populations- Do sharks benefit from long-term protection and reef restoration efforts?
- Robert Hoschke, School of Biological Sciences, On-water engagement with professional fishers to reconstruct the past and illuminate present-day challenges
- Anna Ortega, School of Biological Sciences, Presenting the first comprehensive quantification of leatherback bycatch in the Pacific - Thailand symposium
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2022 Awardees
Eleven PhD students were awarded a total of $98,000 through the 2022 Robson and Robertson Young Scholar Program to further their doctorate research.
- Vania Andreoli, School of Biological Sciences, Nutrient composition of aquatic foods: internship at Harvard University
- Kelly Boden-Hawes, Oceans Graduate School, Identifying regions of thermal refugia within a tidally driven coral atoll
- Katrina Bornt, School of Biological Sciences, Persistent chemical pollutants in decapod crustaceans across an urbanization gradient in Western Australia
- Celina Burkholz, School of Biological Sciences, Microbial communities in a changing ocean
- Thomas Crutchett, School of Biological Sciences, Does plastic ingestion cause oxidative stress? A case study of two aquatic species in an urbanised estuarine system, Perth, Western Australia
- Yanyan Dong, School of Agriculture and Environment, A comparative study of tourists visiting Pacific Island destinations - marine environmental impacts
- Anna Faber, School of Molecular Sciences, Developing biotechnological solutions to foster microbial microplastic degradation in the fast-growing, marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens
- Jake Manger, School of Biological Sciences, Discovering the variable eyes of deep-sea amphipods in Cape Verde
- Isobel Sewell, School of Biological Sciences, Utilising insect protein in aquaculture - Singapore presentation
- Taylor Simpkins, School of Biological Sciences, Kelp Blue Carbon: the transport and transformation of kelp detritus on the Great Southern Reef
- Michelle Van Compernolle, Oceans Graduate School, A global threat index for marine megafauna
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2021 Awardees
Eleven PhD students were awarded a total of $103,000 through the 2021 Robson and Robertson Young Scholar Program to further their doctorate research.
- Charlotte Aston, School of Biological Sciences, Optimising the management of recreational fishing and spatial planning of marine parks in World Heritage Areas
- Joshua Bonesso, School of Earth Sciences, Assessing the impacts of climate change on short and long-term resilience and sensitivity of coral reef islands
- Mitchell Booth, School of Biological Sciences, Revealing the adaptive and plastic responses of Posidonia australis to extreme events and climate change in a World Heritage Site
- Katrina Bornt, School of Biological Sciences, Plastic contamination in commercially important decapod crustaceans
- Celina Burkholz, School of Biological Sciences, Utilising transcriptomics to identify bright spots in kelp forests
- Gabrielle Cummings, School of Biological Sciences, Ocean accounting and its application to Sustainable Development Goal 14; Life Below Water at the United Nations Ocean Conference
- Abinaya Meenakshisundaram, School of Biological Sciences, Population genetics and characterisation of the Ningaloo Reef whale shark population from 2016 to 2021, using low-coverage Whole Genome Sequencing (IcWGS)
- Antoine Minne, School of Biological Sciences, Deep-water genetic refugia for the kelps of the Great Southern Reef
- Molly Moustaka, School of Biological Sciences, Understanding how seascape configuration influences secondary productivity in coastal ecosystems
- Matilda Murley, School of Biological Sciences, Invertebrates living on intertidal rock platforms along the Western Australian coast
- Isobel Sewell, School of Biological Sciences, Utilising insect protein in aquaculture diets
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2020 Awardees
Working across a diverse range of innovative projects in ocean science, eight PhD students were awarded a total of $92,000 through the 2020 Robson and Robertson Young Scholar Program.
- Abinaya Meenakshisundaram, School of Biological Sciences, Developing molecular techniques to obtain population-level inferences of whale sharks from environmental DNA
- Pook Komoot, School of Social Sciences, Tracing Long-Distance Maritime Connections in the Indian Ocean World via the Analysis of Persian Gulf Torpedo Jars
- Adi Zvifler, School of Earth Sciences, Resilience, Restoration and Refugia – the future of Ningaloo and Exmouth Gulf coral reefs
- Ulysse Lebrec, School of Earth Sciences, Australia’s hidden landscape: Reconstructing submerged coastal environments and landform evolution during the last glacial cycle
- Isobel Sewell, School of Biological Sciences, Utilising insect protein in freshwater aquaculture diets
- Matilda Murley, School of Biological Sciences, Participatory mapping of Karajarri coastal Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- Maria Jung, School of Biological Sciences, Developing early warning stress indicators of the leaf metabolism in temperate and tropical seagrasses in Western Australia
- Justin Geldard, Oceans Graduate School, Hydrodynamic Forces on Coral Reefs
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2019 Awardees
Thirteen talented young marine students from The University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute received a major boost to support their doctorate research in 2019.
- Malindi Gammon (Project: Predicting the vulnerability of flatback turtle rookeries in the North West Shelf to a changing climate)
- Nahlah Alsuwaiyan (Project: The role of genetic diversity on temperature resilience of the early life stages of the Australian kelp)
- Camille Grimaldi (Project: Oceanographic drivers of coral reef connectivity off Northwestern Australia - joint research project between UWA and AIMS)
- Victoria Cammilieri Asch (Project: Neurobiological indicators of olfactory sensitivity in a cartilaginous and a bony fish)
- Matilda Murley (Project: Investigating invertebrates on intertidal rock platforms in Western Australia: species diversity, habitat distribution and traditional ecological knowledge)
- Hannah Calich (Project: Movement and habitat use patterns of highly migratory sharks)
- Lucy Arrowsmith (Project: Global whale shark study and shipping movements)
- Jessica Kolbusz (Project: The role of oceanographic processes on recruitment of the Western Rock Lobster)
- Laurence Dugal (Project: Developing environmental DNA metabarcoding techniques for ecosystem biodiversity assessments)
- Naima Andreas Rodriguez (Project: Shark aggregations underpin conservation but where are they and when do they occur?)
- Paige Maroni (Project: A phylogeny today, pharmaceutical exploration tomorrow: Next generation sequencing to resolve the radiation of species in the Doris 'kerguelenensis' complex)
- Mario Conde-Frias (Project: Sediment transport processes within coastal ecosystems)
- Renan da Silva (Project: Understanding and predicting the impact of nearshore submerged structures on coastal processes with application to wave energy converters)
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Past Winners
- Daniel Van Hees
- Stephanie Venables
- Matthew Navarro
- Chenae Tuckett
- Maharani Yulisti
- Jonathan Mitchell
- Tamara Schlosser
- Joseph Turner
- Nguyen Chi
- Lauren Peel
- Anita Giraldo
- Sahira Bell
- Charlotte Birkmanis
- Nestor Bosch
- Nery Contti Neto
- Michael Kelly
- Belinda Martin
- Yannick Mulders
- Albert Pessarrodna Silvestre
- Sofie Vraken
- Salvador Zarco Perello
- Andrew Zulberti
Applications for the 2025 R&R Young Scholar Program are now closed.
Stay tuned for more information in 2026.