2014 New South Wales Award Winner

Dr Muireann Irish

Neuroscience Research Australia / University of New South Wales Research Field: Cognitive Neuroscience Dr Muireann Irish is cognitive neuroscientist interested in how we remember the past and imagine the future. The relative frequency and ease with which we engage in those forms of thought belies their incredible complexity. Muireann’s research explores how memory and imagination…

Read More »


Dr Nicola Newton

University of New South Wales  Research Field: Adolescent substance use prevention Dr Nicola Newton is the Director of Prevention Research of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use. Her research is based around developing and evaluating easy to implement programs to reduce substance use in adolescents. She developed the first…

Read More »


Dr Thomas Whitford

University of New South Wales Research Field: Schizophrenia and Neuroimaging Dr Thomas Whitford is world-leading scientist in the area of schizophrenia research. Specifically his research aims to understand why healthy patients are able to suppress self-produced sensations – for example, being unable to tickle oneself – while schizophrenia patients are unable to suppress these sensation…

Read More »


Associate Professor Simon Ho

University of Sydney Research Field: Biology Dr Simon Ho studies evolution at a genetic level. By studying DNA from a variety of organisms he is able to estimate the timescale of their evolutionary history. This involves using a concept called the ‘molecular clock’, which are statistical models describing how rates of evolution vary among organisms…

Read More »


Dr Alastair Stewart

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Research Field: Biological Energy Conversion Dr Alastair Stewart’s research focuses on the molecular motor that converts nutrients into biologically useful energy with cells. It is a process that underpins energy transformation in all forms of life. Alastair was the first in the world to establish the precise molecular architecture of…

Read More »


Dr Angela Nickerson

University of New South Wales Research Field: Refugee and Post Conflict Mental Health Dr Angela Nickerson is a NHMRC Clinical Early Career Research Fellow in the field of Refugee and post-conflict mental health. With over 25 million refugees around the world understanding refugee mental health is a critical public health concern internationally. Angela’s research employs…

Read More »


Dr Heather Handley

Macquarie University Research Field: Geochemistry Dr Heather Handley uses the chemistry of rocks, soils and sediments to unravel the timescales of a wide range of geological processes. The results of her research have provided new, and some of the first, constraints on determining the timescales of magmatic and volcanic processes. Heather is also currently working…

Read More »


Dr Lawrence Lee

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Research Field: Synthetic Biology, Biophysics Dr Lawrence Lee works at the cutting-edge of synthetic biology, leading a team of scientists from across the globe. His is a world-first initiative to artificially build nature’s most impressive biological machines. These membrane bound protein megastructures include the bacterial flagellar motor, the most sophisticated…

Read More »


Dr Lee Spitler

Macquarie University/ Australian Astronomical Observatory Research Field: Astronomy and Astrophysics Dr Lee Spitler’s research focuses on pushing current telescope technology to its limit in order to understand an early period of the universe that has never been accessed before; when it was only 2 billion years old. By studying galaxies 10-12 billion light years distant…

Read More »


Dr Megan Lord

University of New South Wales Research Field: Biomedical Engineering Dr Megan Lord is a biomedical engineer whose research is focused on molecular interactions to better understand how implantable medical devices integrate with the body. Her work has applications in the development of new synthetic blood vessels, materials for regenerative medicine, cancer cell targeted drug delivery…

Read More »