2009 Queensland Award Winner

Dr Alberto Pinzon-Charry

Queensland Institute of Medical Research Malaria is one of the world’s major infectious diseases killing almost three million people each year, mainly children and travellers. Many malaria vaccines have been tested but results have been disappointing perhaps because most target only a few fragments of a complex parasite with thousands of components.  Alberto’s work proposes that…

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Dr Michael Piper

The University of Queensland Michael’s research aims to identify how the brain, with its complex network of neurons, develops from a simple sheet of unspecialised stem cells within the embryo. His research shows that the processes involved in controlling stem cell development in the embryo are the same as those that are mis-regulated during cancer…

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Dr Clinton Fookes

Queensland University of Technology Clinton actively researches in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition which is the science of making machines see. His work relies on automatically extracting and interpreting important information from visual sources; including images and video. He has applied this research to a number of areas including biometrics, intelligent surveillance, medical…

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Dr Brett Ferguson

The University of Queensland Brett investigates the signals, and signaling interactions, required for “legume nodulation” at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research.  For “legume”, think flowering plant, andpea, bean or pulse families. Nodulation is a mutually beneficial interaction between legumes and specific soil microbes that acquire atmospheric nitrogen to provide to the plant.  Nitrogen…

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Dr David Copland

The University of Queensland – Tall Poppy of the Year 2009 David’s research is about understanding how communication breaks down following brain injury and then how the brain recovers the ability to communicate and responds to treatment. My work uses brain imaging techniques to find patterns of brain activity that are critical to successful treatment…

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