2024 South Australian Award Winner

Dr Brittany Johnson

Dr Brittany Johnson’s research explores how we can work with the places where children live, learn and play, such as schools, to support children and their families to develop health-promoting behaviours.   One example of this is implementing school-provided meals in Australia, making sure this system is feasible and appropriate for families, schools and communities….

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Dr Matthew Wallen

Dr Matthew Wallen’s research explores how lifestyle interventions, like exercise, nutrition, and psychological support improves the health and wellbeing of people living with and beyond cancer, as well as those requiring transplantation. Most research has focused on lifestyle interventions delivered after treatment. Instead, Dr Wallen is focused on optimising physical health and wellness before treatment…

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Dr Jacinta Johnson

Dr Johnson is currently leading a trial of an innovative model of care across SA and QLD, where pharmacists work collaboratively with doctors to electronically prescribe medicines, proactively to prevent errors and other problems from occurring in the first place. As pharmacists play a critical role in helping people use medicines safely and effectively, Dr…

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A/Prof Xiaoguang Duan

A/Prof Xiaoguang Duan’s research is dedicated to developing innovative and sustainable solutions to mitigate the impact of antibiotics and other micropollutants on environmental contamination. His team focuses on creating advanced and chemically modified nanomaterials that can efficiently remove antibiotics from water. Utilizing green catalysis technologies, they have developed nanoscale carbon materials such as graphene, carbon…

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Dr Felicity Braithwaite

Dr Felicity Braithwaite’s research is debunking common myths about osteoarthritis that stop people from getting the best treatments. She works hand-in-hand with people with osteoarthritis to create educational videos that highlight their lived experiences and use patient-friendly language. Testing of the videos showed that they successfully debunked these myths and increased people’s willingness to move…

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Dr Simone Deegan

Dr Simone Deegan, Flinders University, is at the forefront of research into youth crime, including serious repeat offending, juvenile homicide, life sentences and the effectiveness of prisons and parole. Her research not only supplies many needed facts, but it also provides a framework for better understanding the young people themselves, for intelligently moving forward with…

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A/Prof Amy Reynolds

Amy Reynolds is an Associate Professor of Clinical Sleep Health at Flinders University, where she is a clinical epidemiologist and psychologist (provisional). She uses mixed methods including analysis of large datasets, qualitative methods and intervention trials to understand the relationships between shift work, sleep disorders, health and safety.  Amy has shown that unmanaged sleep disorders…

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Dr Wei Zhang

Mushrooms are an essential element of the diet of millions of people worldwide. They are tasty, rich in fibre and protein, and low in calories. But mushrooms quickly lose their freshness, leading to up to 30% wastage during cultivation, harvesting and transportation. This not only impacts farmers economically but also complicates the delivery of fresh…

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