News location:

Canberra Today 20°/23° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Future Fellowships flow for ANU

ANU HAS secured five prestigious Future Fellowships for research into the origins of the stars, the origins of farming, fighting infectious diseases and effects of climate change on wildlife.

ANU Vice-Chancellor Ian Young said the four-year Fellowships from the Australian Research Council reward the nation’s best and brightest mid-career researchers.

“To win five Fellowships in such diverse areas shows the breadth of world-class research leadership at ANU,” Ian said.

“I congratulate the recipients of the Fellowships and look forward to the contribution they will make to ANU and to Australia.

The recipients were:

  • Professor Naomi McClure Griffiths’ research into how stars form will make use of Australia’s ambitious new radio telescope, the $170 million Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder.
    “It’s a great opportunity to do more research so we can fully understand why some galaxies produce stars slowly, and others are fast,” Naomi said. “ANU is one of the best places in the world to study astronomy.”

  • Dr Elisabete da Cunha from Swinburne University will also take up a Future Fellowship at the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA).
    “I’m very excited to start this Fellowship at ANU,” said Elizabete, whose research is developing new ways to analyse light from distant stars with the aim of understanding how galaxies grow and evolve.

  • Dr Tim Denham from the College of Arts and Social Sciences won a Future Fellowship for his research into archaeobotany.
    “I’m over the moon. It means I can push forward archaeological research into early agriculture and plant domestication in the wet tropics,” Tim said. “This fellowship will hopefully lead to a whole range of new research directions and opportunities.”
    Tim said the new understanding of past domestication of crops such as bananas, sugarcane and sago could contribute to the future generation of sustainable varieties and help secure tropical food production into the future.

  • Dr Janet Gardner won a Future Fellowship to study which species and habitats are vulnerable to the effects of climate change by studying changes evolving in the size and shapes of birds.
    “This work is at the forefront of a rapidly evolving field, which will help us to make the best use of the knowledge we have to respond to climate change and better manage species,” Janet said, from the ANU Research School of Biology (RSB).
    Janet said the Fellowship would enable her to not only carry out her own field work but to also incorporate citizen science data. “This data from the last 50 years is an incredible untapped resource,” said Dr Gardner.

  • Dr Denisse Leyton was rewarded for her work fighting infections.
    “As a new lab head, this Fellowship will allow me to grow and train a dynamic team of research scientists,” said Denisse.
    She studies disease-causing molecules called autotransporters, with the aim of developing ways to fight against them. “This knowledge could be used to develop new antimicrobials to act as a new frontline of defence against a plethora of infectious diseases.”

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews