Forrest Foundation responds to COVID with 13 new research fellowships
The Forrest Research Foundation has responded to the research funding crunch caused by COVID-19 by appointing 13 post-doctoral Prospect Fellows to continue their outstanding research at Western Australian universities.
Prospect Fellowships provide 18 months of funding, together with mentoring and a professional development program, to ensure that these brilliant early career researchers can continue with research that will benefit all Australians.
They are drawn from across the spectrum of academic research, from creative arts, humanities, social science, and psychology to biology, medicine, engineering, physics and mathematics. Their research addresses some of the biggest social, economic and scientific issues of the day – stress and fatigue in the workplace, the aged care workforce, cancer immunotherapy, the development of the hydrogen economy, the treatment of rare diseases, the welfare of animals in the livestock industry, the new frontiers of quantum physics and nanotechnology.
COVID-19 has forced many of these leading early-career researchers to forego offers of research positions in Europe and North America; these Forrest Foundation fellowships ensure that they can continue to develop their research careers and apply their huge talents to creating new knowledge that will benefit everyone.
Warden of the Forrest Research Foundation Professor Paul Johnson, said the Foundation is proud to be able to provide support for early career researchers at this moment of acute need. “Without our support many of these fellows would have to terminate their research, and that would negate the years of investment they and the Australian taxpayer have made in training them to be world leaders in their field.”
The Forrest Research Foundation was established in 2014, by Andrew and Nicola Forrest through their Minderoo Foundation.
Middle L-R: Dr Georgia Hay, Dr Ben McAllister, Dr Arman Siahvashi, Dr Shannon Algar
Bottom L-R: Dr Catriona Stevens, Dr Lucy Furfaro, Dr Rachael Zemek, Dr Michael Wilson
| Name | University | Research Topic |
| Dr Andrea Rassell | The University of Western Australia | Use media art to explain/educate the public around uses of nano technology and nano medicine |
| Dr Arman Siahvashi | The University of Western Australia | Unlocking large-scale hydrogen liquefaction technologies in Australia |
| Dr Ben McAllister | The University of Western Australia | Aims to develop single photon counters and novel superconducting material properties and applications |
| Dr Catriona Stevens | The University of Western Australia | Understanding our migrant aged care workforce to create safer, healthier future for older Western Australians |
| Dr Francesco De Toni | The University of Western Australia | A study of health emotion language, to better understand models of emotion language used to describe health/illness, cultural factors influencing emotion language in health in multicultural Australia, and impact on public health and patient -doctor communications |
| Dr Georgia Hay | Curtin University | Project to understand how to design and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and creativity in healthcare teams |
| Dr Kate Loudon | Murdoch University | On-farm measurement technologies to optimise beef carcase compliance |
| Dr Lucy Furfaro | The University of Western Australia | Study of bacteriophages in the womb and their potential in regulating bacterial infections |
| Dr Michael Wilson | Curtin University | Study of workplace stressors, and relationship between workplace stress and performance, using novel longitudinal real-time monitoring and analysis |
| Dr Rachael Zemek | The University of Western Australia | Investigating how wound healing after cancer surgery can follow cancer-activating and immune-activating pathways; aim to develop therapeutics to reduce cancer activating and stimulate immune activating responses to reduce cancer recurrence after surgery |
| Dr Samuel Lymbery | The University of Western Australia | Use the biology of ant colonies, and their reliance on internally-produced neuropeptides, to disrupt/destroy them from inside |
| Dr Samantha Winter | The University of Notre Dame | Searching for connection between gastro-intestinal biome and the immune system, particularly investigating the role of unconventional T-cells |
| Dr Shannon Algar | The University of Western Australia | Swarm intelligence for animal welfare: data-driven prediction and simulation |
