Skip to content | Change text size
 

Joint winners of Vice-Chancellor's Early Career Researcher Awards

12 December 2007

Dr Rebekah Brown is one of this year's joint winners of the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers.

Dr Rebekah Brown, from the Faculty of Arts, and Dr Travis Beddoe, from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, are this year's joint winners of the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers.

The awards are designed to recognise, reward and encourage excellent early career researchers at the University.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Larkins said the awards were one important way of acknowledging the outstanding efforts of researchers who are in the early phases of their careers.

"The awards are a significant event for the University and underline the importance Monash places on its substantial and ongoing research strengths," Professor Larkins said.

"I would like to congratulate the recipients of the awards and commend them and all the nominees for their commitment to sustained-research excellence."

Each recipient of the award receives a grant of $10,000 to be used at the discretion of the award winner to further his or her research interests.

Applicants must demonstrate that they have achieved the highest level of sustained excellence in research and be a recipient of a faculty Early Career Researcher award. The award is based on research achievements over the last five years.

Dr Travis Beddoe is the other joint winner of this year's Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers.

Dr Brown has drawn on her unique combination of social science and civil engineering backgrounds to create a new socio-technical research discipline that addresses the complex interaction between social structures and institutions in society, with the diffusion of innovative technologies in achieving sustainable urban futures.

"I feel really honoured and thrilled to receive this award," Dr Brown said.

"I have been well supported by both my School (Geography and Environmental Science) and Faculty since I joined Monash in 2004, particularly with the high level of encouragement for my interdisciplinary research in sustainability. I also thank my colleagues in the National Urban Water Governance Program for their ongoing support, encouragement, and passion for sustainability research."

Dr Beddoe's research combines the use of X-ray crystallography and biophysical methods to investigate important medical and microbial proteins. Recently, his research has focussed on proteins involved in bacterial pathogenesis. He has determined the structure of a novel toxin produced by food-borne bacteria. This structure could led to rational design drugs against this toxin.

"Wining the award was a great honour, considering the high quality of research performed by the nominees. It comes as a bit of surprise," Dr Beddoe said.

"This award was an individual award, but I'd like to thank all the members of the protein crystallography unit for their help and support over the years. Also, I would like to thank Professor Jamie Rossjohn for being such a great friend and mentor."

As well as the joint winners, nominees of the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers are:

Dr Luke Morgan -- Faculty of Art and Design; Associate Professor Francis Farrelly -- Faculty of Business and Economics; Dr Anna Clark -- Faculty of Education; Dr Huanting Wang -- Faculty of Engineering; Dr John McCormack -- Faculty of Information Technology; Dr Karinne Ludlow -- Faculty of Law; Dr Natalie Borg -- Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences; Dr Jian Li -- Victorian College of Pharmacy; and Dr David Paganin -- Faculty of Science.