Gottschalk Medal for Molecular Biologist

The groundbreaking work of UNSW molecular biologist Associate Professor Levon Khachigian has won him the prestigious Gottschalk Medal for 2003. Conferred by the Australian Academy of Science, the award recognises Professor Khachigian’s research program that looks at the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in atherosclerosis (a build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries). He is based at UNSW’s Centre for Vascular Research.

Professor Khachigian, 38, is no stranger to recognition for his work. He has won many awards, including in 2001 alone, the AMGEN Award for Research Excellence, the Heart Foundation's James Smillie Research Excellence Award, the inaugural Eppendorf Award for Young Australian Researcher and the Australian Institute of Science’s Young Tall Poppy award. This year, he has also won the RT Hall Prize from the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Khachigian will receive the Gottschalk Medal, awarded to recognise outstanding research conducted mainly in Australia in the medical sciences by scientists under 40 years of age, in May.