UNSW scientist Justin Gooding and a separate team from the Kirby Institute have been honoured with prestigious Eureka Prizes for efforts to support the next generation of researchers and combat the scourge of scabies.
UNSW Scientia Professor Justin Gooding has won the Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor to Young Researchers, in a night where 12 UNSW and affiliated teams were recognised for excellence.
Also winning one of the prestigious prizes was Dr Lucia Romani, Associate Professor Handan Wand and Professor John Kaldor from the Kirby Institute, and Dr Margot Whitfield from St Vincent’s Hospital, part of the Scabies Research Team with collaborators from The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the Menzies School of Health Research and the Ministries of Health of Fiji and Solomon Islands.
Professor Gooding’s program of individualised mentorship is credited with creating a “buzz” in his lab – and an environment that is supporting a new breed of research leaders in bionanotechnology and nanomedicine.
He has been a champion of multi-disciplinary research at UNSW as founding co-director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, which draws on the university’s strengths in the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Medicine, as well as the Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia.
Dr Margot Whitfield, Associate Professor Handan Wand, Professor John Kaldor, Dr Lucia Romani, Professor Justin Gooding.
The Scabies Research Group won the Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research for two world-first trials involving mass administration of the drug ivermectin, which reduced the prevalence of scabies from 33% of the population to less than 2%.
They were led by Associate Professor Andrew Steer from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in collaboration with The Kirby Institute UNSW, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and Menzies School of Health Research.
UNSW had a record 12 finalists in the running at this year's Eureka Prizes, Australia's most high-profile science awards.
The full list of 2017 winners is available here.