Congratulations to the staff recognised at the 2024 Research and Engagement Awards on Thursday 14 November for their exceptional achievements in research and media engagement across a range of career stages and disciplines at Curtin.

The awards were presented by Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne alongside John Curtin Distinguished Professor Lindy Fitzgerald, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Vanessa Beasley, Director, Corporate Communications.

Keynote speakers Anthony Clarke and Professor Chris Kirkland from the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, spoke about their recent research that went viral around the globe, revealing that Stonehenge’s monumental six-tonne Altar Stone, long believed to originate from Wales, actually hails from Scotland.

Research Award Winners:

• John de Laeter Award for Research Leadership/Researcher of the Year: Professor Penelope Hasking from the School of Population Health, for her outstanding work in youth mental health, suicide prevention and non-suicidal self-injury.
• Early Career Researcher of the Year: Dr Brenton von Takach from the School of Molecular and Life Sciences.
• Research Excellence – People:John Curtin Distinguished Professor Marylène Gagné from the Future of Work Institute.
• Research Excellence – People (Early Career): Dr Shelley Walker from the National Drug Research Institute.
• Research Excellence – Planet: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Zongping Shao from the WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering (WASM:MECE).
• Research Excellence – Planet (Early Career): Dr Yijun Zhong from WASM:MECE.
• Research Excellence – Partnership: Associate Professor Vinicius Cavalheri from the School of Allied Health.
• Research Excellence – Partnership (Early Career): Dr Cass Lynch from the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry (MCASI).

Publications in:

• Nature – A long-period radio transient active for three decades:
  • Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker
  • Dr Samuel McSweeney
  • Dr Bradley Meyers
  • Dr Daniel Price
  • Csanad Horvath
  • Dr Timothy Galvin
  • Dr Gemma Anderson
  • Dr Arash Bahramian
  • Dr Ramesh Bhat
  • Dr John Morgan
  • Dr Andrew Williams
• Nature – Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by the James Webb Space Telescope:
  • Dr Gemma Anderson
• Science – Widespread diversity deficits of coral reef sharks and rays:
  • Professor Euan Harvey
  • Associate Professor Jordan Goetze
• Science – Molecular basis of translation termination at non-canonical stop codons in human mitochondria:
  • Professor Oliver Rackham
• Science – A luminous fast radio burst that probes the Universe at redshift 1:
  • Dr Marcin Glowacki
  • Dr Clancy James
• Science – Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in samples of Ryugu formed in the interstellar medium:
  • John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kliti Grice
  • Dr Alex Holman
• New England Journal of Medicine – Blinatumomab Added to Chemotherapy in Infant Lymphoblastic Leukemia:
  • Associate Professor Rishi Kotecha
• Journal of the American Medical Association – Effect of Catheter Ablation Using Pulmonary Vein Isolation With vs Without Posterior Left Atrial Wall Isolation on Atrial Arrhythmia Recurrence in Patients With Persistent Atrial Fibrillation: The CAPLA Randomized Clinical Trial:
  • John Curtin Distinguished Professor Christopher Reid
• The Lancet – Cognitive functional therapy with or without movement sensor biofeedback versus usual care for chronic, disabling low back pain (RESTORE): a randomised, controlled, three-arm, parallel group, phase 3, clinical trial:
  • Associate Professor Peter Kent
  • John Curtin Distinguished Professor Peter O’Sullivan
  • Professor Anne Smith
  • Associate Professor Amity Campbell
  • Dr Robert Schutze
  • Dr JP Caneiro
• Cambridge University Press – Genocide and the Forcible Removal of Aboriginal Children in Australia, 1800 – 1920:
  • John Curtin Distinguished Professor Anna Haebich
• Cambridge University Press – Climate Change 2022 – Mitigation of Climate Change:
  • Dr Alessandro Sanches Pereira
  • John Curtin Distinguished Professor Peter Newman

Curtin Media Engagement Award Winners:

• Most Outstanding Research News Story: Anthony Clarke and Professor Chris Kirkland from the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences – A Scottish Provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehenge.
• Most Prolific Media Commentators
  • Health Sciences: Dr Renee Carey from the School of Population Health.
  • Science and Engineering: Anthony Clarke from the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
  • Business and Law: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Alan Duncan from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre.
  • Humanities: Associate Professor Alexey Muraviev from MCASI.
• Media Collaboration Champion: Dr Adam Crowe from the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.
• 9News Best New Media Talent: Louise Francis from the School of Population Health and Joshua Newton from the School of Allied Health.
• Highest Contribution to ‘The Conversation’: Dr Nicole Lee from the National Drug Research Institute.
• Highest Readership of an Article on ‘The Conversation’: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay from the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy.
• Highest Contribution to the Australian Science Media Centre: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Peter Newman from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute.

Thank you to Professor Fitzgerald; Vanessa Beasley; Jo Clements, Research Office at Curtin (ROC) Executive Assistant; Jarrad Long, ROC Executive Officer; Eva Setiadi, University Events Coordinator; and all involved in making the awards a success.

Read more about the awards on the Staff Portal and videos on the Research Award winners will be published soon.