Australian health and medical research was celebrated last night at the 2016 Research Australia Health and Medical Research Awards.
Nadia Levin, CEO of Research Australia, said the event paid tribute to the efforts and energy of some of the sector's biggest names and most promising up-and-comers.
“Last nights’ Health and Medical Research Awards prove that Australia’s research sector is a force to be reckoned with,” she said.
“We were joined by hundreds of people who tirelessly work to improve the health and wellbeing of our wider community, and it was an honour to acknowledge their work.
“The best health and medical research requires innovation, drive, creativity and ingenuity, and the 2016 Research Australia Award Winners exemplify all of those characteristics,” she said.
The most prestigious award, the Peter Wills Medal, went to Professor Ian Gust AO, in recognition of a lifetime of discoveries, including the vaccine for Hepatitis A.
Brenda King from SIDS Stampede was awarded the Advocacy Award for her efforts to raise support and funding for SIDS laboratory research underway at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
The Griffith University Discovery Award was awarded to Dr Rebecca Coll from the University of Queensland for her work in human inflammatory diseases. Highly commended awards were also presented to Dr Felicity Davis and Dr Michael Livingston.
The Great Australian Philanthropy Award was presented to the McCusker Charitable Foundation, which has dedicated more than two decades and $50 million to a diverse range of health and medical research and practice projects in Western Australia.
The Capital Markets CRC Health Market Quality Team was awarded the inaugural Data Innovation Award for their inventive data interpretation. The National Breast Cancer Foundation and DreamLab (Vodafone and Garvan Institute of Medical Research) received highly commended acknowledgements.
Volvo Car Australia was awarded the Leadership in Corporate Giving Award, for their fundraising and support of the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.
Professor Michael Barton AOM from the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research was awarded the NSW Health Health Services Research Award for his efforts in making cancer treatments more accessible across Australia and the world.
Ms Levin said that the nominees for each Award category were of an incredibly high calibre, which is a great sign of things to come.
“On behalf of the Research Australia team I would like to thank all our nominees, nominators and our Research Australia alliance members,” said Levin.