Tall poppies loom large at Melbourne

Twelve young Victorian scientists were recently named 2012 Tall Poppies and among them were eight promising scientists from the University of Melbourne.

Two University of Melbourne winners were also named as major Tall Poppies awarded for their work on preventing preeclampsia in pregnant women and sustainable protection of crops from insects. 

The Tall Poppy awards recognise young scientists who are doing outstanding work in their field and actively engaging and educating the community about their work.

All winners are leaders in their fields, breaking new ground with their discoveries.

They will spend the next year engaging with teachers, school students, parents and the broader community around Victoria and across Australia as part of the Tall Poppy Campaign run by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science.

The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards aim to recognise early career researchers who have achieved significant research outcomes and have demonstrated their passion to engage with the community in science. 

Tall Poppies are characterised by their love of science and their willingness to share that passion with others, especially school students. ARC Future Fellow in the Melbourne School of Population Health, Dr James McCaw, a 2012 Tall Poppy, admits that what makes his research difficult is also what makes it interesting. 

“I think this is a common feature of research. My research interests range from the within-host dynamics of acute infection to the population level outcomes of influenza pandemics,” he says. 

“I’m passionate about encouraging people to think boldly and pursue their goals with an open mind. For me, that means mathematics and physics, and discovering the underlying processes that determine the behaviour of systems such as infections; how to better control them and reduce their burden on society. As a Tall Poppy awardee, I am pleased to be sharing my science with students and the wider community.”

Winners from the University of Melbourne: 

• Dr Alex Fornito: Psychiatry and Neuroscience. Dr Fornito’s research focuses on how brains work, how they are affected by mental illness influenced by our genetic make-up.
• Dr Kate Murphy: Basic and Clinical Physiology. Dr Murphy investigates the mechanisms causing cancer cachexia (a wasting and weakness of skeletal muscle) and identifies and tests the effectiveness of potential therapies to treat this condition.
• Dr Colin Scholes: Climate Change Mitigation. Dr Scholes is developing efficient filtering membranes to separate carbon from industry gases such as coal-fired power stations.
• Dr Georgina Such: Polymer and Materials Science. Dr Such’s work investigates better ways to deliver chemotherapy drugs by designing a smart capsule that is specially designed to protect the body from the drug until it reaches the specific cancer site. The capsules are synthesised like a set of Russian dolls where each section meets a different biological challenge through the body.
• Dr Ben Emery: The University of Melbourne Centre for Neuroscience Research and Florey Neuroscience Institute. Dr Emery’s research aims to understand what controls the development of oligodendrocytes in the brain and the communications between nerve cells and the oligodendrocytes that stimulate the adjacent nerve fibres. This research may help in treatments that promote the repair of myelin in human diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis.
• Dr James McCaw: Infectious Disease epidemiology. Dr McCaw uses mathematics and ideas from physics to build models that simulate the transmission of diseases like influenza through the community and to help develop new strategies for controlling transmissible diseases.
• Dr Tu’uhevaha Kaitu’u-Lino: Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. University of Melbourne and Mercy Hospital for Women Medical Research – Women’s Health. Winner of a major Tall Poppy Award. Tu’uhevaha’s research focused on developing new medical treatments that can prevent the escape of toxins from the placenta that cause preeclampsia. This year they discovered how a key toxin called ‘soluble endoglin’ is released from the placenta.
• Dr Paul Umina:  Zoology (Sustainable Agriculture). Winner of a major Tall Poppy Award Dr Umina’s research is enabling farmers to achieve a balance between profitability and environmental sustainability by developing new ways to combat insect pests and improve crop yields without harming the environment.

www.aips.net.au