Thursday 24 March

This year ResearchFest - Austin Health's celebration of current and emerging research - was split between October 2021 and March 2022.

The online event held this Tuesday 22 March was an opportunity to celebrate and hear from some of our outstanding researchers.

The Austin Medical Research Foundation’s Distinguished Scientist Award was presented to Professor Jonathan Cebon for his significant contribution to research, globally and at Austin Health.

As an internationally renowned cancer clinician-researcher, Professor Cebon’s work has focused on innovations in melanoma treatment.  He has tirelessly supported his patients, significantly achieving the co-location of a cancer research institute and cancer treatment centre.

His international research profile puts him in the Stanford University top 2% scientists world-wide ranking.

Professor Cebon has also fostered younger oncologist colleagues into research and supervised 21 Research higher-degree students. He has also mentored and supported the careers of notable leaders in medical oncology and cancer research, many of whom now have national and international standing.

Professor Cebon acknowledged that the award was not only recognition for his work, but for the efforts of his team, colleagues and his international collaborators.  He noted his career had begun at the Austin Hospital, and how the arc of his research had brought him back, where he could make a difference.

In addition to the Distinguished Scientist award, there were seven awards given to early career researchers, aimed at helping them attend conferences and persist with research.

Award	Winner	Study
Rob Pierce Memorial Award	Danielle Wilson	A trial of a position modification device for the prevention of supine sleep during pregnancy
The Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health Prize for Neuroscience Research	Carolina Restrepo	Comparison of White Matter Hyperintensity Abnormalities and Cognitive Performance in Individuals with Low and High Cardiovascular Risk: data from the Diabetes and Dementia (D2) study
Nursing Research Award	Priscilla Gates	Feasibility of longitudinal assessment of cancer-related cognitive impairment in people newly diagnosed aggressive lymphoma.
Allied Research Award	Kim Luong	Elements of the Therapeutic Relationship in CBT for Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review.
Austin LifeSciences Prize for Discovery Research	Tian Nie	Estradiol preserves endocortical bone deposition in an adolescent pre-clinical model of gender affirming hormone therapy
Austin Medical Research Foundation Young Investigator Award	Linda Dalic	Electrical Stimulation of Thalamic centromedian nucleus for Epilepsy of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (ESTEL): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled epilepsy treatment trial
ONJCRI Scholarship	Ashleigh Poh	Reprogramming myeloid cells to improve anti-tumour responses to immunotherapy