ATA Scientific would like to thank all those that participated in our May 2026 Encouragement Award promotion.
Scientific and engineering innovations are key to our future health, security and prosperity. Governments are the main source of funding in these areas. Our latest competition asked students the question: In a competitive environment for funding could you justify a claim to give your science area priority? Compared to all the other deserving causes, what disproportionate greater benefits could your innovations provide?
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 3 WINNERS!
Three entries were selected to receive our award– first prize at $1500 and 2 runners up at $750 each.
Congratulations to Dr Mawj Adam , postdoctoral scientist from the Children’s Medical Research Institute, working with her supervisor Professor Ian Alexander, head of the Gene Therapy Research Unit at CMRI.
Mawj’s work focuses on developing and applying advanced genome editing strategies for inherited paediatric metabolic liver disorders. Her current research aims to identify and optimise next-generation editing technologies and delivery approaches to improve precision, efficiency, and durability in human hepatocytes. By leveraging these emerging tools, Mawj aims to address key limitations in current gene therapy approaches and enhance their translational potential. Her long-term career goal is to advance these technologies towards clinically viable therapies that can provide lasting benefits for patients with currently incurable genetic diseases.
This award will support Mawj’s attendance at the Australasian Gene and Cell Therapy Society (AGCTS) 14th Biennial Meeting in Melbourne this year, where she will have the opportunity to present her work, engage with leaders in the field, and gain insights into emerging technologies and translational strategies in gene therapy.
Attending this conference will be highly valuable for refining my research direction, fostering new collaborations, and ensuring my work remains aligned with current advances towards clinical application. I am very grateful for ATA Scientific’s support in enabling this important professional development opportunity, said Mawj.
Congratulations to Mitchell Sorbello, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland within the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, working under the supervision of Professor Bostjan Kobe.
The Kobe lab studies the structural and biochemical basis for innate immune signalling, specifically on TIR (Toll/Interleukin-1 receptor) domains. Mitchell focuses on characterising plant TIR domains which utilise enzymatic activity to produce small signalling compounds and illicit immune responses to protect plants from invading pathogens.
Mitchell has developed a robust assay using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry. The group uses a wide variety of biochemical characterisation techniques to explore protein-protein interactions and employ cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography to determine the structural basis for how these important proteins respond.
The plant group within the Kobe lab, aims to understand the variation and complexities within TIR-mediated plant immune signalling, which may allow for tailored engineering of immune signalling modules. Collectively they hope to reduce the significant global economic burden pathogens place on our food supply.
This money will be used to help fund my travels to visit The Sainsbury Laboratory for their Summer conference 2026. This intimate conference brings together a small group of international ECRs within the field of plant-microbe interactions and provides excellent opportunities for professional networking and development. A highlight will be hearing from world-renown scientists at the TSL and the neighbouring John Innes centre.
I am very grateful for the support as this conference is a huge opportunity as I transition from PhD student to post-doc roles and will allow me to meet and network with leading researchers in the field, said Mitchell.
Congratulations to SaiShyam Ramesh, final-year PhD candidate in the School of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at the Australian National University under the supervision of Professor Alexander Maier.
Sai’s research focuses on cholesterol uptake pathways in Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite. These parasites are unable to synthesise cholesterol and therefore actively acquire it from the human host for survival and proliferation. He investigates the molecular mechanisms behind this essential uptake pathway as a potential antimalarial drug target. In parallel, he explores ways to harness this pathway for drug delivery by conjugating antimalarial drugs to cholesterol-like molecules.
I am currently in the process of submitting my doctoral thesis for external review and am actively exploring postdoctoral research opportunities in and around Australia. This award will assist with travel costs associated with visiting and engaging with research groups, said Sai.
In addition, we decided to provide two more additional awards – $750 each – in recognition of incredible contribution.
Congratulations to two students from the University of Wollongong,
Hannah Davies https://www.biogeographyuts.org/hannah-davies
Juliette Gard https://www.mavelab.org/juliette-gard
We loved your work using population assessment of dolphins and long-term whale beaching data to better understand marine ecosystem health. This research is essential for managing the marine environment and the effect of climate change , pollution, over fishing etc. Incredibly, most of the data is being managed with very little to no capital expenditure and generating valuable information at incredibly low cost. With the changing shift in global interest in climate change and increasing severity of weather events we believe this work is highly valuable and deserves to be funded.
Congratulations to Hannah Davies, postgraduate research student at the University of Wollongong Marine Vertebrate Ecology Lab, working under the supervision of Dr Katharina J. Peters.
Hannah is also part of the Biogeography, Ecology & Modelling Lab (University of Technology Sydney), studying the spatiotemporal patterns and environmental drivers of cetacean strandings along Australian and New Zealand coastlines. Using more than three decades of stranding records and spatial statistics, her work maps where, when and why whales and dolphins strand, turning a freely available dataset into broad-scale insight into marine ecosystem health and climate-driven change, at low capital cost. Her goal is to build a research career using strandings as a proxy for occurrence and to create a monitoring tool to support marine mammal conservation and climate-resilience planning in Australia and beyond. This award will directly support Hannah in presenting her findings to the international marine mammal research community at the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) conference later this year.
Congratulations to Juliette Gard, postgraduate research student in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong, working under the supervision of Dr Katharina J. Peters.
Juliette’s project aims to establish a baseline of population metrics for an understudied population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Jervis Bay, NSW. The research will estimate population abundance, describe demographic composition, assess site fidelity, and examine spatial and temporal patterns of habitat use. These outcomes will provide critical insight into population status, reproductive health, and long-term viability, strengthening conservation planning for coastal dolphins and improving the capacity to respond proactively to environmental change. Through this project I will develop skills in field research, ecological modelling, and population assessment that align with my interest in using robust scientific evidence to inform conservation decision-making and bridge the gap between research and practical management outcomes.
Juliette’s long-term goal is to build a career dedicated to marine research and conservation where she can contribute to projects that generate change for marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. She is passionate about improving our understanding of marine wildlife populations and using that knowledge to support effective conservation strategies for future generations.
Hannah and Juliette’s research contributes significantly to our understanding of marine ecosystem health and the impacts of environmental change on coastal dolphin populations. This work has important implications for conservation management and biodiversity protection, and I believe this recognition is well deserved, said Dr Katharina J. Peters.
Both Hannah and Juliette will use their funds to attend the SMM 26th biennial conference on the 19-23rd of October. 2026, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they will present a poster on their research.
To learn more about the Biogeography, Ecology, & Modelling (BEAM) group or work from the Marine Vertebrate Ecology Lab visit the links.
We would like to thank all those that participated. The next Encouragement Award will be posted on our website soon.
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