Early career researchers awarded for groundbreaking research

Five early career researchers have been recognised at The University of Western Australia for having written the best published articles or books of the year in work that breaks new ground in five fields.

Published in the journal Evolution, Dr Renée Firman’s paper was the winner of the Science category. It is entitled ‘Experimental evolution of sperm quality via postcopulatory sexual selection in house mice’. Dr Firman is in UWA’s Centre for Evolutionary Biology. “The evolutionary implications of polygamous mating across successive generations has not been demonstrated before in a vertebrate,” she said.

Winner in the Medicine category, Dr Megan Lloyd’s paper ‘Immunoglobulin to zona pellucida 3 mediates ovarian damage and infertility after contraceptive vaccination in mice’ was published in the Journal of Autoimmunity. Dr Lloyd is in UWA’s School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences. “Zona pellucida antibodies have previously been associated with infertility in humans, and these findings will improve understanding of the progression of ovarian disease,” she said.

Published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Assistant Professor Jonas Rubenson’s paper was the winner of the Engineering and Mathematics category. It is entitled ‘Adaptations for economical bipedal running: the effect of limb structure on three-dimensional joint mechanics’. Professor Rubenson is in UWA’s School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health. “These findings will aid engineering solutions permitting efficient robotic/prosthetic movement,” he said.

In the Business and Economics category, the winning paper was entitled ‘On the release of information by government: causes and consequences’. It was written by Dr Andrew Williams and published by the Journal of Development Economics. Dr Williams is in UWA’s Business School. “This paper develops an index that measures the transparency of governments. It covers more than 170 countries and stretches back to 1960 and I have already had requests for it from the World Bank and the OECD,” he said.

Dr Guan Quek’s book Can School Children be Taught to Think Creatively? won the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences category. It was published by The Edwin Mellor Press. Dr Quek is in UWA’s School of Social and Cultural Studies. “The Singapore government initiated its ensemble of creativity policies in the 1980s and the aim of my study was to analyse how different categories of secondary schools practised the teaching of creativity from 1985 to 2004,” he said.