Female Scientists Celebrated at the Georgina Sweet Awards

Three Victorian scientists will be celebrated at the inaugural Georgina Sweet Awards for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science this October.

^{Caption: Professor Leann Tilley (right) created the Georgina Sweet Awards for Women
in Quantitative Biomedical Science.}

The awards were created by the University of Melbourne’s Professor Leann Tilley as part of her Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship program to promote and support female scientists who demonstrate excellence in the area of quantitative biomedical science.

Award recipients must demonstrate a compelling research vision, high academic quality and have strong mentoring support from their institutions. They each receive $25,000 to support their scientific research.

This year’s recipients of the $25,000 award are Associate Professor Alicia Oshlack from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Associate Professor Freya Fowkes from the Burnet Institute and Associate Professor Kathryn Holt from the University of Melbourne.

Georgina Sweet, for whom the award is named, was a renowned Australian zoologist, the first woman to graduate with a Doctor of Science from The University of Melbourne, and the first female acting-professor in an Australian university. She was an advocate for the advancement of women and made a sizeable contribution to The University of Melbourne, both academically and fiscally.

The awards will be held on Thursday 27 October from 2–6pm at The Auditorium, Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne, 30 Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria. To RSVP, please email shannon.kenny@unimelb.edu.au by 20 October.

The Georgina Sweet Awards for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science will occur annually from 2016–2020. Applications for the 2017 awards will open in July next year.