'Young Tall Poppies’ announced

Fifteen young researchers have been named this year’s Young Tall Poppies in recognition of their outstanding contributions to scientific and medical research. The winners were announced at a ceremony in Parliament House on 26 October 2006, as part of the two-day Science EXPOsed festival that brought over 1,700 students from 64 schools across NSW to Macquarie Street. Minister for Science and Medical Research Frank Sartor said encouraging and rewarding young scientists was vital to keeping NSW at the forefront of science and innovation.

"New South Wales has a strong research sector, a thriving biotechnology industry, and broad capabilities across the sciences, medicine, engineering and technology. A career in science is not only personally exciting and rewarding but makes a critical contribution to the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the nation," said Mr Sartor.

"Science is wonderful career for anyone who is interested in making discoveries and solving puzzles," said Award winner Dr Stuart Tangye, who leads a research group at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research. "My research on the human immune systems aims to identify inherited genetic defects that cause the immune system to malfunction, which can make people more susceptible to infections. It is great that the State Government is recognising the contributions that young scientists make and I am really pleased to be a 2006 award recipient," said Dr Tangye.

The Tall Poppy Campaign was created by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science during the celebrations for the centenary of the birth of Australian Nobel Prize winning scientist Sir Howard Florey in 1998.

Young Tall Poppies must demonstrate:

• outstanding scholarship;
• achievements of national or international standing;
• no more than 10 years postdoctoral experience;
• the majority of research training undertaken within Australia;
• community engagement and communication skills.

The 2006 Young Tall Poppy Science Award winners are:

• Dr Douglas Aberdeen
  Senior Researcher, National ICT Australia (NICTA), Canberra
  Computer science/artificial intelligence
  
• Dr Alaina Ammit
  Associate Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney
  Asthma and airway remodeling
  
• Dr James Curran
  ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney
  Computational linguistics
  
• Dr Nathan Daczko
  Senior Lecturer, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University
  Structural geology
  
• Dr Louisa Degenhardt
  Senior Lecturer, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of NSW
  Drug trends
  
• Dr Kirstie Fryirs
  ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University
  Fluvial geomorphology and river management
  
• Dr Andrew Harris
  Lecturer, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Sydney
  Sustainable technology
  
• Dr Andrew Hopkins
  ARC QEII Fellow, School of Physics, University of Sydney
  Astrophysics
  
• Dr Ulrike Mathesius
  ARC Research Fellow, School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Australian National University
  Plant-microbial interactions
  
• Dr Adam Micolich
  Lecturer, School of Physics, University of NSW
  Development of nanoscale electronic devices
  
• Dr Geraldine O’Neill
  NSW Cancer Council Career Development Fellow, The Children’s Hospital Westmead
  Cancer cell biology
  
• Mr Leigh Sheppard
  Research Associate, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of NSW
  Solid state chemistry
  
• Dr Stuart Tangye
  Senior Research Fellow / NHMRC RD Wright Research Fellow, Garvan Institute of Medical Research
  Immunology
  
• Dr David Tscharke – Winner of 2006 Agilent Technologies Young Tall Poppy Award for Life Sciences
  Lecturer, School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Australian National University
  Immunology and virology
  
• Dr Stephen Wroe
  QEII Research Fellow, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of NSW
  Palaeontology, palaeobiology, and biomechanics