The Early Career Scientist of the Year category recognises outstanding scientists who have completed their highest degree within the past 5 years and demonstrated excellence in a field of science, scientific research or technological advancement.
Now in its 22nd year, the Premier's Science Awards recognises and celebrates the outstanding scientific research and engagement taking place in Western Australia.
This year, 4 finalists have been selected for the Early Career Scientist of the Year category:
Dr Rebecca Bennett
Ear Science Institute Australia and Curtin University
Dr Bec Bennett is an Adjunct Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Curtin University, Adjunct Senior Researcher at Ear Science Institute Australia and Senior Research Audiologist at the National Acoustic Laboratories. Dr Bennett’s research passion is to help adults with hearing loss, to reconnect with the world around them. She is achieving this by improving services for adults with hearing loss, with a focus on access to services, use of digital technology, and delivery of holistic services to address the social and emotional wellbeing impacts of hearing loss.
Co-design is the cornerstone of Dr Bennett’s work, ensuring that consumer and community partners play an equal role in research planning, execution and translation.
Dr David Gozzard
The University of Western Australia
Dr David Gozzard is an experimental physicist at the University of Western Australia (UWA) developing laser measurement and communication technology for spacecraft. Dr Gozzard previously worked on developing synchronisation technology for the Square Kilometre Array, and is now translating that, and other astronomy technology, to enable robust laser links between the ground and spacecraft that will support high-speed communications and high-precision space science.
Dr Gozzard’s research has the potential to make WA a world-leader in satellite communications. He is passionate about both research and science education, and is very active in outreach and teaching at UWA.
Dr Kieran Mulroney
Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research
Dr Kieran Mulroney is an early career clinical research microbiologist with a focus on developing new diagnostics for serious infections. Working with a multidisciplinary team across multiple institutes, he has developed a new method for determining which antibiotic will best treat life-threatening infections in just hours, rather than days. He is a named inventor on the patent for this technology and has received numerous awards for the pre-clinical validation.
Dr Mulroney is leading the development team that is driving validation and commercialisation of the technology, with a stated goal of realising the impact of this technology in the real world.
Dr David Preece
Curtin University, Curtin enAble Institute
Dr David Preece is a Clinical Psychologist, Lecturer, and Director of the Perth Emotion and Psychopathology Lab at Curtin University. His research on the assessment, understanding and treatment of emotional disorders has generated over 50 publications and won him several prestigious national awards.
Dr Preece has created a large suite of tools to assess emotional problems, some of which have been translated into over 10 languages and are widely used in clinics and hospitals within Western Australia and around the world. Much of his work now involves using these tools to better understand emotional disorders and inform new treatment approaches.
