Six bright young academics from New Zealand, Brazil, Ethiopia and Australia will pursue research across three of the State's five universities after being awarded prestigious Forrest Scholarships.
Brazilian-born Jaqueline Lopes Diniz, who holds a Masters in sedimentary geology, will join The University of Western Australia's School of Earth Sciences with the aim of enhancing understanding of the critical mineral recovery processes.
Daniel Burgin, who completed his Bachelor of Science with Honours at the University of Otago in New Zealand, will join Curtin University to investigate planetary core formation in the outer solar system.
Originally from Adelaide, Jackson Rendall will be based at the Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA where he will focus on investigating climate adaptation in the threatened WA shield-backed trapdoor spiders.
Yordanos Sisay Asgedom, who has a Master of Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics from Arba Minch University in Ethiopia, will join Edith Cowan University to examine how adverse pregnancy outcomes impact immediate maternal and neonatal health.
Perth-based Kaylee Molin will be based with UWA's Medical Physics Group, where she will combine artificial intelligence and data science techniques to help create better outcomes for people with metastatic prostate cancer.
And Yuval Berman, also from Perth, will spend his time at UWA looking at how best to integrate different mathematical models of malaria and using modelling techniques to answer key public health questions.
Image: New Forrest Scholars (top row l to r) Yuval Berman, Yordanos Sisay Asgedom and Daniel Burgin and (bottom row l to r) Jackson Rendall, Kaylee Molin and Jaqueline Lopes Diniz.
Forrest Research Foundation Director Professor James Arvanitakis said the vision for the Foundation had always been to draw the brightest minds from across the world to WA.
"The growing global reputation of the Foundation has seen the program become incredibly competitive because of the exceptional academic quality of our successful candidates," Professor Arvanitakis said.
"The Foundation is dedicated to fostering innovation in research with the vision of making WA a global knowledge, research and creative hub."
The new scholars will join a community of 50 researchers at Forrest Hall where they'll take part in a world-leading researcher development program which includes engaging with the community, developing science communication skills and understanding the complexities of turning research into policy.
