QUT researchers, Associate Professor Laura Bray and Professor Clinton Fookes, are finalists for The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes - national science awards that honour excellence across the areas of research & innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science.
Professor Bray, from the QUT School of Mechanical Medical & Process Engineering, is a finalist in the Emerging Leader in Science award category.
In 2012 Professor Bray was awarded the inaugural Prime Minister's Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Postdoctoral Award (awarded to only one woman in Australia), she is also an ARC Future Fellow, and an Australian Vascular Biology Society Achievement and Career Development Award winner.
Professor Bray is an outstanding bioengineer and emergent leader in innovative research that addresses the significant need for new preclinical models in biomedical research.
She said that despite significant investment as many as 90 percent of drug candidates fail in clinical trials and there is a need for more effective ways to develop drugs.
"My team are designing new ways to study human tissues in the lab with sophisticated engineered models.
"By making connections with industry and clinical partners and through education and training. We aim to implement these models for more accurate drug and toxicity testing and for a greater understanding of human health and disease," Professor Bray said.
Professor Fookes, from the QUT School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics, is a finalist in the Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia award category.
He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a multi-award-winning researcher, including an Australian Institute of Policy and Science Young Tall Poppy award, a previous Australian Museum Eureka Prize, Engineers Australia Engineering Excellence Award, Australian Defence Scientist of the Year, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar.
Professor Fookes said he conducts research across vision, signal processing and AI to build new defence capabilities, so we can make better decisions and amplify what we can do as humans.
"I work with Rheinmetall, Airbus, Nova systems, Revolution Aerospace, Sentient Vision Systems, and the Defence Science and Technology Group to build solutions for human machine teaming, to understand the electromagnetic spectrum, and to build more robust recognition systems so that we can better support the defence force in the field, in the air, or in space," Professor Fookes said.
The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are presented annually in partnership with some of the nation's leading scientific institutions, government organisations, universities and corporations. The Eureka Prizes raise the profile of science and science engagement in the community by celebrating outstanding achievement.
Main image: Professor Clinton Fookes and Associate Professor Laura Bray.
The winners of the 2023 Eureka Prizes will be announced during a live, online broadcast event on Wednesday 23 August.
