Engagement and Impact

Criminal Justice Research Consortium (CJRC)
Emeritus Professor Rosemary Sheehan AM, Associate Professor Susan Baidawi, Rubini Ball, Department of Social Work, School of Primary and Allied Health Care

The Criminal Justice Research Consortium is comprised of an outstanding senior researcher in Professor Rosemary Sheehan AM, a mid-career researcher in Associate Professor Susan Baidawi, and an early-career researcher Rubini Ball, with expertise across the child welfare and criminal justice fields. They have collectively published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, nine books, 39 book chapters, and over 20 reports to government and industry. The team is led by Associate Professor Baidawik who has been awarded over $7M in funding, including $1.3M in an ARC DECRA Fellowship, and her prior research was awarded Monash University’s 2022 Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher - Research Excellence Award and the 2022 Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Publication Prize. Winning this award highlights their high-impact research on younger children with offending behaviour, which supported the Victorian Government’s moves to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years and led to Associate Professor Baidawi’s recognition with a 2024 Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award.

Enterprise

Associate Professor Rangi Kandane-Rathnayake
School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health

Associate Professor Rangi Kandane-Rathnayake is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Inflammatory Diseases (CID) and serve as the Scientific Director of the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration (APLC). She currently leads multiple lupus studies in partnership with industry partners, including Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. She has played a key role in securing nearly $5million in research funding for lupus. She has curated the largest multinationa dataset of lupus patients to date, comprising over 5,050 patients and over 68,000 clinic visits. She has also contributed to over 75 peer-reviewed publications, including articles in top-tier journals such as The Lancet Rheumatology. Associate Professor Kandane-Rathnayake holds leadership roles on the CID Executive Committee, the Rheumatology Group, and the APLC Executive Committee. As an accredited higher degree by research supervisor, she currently serves as the principal PhD supervisor for Dr Arushi Ramnarain and as associate supervisor for Dr Laura Eades and Ms Iolanda Miceli.

Commercialisation

Professor Peter Currie and Professor Mikaël Martino
Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute

Director of Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and NHMRC Investigator Fellow Professor Peter Currie and Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellow Professor Mikaël Martino are jointly recognised for their pioneering work in regenerative biology and their success in translating fundamental discovery into therapeutic innovation. They identified a previously unknown mechanism for activating muscle stem cells while limiting fibrosis, a breakthrough published in Nature in 2021. Recognising the clinical potential of this discovery, they co-founded Myostellar, a Monash University spinout developing first-in-class protein biologics for muscle regeneration.

In their roles as CEO and CSO of Myostellar respectively, Professor Currie and Professor Martino have secured national innovation funding, led interdisciplinary collaborations with industry and CRO partners, and built a high-performing pre-clinical pipeline addressing significant unmet needs in muscle-wasting diseases. Their combined scientific leadership, entrepreneurial drive, and ability to navigate complex translation challenges exemplify the values of Monash’s innovation ecosystem. This award recognises their achievement not only in discovery but in building a venture with real-world clinical and commercial potential.

Professional of the Year

Dr Jennifer Steen
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Dr Jennifer Steen is an accomplished research manager with a decade of experience in research development and strategic support. As the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Senior Research Manager, Jenny provides outstanding professional support for our academics across the research lifecycle and comprehensive oversight of an increasingly complex and diverse research portfolio. Her strategic support enabled over 400 funding submissions in 2024, valued at $850 million, and over $46 million awarded in early 2025.

In parallel, Jenny is driving a transformative increase in tender-based funding—from 10 applications in 2021 to 38 in 2024. Jenny’s tailored, end-to-end guidance has built researcher capability and confidence, while her innovations—such as the ‘tender report’ pilot—will deliver university-wide benefits. Her established cross-faculty professional networks and trusted advisory role within the faculty further underscore her impact on the research community. Jenny’s contributions also saw her win the school’s 2024 Research Support Excellence Award.

Early Career Researcher of the Year

Dr Jessica Botfield
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Over the past five years, Dr Jessica Botfield has consistently demonstrated research excellence, maintaining a strong trajectory of achievement despite two career disruptions and working part-time. Her growing research profile is reflected in a steady increase in outputs, successful grant funding, and fruitful collaborations. She has 72 publications and currently supervises two PhD students, with two completions under her belt. Jessica’s success in securing competitive funding includes an NHMRC Investigator Grant, a MRFF Multidisciplinary Models of Primary Care Grant and a Monash Future Leader Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Jessica has demonstrated a commitment to capacity building, actively supporting postgraduate students and colleagues through supervision, mentoring, and committee participation. Her dedication was recognised with the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine’s 2024 Higher Degree by Research Supervision Excellence Award, following nomination by all four of her PhD students. Jessica proactively engages in sector-wide leadership and service roles, contributing to committees within the SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence, the school and the wider academic community.

Graduate Research Supervision

Associate Professor Meredith O'Keeffe
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute

Associate Professor Meredith O’Keeffe is an internationally renowned immunologist who continues to drive pioneering research on dendritic cell biology. Meredith’s work has led to over 80 publications and 12,400+ citations (h-index 49) in top-tier journals, including Nature Immunology, Immunity, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Blood and more. Her intellectual property contributed to the multi-billion-dollar smallpox and monkeypox program of Bavarian Nordic GmbH, and she is part of a team recently awarded $17million in Medical Research Future Funds for next-generation dendritic cell immunotherapy. Importantly, Meredith is also an exceptional graduate supervisor, known for her adaptive, student-centred approach. She has guided students from diverse backgrounds to success across academia, industry, and beyond. Her creative mentorship includes facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration, encouraging students to grasp opportunities for involvement in national and international immunology societies, public outreach and industry collaboration. Meredith is regularly entrusted with students in crisis, offering compassionate and effective support. Her leadership in supervision exemplifies excellence, innovation, and a deep commitment to student growth.

Researcher of the Year

Professor Roger Pocock
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute

Professor Roger Pocock’s research career is marked by excellence. His training and independent career in exceptional environments, such as Oxford, Columbia, Copenhagen, and Monash universities, focus on quality over quantity, reflected in his publication record in the best high-impact journals. Notably, over 80 per cent of his publications are as first or last author, a statistic very different from many CVs, where senior author papers are closer to 50 per cent. Since his recruitment to Monash in 2015, Roger has thrived in the Australian environment, publishing 53 papers and receiving 12 grants and/or fellowships from NHMRC, ARC, NFMRI and veski worth over $6.5million. Roger also has an exceptional record of mentoring students, having supervised 14 PhDs and 20 honours students to completion. In the last two years, Roger has also received an ARC Discovery Project grant and has been published as a senior author in Nature Cell Biology and Nature Communications.

Team of the Year

Hazelwood Health Study Team
School of Rural Health and Planetary Health/Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Associate Professor Matthew Carroll, Professor Karen Walker-Bone, Dr Jillian Blackman, Dr Tyler Lane, Associate Professor Caroline Gao, Mr Tim Campbell, Ms Catherine Smith, Mr David Brown, Mr David Poland, Ms Natasha Kinsman, Dr Sharon Harrison, Emeritus Professor Michael Abramson AM

In June 2025, the Hazelwood Health Study team concluded its pioneering 10-year 8-month community-codesigned investigation into the health and wellbeing impacts of the 2014 Hazelwood coalmine fire in Gippsland, having made demonstrable and exceptional contributions to planetary health science, public policy, health services planning and emergency responses to environmental disasters. The team’s high-impact transdisciplinary findings and widespread collaborations informed national smoke and air pollution guidelines, public health emergency policy, parliamentary enquiries, legal proceedings, psychological services provision, public health awareness campaigns. They were pivotal to the awarding of Professor Abramson’s Member of the Order of Australia honour. Working closely with the Victorian Health Department, Gippsland Regional Emergency Management Planning Committee, local LGAs, health services and numerous community-based individuals and organisations, the team has delivered 45 contractual milestones, 130+ manuscripts including novel and innovative techniques, 50+ plain language summaries, a travelling photographic exhibition and has appeared in over 120 media reports.