Faculty Early Career Researcher Award (<5 years)
This award focuses on outstanding research excellence and impact relative to career opportunities, for researchers with up to 5 years of experience post-PhD. Winners were nominated for the corresponding Vice-Chancellor Award.
Between 2022-2024, this award was called the Emerging Early Career Research (ECR) Award. Prior to 2014, this award was known as the Young Investigator Award.
2025 Aeson Chang
Aeson’s research focuses on understanding the impact of neural signalling in metastatic triple negative breast cancer to identify novel strategies that target these pathways to improve treatment of the disease. To achieve this, he collaborates with scientists from different disciplines globally and nationally.
To date, Aeson has published 15 peer-reviewed articles: 5 as first author and 2 as senior author. Some notable publications include high-impact articles in Science Translation Medicine, Journal of National Cancer Institute and Nature Cancer Reviews. Aeson has received invitation to present in global and national meetings including Keystone Symposia and Australasian Neuroscience Society Meeting. In the last 3 years, Aeson has successfully secured about $3 million in research funding, including prestigious national competitive grants (2x NHMRC Ideas) and an international competitive award (Gilead Sciences Research Scholars Program Grant).
Aeson’s research approach is grounded in core values including integrity, mentorship, and collaboration. He fosters intellectual curiosity and critical thinking in his students and staff, and creates an inclusive environment in his lab, while promoting high-quality research practices. His interdisciplinary collaborations have led to major grants, demonstrating the importance to pursue impactful, cross-disciplinary research.
2024 Arisbel Batista Gondin (Emerging ECR Award winner)
Dr Arisbel Batista Gondin is a research fellow in the Analytical and Structural Pharmacology Lab in DDB. Her research program incorporates molecular and cellular pharmacology, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, antibody discovery, and nanotechnology to advance understanding of proteins that are critical for human health and to drive the discovery of new therapies.
Arisbel has a strong publication track record in top journals including Nature Chemical Biology, Science Signaling, etc. She has authored a total of 17 publications with > 730 citations and her first author publications have had a rapid impact in the field and are cited among the top 10% of most cited publications worldwide.
In the last 5 years, Arisbel has secured over $2.5M in research support, including internal strategic funding (Monash International Networks of Excellence 2019), philanthropic organisations (Dunlop Foundation 2020), national competitive schemes (NHMRC Ideas 2023) and fellowships (Bridge REDI 2023, DECRA 2024, NHMRC EL1 2024).
Arisbel also won the 2024 Vice Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher of the Year Award – STEM Award.