Kim-Anh & Stephen jointly awarded 2019 Moran Medal

MIG's own bright stars of Australian science recognised with Academy Awards

The Moran Medal recognises the contributions to science of the late P.A.P. Moran, FAA. Its purpose is to recognise outstanding research by scientists up to 10 years post-PhD in the calendar year of nomination, except in the case of significant interruptions to a research career, in one or more of the fields of applied probability, biometrics, mathematical genetics, psychometrics and statistics. The award is normally made every two years. The award is for research carried out mainly in Australia.

Moran Medal

Outstanding contributions to science have been recognised by the Australian Academy of Science with MIG group leaders Dr Kim-Anh Lê Cao and Associate Professor Stephen Leslie are jointly awarded the 2019 Moran Medal. See more details here.

The majority of the honorific awards will be presented at the Academy’s annual celebration of science, Science at the Shine Dome on 30 May 2019.

Dr Kim-Anh Lê Cao - Statistics of biology

The main focus of Dr Lê Cao’s research is to develop statistical and computational methods that are applicable to high-throughput biological data arising from frontier technologies. The emergence of these new platforms is generating a vast amount of data with enormous potential to help understand the functioning of the human body in health and disease, as well as the health of animals, plants and our environment more generally. Her expertise in multivariate statistics, combined with her deep understanding of molecular biology put her at the forefront of cutting-edge biological research. Dr Lê Cao has a track record of success in biological data analysis, in developing novel statistical methods, in implementing them in efficient software, and in disseminating the software and encouraging its uptake by the relevant research community. She plays a critical role in several local, national and international collaborative studies with researchers from diverse bioscience disciplines.

See short video here: https://youtu.be/fYdcS4it88s

Associate Professor Stephen Leslie - Importance of genetic testing

Associate Professor Leslie has made major contributions to mathematical genetics. The thrust of his research is developing methods for analysing modern genetic/genomic data, focusing on understanding the role of genetics in human disease and how genetics informs studies of human population history. He applies novel approaches to genetic data to understand the history of populations and infer past migration events. Stephen’s work on the British population is a landmark in the field, impacting history, archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics. It is a blueprint for studies in other populations and a benchmark for understanding natural genetic variation in human populations; crucial for disease studies. In other work he has revolutionised the study of immune-system genes, particularly those crucial to the body’s mechanism for detecting ‘self’ (one’s own tissues) from ‘non-self’ (e.g. viruses, bacteria), by enabling these genes to be included in large studies for the first time. This work has led to important discoveries associating these genes to serious diseases.

See short video here: https://youtu.be/fG-SbFPyfCU

More Information

Andrew Siebel

asiebel@unimelb.edu.au

8344 0707