Kirby Institute alumni Dr James Ward, who is now the Head of Infectious Diseases Research – Aboriginal Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), has been awarded the NHMRC Rising Star Research Excellence Award for 2017. The Rising Star Award is given to the top-ranked application by an Indigenous researcher in the Early Career Fellowship scheme.
Dr Ward received his PhD in August 2017, becoming the second Indigenous PhD student to graduate from the Kirby Institute. His thesis, Epidemiology and prevention of sexually transmissible infections among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, looks at the causes and impact of interventions to reduce sexually transmissible infections and HIV in the Indigenous populations. His supervisors were Scientia Professor John Kaldor and Professor Basil Donovan.
The Kirby Institute extends a huge congratulations to Dr James Ward on these two outstanding achievements.
You can read the NHMRC media release here.