We are delighted to welcome two talented researchers into our highly respected Mentorship Program.
These emerging research leaders were competitively selected and will be mentored by an Academy Fellow while in the three-year program, and will receive additional training, support and networking opportunities. They become Associate Members of the Academy during this period, contributing to our work, including our policy projects, events and programs.
They join 28 existing mentees, bringing the current total to 30. Since 2015, 48 individuals have been accepted into the program.
Associate Professor Margie Danchin is a general and immunisation paediatrician at the Department of Paediatrics, Royal Children’s Hospital and a post-doctoral researcher at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and The University of Melbourne. She is currently Group Leader, Vaccine Uptake at the MCRI. As Group Leader of the Vaccine Uptake, MCRI, and Chair of the Australian Collaboration on Social Science (COSSI), she is a leader in Australia on vaccine research focused on generating vaccine demand and acceptance through social science. Associate Professor Danchin also conducts research on vaccine safety, vaccine clinical trials and global child health.
Associate Professor Danchin explained that she was motivated to apply for the AAHMS Mentorship Program for a number of reasons: ‘I have had a non-linear career with many twists and turns. I feel excited about the potential opportunity to further build and create my career for the next 5 to 10 years through the AAHMS mentoring program. I would greatly value the senior guidance of an AAHMS Fellow and the opportunity to meet other mentees and Fellows through the program.
I am very grateful for the many opportunities that I have had in my career to date and I hope that through this program I will not only gain further clarity on how to progress my own career but further develop to increase my potential to give back to my students, trainees and colleagues, as well as my children, and play a role in the development of our future research and clinical leaders.
We need to keep women engaged in clinical research and to ensure their representation at the highest levels in research institutes. We lose many of the brightest and most talented Clinician Scientist Fellow researchers who are women and I feel especially passionate about finding solutions for myself through this program and for other women to ensure that this trajectory is altered over the next few decades. Women cannot be what they cannot see, and we need to ensure that highly talented female clinical researchers see a clear path to leadership within STEM at the highest levels’.
Associate Professor Gregory Fox is a Respiratory Physician and CJ Martin Post-Doctoral Fellow, whose research focuses upon global tuberculosis control. He is currently Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine at The University of Sydney. Dr Fox was the foundation Country Director of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Vietnam from 2009 – 2013, in which capacity he implemented a randomized controlled trial of tuberculosis screening which enrolled over 35,000 participants. He has a strong commitment to research capacity building and postgraduate medical education, and has contributed to the development of evidence-based health policies in resource-limited settings.
When asked what he was most looking forward to about the AAHMS Mentorship program, Associate Professor Fox stated: ‘I am excited to share in the wisdom of an experienced senior academic. Mentorship not only helps me answer important questions about my future career, but also shows me which questions I should be asking.’
The mentees began their program in June 2020.
Applications for 2020 Round 1 of the Mentorship Program close on 18 September 2020. For further information about the application process and the scheme can be found on our program page.