Congratulations to new Head of Neuroscience, Professor Helmut Butzkueven

Professor Helmut Butzkueven is an international leader in

translational research into Multiple Sclerosis

Monash University and Alfred Health are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Helmut Butzkueven to the joint position as The Van Cleef Roet Chair of Neuroscience and Head of the Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, and Director of Neurology, Alfred Health.

Professor Butzkueven is an outstanding Neurologist and Clinician-Scientist, who is an international leader in translational research into Multiple Sclerosis. Amongst his many research achievements is the founding of the international MSBase Immunology Registry, which has now prospectively enrolled >70,000 patients from 36 countries and resulted in multiple publications that have directly impacted on patient care worldwide.

Lab-on-a-chip work honoured by award

Dr Crispin Szydzik has won a prize

Congratulations to Dr Crispin Szydzik, who has been awarded the RMIT David Beanland Prize for Best PhD Thesis in Engineering in 2019! The prize is based on examiners reports and number of Scopus-indexed publications (weighted on quality) for that year.

Crispin is a current postdoctoral fellow (and previous PhD Student) in Dr Warwick Nesbitt's Haematology Micro-platforms group in the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD). Crispin's thesis focused on developing novel fabrication methods for lab-on-chip systems. He created an injection moulding approach enabling custom designed micro-chips - each with dozens of automated valves and pumps - to be rapidly fabricated in quantities suited to biomedical experiments.

Congratulations to Danika Hill on Michelson Prize!

Dr Danika Hill is a National Health and
Medical Research Council ECR Fellow
in Prof David Tarlinton's lab. See video

Congratulations to Dr Danika Hill, who is one of two Michelson Prize awardees in 2020 by the Human Vaccines Project. This is a prestigious award of $150,000 US for young investigators. The 2020 Michelson Prizes will focus on transformative research in human immunology, with trans-disease applications to accelerate vaccine and immunotherapeutic discovery, highly topical this year.

Danika started 1 July as a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Research Fellow in Professor David Tarlinton's group in Central Clinical School's Department of Immunology and Pathology. Prior to that, she was working at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge UK, where she did the research which earned her the prize. She will carry out the research funded by the prize at Monash University. A Q&A with Danika reveals more about her project, her discipline area and her passionate scientific curiosity.

2020 Dean's Award for Excellence to Dr Rob Medcalf

The talent and dedication of outstanding members of the Faculty are recognised through the Dean’s Awards for Excellence. Central Clinical School's Professor Rob Medcalf, Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, received the award in the category of Excellence in Education (Honours Supervision).

Prof Terry O'Brien, Head of School, said, "Congratulations Rob. Thoroughly deserved recognition of your many years of outstanding honours supervision." Seconded by all including the students!

New Translational Medicine units available for graduate research students

See more about our clinical research and translational programs

Three new Translational Medicine Coursework units were launched on Monday 3 August by the Central Clinical School's (CCS) Education Team, headed by Professor Robyn Slattery. From 2021 these units will be offered as part of the new Master of Clinical Research - Translational Medicine course. See the handbook links for detail:

• Clinical and Translational Neuroscience
• Clinical and Translational Immunology
• Clinical and Translational Bioinformatics

Prof Slattery said, "I wish to extend my gratitude for all CCS researchers involved for their valued expertise and contribution to the development and implementation of these fabulous educational offerings, and to the incredible education team who have pulled the material together."

ECR Webinar - Get Social Media Savvy

Do you have a social media presence? Are you confused about how to use social media to build your brand and amplify your research? Find out more:

• ECR Webinar - Get Social Media Savvy
• 21 August
• Date:   Friday 21 August 2020
• Time:  12:00pm - 1:00pm
• Webinar registration link

This online session is aimed at all ECRs who are interested in boosting their research profile using social media. Topics covered include Twitter vs LinkedIn, Monash branding and social media guidelines, and case studies featuring a number of ECRs who have utilised social media to their advantage.

"Karen" reimagined with a mask

"Karen" before and after. Mural recently painted in Fairfield. Photo: Tamara Shardlow. Artwork: Julia Veitch