UQ researcher wins major biomedical prize

A University of Queensland researcher has won the prestigious Gottschalk Medal for his significant contribution to biomedical research.

Associate Professor Brandon Wainwright, of the University's Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Biochemistry Department, won the medal for his work on genetic components of skin cancer and cystic fibrosis.

Awarded by the Australian Academy of Science, the medal was endowed by the late Dr Alfred Gottschalk (1894-1973), a Fellow of the Academy. First awarded in 1979, the medal recognises distinguished research in the medical or biological sciences by younger scientists.

A leading authority in the field of glycoprotein research, Dr Gottschalk and his family emigrated to Melbourne in 1939 due to political upheavals in Nazi Germany.

Dr Gottschalk worked as a biochemist with a number of Australian organisations including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, the John Curtin School of Medical Research and the Australian National University.

His output of published work was immense - 216 research papers and reviews, and four books.

Dr Wainwright will receive the medal at a ceremony in Canberra later this year.

For more information, contact Dr Wainwright (telephone 3365 4542 at work, 3366 5956 at home or 03 9345 5045) or Faye Nicholas from the Australian Academy of Science (telephone 06 247 5777).