Awards and Achievements

We extend our congratulations to the following members of DoCC:

Associate Professor Elliot Long

Associate Professor Elliot Long has been awarded $5m from the MRFF for a paediatric sepsis trial. “To improve health outcomes, our adaptive, multidisciplinary platform trial will test several sepsis treatment options at once and make adjustments based on evolving evidence.

Dr Chad Oughton

Dr Chad Oughton is the 2025 recipient of the ANZCA Melbourne Emerging Anaesthesia Researcher Award for his project titled "Dexamethasone to alleviate and manage post-operative systemic inflammatory dysregulation (DAMP Trial): an exploratory pilot feasibility trial." Dr Oughton is the first awardee from PeterMacCallum Cancer Centre.

Dr Patrick Tan

Dr Patrick Tan is the 2025 recipient of the ANZCA Melbourne Emerging Anaesthesia Researcher Scholarship comprising $25,000 for his pilot study "Short term haemodynamic effects of high flow humidified nasal oxygen in pregnant patients with hypertension". Dr Tan is based at the Royal Women's Hospital.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Dr Chinh Nguyen, awarded the 2025 Felicity Hawker Medal.

The Felicity Hawker Medal is awarded to the trainee who presents the best paper at the College of Intensive Care Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting (CICM ASM).

Dr Nguyen’s paper was titled “Enteral when compared to intravenous magnesium replacement in the critically ill: A non-inferiority randomized clinical trial”.

He conducted a single centre, open-label, randomized non-inferiority trial of 360 patients. Dr Nguyen collaborated with other Department of Critical Care Higher Degree Research students, Haustine Panganiban and Melissa Ankravs, in undertaking this work.

Dr Chinh Nguyen

Congratulations to Professor David Scott who has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours for significant service to anaesthesia and pain medicine.

Professor David Scott

David is a Professor in the Department of Critical Care, leading the TRICS-IV Trial, and a senior staff anaesthetist in the department of Anaesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine at St Vincent's Hospital.

A past president of ANZCA, David has held and continues to hold many ANZCA roles including as a member and chair of the ANZCA Safety and Quality Committee and member of the ANZCA Clinical Trials Network Executive.

David is an active researcher into perioperative outcomes, especially the neurocognitive effects of anaesthesia and surgery and is chair of the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council.

Professor Kate Leslie AO FAHMS is the recipient of the 2025 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Award for Excellence in Research.

This prestigious award recognises lifetime achievement in research in anaesthesiology and perioperative medicine. Professor Leslie will receive the award during a ceremony at the ASA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in October 2025.

Professor Leslie is one of the pioneers of international multicentre trial research in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine. During a research career spanning more than 35 years, she has pursued interests including monitoring anaesthetic depth and awareness; preventing adverse postoperative outcomes; and improving diversity, equity and inclusion for research participants and researchers. Professor Leslie has published more than 280 papers, been awarded over A$33M in research funding, and delivered more than 230 invited lectures. She is an editor of the British Journal of Anaesthesia and Miller’s Anesthesia textbook.

Professor Kate Leslie AO FAHMS

We extend our congratulations to the following members of DoCC:

Yugeesh Lankadeva, Lachlan Miles, David Story, Emily See, Yasmine Ali Abdelhamid, Mark Plummer and  Laura Cook, in collaboration with researchers from The Florey and clinical colleagues, have been awarded a $4.9 million grant from the Australian Federal Government’s Cardiovascular Health Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).  Read more

Forbes McGain has received Australia's first NHMRC grant dedicated to sustainable healthcare. He'll lead five projects over two years. The grant will fund initiatives to improve hospital systems by reducing waste and emissions, while enhancing patient care, through simple, evidence-based changes.  Read more

The Australian Academy of Science has awarded Samantha Bates a Douglas and Lola Douglas Scholarship in Medical Science award. Lola Douglas was a great philanthropist with a keen interest in medical research and one of her great wishes was to support young researchers. This award will support Sam's PhD project: enteraL rathEr thAn iNtravenous Electrolyte Replacement (LEANER): an observational study of electrolyte replacement practices.

Haustine Patt Panganiban has been awarded a MACH-Track PhD Scholarship. Through MACH-Track, Mr Panganiban hopes to optimise the EMR further to explore advanced and sophisticated tools to accelerate the conduct of clinical trials.  Read more

Congratulations to Lachlan Miles, Yasmine Ali Abdelhamid and Scott McAlister, all awarded highly competitive NHMRC Investigator Grants in the recent round. We were thrilled that the Department of Critical Care was so well represented with three of the seven grants awarded in the Medical School.

We extend our congratulations to the following members of DoCC:

Professor Philip Peyton has been appointed Editor in Chief of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, the journal produced by the Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA). Fellow DoCC member and immediate Past President of the ASA, Associate Professor Suzie Nou, interviewed Philip to find out what he might have in store for the journal.
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Samantha Bates has recently been awarded three grants: a Diane Chamberlain Research Seeding Grant from the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN), a Plenary Health Grant from Western Health and an Intensive Care Foundation Project Grant. The grants will support Sam's PhD project: enteraL rathEr thAn iNtravenous Electrolyte Replacement (LEANER): an observational study of electrolyte replacement practices.

Professor Adam Deane accepted a Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Staff Award from the Dean, Professor Jane Gunn, on behalf of his research team, for embedding randomised clinical trials into electronic medical records to improve outcomes.
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Dr Lucy Modra was presented with a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research. This award recognises outstanding achievements of enrolled graduate researchers across three categories: quality of research publications; recognition of their work through awards and prizes; and contribution to the university and the broader community.
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