2023 Rowden White Trust
Pictured R-L Top Row: A/Prof Yasmin Jayasinghe, A/Prof Michelle Peate, Dr Jose Luis Alfredo Huaman Torres, Dr Ellen Menkhorst & Dr Wei Zhou. Bottom Row: Dorcas Serwaa, Lucy Caughey, Teck-Phui Chua, Dr Zobaida Edib, Shiva Pourali Roudbaneh & Jacqueline Hunter
Awardees have been announced for the 2023 A.E. Rowden White and Edward R. White Foundation Trust for People and Project Support for Early Career and Mid-Career Researchers and the Graduate Research and Early Career Research Career Development Support.
The A.E. Rowden White and Edward R. White Foundation Trust foundation was established by the late Sir Alfred Edward Rowden White and his brother Sir Edward Rowden White to support medical research at the Royal Women’s Hospital (RWH). This round of funding called for applications from Early and Mid-Career researchers to build research capacity at the RWH and support collaborative networks.
We are pleased to announce the awardees for the Rowden White Trust People and Project Support for ECR and MCR for 2023 are:
A/Prof Yasmin Jayasinghe was awarded funds towards the project Integrating genomics and artificial intelligence to predict personalised risk of infertility in children having gonadotoxic therapy, for salary support and conference travel.
A/Prof Michelle Peate received supplementary salary support to continue her current trajectory, to ensure competitiveness for future fellowship applications, and to support the students and staff in the emPoWeR team.
Dr Jose Luis Alfredo Huaman Torres was awarded funds for the Mycoplasma genitalium research project to be used towards salary support, laboratory equipment and access to microscopy facilities.
Dr Ellen Menkhorst received funds towards their Understanding the early pregnancy placental defect in preeclampsia project to assist with the funding of a Bioinformatician Level B.3 0.6FTE, additional spatial transcriptomics analysis and SRI conference travel.
Dr Wei Zhou was awarded funds to use towards their endometrial receptivity research to fund a Level A research nurse at 0.6 FTE for 6 months, usage of Bio21 proteomic platform for 6 months and laboratory consumables.
The recipients of the Rowden White Trust Graduate Research and Early Career Research Career Development Support for 2023 are:
Dorcas Serwaa received funds towards research training courses and workshops.
Lucy Caughey received funds to be used towards flights and accommodation to attend the Department's grant writing training course.
Teck-Phui Chua received funds to be used towards flight costs to present an oral at the STI & HIV 2023 World Congress. Teck-Phui presented one of their PhD projects titled “Evolving antimicrobial resistance in Mycoplasma genitalium: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis”.
Dr Zobaida Edib received funds to be used towards a top-up scholarship.
Shiva Pourali Roudbaneh received funds to be used towards travel costs from Melbourne to the FIGO conference in Paris,
Jacqueline Hunter received funds towards topping up their PhD stipend allowance and attending the Statistics training course ‘Introduction to Statistics in R’.
Dr Wei Zhou received funds to be used towards publication costs.
The Rowden White Trust generously awarded a total of $349,709 for People and Project Support and $8,493 for Graduate Research and Early Career Research Career Development Support.
The late Sir Alfred Edward Rowden White (Rowden White) and his brother Sir Edward Rowden White in 1955, created the A.E. Rowden White and Edward R. White Foundation (RW Trust) at University of Melbourne to assist funding of Medical Research at the Royal Women's Hospital (RWH), Carlton. It was the ‘dearest hopes’ of the White brothers that the foundation ‘will be fostered, amplified and encouraged in the most practical ways, by the use of the funds which will forever be available from the foundation’. Within the Last Will & Testament (1957) of Sir Rowden White, he expressly states that two thousand pounds out of the income of his Residuary Estate, is to be paid to the Foundation per annum. This is an incredible philanthropic gift and- today- makes the Rowden White Trust one of the most valuable in the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences.