Research Excellence Awards
2025
Early career researcher – Pedro de Souza Castanheira
Pedro de Souza Castanheira is the recipient of the Society’s 2025 Early Career Research Excellence Award. Pedro is a Research Fellow at Murdoch University, where his work combines morphological and molecular approaches to advance the understanding of spider biodiversity in Australia and Brazil. He has described more than 80 species and 10 genera across seven families, with a particular focus on orb-weaving spiders (Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, Theridiidae).
Mid-career researcher – not awarded.
Distinguished career researcher – Shane Ahyong
Shane Ahyong is the recipient of the Society’s 2025 Distinguished Career Award. Shane is Acting Chief Scientist at the Australian Museum and Professor (Adjunct) at the University of NSW. His research interests, spanning more than 30 years, include phylogeny and systematics of aquatic invertebrates, marine biosecurity, biogeography, and phylogenetic methods. He is particularly concerned for the future of collections-based research and creating opportunities for future generations of systematists. Prof. Ahyong is also widely involved with international conservation and systematics initiatives including the ICZN, IUCN and World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS).
2024
Early career researcher – Jeremy Wilson
Jeremy Wilson has been recognised with the Society’s Early Career Research Excellence Award. Jeremy is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Western Australia and works primarily in systematic arachnology, particularly on Australian trapdoor spiders. Since finishing his Ph.D. in 2019, he has described 124 new species and one new genus. Jeremy’s research also includes phylogenetics, biogeography, and conservation, including comparative phylogenetic studies of trapdoor spider behaviour and a long-term study on a vulnerable trapdoor spider species.
Mid-career researcher – Scott Cutmore
Scott Cutmore has been recognised with the Society’s Mid-Career Research Excellence Award. Scott is the Senior Scientist and Curator of Parasitology at the Queensland Museum. During his career Scott has described 170 new species and proposed 35 new genera, five new subfamilies, and a new family. His work on the systematics of blood flukes of fishes and marine turtles has resulted in the elucidation of several novel life cycles in Australian waters, enabling control of these highly pathogenic parasites in turtle rehabilitation facilities
2023
Early career researcher – Linette Umbrello
Mid-career researcher – Not awarded
Distinguished career researcher – Lyn Cook
2022
Early career researcher – Emily Roycroft
Mid-career researcher – Michael Rix
2021
Early career researcher – Francis Nge
Mid-career researcher – Kenny Travouillon
Distinguished career researcher – Andy Austin
2020
Early career researcher jointly awarded to – Juanita Rodriguez and Dan Huston
Mid-career researcher – Kym Abrams
2019
Early career researcher – Erinn Fagan-Jeffries
Mid-career researcher – Nerida Wilson
Distinguished career researcher – Craig Moritz
2018
Early career researcher – Scott Cutmore
Mid-career researcher – not awarded
2017
Early career researcher – Bryan Lessard
Mid-career researcher – Natalie Nagalingum
Distinguished career researcher – Mark Harvey
Student Grants
2025
Student research award: Saphira Bloom-Quinn
Saphira commenced her PhD studies in mid-2025 at the University of Sydney in association with the Botanic Gardens of Sydney Mount Annan. Her supervisory team includes Dr Simon Ho, Dr Trevor C Wilson, and Dr Matthew Renner. The overarching goal of her project is to generate a genus-level phylogeny of the Australian mosses using the GoFlag408 probe set. Saphira’s research interests include population genetics, speciation, systematics, and macroevolution.
Student travel grant: Joshua Lenton
Joshua is an Honours student at Flinders University, to continue his research on brush-footed trapdoor spiders. Joshua will spend two weeks at the Western Australian Museum examining specimens in the barychelid genus Idiommata and will be attending the 2nd Western Australia Colloquium of Arachnology in early November.
2024
Student research award: Andrea Piccinini, University of Western Australia. Andrea’s PhD research focuses on the taxonomy and phylogeography of Australian wishbone spiders (genus Aname) in the Northern Jarrah Forests of Western Australia. Andrea anticipates the project will describe at least eight new species as well as uncovering evolutionary patterns of diversification in the group.
An individual of Aname in its burrow. Photo credit Andrea Piccinini.
Student travel grant: Cameron Dodd, University of Western Australia, to continue his research on kultarr (Antechinomys laniger), small marsupials resembling hopping mice. Cameron will visit the Queensland Museum and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory to gain a better understanding of morphological diversity within the group and describe a new species.
A potential new species of Antechinomys from central NT. Photo credit Dr Ken Johnson
2023
Student research award: Shelby Middleton, Edith Cowan University. Taxonomy and evolution of the brushtail possum genus Trichosurus in Australia
Student travel grants:
- Antonio Rayos (University of Sydney) for travel to Biosystematics 2023 and associated herbarium visit.
- Cameron Dodd (University of Western Australia) for travel to Australian Museum for a collection visit.
- David Juszkiewicz (Curtin University) for field work to type localities of Porites corals.
- Helen Armstrong (Murdoch University) for travel to Biosystematics 2023.
- Lenin Indrajith De Silva (Murdoch University) for a field expedition to Heron Island Research Station.
- Mollie-Rosae Slater-Baker (The University of Adelaide) for travel to Biosystematics 2023 and associated lab visits.
- Paulo Baleeiro Souza (University of Queensland) for travel to Biosystematics 2023 and association collection visit.
- Tareva-Chine Atkin-Zaldivar (The University of Adelaide) for travel to Biosystematics 2023
- Bárbara Azevedo de Oliveira (University of Queensland) for travel to Biosystematics 2023
- Emma Holvast (Australian National University) for travel to Museums Victoria.
2022
Student research award:
Ethan Briggs, University of Queensland. Phylogenetics, Systematics and Biogeography of Australian Tarantulas.
Helen Armstrong, Murdoch University. Taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of the Cryptogonimidae (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) parasitic in marine fishes.
Student travel grants:
- Yun Hsiao, to visit the Western Australian Museum entomology collection
- Isaac Kerr, to attend the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Toronto, Canada
- Richard Dylan Corner, to attend the 15th International Congress of Parasitology, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Joseph Schubert, to complete field work within Australia to collect jumping spiders (awarded, but not paid out)
- Natalie Tees, to visit the New Zealand Arthropod Collection
- Ashleigh Peck, to attend the Concepts in Parasitology Workshop in Queensland
- Clarisse Louvard, to attend the 15th International Congress of Parasitology, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Ethan Briggs, to visit the Western Australian Museum arachnology collection
- Shelby Middleton, to visit the mammal collections of the South Australian, Victorian and Australian Museums
- Jacob van Zoelen, to attend the International Palaeontological Congress in Thailand
2021
Student research award: Richard Dylan Corner, The University of Queensland. Life cycles of pathogenic turtle blood flukes in Western Australia; assessing variation across a geographic range.
Student travel grants:
- Richard Dylan Corner, University of Queensland.
- Clarisse Louvard, University of Queensland.
- Mollie-Rosae Slater-Baker, University of Adelaide.
- Kate Rick, University of Western Australia.
- Yun Hsiao, Australian National Unversity/CSIRO ANIC.
- Claire Rowe, University of Sydney.
- Alana Delaine, University of Adelaide.
- Elaine Anderson, University of Adelaide.
- David Juszkiewicz, Curtin University.
2020
Student research award: David Juszkiewicz, Curtin University. Using integrated taxonomy to provide new perspectives on massive coral growth rates in rapidly changing oceans
Student travel grants:
- David Juszkiewicz, Curtin University.
- Paulo Cesar Baleeiro Souza, University of Queensland.
2019
Student research award: Paige Maroni, The University of Western Australia and The Western Australian Museum. The ecology and evolution of an adaptive marine radiation of Antarctic sea slugs
Student travel grants:
- Olivia Davies, Flinders University.
- James Dorey, Flinders Univeristy.
- Ben Parslow, Flinders University.
- Paige Maroni, The University of Western Australia and The Western Australian Museum.
2018
Student research award: Stephen Zozaya, James Cook University. Using pheromones to understand Australia’s hyper-diverse lizard fauna.
Student travel grants: a missing piece of SASB history…
2017
Student research award: Cara Van Der Wal, The University of Sydney. Assessing the conservation status and genetic diversity of two endemic freshwater crayfish Euastacus spinifer and Euastacus australasiensis using population genomics.
Student travel grants:
- Kara Layton, The University of Western Australia and Western Australian Museum.
- Jeremy Wilson, Griffith University and Queensland Museum.
- Linette Umbrello, The University of Western Australia and Western Australian Museum.
- Daniel C Huston, The University of Queensland.
- Stephen Zozaya, James Cook University (grant declined).
SASB members can read student grant reports here.