Professor Ian Gust AO and Professor Brendan Crabb present Dr Freya Fowkes with the 2014 Gust-McKenzie Medal.

Leading Australian malaria researcher and Head of Burnet Institute’s Malaria and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Dr Freya Fowkes has been awarded the prestigious 2014 Gust-McKenzie Medal.

The medal is presented to an outstanding mid-career Burnet staff member in recognition of excellence in research and/or public health.

The Gust-McKenzie Medal is named in honour of the founding directors of the Burnet and Austin Research Institutes, Professor Ian Gust AO and Emeritus Professor Ian McKenzie AM.

Dr Fowkes’ work aims to understand the global differences in immunity to malaria and apply this knowledge to develop new interventions such as vaccines as well as trying to preserve current therapeutics.

She said it was a great honour to receive the Gust-McKenzie Medal.

“If I achieve a fraction of what Professor Gust and Professor McKenzie have achieved in their careers I would be a very contented scientist!” Dr Fowkes said.

“The medal represents the hard work done by members of my group and reflects the support from a multidisciplinary research institute which strives to find solutions to diseases, like malaria, which have a devastating impact on some of the world’s poorest populations.”

Burnet Institute Director and CEO, Professor Brendan Crabb said Dr Fowkes is not just an emerging science star she is a trailblazer.

“Spanning disciplines across biomedical research to directly working with communities, Freya demonstrates that one need not be pigeon-holed,” Professor Crabb said.

“It is a formula that allows the questions most important to community health to be answered. She is a most worthy recipient of this prestigious award.”