We are delighted to announce Dr Kaye Susannah Morgan is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award for the Physical Sciences. The Award is given to an outstanding early-career researcher within seven years of their doctoral degree being conferred by a Victorian research institution.

Dr Morgan is currently a VESKI Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the School of Physics at her alma mater, Monash University, and the Chair of Biomedical Physics with the Technische Universität München in Germany. In addition to her remarkable research into soft-tissue, multi-modal, x-ray imaging techniques, Kaye also teaches a Masters course in image processing for physics.

After completing her physics PhD at Monash University in 2011, Kaye secured an NHMRC grant to continue at Monash with her research into x-ray imaging of biological interfaces as a post-doctorate researcher, later securing a DECRA Research Fellowship to specifically interrogate the application of her research to Cystic Fibrosis treatments.

RSV Science Program Chair, Dr Kevin Orrman-Rossiter extended thanks to all 2017 applicants, remarking that this year’s pool was “particularly competitive.”

“It’s wonderful to see the amazing, globally-significant work that Victorian doctoral graduates are undertaking,” he said. “Dr Morgan has clearly distinguished herself in this field, not only for her strong record of collaboration, publication and conference presentation, but also her vigorous commitment to supervising the next generation of PhD students and teaching into a physics Masters course. All this, while her research is being directly translated into medical applications and innovations in technology used by a global research community! She is an outstanding Victorian researcher, one of our very brightest, and we should all be very proud of everything she’s achieving.”

In addition to a formidable collection of grants, awards and fellowships that acknowledge her achievements, leadership and further potential, Kaye has published extensively both as first and joint author, has established a vibrant international network of research collaborators, has influenced the improvement of synchrotron beamline designs globally and, significantly, is now translating her ‘phase contrast’ imaging work with a synchrotron to more compact laboratory and hospital-compatible settings to enable medical researchers and radiologists to utilise this next-generation x-ray source for research and clinical diagnostic purposes.

Congratulations to Dr Kaye Morgan, who will receive her award and present a public lecture at the Society on 28 September titled “Playing with Light: Dynamic Soft-Tissue X-Ray Imaging at the Synchrotron.” Please register to join us, and help celebrate Kaye’s wonderful achievements.