In honour of of John Henry Michell, ANZIAM, a Division of the Australian Mathematical Society, has instituted an award for outstanding new researchers. At most one award will be made annually, but only to a candidate of sufficient merit. No person can receive more than one such award. The selection criteria for the award are:
- The researcher must have carried out distinguished research, relative to opportunity, in applied and/or industrial mathematics, where a significant proportion of the research work has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand;
- On 1 January in the year in which the AWARD is made, the recipient will be within the equivalent of the first ten years of their research-related career*, following the conferral of a PhD**; AND
- The researcher must have been a member*** of ANZIAM for at least the** three calendar years preceding the year in which the AWARD is made. Active membership must be demonstrated within that three-year period****.
Notes:
*Allowing for significant interruptions to research development,for example, parental duties, illness, career change.
**Any exceptional circumstances should be forwarded to the Selection Committee to assess eligibility.
***Membership is considered to be current and continuous provided that membership dues are paid within or before the calendar year in which they are due.
****Active membership would be demonstrated, for example, with evidence of attending ANZIAM events, involvement in their organisation, or involvement in ANZIAM committees, be that at the local branch, special- interest group, or overarching ANZIAM level.
Past Winners
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1999 Dr Harvinder Singh Sidhu
The Selection Panel for the 1999 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr Harvinder Singh Sidhu.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
Dr Sidhu has, since enrolling for his PhD in 1993 at the University of Queensland, completed original work in the modelling of oscillating and chaotic chemical reactions. He has shown how to use periodic driving forces in order to influence reactant selectivity (where more than one reaction product exists, with one desirable and the other or others are undesirable). This topic has been considered from time-to-time by chemical engineers for over 30 years, but Dr Sidhu’s careful approach has made much more significant progress.
He has shown, not only that significant increases in selectivity are possible in reactions which exhibit Hopf bifurcations by selecting the correct frequency of the driver, but also the existence of a large range of nonlinear phenomena which had not yet been observed and analysed systematically in chemical reactor theory. This work will impact on future reactor design. Recently he has done significant work in the occurrence of combustion waves.
In his work, which includes 9 refereed journal articles, 6 refereed conference proceedings, and many in press, he has shown that he has mastered all the areas of nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory, routes to chaos, diffusive waves, etc – both the analysis and numerics thereof. He has done this with ease and is now one of the best equipped young applied mathematicians in Australasia. Clearly he is a very worthy recipient of the inaugural award of the
J.H. Michell Medal; ANZIAM AWARD for Outstanding New ResearchersTo quote, in a colloquial way, from the football fraternity that Harvinder knows well ……..The boy done good.
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2000 Dr Antoinette Tordesillas
The Selection Panel for the 2000 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr Antoinette Tordesillas.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
In 1987 Antoinette received a BSc Honours Degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide, undertaking a research project involving hot-dip galvanising. Since that time her research has been characterised by the application of mathematics to industrial problem solving. In 1992 she was awarded the PhD Degree from the University of Wollongong for solving a number of elastic contact problems arising in high speed paint coating processes, which employ rubber covered rotating cylindrical rollers. The detailed algebraic calculations involved in her PhD thesis demonstrate her unusual capacity to concentrate her energy to rapidly solve difficult and complicated problems. This high level of “problem-attack” which she adopts is a feature of her approach to research.
In 1991 at the ANZIAM meeting at Hanmer Springs, New Zealand, she was awarded the TM Cherry Student Prize for her talk on the numerical solution of three-dimensional contact problems for layered elastic media. Immediately after that meeting she travelled to the UK and received the same award at the British Theoretical Mechanics Colloquium, held in Oxford. In 1991 she also held a British Council Postgraduate Fellowship in the Department of Theoretical Mechanics at the University of Nottingham.
Since completing her PhD she has held teaching positions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Kansas State University and the University of Melbourne where she is presently a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Antoinette holds the rare distinction of being awarded, in Australia, a US Army Research Grant to analyse soil-tyre problems using the contact mechanics of rolling and/or sliding bodies. Her research work in mechanics is of the highest quality, with publications appearing in prestigious journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, the Journal of Elasticity and the Journal of Engineering Mathematics.
The high quality of her research and the energy and enthusiasm which Antoinette has exhibited in establishing her career, makes her fully deserving of the JH Michell Medal for 2000.
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2001 Dr Nigel Bean
The Selection Panel for the 2001 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr Nigel Bean.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
Nigel Bean completed his BSc at the University of Adelaide before moving to Cambridge University where he was awarded a PhD in 1993. Since then Nigel has occupied various research and teaching positions in the University of Adelaide and he is now Deputy Director of the Teletraffic Research Centre.
Nigel works in applied probability and stochastic modelling with particular application to telecommunication network modelling. His work with a number of collaborators has become well-known internationally.
Nigel’s early work involved control mechanisms for broadband telecommunication networks. Today there are many applications of his results showing that robust controls can be effective without the task of estimation imposing an undue workload on the network.
A number of significant contributions have been made by Nigel in the field of dynamic and equilibrium behaviour of loss networks. One proposed method for maximal profit dimensioning and tariffing in loss networks is very appropriate in today’s deregulated telecommunications market.
His more recent work involves matrix-analytic models and quasi-birth-and-death processes or QBD. A series of papers culminated in 2000 with a full quasistationary analysis for the general level-dependent QBD.
Nigel is known for his versatility and a rare ability to capture and explain the non-trivial behaviour of complex systems. His work is reported in 20 published research papers and has been presented at a variety of conferences. We are pleased to have this opportunity to recognise Nigel Bean as one of Australia’s finest young applied mathematicians and to award him the JH Michell Medal for 2001.
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2002 Dr Stephen Lucas
The Selection Panel for the 2002 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr Stephen Lucas.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
Sephen Lucas completed a BMath with First Class Honours at the University of Wollongong before moving to the University of Sydney where he was awarded a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1994, having contributed to developments in the Boundary Integral Method. Stpehen then spent two years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University. He is now a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the Mawson Lakes campus of the University of South Australia, where he is also Head of the Applied Mathematics Group within the Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (CIAM).
His post-doctoral work at Harvard University with H. A. Stone on numerical integration of Bessel functions is significant and has been widely cited. The key idea was realising that a product of Bessel functions could be separated into the sum of two simply-oscillating functions. Researchers around the world have benefited from a substantial set of calculation routines developed during this research. While Stephen has continued his collaboration with H. A. Stone, his overall research portfolio has now become much more diverse, perhaps a natural response to his current research environment in CIAM.
Over the last year Stephen has been part of a research team that has established boundedness on certain function spaces of a two-parameter family of Cesaro averaging operators. Stephen has recently led some most innovative work in classical number theory, using Laplace transforms to formulate a new relationship between the average order of a number theoretic function and its Dirichlet form. This relationship has been used to construct a new proof of the prime number theorem, as well as to verify a number of otherwise diverse number theoretic results. The new relationship also allows for a reformulation of the twin prime conjecture.
The ability to contribute to a wide variety of theoretical and applied mathematics is not found in many. Stephen’s published work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, reaction-diffusion problems, wave scattering and computational methods, as well as special functions and number theory has all been significant, while he also retains an enthusiasm for mathematical modelling in general.
Stephen has already impressed the academic community: he has a long list of awards to his name, including, from his alma mater, a University Medal, two prizes for senior-level Mathematics and three scholarships, as well as having held a Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholarship for his PhD studies.
Dr Lucas has contributed enormously to his profession through his membership of AMS and ANZIAM since 1991. He has participated in the organisation of various conferences and workshops. He has been a regular contributor at ANZIAM meetings, and won the T.M. Cherry Prize in 1991. Recently, Stephen has been a key MISG researcher.
With about 20 published research papers and a wide variety of conference presentations, Stephen Lucas is certainly worthy of the ANZIAM’s award for outstanding new researchers.
- 2003 — no award — (ANZIAM2003 subsumed in ICIAM 2003)
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2004 Dr Mark Ian Nelson
The Selection Panel for the 2004 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Mark Ian Nelson.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
Mark Nelson received his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds in 1994. He arrived in New Zealand in 1997 as the Royal Society of London Postdoctoral Fellow working with Graeme Wake at the University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury for more than a year. For the next three years he generated papers at the Australian Defence Force Academy with Harvey Sidhu, Rod Weber and Geoff Mercer, except for a nine-month period back at Leeds. For the last year he has been at the University of Wollongong.
Mark has written 31 refereed papers (5 individually, 18 as senior joint author) in the area of non-linear chemical dynamics. These involve the application of bifurcation theory, continuation methods, dynamical systems methodology and singularity theory to problems in combustion, chemical reactor engineering and bioreactor engineering. Sixteen of these papers are based on research accomplished since arriving in Australasia six years ago.
- 2005 — no award
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2006 Dr Sanjeeva Balasuriya
The Selection Panel for the 2006 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr H. Sanjeeva Balasuriya.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
The Committee for the award of the Outstanding New Researchers award and the J.H. Michell medal is pleased to recommend Dr H. Sanjeeva Balasuriya, from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, for this prestigious Outstanding New Researchers award.
Dr. Balasuriya has a B.S. with a major in Physics from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He has two Masters degrees from Brown University in the USA, the first in Applied Mathematics in 1993 and the second in Engineering in 1996. He then received a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, also from Brown University, in 1996, with a thesis entitled Viscosity induced transport in barotropic jets.
Dr Balasuriya has broad research interests in Applied Mathematics, with particular focus on dynamical systems in fluid dynamics. He has published 11 papers, in journals of the highest quality such as Physica D, Nonlinearityand the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, and in most of these he is the sole author. He has a text book on Planar coordinate geometry, and has a further three papers in submission. His research includes papers on geophysical fluid dynamics and general dynamical systems, and he has tackled difficult problems using sophisticated methods such as the Mel’nikov integral. In his recent 2005 paper in Physics of Fluids, he applies Mel’nikov techniques to the optimal design of mixing in idealized micro-fluidic devices, and the Committee believes this work will be of wide interest.
The Committee is convinced that Dr Balasuriya is an excellent candidate for the J.H. Michell medal. He is clearly a researcher of outstanding quality, who will continue to develop his research career well into the future.
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2007 Dr Yvonne Stokes
The Selection Panel for the 2007 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr Yvonne Marie Stokes.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
After careful consideration, the committee is unanimous in recommending that the J.H. Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Yvonne Marie Stokes from the University of Adelaide.
Dr Yvonne Stokes has interests in a broad variety of applications of mathematics. She has considered viscous fluid flow in curved pipes, the behaviour of glass slumping in the formation of optical lenses, the distortion of window panes over time and the behaviour of elongated viscous fluid drops. She has also worked in biological applications, including the behaviour of limbs in which there is a broken bone and the modelling of oxygen concentration in cells. She has demonstrated considerable determination and self-motivation in her research, with two single-author publications in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society, and another single author paper in Computers and Fluids. She has 11 papers in refereed journals and a further 7 refereed conference papers. Her work has also received media interest, with articles appearing in The Economist, The Times, and The Australian.
Yvonne Stokes has been active in seeking collaborations with industry and researchers in Israel, Scotland, the Netherlands and the United States. She has also recently worked with a research group in obstetrics and gynaecology. She is currently joint chief investigator on an ARC grant (with Professor Tuck).
Yvonne has been a very active member of ANZIAM since 1995 and the secretary of the South Australian branch since 1999. She has been a very prominent participant in the Mathematics in Industry Study Groups, where she has led the work on several of the industrial problems.
The Committee strongly recommends Dr Yvonne Stokes for the 2007 Michell Medal, and is confident that she will prove to be a future leader in Applied Mathematics.
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2008 Dr Carlo Laing
The Committee for the Outstanding New Researchers Award – the J.H. Michell Medal – is pleased to announce that the 2008 Medal has been presented to Dr Carlo Laing of Massey University in New Zealand. The award was announced at the Conference Dinner of the 2008 ANZIAM Conference at Katoomba NSW. The Committee is impressed by the breadth and depth of Dr Laing’s achievements, and in addition it is particularly pleasing that the Michell Medal is being awarded for the first time to a mathematician in New Zealand.
CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL
Carlo Laing did his schooling and undergraduate degrees in Auckland, and received his B.Sc. degree in 1991. He took a Masters’ Degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Auckland in 1994, and a Ph.D. degree from Cambridge University (DAMTP) in 1998. He has held postdoctoral and visiting positions in Cambridge, Surrey, Pittsburgh and Ottawa before taking up a lecturing position at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand in 2002. He is currently a senior lecturer in Mathematics at that University.
Carlo has already an extensive publication record, containing some 32 journal papers and 2 book chapters. The broad theme of his work is in the area of dynamical systems, which he has applied to a variety of problems in wave propagation and the analysis of mathematical models of neuronal activity. His work has appeared in prestigious journals in the field, such as Physica D and Dynamics and Stability of Systems, the SIAM journals, Nonlinearity and others. He has also published with leading international researchers in the area, such as Glendinning, Troy, Ermentrout, Kevrekidis, Coombes and numerous others. A couple of these international figures volunteered their opinions on Carlo Laing’s work, pointing out that he has developed many of the tools in the area of neuronal modelling, and that his work is beautiful, deep and original.
In addition to his deep research work, Carlo has been an active teacher at all levels, from service subjects for business majors to undergraduate calculus and specialist graduate courses in mathematical methods and neuroscience modelling. He won a distinguished teaching award from Massey University in 2006. He has given talks to a mathematics teachers’ evening and a university open-day activity, in addition to a large number of technical seminars at conferences and in universities around the World. He is a regular contributor to ANZIAM conferences and Mathematics meetings in New Zealand. He has held a Marsden Fund grant and is currently the Chair of the New Zealand branch of ANZIAM.
The Committee strongly commends Dr Carlo Laing as the 2008 Michell Medal winner. He has proved himself to be a leader in research as well as a capable and enthusiastic expositor of Applied Mathematics on a wide variety of levels, and will doubtless continue to make strong contributions to our subject well into the future.
The committee consisted of:
Larry Forbes (Chair, University of Tasmania)
Andrew Bassom (University of Western Australia)
Mick Roberts (Massey University) -
2009 Dr Scott McCue
The Committee for the Outstanding New Researchers Award – the J.H. Michell Medal – is pleased to recommend that the 2009 Medal be presented to Dr Scott McCue of the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology
Scott earned his PhD from the University of Queensland, under the supervision of Prof. Larry Forbes, and then worked in postdoctoral research positions at the University of Nottingham under Prof. John King, then at the University of Wollongong under Prof. Jim Hill. Scott took up his first lecturing position at Griffith University in 2004, and moved to his present position at QUT in July 2007.
Scott’s research is characterized by wide ranging contributions over topics including free and moving boundary problems in fluid mechanics and heat transfer, and the continuum modelling of granular materials. The major contribution of Scott’s research is towards understanding singular phenomena that arise in heat conduction problems accompanied by a change of phase, commonly referred to as Stefan problems. With the use of formal asymptotics, Scott has described a number of limiting behaviours in some detail, such as the two- and three-dimensional extinction problems, associated Hele-Shaw flow limits, and finite-time blow-up that occurs when surface energy effects are included in the formulation. In addition, he has applied complex variable techniques and boundary integral methods to analyse free surface flows past surface piercing objects, with particular attention to the effect of constant vorticity on the flow fields. He has also derived a number of exact solutions to plasticity-type models that describe the flow of granular materials and the deformations of soils.
Scott has published in a number of prestigious international journals, including Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (A), the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, the Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, the Journal of Engineering Mathematics, Physics of Fluids and the IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics. He has edited a Special Issue for the Journal of Engineering Mathematics, and is an editor for the ANZIAM Journal. He has supervised honours, masters and PhD students. He has proven himself as an outstanding mentor for the applied mathematics discipline, especially for the not so strong students.
Scott has been an active member of ANZIAM. He has served on the ANZIAM Executive Committee and been President of QANZIAM (Queensland Branch of ANZIAM) since the beginning of 2006
The Committee strongly recommends Dr Scott McCue for the 2009 Michell Medal. His research contributions and strong commitment to applied mathematics have singled him out as an outstanding young member of our discipline.
The committee consisted of:
- Mick Roberts (Chair)
- Larry Forbes
- Mark Nelson
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2011 Dr Frances Y. Kuo
After careful consideration, the committee is unanimous in recommending that the J.H. Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Frances Y. Kuo from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales.
Dr Kuo completed both her Bachelor and PhD degrees at the University of Waikato. She then joined the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales in 2003 as a Research Associate, before obtaining a highly competitive UNSW Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow position. She followed up this distinction by winning a most prestigious ARC QEII Research Fellowship, which she holds until the end of this year, when she will take up a Senior Lectureship at UNSW.
Dr Kuo’s achievements in Applied Maths are manifold, substantial, and sustained. She is a recognized leader in the theory and applications of high dimensional integration and approximation, Monte-Carlo methods and information-based complexity, interested in applications in finance, statistics and porous media flow. She has published 29 journal articles and 3 articles in highly regarded conference series. These include 11 papers in the leading international journal in her field, the Journal of Complexity, one of which was a sole-authored paper for which she received the Information-Based Complexity Young Researcher Award. She has participated as an equal collaborator with many of the giants in her field, from around the globe as well as within Australia and New Zealand. Her significant research achievements have been recognized with plenary talks at major international conferences, and an editorial board position at the Journal of Complexity. These are remarkable accolades for so early in a research career, and speak to the quality and impact of Dr Kuo’s work. Both are clearly of the highest order.
Dr Kuo has been undertaking research in New Zealand and Australia since 2002, has been a member of ANZIAM since 2007, and has published in the ANZIAM journal.
The Committee strongly recommends Dr Frances Kuo for the 2011 Michell Medal, and is confident that she will prove to be a future leader in Applied Mathematics.
The committee consisted of:
- Natashia Boland (Chair)
- Carlo Laing
- Mark Nelson
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2012 Dr Matthew Simpson
The committee for the 2012 JH Michell Medal has unanimously agreed to nominate Matthew Simpson of the Queensland University of Technology for this award.
Matthew obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Newcastle in 1998 and a PhD from the University of Western Australia in 2003. Between 2003 and 2010 he was a Research Fellow and then Australian Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Since 2010 he has been a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology.
Matthew’s PhD research involved developing computational algorithms to solve mathematical models that describe mixing of fresh and saline fluids in coastal aquifers. In 2003 Matthew joined Professor Kerry Landman’s group at the University of Melbourne where he used advanced computational and mathematical modelling to design and interpret new experiments that challenged existing hypotheses about the development of the enteric nervous system. Three articles by Simpson, Landman and Newgreen published on this work have already received 100 citations and the work was featured as a cover illustration of the prestigious journal, Developmental Biology. Having been awarded an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2006, Matthew then worked with Professors Kerry Landman and Barry Hughes to develop new mathematical tools that describe multiscale data from cell biology experiments. Since his appointment at QUT Matthew has established strong collaborative links with both mathematicians and life scientists. He has published approximately 40 papers, many of which have been well-cited.
Matthew has obtained significant research funding, supervised a number of students, and presented results at ANZIAM meetings since 2004. The committee regards him as a worthy recipient of the 2012 J.H. Michell Medal.
Committee:
- Carlo Laing, Massey University (Chair)
- Natashia Boland, University of Newcastle
- Tony Roberts, University of Adelaide
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2013 Dr Terry O’Kane
The committee for the 2013 JH Michell Medal has unanimously agreed to nominate Dr Terry O’Kane of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research for this award.
Dr O’Kane has made outstanding original contributions to difficult and important problems in applied mathematics. His achievements span theoretical and computational fluid dynamics, statistical dynamics and statistical mechanics, ensemble prediction, data assimilation, subgrid-scale parameterisations, wave turbulence interactions in atmospheric and oceanic flows, numerical methods for integro-differential equations, Markov and non-Markov processes, Gaussian and non-Gaussian processes, applications to climate variability and change. O’Kane devised the first computational implementation of a tractable statistical dynamical closure theory for general inhomogeneous turbulent flows. This has been a milestone achievement in statistical fluid dynamics, allowing the direct computation of the statistics of realistic flows. He has made further pioneering contributions to the statistical dynamics of ensemble prediction, data assimilation and subgrid modelling. He has also made important contributions to ensemble prediction methods for operational numerical weather forecasting and ocean circulation prediction. He has around 80 publications and is a regular contributor to ANZIAM’s CTAC conferences.
Dr O’Kane received his PhD from Monash University in 2003, under the supervision of Dr. Jorgen Frederiksen (CSIRO) and Prof. David Karoly (Univ. Melb.). Prior to his PhD O’Kane obtained a H1A in applied mathematics at La Trobe University and a H1A Masters (by Research) in theoretical physics at The University of Melbourne. After his PhD, O’Kane continued to work at CMAR with Dr Frederiksen as a postdoctoral researcher and subsequently with Dr Steve Rintoul (CSIRO) as a research fellow at the Antarctic, Climate & Ecosystems CRC. O’Kane took up his first permanent position at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) as ensemble prediction scientist in 2007.
Following nearly 2 years at the BoM, during which time he developed the Australian Global & Regional Ensemble Prediction System (AGREPS), O’Kane returned to CMAR where he is currently a senior research scientist. He was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellow position in 2012.
Committee:
- Tony Roberts, University of Adelaide (Chair)
- Carlo Laing, Massey University
- Frances Kuo, University of New South Wales
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2014 Dr Ngamta (Natalie) Thamwattana
Dr Ngamta (Natalie) Thamwattana has made pioneering contributions in the areas of granular materials and nanotec
hnology. Natalie was awarded her PhD in 2005 for her work on exact solutions and analysis of important industrial granular flows, such as discharge from hoppers. Soon after that, Natalie was a co-founder of the Nanomechanics Group at The University of Wollongong. Her work in that area involves the interaction of atomic and molecular nanostructures, producing accurate and simply expressed analytical results for calculations that had previously been attempted only by numerical methods.Natalie has published 60 fully refereed research articles in journals including Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series, Physical Review B, Physical Review E, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Journal of Nanoparticle Research, Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, Journal of Mathematical Chemistry and Philosophical Magazine. In addition, Natalie has published 11 conference papers and a book chapter and is co-author on a provisional patent. So far, Natalie has supervised five PhD students to completion.
Natalie has been a wonderful ambassador to potential and current students for science and mathematical studies. In 2009, she presented a subject, “Mathematics for Nanotechnology” at the AMSI Summer School. In similar vein, Natalie has served on the Australian Mathematical Society committee for early-career researcher events and has coordinated three such events. In 2011, Natalie was chair of the NSW ANZIAM Branch and also organized a function for women in mathematics at the annual meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society. Currently, Natalie chairs the AustMS selection committee for Lift-Off Fellowships and Van der Poorten Travelling Fellowship.
Having two young children has not stood in the way of Natalie’s achievements during her early career. She goes about all her work with great insight and displays infectious enthusiasm. Dr Ngamta Thamwattana is a worthy recipient of the J. H. Michell Medal.
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2015 Dr Barry Cox
The John Henry Michell Medal, or simply the J.H. Michell Medal, is awarded annually by ANZIAM to at most one outstanding new researcher who has carried out distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics within Australia and New Zealand.
After careful consideration, the committee is unanimous in recommending that the 2015 J.H. Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Barry Cox from the University of Adelaide.
Barry obtained a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Wollongong in 1989, and then worked as a programmer for Illawarra Electricity and later for the NRMA. He commenced his PhD studies at the University of Wollongong in 2005, at which time he was in full-time employment as a programmer for BHP IT and Computer Sciences Corporation. He successfully completed his PhD in 2007 and initially worked as a Research Fellow in the Nanomechanics Group and then as a lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics at the University of Wollongong. In 2009 he received the prestigious ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship for 4 years. Since 2010, Barry has been a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Adelaide.
Barry has made and continues to make “ground breaking” contributions to the area of nanotechnology, starting with his PhD which examined nano-scaled structures, devices and materials. Barry has published almost 70 journal articles, with a significant number appearing in prestigious and high impact journals such as the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics and Carbon. Furthermore, Barry is the first author on the vast majority of his publications, which is a reflection of the importance of his contribution to many of the innovative ideas embodied in these papers.
A topic examined in several of Barry’s papers, a new polyhedral model of carbon nanotubes, provides a good example of his research impact and innovation. Barry’s work on the geometry of carbon nanotubes is highly original, and he was the first to propose such a solution in the twenty odd years since the existence of carbon nanotubes was established. His new geometric model of carbon nanotubes properly incorporates the effect of curvature. From the numerical evidence, the model is unquestionably correct; it contains numerous implications relating to the fine structure of carbon nanotubes, and it is all accomplished with elementary geometry. Here we see in action Barry’s elegant elucidation and precise identification of a complex structure using only basic mathematics. Barry’s model is far simpler than anything previously proposed, yet it is able to produce carbon nanotube diameter predictions that are as accurate as the best ab initio calculations from quantum chemistry – the latter rely on supercomputers whereas Barry’s predictions can be made using a simple calculator. Barry has now successfully extended his models for carbon nanotubes to other inorganic nanotube materials, which will prove to be very useful for nanotechnologists.
Barry has established strong links with prominent researchers in the field both nationally and internationally, and he has successfully supervised a number of research students to completion.
The committee regards Dr Barry Cox as a worthy recipient of the 2015 J.H. Michell Medal. Congratulations Barry!
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2016 Associate Professor Joshua Ross
. The J.H. Michell Medal is awarded by ANZIAM in honour of John Henry Michell to an outstanding new researcher, within 10 years of their PhD, who has carried out distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics, and where a significant proportion of the research work has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand.
The committee (Harvi Sidhu, Matthew Simpson and Yvonne Stokes) is unanimous in recommending that the 2016 J.HMichell Medal be awarded to Associate Professor Joshua Ross from the University of Adelaide. Joshua has made significant contributions to methodology in Applied Mathematics and, through its application, to conservation biology and public health policy.
Joshua completed his undergraduate and postgraduate education at the University of Queensland: a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) in 2002, a Bachelor of Mathematics & Statistics in 2003, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education in 2006 and his PhD in Mathematics in 2007.
After a year as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Mathematics Institute, The University of Warwick, Joshua went to the University of Cambridge as a Zukerman Junior Research Fellow at King’s College (October 2007 — March 2010). In March 2010 he joined the School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2013 and to Associate Professor in 2015.
Joshua has accrued an impressive list of accomplishments. Over the last 5 years he has had three successful ARC Discovery Projects (one as a sole applicant), a Royal Society International Exchanges Scheme grant, and an NHMRC grant for the Centre of Research Excellence in Policy Relevant Infectious Disease Simulation and Mathematical Modelling. He was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship for 2013–17. He is also a contributor to the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre established in 2014 through which he has a project grant. In 2013 he received an Australian Institute of Policy and Science Young Tall Poppy Award.
The success Joshua has had with grants and awards bears witness to the quality and impact of his research. Joshua has a strong publication record of 45 journal articles, 7 as sole author, and he has papers in a number of high-quality journals including The Proceedings of the Royal Society A, The Journal of Theoretical Biology and Global Change Biology. In 2006 he had a sole-authored paper in Science. Scopus reports 290 citations of his work in separate documents. A paper from his first post-doctoral position was selected as a “Technological Advance” by the Faculty of 1000 Biology — a panel of over 2300 world leading biological researchers who identify research of other scientists which they believe to be particularly interesting or important.
Joshua’s work, from his PhD and onwards, is noted for novel methodologies. The four key papers (of ten) arising from his PhD studies have collectively attracted 88 citations to date. Highlights from his work as a Zukerman Junior Research Fellow include:
- the fusing of network moment-closure methods with the theory of diffusion approximation to establish the first analytical understanding of the impact of network structure and stochasticity in disease dynamics, in the process providing a probabilistic explanation of the standard pair moment-closure approximation which is widely used in mathematical epidemiology, and
- the development of a suite of novel methods for the efficient evaluation of several epidemiologically relevant quantities for stochastic households models.
Since then he has been the first to publish methods for evaluating the basic reproduction number and the full distribution of the number of secondary infections, accounting for finite population size and stochastic effects (Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2011, sole author). Another highly innovative contribution, which exemplifies the novelty of Joshua’s work, is his paper published in Ecological Modelling in 2013 which combined methods from Applied Mathematics with the theory of Optimal Experimental Design, to determine the optimal use of state-of-the-art micro-GPS tracking devices in order to explore species movement patterns. Recently Joshua has made progress on a problem that has, with the exception of one special case, eluded researchers since the 1950’s, namely providing a robust and efficient method of evaluating the distribution of the final size of an epidemic. His paper in the Journal of Theoretical Biology in 2015, provides the best algorithm available for evaluating this distribution, not only for the special case already considered, but for a wider class of models with phase-type infectious period distributions.
Joshua’s many achievements include supervision to completion of a PhD student and two MPhil students, and a number of government consultancies.
He is, clearly, an outstanding researcher and a worthy recipient of the J.H. Michell Medal.
Congratulations Joshua!
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2017 Dr Alys Clark
The J.H. Michell Medal has been awarded since 1999 to an outstanding new researcher within 10 years of their PhD, who has carried out distinguished research in applied or industrial mathematics, and where a significant proportion of the research work has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand. The medal is named in honour of John Henry Michell (1863-1940) who completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne (1881-1884) and, on his appointment as an “Independent Lecturer in Mixed Mathematics” at The University of Melbourne in 1891, became the first university professor to be born in Australia (G. Cohen, 2006). Michell’s main research was in hydrodynamics and elasticity.
The Committee (Yvonne Stokes, Harvinder Sidhu, Mark Nelson) is unanimous in recommending that the 2017 J.H. Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Alys Clark from the University of Auckland. Alys works at the interface between mathematical modelling and the biological sciences with research interests in modelling the transport of nutrients in the complex and heterogeneous structures of the lungs, placenta and ovaries to guide clinicians in making medical decisions.
Alys completed her undergraduate education at the University of Oxford and her postgraduate education at the University of Adelaide: a BA(Hons) in Mathematical Sciences in 2002, a M.Math.Sc (Applied Mathematics) in 2005 and a PhD in Applied Mathematics in 2009. In 2008 she joined the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, the University of Auckland, as a research fellow, becoming a senior research fellow in 2015.
Alys has an impressive list of accomplishments. She has established world leading multi-scale and multi-physics models of function in the whole lung circulation (A.R. Clark et al., 2011) and placenta (A.R. Clark et al., 2015). A leading clinician recommended the lung model on the Faculty of 1000 database (https://f1000.com) as being within the top 2% of published articles in Medicine and Biology and the first to quantitatively address the long-running debate within the pulmonary medicine community on how lung structure and function interact. This model paved the way for models of pulmonary vascular disease that are able to stratify clinical patients, and have real potential in guiding treatment strategies for patients with pulmonary vascular disease (A.R. Clark et al., 2014). These models are increasingly being cited as evidence for clinical decision making (Elf et al., 2015; Ikeda et al., 2014; European Respiratory Society Taskforce, 2014).
Since 2012 Alys has been a Partner Investigator on three grants and an Associate Investigator on one grant. The source of her funding includes the New Zealand Health Research Council and the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ). She has held an Aotearoa Foundation Fellowship (2012–2015). In 2015 she was awarded a prestigious RSNZ Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, a five-year fellowship to support the development of New Zealand’s most talented young researchers.
Alys publishes in leading journals spanning mathematics, biomedical engineering and experimental physiology. Her peer-reviewed publications comprise 24 journal articles, a book chapter and 7 conference papers (including in SPIE and IEEE conference proceedings). She is active in the supervision of Masters and PhD students and she has built up a research group that is internationally recognised for its work modelling different elements of developmental biology.
Alys’ track record in terms of publications and securing fiercely competitive external grants and fellowships, as well as the uptake of her research by practicing clinicians, testify to the extremely high quality and impact of her research. The committee regards Dr Alys Clark as an outstanding early career researcher and as a worthy recipient of the 2017 J.H. Michell Medal.
Congratulations Alys!
Associate Professor Yvonne Stokes (Chair), Professor Harvinder Sidhu, Associate Professor Mark Nelson.
References
G. Cohen (2006) Counting Australia In. Halstead Press in association with The Australian Mathematical Society.
A.R. Clark et al. (2011) J. Applied Physiol 110:943-955.
A.R. Clark et al. (2015) Interface Focus 5:20140078.
A.R. Clark et al. (2014) Resp Physiol Neurobiol 190:1-13.
Elf et al. (2015) J Thromb Thrombolysis 39:166-172.
Ikeda et al. (2014) Eur J Radiol 83:2260-2267.
European Respiratory Society Taskforce (2014) Eur Heart J doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehu283. -
2018 Associate Professor Claire Postlethwaite
The 2018 JH Michell Medal
The J.H. Michell Medal has been awarded since 1999 to an outstanding new researcher who has carried out distinguished research in applied or industrial mathematics.
The J.H. Michell Medal Committee for 2018 is unanimous in recommending that the 2018 J.H. Michell Medal be awarded to Associate Professor Claire Postlethwaite from the University of Auckland. Claire’s research focusses on dynamical systems, where she has made important contribution to a wide range of areas including: heteroclinic cycles and networks; time-delayed feedback control; delay-differential equations; coupled cell dynamics; noise-induced dynamics; and bifurcations.
(Photo Credit: University of Auckland)
Claire is an internationally-leading researcher on the analysis and bifurcation of heteroclinic networks and has identified the use of these networks in applications across a huge range of fields. To name but two, she is working on the electrical activity of the brain (through analysis of EEG data) and on learning processes within the field of evolutionary robotics.
Claire completed her undergraduate and postgraduate education at the University of Cambridge: BA in Mathematics in 2001, part III of the Mathematical Tripos (2002) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics (2006). After two years of postdoctoral fellowships in the USA, at Northwestern University and the University of Houston, she joined the University of Auckland as a lecturer in 2008, becoming a senior lecturer in 2011 and an associate professor in 2017.
The strength of Claire’s research has been recognised by the award of the New Zealand Mathematics Society Early Career Award for Mathematical Research (2011) and the University of Auckland’s Early Career Research Excellence Award (2013). More recently she has been awarded a grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand fund for the project ’Noisy networks: understanding how stochasticity affects mathematical models of cognitive systems’.
The committee regards Associate Professor Claire Postlethwaite as an outstanding early career researcher and as a worthy recipient of the 2018 J.H. Michell Medal. Congratulations Claire.
A/Prof Mark Nelson (Chair)
A/Prof Yvonne Stokes
Prof Scott McCue -
2019 Professor Ryan Loxton
The 2019 JH Michell Medal
The JH Michell Medal, named in honour of John Henry Michell, is awarded annually by ANZIAM to an outstanding new researcher who has undertaken distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics, where a significant proportion of the research has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand. There have been 17 winners of the JH Michell Medal, dating back to 1999.
The JH Michell Medal Committee for 2019 was highly impressed with all of the nominations; however, there was one nominee who stood out as the most outstanding. The 2019 JH Michell Medal is awarded to Professor Ryan Loxton from Curtin University.
(Photo Credit: Curtin University)
Ryan Loxton is a Research Professor and ARC Future Fellow. After completing his PhD on optimal control in 2010, Ryan progressed rapidly through the academic ranks, reaching full professor at the age of 34 to become one of the youngest ever professors at Curtin University. Since his PhD, his research has moved into areas such as nonlinear optimisation, operations research, and system identification. He has co-authored over 50 papers across a broad range of international journals in applied and computational mathematics, attracting over 1400 citations on Google Scholar.
Ryan’s research has applications across a wide range of industries such as mining, oil and gas, agriculture, and industrial process control. Indeed, Ryan is a passionate advocate for industry engagement and has worked with many companies including Woodside Energy, Linkforce, and Vekta Automation. He currently leads the optimisation theme in the new ARC Industrial Training Centre on Transforming Maintenance through Data Science, which is funded by a $3.9 million grant from the ARC plus matched funding from industry partners Alcoa, BHP Billiton, and Roy Hill.
Apart from this ARC Industrial Training Centre grant, Ryan has attracted substantial research funding from both industry and the ARC, including two ARC fellowships, three ARC Discovery grants and one ARC Linkage grant. Ryan has worked with the company Linkforce since 2014 on optimising shutdown maintenance operations in the resources sector, which has led to award-winning software technology. Ryan’s research with other companies such as Woodside Energy and Global Grain Handling Solutions has also led to real impact through new decision support tools based on rigorous optimisation algorithms.
Ryan has been recognised for his research by being awarded the 2014 West Australian Young Scientist of the Year – he was the first mathematician to win this award.
The Committee regards Professor Ryan Loxton as an outstanding early career researcher and as a worthy recipient of the 2019 JH Michell Medal. Well done Ryan!
Prof Scott McCue (Chair)
A/Prof Mark Nelson
A/Prof Nigel Bean -
2020 Associate Professor Jennifer Flegg
The JH Michell Medal, named in honour of John Henry Michell, is awarded annually by ANZIAM to an outstanding new researcher who has undertaken distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics, where a significant proportion of the research has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand. There have been 18 winners of the JH Michell Medal, dating back to 1999.
The JH Michell Medal Committee for 2020 is unanimous in recommending that the 2020 JH Michell Medal be awarded to Associate Professor Jennifer Flegg of the University of Melbourne. Jennifer is an outstanding scientist and her work brings applied mathematics and advanced computational statistics to critical areas of health and biological sciences.
(Photo Credit: Mark McGuinness)
By all standard metrics, Jennifer’s CV is impressive: she has received multiple major competitive grants, including from the ARC, NH&MRC and the Commonwealth Government of Australia. She has an extensive international publication record with 44 publications, including 15 first-author, 11 second-author and 3 senior-author publications. Her publications appear in high profile journals, and have been cited over 3000 times.
Jennifer has established an outstanding record of research excellence in mathematical modelling over a broad range of applications, but we highlight here two substantial contributions to mathematical biology: the spread of antimalarial drug resistance; and tissue repair.
Working with partners at the University of Oxford, Jennifer has developed predictive spatiotemporal mathematical models of the spread of resistance to the drugs used to treat malaria. Her models predict drug resistance in space and time over Africa and the Mekong region using data which is sparsely available in these regions. Her models have already had impact, with the World Health Organization (WHO) using them to update their policies on where and when certain drugs should be used. Jennifer’s predictive maps of drug resistance in Africa were combined with clinical data on birthweight in an analysis conducted by a WHO Resistance Technical Expert Group to show that if the prevalence of resistance is more than 30% then the drug should be considered compromised, and countries should switch to alternative strategies. Her work in this field has been published in high quality, interdisciplinary journals including the New England Journal of Medicine.
Jennifer has also made significant advances in developing experimentally-validated mathematical models which provide biological insight into tissue repair in chronic wounds and allow assessment of treatment therapies. Working closely with clinicians, she has used partial differential equation models to study oxygen therapy for diabetic wounds and compression therapy for venous leg ulcers. Using her models, Jennifer has derived conditions which allow the stimulation of healing in chronic wounds that would otherwise remain unhealed. She has published her work on wound healing in the top mathematical biology journals such as PLOS Computational Biology and the Journal of Theoretical Biology. This research has been in collaboration with leading international mathematical biologists, including Professors Helen Byrne and Professor Phillip Maini from the University of Oxford.
Jennifer is on the Editorial Board for both the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, which is the official journal of the Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB), and Scientific Reports. She was also Editor-in-chief of the quarterly SMB Newsletter from 2017-2019. She currently supervises six PhD and three MSc students.
Jennifer is emerging as a future leader in mathematical biology and interdisciplinary mathematics in Australia and more broadly. Her leadership and authority in this domain has been recognised internationally and domestically with her invitation as a plenary speaker at the 2018 Society of Mathematical Biology (SMB) Annual meeting, the premier international meeting in the mathematical biology field, and an invitation to be a plenary speaker at the 2020 Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ANZIAM) conference. The ease with which she collaborates, her breadth of knowledge across both applied mathematics and statistics, coupled with her passion to use her mathematical talents to have impact in the world, have helped her already achieve a significant reputation.
The committee regards Associate Professor Jennifer Flegg as an outstanding early career researcher and a worthy recipient of the 2020 JH Michell Medal.
Congratulations Jennifer.
Prof Nigel Bean (Chair)
Dr Alys Clark
Prof Scott McCue -
2021 Dr Lewis Mitchell
The JH Michell Medal, named in honour of John Henry Michell, is awarded annually by ANZIAM to an outstanding new researcher who has undertaken distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics, where a significant proportion of the research has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand. There have been 19 winners of the JH Michell Medal, dating back to 1999.
The JH Michell Medal Committee for 2021 recommends that the JH Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Lewis Mitchell of the University of Adelaide. Lewis has made significant contributions to the emerging field of computational social science and uses mathematical modelling, computational and statistical techniques to assess real-world social phenomena.
Alys Clark presenting Lewis Mitchell the 2021 JH Michell Medal.
Lewis’ research has had an impact across a number of applications. He has successfully collaborated with a number of groups to investigate “the geography of happiness”, “the shapes of stories” in novels in different languages, body image on social media, and monitoring of the wildlife trade to name but a few. Lewis has taken this work and contributed to a significant number of outreach activities including being featured in an installation artwork at Museum of Discovery in Adelaide, and numerous media pieces including regular contributions to “The Conversation” with over 230,000 readers since 2016.
Lewis’ CV is impressive: He has attracted several competitive grants including CRC funding across multiple applications of his work. He has an extensive publication record with 50 publications to date, including 37 journal articles, many of which have arisen from collaborative projects. He has supervised 17 postgraduate students across three faculties as well as several honours and undergraduate projects. In 2018 Lewis was awarded the South Australia Tall Poppy Award, and the ACEMS awards for Outreach and Outstanding Achievements.
The extent and effectiveness of Lewis’ collaborations and outreach activities, along with his successful translation of applied mathematics techniques across multiple applications has helped him gain a significant reputation in the field already that is likely to continue in years to come.
The committee regards Dr Lewis Mitchell as an outstanding early career researcher and a worthy recipient of the 2021 JH Michell Medal.
Congratulations Lewis
Associate Professor Alys Clark (Chair)
Associate Professor Alex James
Prof Michael Small
Prof Natalie Thamwattana
Prof Nigel Bean -
2022 Dr Elliot Carr
Citation for Elliot Carr
The JH Michell Medal, named in honour of John Henry Michell, is awarded annually by ANZIAM to an outstanding new researcher who has undertaken distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics, where a significant proportion of the research has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand. There have been 20 winners of the JH Michell Medal, dating back to 1999.
The JH Michell Medal Committee for 2022 recommends that the JH Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Elliot Carr (Queensland University of Technology).
Dr Elliot Carr receiving the JH Michell Medal at the 2022 ANZIAM conference online.Elliot received his mathematical education from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) completing a Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours) in 2008 and a PhD in Applied and Computational Mathematics in 2012. During his studies, Elliot received a total of 14 awards, prizes and scholarships, highlighted by a University Medal in 2008 (awarded to the top 0.5% of 2008 QUT graduates) and a University Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award in 2012 (awarded to the top 5% of 2012 QUT PhD theses). Elliot has demonstrated an outstanding profile of research following his student days, including work produced at L’Ecole Centrale in Paris, and Imperial College London before returning to Queensland University of Technology in 2015.
Elliot has a strong publication record comprising 38 published journal articles, which cover an impressive number of fields and applications. These include 6 sole-author papers, 19 first-author papers with co-authors, 6 student-led co-authored papers and 7 collaborator-led co-authored papers. The papers led by students and non-mathematical collaborators, demonstrate his leadership and the breadth of his research. Elliot’s publications appear in internationally-prestigious journals with 34 of his 38 papers published in Q1 Journals.
Elliot’s research focusses on developing and applying mathematical/computational models, techniques and algorithms to simulate, solve and analyse physical problems, particularly those governed by partial differential equations. He has made several important contributions to the study of diffusion phenomena in heterogeneous media, multi-scale modelling of transport phenomena and solution methods for partial differential equations. These contributions include (i) new analytical solutions of diffusive transport problems on heterogeneous and irregular domains (ii) new insights into the time required for diffusion processes to reach steady state (iii) new formulas for calculating the thermal diffusivity of solid materials from experimental data (iv) new homogenization approaches for stochastic and continuum diffusion in heterogeneous media (v) new multi-scale computational models for nonlinear transport in heterogeneous media and (vi) new numerical methods for solving partial differential equations.
Elliot’s work has been cited broadly receiving citations from 360 unique authors (across 41 distinct countries). The uptake of Elliot’s research by other disciplines also attests to its broad impact. For example, new computational and analytical techniques Elliot has developed have since been applied by other researchers to (i) characterise antibody penetration in cartilage tissue for understanding treatments of arthritis (ii) calculate key factors that affect the long-term durability of building materials and (iii) simulate drug release from nanospheres. This is reflected in Elliot’s successful research funding including an ARC DECRA fellowship ($317K total funding) between 2015 and 2018. He has also attracted research funding through collaboration with industry and government partners as part of large interdisciplinary teams working on timber processing projects ($170K total funding).
Elliot has contributed more widely than publications and funding, and has supervised multiple PhD, Masters and Honours students who have gone on both to publish with Elliot and also to continue to work in research. He has also been an active part of the ANZIAM community since returning to Australia in 2015. In addition to presenting his research at the past seven ANZIAM conferences (2015–2021), Elliot has been a TM Cherry Prize Committee member (2021 ANZIAM Conference) and a plenary talk chair (2020 ANZIAM Conference). During Elliot’s career, he has also supported the ANZIAM journal, publishing two papers in the journal and reviewing submissions for the journal on many occasions.
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2023 Dr Christopher Lustri
Citation for Christopher Lustri
The JH Michell Medal, named in honour of John Henry Michell, is awarded annually by ANZIAM to an outstanding new researcher who has undertaken distinguished research in applied and/or industrial mathematics, where a significant proportion of the research has been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand. There have been 20 winners of the JH Michell Medal, dating back to 1999.
The JH Michell Medal Committee for 2022 recommends that the JH Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Christopher Lustri (Macquarie University).
Chris completed his Bachelor and Masters qualifications at the Queensland University of Technology. He then moved to the UK to complete a PhD at the University of Oxford, before returning to Australia in 2013 to take up a postdoctoral position at the University of Sydney between April 2013 and October 2016. In November 2016, Chris commenced as a lecturer in applied mathematics at Macquarie University where he is now a senior lecturer.
Chris’ research contributions focus on developing the theory of modern asymptotic techniques and applying them to resolve open questions in practical physical problems. He has published in the highest quality applied mathematics journals, including SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Nonlinearity, Physica D, and Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Overall, his publication list includes 25 journal papers with 10 first-author papers.
In his theoretical work, Chris has concentrated on applying asymptotic methods – in particular, exponential asymptotics – to discrete systems. He has resolved several open problems in these areas, and his work was considered sufficiently significant for him to be awarded an ARC Discovery grant in 2018 as the sole investigator, an extremely rare achievement for an early-career mathematician. He has also received research funding through the Defence Innovation Network.
In addition to his mathematical work and collaborations, Chris has been part of inter-disciplinary scientific teams. This includes working with a team of physicists to model the behaviour of atoms in a diamond lattice under laser etching and working with a team of biologists to model self-assembly in army ant populations. His work is therefore not only limited to mathematical questions, it also provides insights into broader scientific studies. Chris’ inter-disciplinary work has been published in Carbon and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, aimed at the wider scientific community.
Chris has a growing international research profile. One of his papers was listed in the IMA retrospective paper “Some highlights from 50 years of the IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics” as a highlighted article. His results are discussed in contemporary textbooks on discrete integrable systems and re-summation techniques, and he was invited to take up a position and organise a workshop at the Newton Institute from January 2021 to June 2021. Chris was also invited to contribute an article on Stokes’ phenomenon for the edition of Transactions of the Royal Society A celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of GG Stokes.
Chris’ contributions to the mathematics community go far beyond his research. He has contributed to outreach efforts and served on the organising committee of the 2019 ANZIAM meeting and as the secretary of the NSW branch of ANZIAM. He has also played a major role in training the next generation of mathematicians through research student supervision, a significant volume of teaching, and curriculum leadership and development at Macquarie University.
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2024 Dr Vivien Challis
Citation for Dr. Vivien Challis
The 2024 JH Michell Medal has been awarded to Dr. Vivien Challis in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology.
Dr. Challis has seven years FTE since PhD completion in 2009. Two years 9 months were in a postdoc fellowship, and the remainder were as lecturer and senior lecturer at UQ and QUT, with the usual teaching loads. There were multiple interruptions of service due to maternity leave and part-time positions since 2012. Challis’ research includes ground-breaking leadership in topology optimisation of material microstructures and advanced large-scale computation, involving a range of areas including elasticity, Stokes flow, electromagnetism and generalised derivatives. Applications to 3D printing and design improvements in robotic sensors are directly implementable. The work Challis leads is seminal, inspiring, and strongly connected to industrial and technology interests.
Challis has 21 publications in high-quality international journals like the International Journal of Numerical Methods in Computing, Acta Materiala, and the International Journal for Solids and Structures, with over 1600 citations. Two publications are in the top 2.5% for citations in InCites. There is strong evidence of leadership in research in Challis’ publications. The most highly cited paper is one with sole authorship. Many publications have Challis as lead author or corresponding author.
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2025 Assoc Prof Matthew Tam
Citation for Assoc Prof Matthew Tam
Assoc Prof Tam has a sustained track record of research excellence and is recognised, both nationally and internationally, as an emerging leader in the field of Mathematical Optimisation. Relative to career stage, Assoc Prof Tam’s publication record is outstanding: 70% of his publications appear in Q1 journals and among them are numerous outputs in the most prestigious optimisation journals such as Mathematical Programming, SIAM Journal on Optimisation and Mathematics of Operations Research.
Assoc Prof Tam’s specific expertise lies in the development, analysis and application of iterative algorithms for solving optimisation problems, particularly those which use gradient information. His work straddles the interplay between provable algorithmic guarantees, efficient computation and exploiting problem structure. A striking aspect of Assoc Prof Tam’s research is the number of genuinely new optimisation techniques he has been responsible for (as opposed to modifications or new analyses of existing algorithms).
The quality of Assoc Prof Tam’s work has been repeatedly recognised by numerous awards with excellence-based criteria including the 2021 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, the 2018 Mahony–Neumann–Room Prize for best publication in the ANZIAM Journal, and the 2015 B.H. Neumann Prize from the AustMS.
Assoc Prof Tam has received significant competitive funding from multiple major funding bodies in Australia and Germany including from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2 year fellowship), the German Research Foundation (RTG scheme) and the Australian Research Council (DECRA and DP). Altogether, Assoc Prof Tam has been awarded grants totalling around $A10.4 million, of which approximately $A900k represents grants where he was the sole or lead applicant. Assoc Prof Tam has supervised 10 postgraduate students to completion (3 PhD, 7 MSc), and currently supervises another 5 students (4 PhD, 1 MSc) in addition to a postdoc.
Assoc Prof Tam has made significant contributions to ANZIAM, most notably through service on the national executive (2018 to present) and as the current elected chair of its optimisation special interest group SigmaOpt. In the past he has held the roles of Web Editor, Victorian Representative, and (interim) Early Career Representative. As the latter, he was responsible for the 2020 Early Career Workshop in the Hunter Valley. In his role as SigmaOpt chair, he established the SigmaOpt/MoCaO Student Prize as well as the SigmaOpt Workshop (an annual event held immediately after ANZIAM). He has also been active member of the Victorian Branch of ANZIAM, having been on the organising committee for VicANZIAM One Day Meeting in 2023 and 2024. Throughout his career, Assoc Prof Tam supported the ANZIAM Journal — he is a current associate editor, has published two papers in the journal, and has acted as referee on multiple occasions. He is part of the Invited Speakers Committee for ANZIAM 2026.
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2026 Dr Stuart Johnston
Citation for Dr Stuart Johnston
Stuart studied mathematics at the Queensland University of Technology, receiving a Bachelor of Mathematics, a Bachelor of Applied Science with Honours, and then his PhD in 2017. After a postdoc, a DECRA Fellowship, and three years as an academic at The University of Melbourne, he founded a quantitative nanomedicine start-up called Pneumatica Bio.
Stuart’s research focusses on developing multiscale mathematical models of biological processes in nanoscience, cell biology and ecology. A defining feature of his research is the connection of mathematical models with data to extract biological insight. His models allow disentanglement of the complex chemical, biological, and physical processes that dictate nanoparticle behaviour, providing an understanding of each process in isolation as a crucial step toward the rational design of nanoparticle-based therapeutics. Together with his extensive network of experimental and theoretical collaborators, he has developed a method to isolate nanoparticle-cell interaction rates, a key metric for nanoparticle performance that is obscured by other complex processes. This breakthrough has enabled comparison of nanoparticles across different types of experiments, revealing previously unknown nanoparticle behaviour in tumour spheroids and organ-on-a-chip experiments.
Stuart has held a DECRA, and two ARC Discovery Projects, one as the sole CI, an extremely rare achievement for an early-career mathematician. He has also received various university and state government grants.
Stuart’s publication metrics are impressive for an ECR and include 21 first author publications and 8 senior-author papers. These publications have been cited over 900 times. He has supervised 12 students in total, 5 of whom were or are PhD students.
He has delivered invited seminars at the University of Oxford and Politecnico di Torino, and has been an invited speaker at a Newton Institute workshop. He has given public lectures as part of National Science Week and has appeared on ABC television and radio multiple times. In Victoria, his contributions have been recognised with a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award for excellence in research and scientific communication.
Stuart is the current chair of ANZIAM’s Mathematical Biology Special Interest Group, and is on the Executive of VicANZIAM. He has previously served as the Early Career Representative for the ANZIAM Executive.
The committee regards Dr Stuart Johnston as an outstanding early career researcher and a worthy recipient of the 2026 JH Michell Medal.
Call for nominations for the 2027 JH Michell Medal
Nominations for the award can be made by any member of ANZIAM other than the nominee or members of the Selection committee. A nomination portfolio should consist of three parts in the following order:
(i) a statement detailing the impact that any career interruptions have had on the candidate’s opportunity to carry out research;
(ii) a brief C.V. of the nominee that includes the nominee’s list of publications;
(iii) a resumé of the significance of the nominee’s research relative to opportunity.
Each of parts (i) and (iii) should be no more than one-page in length.
Nominations should be sent to the ANZIAM Secretary <[email protected]> by Friday 16 October.
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