Flinders Fellows take on the future

professor-d-dayThree Flinders University researchers have received prestigious Future Fellowships from the Australian Research Council, securing $2.18 million to fund their research over the next five years.

The Fellowships, announced today by the Minister for Research and Science, Senator Chris Evans, are a program to support and create opportunities for highly qualified mid-career researchers. In the 2012 round, 209 Fellowships worth $151 million were awarded nationally.

The research by the three new Future Fellows at Flinders extends across the areas of cardio-respiratory medicine, criminology and primary health, and will examine the causes and effects of sleep apnoea, the phenomenon of intergenerational incarceration, and the impact of stigma and discrimination on health and well-being.

Professor David Day (pictured), Flinders Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) congratulated the recipients, Associate Professor Peter Catcheside, Professor Mark Halsey and Dr Anna Ziersch. He said the three Fellowships represented recognition of individual ability as well as the overall strength and breadth of the University’s research capacity.

“Flinders has numerous outstanding mid-career researchers right across our research profile. To receive three Future Fellowships is an excellent result for an institution of our size, and reflects well on the quality and reputation of our research effort,” Professor Day said.

Associate Professor Peter Catcheside will investigate protective reflexes in sleep and the impact of breathing disturbances and frequent arousal on markers of brain functioning and health. The research aims to advance significantly the understanding of key mechanisms promoting unstable breathing in sleep and ill health and functioning from disturbed sleep

Law Professor Mark Halsey will investigate the issues of around one third of the 30,000 prisoners in Australia who are children or relatives of former prisoners, to expand understanding of the causes, experiences and impacts of intergenerational incarceration. This project aims to help prevent the disproportionate recurrence of incarceration in particular familial lineages.

Public health care researcher Dr Anna Ziersch will investigate how the experience of stigma and discrimination harms health and wellbeing, and prevents people from being fully included in society. This project will aid understanding of how to best reduce stigma and discrimination, and to protect people from their negative effects.

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