Research Fellows News

Two early-career researchers from The University of Queensland and the Australian National University have received close to $1 million in combined funding to support critical sustainability research and invest in them as leaders.

Researching within the sustainability space is synthetic chemist, bio-engineer and 2020 Westpac Research Fellow Dr Yu Heng Lau. He and his team at the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney are exploring how to improve crop yields, using the natural processes that happen in other photosynthetic organisms.

As academic researchers, we quickly become accustomed to the yearly ritual of grant writing. Yet despite my growing familiarity with this annual routine, my journey to becoming a Westpac Research Fellow last year was one that profoundly challenged my grant writing methodology and my underlying research ethos.