Australian Bioinformatics And Computational Biology Society Awards
ABACBS has established a set of annual awards for bioinformaticians and computational biologists that span all career stages, as well as recognising professional bioinformaticians and contributions to open science.
The first awards were made in 2017 to senior members. In 2018, four new awards were introduced, for early and mid-career researchers, and professional bioinformaticians, as well as an open source & open science award. In 2019 we have introduced a PhD thesis award. In 2022, we are introducing the “‘Torsten Seemann’ Outstanding Bioinformatics Software Developer” award and the “Outstanding Bioinformatics Software Maintainer” awards.
Award nominees must be current financial members of ABACBS at the application deadline, with the exception of PhD thesis awards for which special criteria apply.
Awards
Honorary Senior FellowS
This award recognises sustained outstanding contributions to the field of bioinformatics or computational biology based on:
research or service,
leadership, and
contributions to the bioinformatics community.
This award would be made to research or other staff at academic Level E or equivalent. The ABACBS Executive may nominate one or more deserving individuals for this award each year. The total number of awards each year is intended to be small.
Awardees
2022 – Professor Jean Yang & Dr Andreas Schrieber
2021 - Not awarded
2020 - Professor Gordon Smyth
2019 - Not awarded
2018 - Professor Shoba Ranganathan & Professor Mark Ragan
2017 - Professor Susan R Wilson & Professor Terry Speed
Mid-career research award
This award recognises outstanding contributions by mid-career researchers or others in the field of bioinformatics and computational biology based on leadership, research, and/or contributions to the field. Research and academic staff at academic levels C or D or equivalent are eligible to apply. Details for how to apply for the current award round are available here.
Awardees
2022 – Not awarded
2021 - Pengyi Yang
2020 - Jessica Mar & Mark Cowley
2019 - Melissa Davis
2018 - David Lynn
Outstanding Contribution by an Early CarEer Researcher Award
This award recognises an outstanding early career researcher in the field of bioinformatics and computational biology. Research and academic staff at academic levels A or B or equivalent are eligible to apply. Details for how to apply for the current award round are available here.
Awardees
2022 – Rebecca Poulos
2021 - Not awarded
2020 - Yu Lin
2019 - Nadia Davidson
2018 - Belinda Phipson
outstanding PhD thesis awards
This award recognizes outstanding PhD theses awarded during the past two years. Up to 2 awards will be given each year. Candidates for the award may self-nominate or be nominated by their supervisor. Only theses with examiners reports received within the two years prior to the award application closing date will be considered. Details for how to apply for the current award round are available here.
Awardees
2022 - Ryan Wick & Yingxin Lin
2021 - Hasindu Gamaarachchi
2020 - Harriet Dashnow & Andrian Yang
2019 - Rebecca Poulos
Professional Bioinformatician Award
This award recognises outstanding contribution(s) by Professional Bioinformaticians (non-academic) in the field of bioinformatics and/or computational biology. Bioinformaticians working in industry, in support facilities, in research technician roles in laboratories, including pathology and research labs, or other non-academic roles are eligible to apply. Details for how to apply for the current award round are available here.
Awardees
2022 – Not awarded
2021 - Not awarded
2020 - Denis Bauer
2019 - David Humphreys
2018 - Alexandra Garnham
“TORSTEN SEEMANN” OUTSTANDING BIOINFORMATICS SOFTWARE DEVELOPER AWARD (sponsored by the ARDC)
This award recognises an outstanding EMCR bioinformatic software developer from the Australian community with a view to promoting further efforts to develop and share bioinformatics methodologies. Details for how to apply for the current award round are available here.
Awardees
2022 - Michael Roach
OUTSTANDING BIOINFORMATICS SOFTWARE MAINTAINER AWARD (sponsored by the ARDC)
This award recognises bioinformaticians from the Australian community who provide outstanding levels of support and maintenance for widely used bioinformatics software. This award aims to promote efforts amongst our community members to document, maintain and support high quality bioinformatics software. Details for how to apply for the current award round are available here.
Awardees
2022 - Catherine Bromhead
OPen Source & OPen SCience Award
This award recognises outstanding leadership and contributions to the practice of open science, primarily through the development of open source software and open data repositories. In addition to its initial development, the sustained maintenance of open source software and data, the contribution to communities associated with open source, and outputs such as open access publications and the development of highly reproducible research methods will be considered for this award. This award was offered between 2018-2021.
Awardees
2021 - Fabio Zanini
2020 - Matthew Ritchie (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
2019 - Gordon Smyth
For his prolific development of open source bioinformatics tools with extensive documentation, support for Bioconductor and reproducible research
2018 - Torsten Seemann
Awards Policy & Guidelines
nomination CRITERIA
Both the nominee and the nominator must be a current financial member of ABACBS at the application deadline. The nominee must have been a financial member for at least 12 months. Candidates may self-nominate or be nominated by others.