About the Georgina Sweet Fellowship
The AGW Georgina Sweet Fellowship will next be offered in 2025.
The Georgina Sweet Fellowship is open to women who are Australian citizens (or permanent residents of Australia) and are enrolled at an Australian university for a PhD degree by research in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine.
The Fellowship is offered for the second or a subsequent year of a doctoral program. First-year doctoral students and applicants just beginning their research are not eligible.
The Fellowship funds are intended to facilitate a research project that will extend the nature and/or scope of the currently approved PhD program and the specialised knowledge and skills of the applicant.
The project must be completed within twelve months from the official date for commencement of tenure OR by the PhD submission date, whichever is the sooner.
No later than three (3) months from the approved date for concluding tenure of the fellowship, the recipient must submit a written report on the work accomplished. The financial assistance given by AFGW must be acknowledged in any published material embodying the results of the work carried out.
Find out more about Georgina Sweet2021 Successful Fellowship
Australian Graduate Women is proud to announce the successful applicant for the 2021 Fellowship:
Yao (Jackie) Lu completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Adelaide and a BSc (Hons) at the Florey Institute at the University of Melbourne. Jackie is currently a PhD student at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University, where she previously worked as a research assistant in the Molecular and Translational Drug Discovery laboratory; where her referees described her as “an accomplished laboratory scientist.”. The focus of her PhD research is to understand the molecular mechanisms of activation of a promising receptor protein as a potential target for treating schizophrenia. She seeks to provide a molecular explanation of how some small molecules can confer their antipsychotic activity for the development of new drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia.
With the development of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) imaging, high-resolution images of receptor protein structures have become increasingly accessible. Jackie will use the Fellowship funds to access a world-leading cryo-EM facility at the University of Tokyo. She will also be able to participate personally in imaging sessions, thereby learning new skills associated with cryo-EM (sample preparation and screening) and creating career-enhancing networks within the structural biology community. Together, the Georgina Sweet fellowship will provide the backing to accelerate breakthrough drug discovery and the career of a future scientific leader.
Two Candidates were also Highly Commended:
- Sukanya Jaiswal of the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of New South Wales, who is researching the impact of exposure to bush fire smoke on eyes and vision.
- Georgina Binns of the School of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University, whose research on moths is focused on variations in the warning signals of the Australian day-flying moth, Amata nigriceps.