Emma Whitelaw ECR Publication Award

Early Career Researchers are invited to apply for the annual Emma Whitelaw ECR Publication Award.

This award has a value of $1000 and is open to post-doctoral ECRs (less than 7 years post-PhD) and PhD/Masters/Honours students. It is awarded to the best first or senior author peer-reviewed primary research paper (not a review) published in press or in full in the previous year. Two highly commended prizes of $500 each will be awarded for second and third place.

Award Terms and Conditions can be downloaded here.

To enter, please complete the application form below.

Applications for the 2024 Emma Whitelaw ECR Publication Award are now closed!

Good luck to those who entered! The awards will be announced via the AEpiA website and twitter page with the recipients notified via email.

If you have any questions please contact ecr@aepia.org.au

About Emma Whitelaw

Professor Emma Whitelaw has contributed more than 20 years of research to the field of epigenetics. Her research pioneered the study of epigenetic inheritance, establishing that in some cases epigenetic states were inheritable across generations. 

Prof Whitelaw also established a valuable and still currently used mouse model for finding epigenetic reprogramming genes. Her work then transitioned to the study of complex gene-environment interactions in human disease, enabling the identification of new disease risk target genes for drug discovery.

In 2008 Prof Whitelaw was awarded a prestigious Australia Fellowship, and in 2010 she was presented with the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology President’s Medal. In 2011 she received the Jubilee Medal from the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for work on the transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic marks and became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

2023 Emma Whitelaw publication award winners

2023 WINNER - CHUCK HERRING

For the publication Human prefrontal cortex gene regulatory dynamics from gestation to adulthood at single-cell resolution published in Cell

2023 SECOND PLACE - NATALIA BENETTI

For the publication Maternal SMCHD1 regulates Hox gene expression and patterning in the mouse embryo published in Nature Communications

2023 THIRD PLACE - WING FUK CHAN

For the publication Activation of stably silenced genes by recruitment of a synthetic de-methylating module published in Nature Communications

Past recipients

2022 WINNER - WOO JUN SHIM

For the publication Conserved Epigenetic Regulatory Logic Infers Genes Governing Cell Identity, published in Cell Systems.

2022 HIGHLY COMMENDED - VICTORIA SURGUE

For the publication Castration delays epigenetic aging and feminizes DNA methylation at androgen-regulated loci, published in eLife.

2022 HIGHLY COMMENDED - SITO TORRES-GARCIA

For the publication Epigenetic gene silencing by heterochromatin primes fungal resistance, published in Nature.