La Trobe researchers shine

Each year The Australian publishes its highly respected Research Magazine, which highlights and celebrates Australia’s best and brightest researchers, and institutions.

In its fourth year, The List is a roll call of the best researchers and the top research institutions in Australia in 250 individual fields of research.

This year, La Trobe has also been announced as the top research institution in Australia in the fields of Child and Adolescent Psychology and Developmental Disability. Students enrolled in the range of courses La Trobe offers in these fields are fortunate to be studying alongside and having their careers shaped by the country’s leading researchers.

La Trobe University is also proud see four of its top researchers acknowledged for their dedication, talent and impact in their respective fields.

We are excited to share the researchers who have been recognised in The List 2021.

Health and Medical Sciences

Developmental disabilities

Top researcher in the field:  Professor Cheryl Dissanayake, from the School of Psychology and Public Health and the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre

Professor Dissanayake is the Founding Director and inaugural Chair of Australia’s first research centre dedicated to autism. She has been an autism researcher since 1984, when she began her PhD and has established and led an active and successful research program since joining La Trobe University in 1996. This is the fourth consecutive year that Professor Dissanayake has been recognised as a Research Field Leader by The Australian.

Top research institution in the field: La Trobe University

Child and adolescent psychology

Top research institution in the field: La Trobe University

Life Sciences

Animal husbandry

Top researcher in the field: Professor Jennie Pryce, from the School of Applied Systems Biology

Professor Pryce’s main areas of interest are genetic improvement of functional traits in dairy cattle, optimising breeding scheme design under genomic selection and development of dairy selection indices. She is a Lead Scientist of DataGene and also sits on several industry and research alignment groups that shape the future of dairy research in Australia.

Proteomics, peptides and amino acids

Top researcher in the field: Professor Richard Simpson

Professor Simpson’s research focusses on communication between cells – in particular the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) emanating from cells, which play a key role in cell to cell communication at both paracrine and systemic levels. The focus of his research is to utilize an integrated proteomic/genomic strategy directed towards understanding the role of the extracellular environment (specifically, EVs) in cancer progression.

Humanities, Arts and Literature

Sex and sexuality

Top researcher in the field: Associate Professor Anthony Lyons, from the Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society

Associate Professor Lyons specialises in understanding and addressing the impact of social inequities on people's health and wellbeing, including work involving gender and sexually diverse populations. He is a psychology and public health researcher with a strong national and international track record in advancing new knowledge that directly informs policy and practice for governments, organisations and other stakeholders across diverse sectors.

The List is curated by research analytics firm League of Scholars and is based on the excellence of research and the impact it has had in discovery and scholarship.

Media Officer: Madeline Walker, 0487 448 734, madeline.walker@latrobe.edu.au