Consecutive Early Career research excellence awards for NDRI researcher

The second consecutive year an NDRI researcher has won the award, with alcohol researcher Dr William Gilmore receiving the award in 2024, it follows Dr Walker receiving a highly-competitive Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) and Curtin’s university-wide Early Career Research Excellence Award 2024 (People category) over the past two years.

The Faculty Early Career Researcher of the Year Award recognises an early career researcher for their research excellence, impact of their research contributions in the community, and their engagement with the research community.

In congratulating Dr Walker, Faculty Dean of Research Professor Gavin Pereira highlighted “excellent contributions to research and engagement. Your work is making a clear impact and it was great to see it celebrated across the Faculty,” he said.

Dr Walker has been awarded significant funding to advance research agendas impacting marginalised populations, including more than $1m as lead investigator and more than $10m as chief or associate investigator, and she has published 38 peer-reviewed papers that have been cited 840 times.

She contributes to building a supportive, inclusive research culture through supervision, mentorship and leadership including supervising several PhD, MPH and Honours students and serving on Curtin’s CHIRI-enAble EMCR Committee and the Editorial Board of Drug and Alcohol Review.

The Early Career Award was announced at the 2025 Mark Liveris Seminar and Faculty Research Day, which also featured NDRI PhD Candidate Julia Stafford delivering a keynote address on ‘Government stakeholder perspectives on the roles of vested interests in alcohol policy development’.

Click here to find out more about Dr Shelley Walker’s research, and read more about Shelley in this edition’s Conversation With here.

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