Five up-and-coming University of Otago academics have gained Early Career Awards for Distinction in Research.
The awards for ''outstanding'' research have gone to three scholars at the university's Dunedin campus: Dr Karl Iremonger (physiology), Dr Joerg Hennig (mathematics and statistics) and Dr Sheri Johnson (zoology).
Drs Logan Walker and Anitra Carr, of the university's Christchurch campus, have also gained the awards.
Their research spans diverse topics including the role of micronutrients in human health and disease; the field of general relativity; and the effect of chronic stress on the brain.
Otago research and enterprise deputy vice-chancellor Prof Richard Blaikie said the researchers were already making ''remarkable contributions'' in their respective fields.
Each recipient will receive $5000 to support their research and scholarly development and will also become members of the university's O-Zone Group of early-to-mid-career researchers, which promotes interdisciplinary collaboration.
Dr Iremonger, a lecturer in physiology, said the award was a ''great'' recognition of his hard work.
And, given ''pretty high'' research costs, the award would also help fund his research on understanding how brain cells controlled the body's response to stress.
Dr Iremonger is a principal investigator at the university's Centre for Neuroendocrinology, and has two degrees from Otago, including a BSc in physiology.
And last year he also won the Prime Minister's MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize and a Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowship.
Dr Hennig, a lecturer in mathematics and statistics, was excited and surprised to gain the award.
Dr Hennig has a Marsden Fast-Start grant and his research on applied mathematics and mathematical physics focuses on general relativity, Albert Einstein's theory of gravitation, and his research interests include the properties of black holes.
Dr Johnson has broad interests in ecology, evolution and behaviour and has recently gained a Marsden Fast-Start grant and competitive grants, including from the National Geographic Society.
She wants to help develop the rapidly expanding field of behavioural epigenetics at Otago and beyond and has been developing collaborations elsewhere in New Zealand and abroad.
