AAvHF Peter Schwertfeger Award

Purpose of the Award

The Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows (AAvHF) is the official organisation of returned Alexander von Humboldt Fellows in Australia. The Peter Schwerdtfeger Award recognises the academic or professional achievement of AAvHF members in the early career stage of their career.

Further information can be downloaded here.

2011 Peter Schwertfeger Award

Dr Kathy Andrews is the 2011 winner of the Peter Schwerdtfeger Award, which is named in honour of the inaugural President of the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows (AAvHF). Dr Andrews obtained her PhD in Microbiology in 1998 and has since developed recognised expertise in the area of malaria biology and drug discovery. After carrying out postdoctoral research on malaria at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR; 1998-1999), she was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship to work at the University of Heidelberg in Germany (1999-2001). She was then promoted to Research Associate (2001-2003) and established an independent research group with funding from the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).

Dr Andrews returned to the QIMR in 2003 where she continued her independent research on malaria drug discovery. In 2009 she was recruited to the Griffith University Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies. She is currently an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow (2009-2013) and leads the Tropical Parasitology Laboratory at both the Eskitis Institute and QIMR, where she was appointed as laboratory head in 2010. In recognition of her work on the antimalarial properties of HIV and cancer drugs, Dr Andrews was awarded the Queensland Premiers Award for Medical Research in 2008. She has served as the Griffith Medical Research College Executive Officer (2006-2009), a Director of the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASAM) (2009-2010), and an AAvHF committee member. She is currently the Treasurer of the Australian Society for Parasitology, a member of the Queensland Tropical Health Alliance Research Committee, a Queensland ASMR Committee member, and a member of the Eskitis Institute Mentoring Committee. Dr Andrews has published over 50 papers and received funding from the ARC, Medicines for Malaria Venture, and Gates Foundation.