AWARDS

We recognise our stars.

What's Available?

The 2026 call for award nominations is closed.

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The 2026 ASBTE award winners were announced at the 2026 ASBTE Annual Meeting: (see below)

ASBTE Award of Research Excellence - deadline 18/2/2026
ASBTE Emerging Leadership Award - deadline 18/2/2026
ASBTE Early Career Research Award - deadline 18/2/2026
ASBTE Lab Travel Awards - deadline 14/1/2026
ASBTE Conference Attendance Awards - deadline 14/1/2026

Note that the awards are not restricted to academics and nominations for biomaterials and tissue engineering professionals outside of academia are also encouraged.

ASBTE Award of Research Excellence 2026

This award recognises a member of ASBTE who has a made a significant research contribution to the discipline of biomaterials and tissue engineering.

Full details here

The deadline for the nomination is Wednesday, 18 February 2026 at 5pm (AEST).

ASBTE Emerging Leadership Award 2026

This award recognises an early to-mid career researcher, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership contributions to ASBTE and broader communities in biomaterials and tissue engineering.

Full details here

The deadline for the nomination is Wednesday, 18 February 2026 at 5pm (AEST).

ASBTE Early Career Research Award 2026

This award recognises an early career researcher, who has demonstrated emerging research impact and potential for a distinguished career in the field of biomaterials and/or tissue engineering.

Full details here

The deadline for the nomination is Wednesday, 18 February 2026 at 5pm (AEST).

ASBTE Lab Travel Awards 2026

The ASBTE will fund Lab Travel Grants up to $2,000 for international travel or up to $1000 for domestic/local travel each for postgraduate research students and early career researchers, for visits to academic collaborator and/or industry partner labs during 2026.

Full details here

Application form here

The deadline for ASBTE Travel Awards 2026 is Wednesday, 14th January 2026 at 5pm (AEST).

ASBTE Conference Attendance Awards 2026

The ASBTE will fund Awards up to $500.00 each for postgraduate research students and early career researchers to attend the 2026 ASBTE Annual Conference at the National Wine Centre, Adelaide, Australia on 7-10 April 2026.

Full details here

Application form here

The deadline for ASBTE Conference Attendance Awards 2026 is Wednesday, 14th January 2026 at 5pm (AEST).

2025 Awardees

ASBTE Award of Research Excellence 2026:

Justin Cooper-White, UQ

Professor Justin Cooper-White is Head of School, School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia. Justin’s research has made significant contribution to the discipline of biomaterials and tissue engineering where his research has become an important part of the scientific literature. He has published over 270 scientific documents, including >250 journal articles, 11 invited reviews and 7 book chapters. His publications have received 21,500 citations (h-index 75). Justin has attracted over $58m in funding from a range of sources. Since 2004, Justin graduated 41 PhD students, 17 masters students and >60 honours students and supervised and mentored 38 postdoctoral fellows. Justin has six worldwide patent families that have reached National Phase Entry in USA, Europe and Australia in areas of formulation design for agriproducts, microbioreactor arrays and tissue engineering scaffolds.

‘Justin has been an integral part of ASBTE since 2001, and over that period has had significant impact on our society through his contributions to strategic initiatives and operations.’

'Justin served as Vice President (2004 – 2006), President (2006 – 2008), then Vice President (2008 – 2010) of our society. He has made many contributions to our society, the most notable was generating significant financial income to our society from chairing the 2019 TERMIS-AP and the 7th Asian Biomaterials Congress. This … allowed ASBTE to offer new initiatives, including better support and mentoring schemes for early career researchers.'

ASBTE Emerging Leadership Award 2026:

Jacqui McGovern, QUT

Jacqui McGovern is a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), heading the Human Extracellular Matrix Program at the Max Planck Queensland Centre. Jacqui serves as the Deputy Leader of the ARC ITTC for Cell & Tissue Engineering Technologies Education and Training Program and Lead Internal Engagement at QUT’s Centre for Biomedical Technologies. With an experience in bioengineering and biomedical sciences, Jacqui has secured over AUD $17.8 million in funding and authored >49 peer-reviewed papers with over 1,795 citations (h-index of 23). Jacqui’s research program integrates extracellular matrix design, regenerative engineering and translational oncology to advance precision disease modelling and therapeutic biomaterials, with sustained funding from NHMRC, Cancer Australia and the Kids Cancer Project. Jacqui has been invited to present at 20+ national and international conferences and supervised >20 staff and students throughout her career.

‘Jacqui has established herself as an internationally recognised leader in extracellular matrix–derived hydrogels and their application to advanced bioengineered cancer models. Her research is distinctive in its integration of tissue engineering principles with clinically relevant oncology models, particularly in bone cancer. She has been instrumental in advancing ECM-derived biomaterials from passive scaffolds to functional regulators of tumour behaviour, positioning matrix design as a central variable in cancer modelling. This conceptual shift is increasingly influencing how biomaterials are applied in complex disease systems.’

‘…Jacqui is already shaping the next phase of biomaterials-driven translational research in Australasia. Her scientific achievements, transformative service to the Society, and unwavering commitment to developing others place her at the forefront of our field’s future.'

ASBTE Early Career Research Award 2026

Amy Jiang, USyd

Amy is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Sydney who obtained her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from UNSW in 2023. Amy’s research focusses on translational biomaterials and tissue engineering for cardiovascular applications where she has had 8+ years of experience, with deep expertise in molecular biology, biomaterials, and small animal surgery.
Amy’s emerging research impact in the cardiovascular devices field is evidenced by her excellent track record for her career stage. She has published 10 peer-reviewed papers, including 4 first-author articles in leading journals such as Advanced Healthcare Materials (IF 10) and Trends in Biotechnology (IF 17.3), as well as a second-author publication in Advanced Functional Materials (IF 18.5). These outputs reflect both the quality and impact of her research. This is further reinforced by her strong conference presence, with 12 national and international presentations and 5 competitive awards, including the Australia/New Zealand Dennis Lowther Award, Runner-up award in her Faculty 3 Minute Thesis competition, and 5 merit-based travel grants.
Amy ensures her research has a clear translational focus, demonstrated by her success in securing $100,000 competitive funding to drive innovation, including an $80,000 University of Sydney (USyd) Proof-of-Concept Fund award to develop a sensor prototype, $10,000 Usyd Biomanufacturing Incubator Seed Funding to explore new blood-based scaffolds for wound healing treatment with collaborators at the AO Research Institute Davos and is a co-inventor on a patent (platform for biomolecule immobilisation in microfluidics, 2024).

‘Beyond her research achievements, Amy has shown sustained commitment to developing her leadership skills, mentorship, and professional service, demonstrating her potential for a distinguished career. She has held five leadership roles on scientific committees, including currently ongoing roles such as the NSW Early Career Researcher Representative for ASBTE (2024-present), and as an organiser of the NSW ASBTE Regional Showcases in 2024 and 2025.’

ASBTE Early Career Research Award 2026

Highly Commended:

Max Yavitt, University of Otago

Max is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Christchurch Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (CReaTE) Research Group, within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine and Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine at the University of Otago Christchurch (OUC).
Max is an outstanding emerging researcher with a recognised reputation as a future leader in the field of biomaterials and tissue engineering. Max has an excellent track record in undertaking novel, high-impact research, as shown by his impressive publication record in high impact journals, including, Science (IF: 44.7), Science Robotics (IF: 26.1), Advanced Materials (IF: 27.4), and JACS (IF: 14.5). Max has received competitive funding grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (Fast Start Award, PI), Horizon Europe (AI), US National Institutes of Health (F31 Predoctoral Fellowship, NZD$200k) and Department of Education (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Fellowship, NZD$200k). Finally, Max has mentored 7 undergraduate and junior PhD students during his PhD, and now as a postdoc he is co-supervisor to 5 PhD and 1 master’s student.
“Max has helped the students in our group to advance their technical research proficiencies, and to refine their research aims and critical thinking skills. He has made a tremendous impact on the success of the students in the CReaTE lab.

‘Max has also made major contributions and service to the biomaterials and tissue engineering fields as the ASBTE ECR Representative for NZ and as a member of the Organizing Committee for the ASBTE Annual Conference 2025 and the TERMIS-AP Annual Conference 2026. Through these roles, he has contributed to numerous initiatives to support the career development of new and emerging researchers.’

ASBTE Conference Attendance Awards

Congratulations to everyone who received a Conference Attendance Award in 2026!

Max Yavitt
Poppy Buissink
Chayla Reeves
Isuri Dasanayaka
Kiara Qinthara
Matthias Pichler

Qiance Zhou
Kate Firipis
Dulani Sooriyaaratchi
Brendan Hung
Jeremy Oon
Veronica Perera
Khanh Vinh Doan
Andrea Presutti
Christopher Chong
Mustafijur Rahman
Shouyuan Jiang

See the full history of our award-winners here