Society Awards
AGS 2026 ECR and MCR Awards – Call for Nominations
We are pleased to call for nominations for the 2026 Australian Glycoscience Society (AGS) awards:
- 2026 AGS Early-Career Research (ECR) Award
- 2026 AGS Mid-Career Research (MCR) Award
Established in 2024, the AGS awards seek to recognise and celebrate the achievements, impact, contributions and leadership potential of the younger segment of our AGS membership base. All AGS members across disciplines, institutions, genders and ethnicities who satisfy the eligibility criteria are encouraged to apply.
The AGS ECR (< 7 years post-PhD time) and MCR (7-15 years post-PhD, measured at submission of the nomination, major career interruptions can be considered, but must be clearly justified) awardees will receive a monetary prize (ECR: $1,000 and MCR: $1,500 for the 2026 round) and are expected to deliver an award lecture both online at the AGS-EGC joint webinar April 23, 2026 and in person at the 7th AGS, Japan, October, 2026 (dates and details to follow, some travel support will be available to enable awardees to make the trip to Japan).
The deadline for nominations is extended to Friday November 14th, 2025, 5 PM AEST (Brisbane Time). Successful applicants will be notified by late 2025. Please see the 2026 AGS Award Guidelines and Process for all information of the nomination process including details of the submission procedure. Unsuccessful applicants from the 2025 round will automatically be considered for the 2026 round, provided that they remain eligible and that both the nominee and their proposer have active AGS memberships. Applicants from the 2025 round are also welcome to submit an updated nomination if relevant.
For any arising questions relating to the AGS Awards please contact Vice-President Daniel Kolarich (d.kolarich@griffith.edu.au, Chair, 2026 AGS Awards Committee).
*The Inaugural 2026 ECR Award is kindly supported by
*The Inaugural 2026 MCR Award is kindly supported by
AGS 2026 Protein Metrics ECR and Shimadzu MCR Awardees
Congratulations to Prof Morten Thaysen-Andersen!
It is a great pleasure for us to announce the recipient of our 2026 Shimadzu MCR Award*, please join us in sending a big congratulations to Prof Morten Thaysen-Andersen.
Prof Morten Andersen’s research explores how the complex glycoproteome affects the immune system in inflammation (sepsis), host-pathogen interactions and cancer. After completing his PhD in 2009 at the University of Southern Denmark, he relocated to Australia to complete two fellowships awarded by the Danish Research Agency and the Australian Research Council. Enabled by a Cancer Institute NSW fellowship, he established in 2015 the Analytical Glycoimmunology lab at Macquarie University. He is currently an ARC Future Fellow and was recently recruited to the Institute for Glyco-Core Research (Nagoya Univ, Japan) as Visiting Professor to establish a satellite lab in clinical glycoproteomics.
*The 2025 MCR Award is kindly supported by
Congratulations to Dr Jonathan Du!
We are pleased to announce the recipient of our 2026 Protein Metrics ECR Award*, please join us in sending a big congratulations to Dr Jonathan Du.
Dr Jonathan Du obtained his PhD in small molecule crystallography from the University of Sydney in 2020 and completed his postdoctoral studies with a focus on IgG-specific glycan modifying enzymes with Professor Eric Sundberg at Emory University (2020-2022). He joined the Sydney Pharmacy School in 2023 as a Lecturer and started an independent research program studying glycoslation in Alzheimer’s Disease funded by the NIH. He was recently awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship and will be joining the Institute of Biomedicine and Glycomics at Griffith University in 2026. His research utilises molecular biology, structural biology and biophysical techniques to understand the role of antibody-glycosylation in modulating the immune response and to develop novel therapeutics.
*The 2025 ECR Award is kindly supported by
AGS 2025 Protein Metrics ECR and Shimadzu MCR Awardees
Congratulations to A/Prof Nichollas E. Scott!
It is a great pleasure for us to announce the recipient of our 2025 Shimadzu MCR Award*, please join us in sending a big congratulations to A/Prof Nichollas E. Scott.
Nick Scott leads a research lab specializing in microbial glycobiology located at the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne. After completing his PhD in 2012 at the University of Sydney Dr Scott undertook postdoctoral training in Canada (University of Alberta and University of British Columbia, 2012-15) before returning to in 2016 and establishing his independent research group in 2018. His team focuses on developing mass spectrometry-based approaches and enrichment tools to identify and monitor microbial glycosylation events, enhancing our understanding of these protein modifications. To date A/Prof Scott has published over 120 publications including work in leading microbiology journals such as PLoS Pathogens as well as key proteomics journals including Mol. Cell. Proteomic, Proteomics and J. Proteome Res.
*The 2025 MCR Award is kindly supported by
Congratulations to Dr Larissa Dirr!
We are pleased to announce the recipient of our 2025 Protein Metrics ECR Award*, please join us in sending a big congratulations to Dr Larissa Dirr.
Dr Larissa Dirr obtained her PhD in Glycovirology and Structural Biology at Griffith University in 2016 and completed her postdoctoral studies with Prof Von Itzstein with a focus on proteins and glycans in host-pathogen interactions (2016-2018). She then has been the Structural Virologist Lead for the development of new sialic-acid based parainfluenza drug candidates that led to three co-inventor international patents and a license agreement with Grand Medical Pty Ltd. Since 2022, she leads an independent research programme at the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics (former Institute for Glycomics) enabled by her NHMRC ECR Fellowship, ARC Discovery Project Grant and Cummings Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics Foundation Grant. Her current research uses glycobiology, molecular biology, structural biology and virology techniques to understand the role of glycoproteins and glycans in disease and to develop new treatment strategies.
*The 2025 ECR Award is kindly supported by
AGS 2024 Protein Metrics ECR and Shimadzu MCR Awardees
Congratulations to Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger!
It is a great pleasure for us to announce the recipient of our Inaugural 2024 Shimadzu MCR Award*, please join us in sending a big congratulations to Prof Ethan Goddard-Borger.
Prof Ethan Goddard-Borger obtained his PhD with Distinction in Chemistry as a Hackett Scholar in 2008 from the University of Western Australia. This work featured the development and commercialisation of a popular diazotransfer reagent that is used extensively across the chemical biology, synthetic chemistry and materials science fields. From 2009-2013, Ethan was a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia (Canada) with Prof. Stephen G. Withers FRS. There he studied the glycobiology of lysosomal storage disorders and developed preclinical drug candidates for Gaucher Disease. In 2013, Ethan returned to Australia as a VESKI Innovation Fellow to establish his independent research program at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne (Australia). His laboratory applies chemical, molecular and structural biology techniques to understand the roles of protein glycosylation in health and disease. Among other things, Ethan and his team have contributed notable new insights into the abundance, mechanism and roles of tryptophan C-mannosylation in mammals and apicomplexan parasites. He was awarded the 2022 Burnet Prize for this work, which provides a basis for on-going translational efforts to develop new treatments for cancer and infectious diseases.
*The Inaugural 2024 MCR Award is kindly supported by
Congratulations to Associate Professor Rebeca Kawahara!
We are pleased to announce the recipient of our Inaugural 2024 Protein Metrics ECR Award*, please join us in sending a big congratulations to A/Prof Rebeca Kawahara.
Dr Rebeca Kawahara earned her PhD degree in Functional and Molecular Biology in 2015 from University of Campinas, Brazil and completed two postdoctoral positions with a focus on glycoproteomics in cancer at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015-17) and glycoimmunology in the group of A/Prof Morten Thaysen-Andersen at Macquarie University (2017-18). From 2019-2022 she led an independent research programme in Colorectal Cancer glycobiology at Macquarie University, Australia, enabled by the prestigious fellowship from Cancer Institute NSW. Currently, Dr Kawahara leads the Clinical Glycoproteomics laboratory at the Institute for Glyco-core Research (iGCORE) at Nagoya University, Japan. Her research focus consists in developing and applying mass spectrometry-based glycoproteomics methods and multi-omics data integration systems to understand the structure and role of glycans in human health and diseases.
*The Inaugural 2024 ECR Award is kindly supported by
Congratulations to Distinguished Professor Mark von Itzstein!
It is with great pleasure to share that the AGS Board has unanimously decided to honour Distinguished Professor Mark von Itzstein from Griffith University with a Lifetime Membership of the Australian Glycoscience Society, sponsored by Bruker. This is in recognition of the profound and sustained contribution Mark has made to the glycosciences in Australia and the region.
Congratulations once again, Mark!
Congratulations to Professor Paul Gleeson!
We are absolutely thrilled to share the wonderful news that the AGS Board has collectively and enthusiastically chosen to honour Professor Paul Gleeson from the University of Melbourne. We decided to bestow upon him a prestigious five-year Honorary Membership to the Australian Glycoscience Society! This esteemed recognition comes as a heartfelt tribute to his immense and impactful contributions to the field of glycosciences, not only in Australia, but also a wider region.
A hearty congratulations to Professor Gleeson!
