Prestigious award for diabetes researcher
Head of Clinical Diabetes at Melbourne’s Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Professor Jonathan Shaw will this week receive one the country’s most prestigious diabetes research prizes.
Jonathan Shaw
Professor Shaw will be presented with the Australian Diabetes Society’s (ADS) Kellion Award at the Society’s annual scientific meeting in Adelaide on Thursday where he will deliver the Kellion Plenary Lecture.
The ADS Kellion Award, the highest scientific recognition of the Australian Diabetes Society, acknowledges an outstanding contribution in diabetes research, clinical or service areas.
Professor Shaw’s work has been instrumental in revealing the rapidly rising numbers ofpeople with diabetes in Australia and around the world, improving methods of diagnosing diabetes, and in urging for responses by governments to facilitate the adoption of healthy lifestyles.
He also initiated the use of Australia’s national diabetes register (the largest national registerin the world) as a tool to understand diabetes, revealing links between diabetes and cancer, as well as the effects of early onset type 2 diabetes on shortening life expectancy.
Professor Shaw said: “I am greatly honoured to join the list of eminent researchers who have received the Kellion Award in previous years, but my achievements are only as a result of the support of mentors, colleagues and family”.
Australian Diabetes Society CEO, Dr Sof Andrikopoulos, said: “This is the highest and most prestigious award of the ADS and Jonathan is a worthy recipient. He has made a significant contribution to diabetes in Australia and we congratulate him on this achievement”.
Professor Shaw led the research mission to Israel in June of this year and is well-known in the Jewish community, having worked under the acclaimed researcher Professor Paul Zimmet for many years.
