| Pictured at the plaque presentation for Rotary funded research at UOW... Pictured at the plaque presentation for Rotary funded research at UOW are (left to right) ARHRF Director, Alan Grady; Dr Carolyn Dillon from the School of Chemistry; PhD student Kristie Munro; Jean Simpson from the Rotary Club of Orange North, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Lee Astheimer and Ian Simpson from the Rotary Club of Orange North |
Plaque presentation acknowledges Rotary funding of key health-related research projects
23 Aug 2007 | Renee Criddle
Members of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund (ARHRF) and Rotary Club Orange North at the University of Wollongong yesterday (Wednesday 22 August) presented a plaque to UOW researchers to acknowledge the latest research being funded by Rotary at the University.
The ARHRF has funded two UOW projects within the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences’ Illawarra Institute for Mental Health totalling $72,135.
One of the research grant projects funded, involving Professor Frank Deane and Dr Trevor Crowe, is an evaluation of a residential program at the Salvation Army Endeavour House.
The 104-bed community house is located in Morriset (NSW) and accommodates people with psychiatric and substance use disorders. Researchers will evaluate the current program and clarify which components appear most helpful in order to make recommendations to improve the treatment program for those with complex mental health problems.
The other project is an evaluation of a recovery-based self help program for people with long-term mental illness and involves Dr Lindsay Oades and Dr Trevor Crowe. It is the first time the ARHRF has funded research grants at UOW.
The ARHRF is also jointly funding a PhD scholarship in cancer research in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Orange North and the Ian and Jean Simpson family, to the value of $75,000 over three years. The scholarship recipient, PhD student Kristie Munro is researching the importance of arsenic based anti-cancer drugs.
Kristie and her supervisor, Dr Carolyn Dillon, from UOW’s Department of Chemistry, are hopeful that within a decade the pioneering research will result in the development of much more powerful arsenic anti-cancer drugs.
Previous and current PhD scholarships funded by the ARHRF have been with Professor Anatoly Rozenfeld (Centre for Medical Radiation Physics) for PhD students Ian Kwan in 2005, and Nick Hardcastle in 2006, both in the area of radiation therapy for prostate cancer.
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