Professor Pablo Moscato, co-leader of HMRI’s Information Based Medicine group, was one of five mid-career researchers at the University of Newcastle who have received prestigious Future Fellowships from the Australian Research Council.

The highly competitive Future Fellowships are the most prestigious national fellowships for mid-career researchers and are an important aspect of the investment needed to ensure Australia is at the forefront of research and innovation.

“I am delighted that we can retain such talented people at the University,” the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Mike Calford, said.

“The Future Fellowships scheme is critically important to ensuring that bright academic minds can contribute locally and still make their mark on the world stage.

The University and our regions are very fortunate to have these skilled and dedicated people developing their careers in Newcastle.”

Professor Moscato receives $854,468 for his work with memetic algorithms to resolve optimisation problems in bioinformatics, the study of methods for storing, retrieving and analysing biological data to assist researchers in many fields including health and medicine.

The 2012 Future Fellowships were announced yesterday by the Minister for Science and Research, Senator Chris Evans.

HMRI is a partnership between the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health and the community.