Focusing on marine bioproducts for human health and nutrition, Dr Suvimol Charoensiddhi’s (PhD (Med) ’17) research on the biorefinery of South Australian brown seaweeds has for the first time demonstrated significant gut health-benefits and established a key research platform for the future.
As a result, she has published ten high-impact papers, including eight first-authored.
“This research opens my world to know the most valuable untapped resource of marine bioproducts,” Suvimol says.
“My supervisors always gave me the opportunity to grow in taking up my own research responsibilities, they promoted positive teamwork and a supportive workplace environment.”
Suvimol’s outstanding performance was recognised with the Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Doctoral Thesis Excellence in 2017. In April 2018, she was offered the academic position and subsequently took up the role of Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science and Technology at Kasetsart University, Top Universities in Thailand, and hasn’t looked back.
Suvimol saw this role as an opportunity to forward her knowledge, while helping to improve the wider scientific community and assist in developing students’ abilities to reach their academic and personal goals.
“Nowadays, the global food production system has been changed due to an increase in population growth and climate change, so it is important to find new, alternative food sources apart from current natural resources such as land-based plants and animals,” she explains.
“Considering my PhD experience at Flinders, I want to create more commercialised potentials, expand the future direction of seaweed research and create a platform for the future collaboration with Flinders University and other universities or institutes in Australia and other countries.”
Despite her teaching load, Suvimol has dedicated her time to also securing an impressive amount of grants, valued at more than AUD$500,000, for her group from the University.
She actively contributes to the scientific community, as evidenced by organising training workshops and seminars, delivering presentations in her home country and abroad.
Part of this work feeds into Suvimol’s goals of establishing her research group and extending professional networks and collaborations between Thailand, Japan and Australia through the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project and Academic Consortium for the 21st Century (AC21).
“Studying a PhD abroad is difficult, and I worried my capacities may not be sufficient for an academic staff position,” Suvimol said.
“Fortunately, Flinders and my supervisors gave me a great opportunity to continue my PhD in Medical Biotechnology.
“This encouraged me to be brave enough to do something difficult and have confidence to get out of my comfort zone, to be successful in my research field and choose to be an academic as my current career.”
Dr Suvimol Charoensiddhi was awarded a 2022 Early Career Alumni Award for significant research in the field of marine bioproducts for human health and nutrition and for actively contributing to the wider scientific community.