Flinders University scholars are among the top 250 researchers in their fields as ranked by The Australian newspaper’ annual Research 2020 liftout.
Among the elite listings in a wide range of research fields is Emeritus Professor Peter Frith (for his highly-cited pulmonary disease research in Medical and Health Sciences), adjunct academic Distinguished Matthew Flinders Professor David Currow (PhD(Med) ’14) (for hospice and palliative care) and Dr Werner Botha (English language and literature) – as well as several Flinders University alumni (listed below) in other fields including Physics and Mathematics, Life and Earth Sciences, and Chemical and Material Sciences.
Senior lecturer Dr Werner Botha started at Flinders University’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences this year after a stint at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
His research interests include language variation, educational linguistics, and the sociolinguistics of English in higher education.
Dr Botha is co-editor of the recently published Handbook of Asian Englishes, published by Wiley, and is recognised among 24 scholars in Humanities, Arts and Literature, listed as the most cited researcher in the area of English Language and Literature.
Pulmonary disease expert, Emeritus Professor Peter Frith, from the College of Medicine and Public Health, was one of 66 researchers in various disciplines of health and medical sciences listed for the highest number of citations from papers published in the past five years in the top 20 journals in their field.
“My main research interests have been in clarifying chronic lung disease diagnosis and treatment, and for 25 years I have led the development of national and international guidelines for diagnosis and management of Chronic Lung Disease,” he says.
Over the past 20 years, Professor Frith led a series of collaborative research groups at the Repat General Hospital, retiring from research three years ago and from advocacy panels last year.
Several Flinders University graduates also featured, including distinguished alumni Dr Duncan Taylor (BTech(Forensic&AnalyticalChem) ’01, BSc(Hons) ’02, PhD(Biol) ’07, PhD(MathsStats) ’19) and Professor Debra Jackson, as well as Professor John Beltrame AM (BMBS ’86), Professor Vicki Avery (BSc(Hons) ’88, PhD(Med) ‘95) and Dr Donald Gardiner (BBiotech(Hons) ’01).
In The Australian annual publication’s Physics and Mathematics rankings, Dr Gholamreza Kefayati (PhD(MechEng ’17), now at the University of Tasmania, was listed in the top five on the Early Achievers Leaderboard for his expertise in thermal sciences discipline, Dr Kefayati’s research focuses on fluid mechanics and heat transfer, and cited was cited as one of 40 young researcher leaders less than 10 years into their careers.
The fields they were cited were: Dr Duncan Taylor (forensic science, with Forensic Science SA), Professor Debra Jackson (nursing, University Technology of Sydney), Professor John Beltrame (cardiology, University of Adelaide), Professor Vicky Avery (medicinal chemistry, Griffith University) and Dr Donald Gardiner (plant pathology, CSIRO).
Professor Avery was cited in Australia’s 17 leaders in chemical and material sciences and Dr Gardiner among 30 researchers in the field of Life Sciences and Earth Sciences.
In The Australian liftout, Flinders University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robert Saint highlighted that the depth and breadth of the research undertaken at Flinders connects directly with the needs of industry to make a difference.