30 Sep 2024
Dr Michelle Wille named Victorian 2024 Young Tall Poppy
The University of Melbourne’s Dr Michelle Wille, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Doherty Institute, has received a coveted Victorian 2024 Young Tall Poppy Science Award. The award acknowledges Dr Wille’s avian influenza research and her enthusiasm for communicating her work beyond the walls of the laboratory.
The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards are an initiative of the Australian Institute of Policy and Science and have been operational for 25 years. The awards recognise significant scientific and analytical rigour, as well as outstanding commitment to communicating and promoting science.
Dr Wille has produced over 80 peer-reviewed publications, with most focussed on the evolution and ecology of avian influenza and other viruses in wild birds, with recent studies published in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science and PLoS Pathogens.
“It’s such a privilege to be selected as a Victorian 2024 Young Tall Poppy. I am a passionate advocate for sharing science beyond traditional approaches,” said Dr Wille.
“I am honoured to be recognised for my work in communicating and advocating for avian influenza research and surveillance to stakeholders, the media and the public.”
Dr Michelle Wille reviewing data at the Doherty Institute
Dr Wille’s research has attracted widespread media attention, with regular contributions to podcasts and blogs and an active social media presence, effectively raising awareness about bird flu among non-scientific audiences. She has been featured in major outlets like the BBC, ABC, The Guardian, The Atlantic and The Conversation. Additionally, she has contributed to the organisation of the Pint of Science festival, bringing science to the public in engaging and accessible ways.
She has also secured prestigious fellowships, including an ARC DECRA Fellowship awarded in 2020, and has been recognised with numerous awards for her research excellence, including shortlisting for the International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) Journal Best Paper Award and winning the 2020 Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) Microbiology Reviews Best Article Award.
For Dr Wille, recognising science communication through initiatives like the Young Tall Poppy awards is crucial because science is publicly funded and serves the public good and therefore should be accessible to everyone.
“As an example of how important science communication can be for informing the public, scientists played a key role in communicating the most recent findings and big picture concepts during the COVID-19 pandemic, when knowledge was changing very quickly,” she said.