Meet our Latest Travel Award Winner Sonia Shah
Sonia Shah is a researcher working at the University of Queensland, Australia, and is researching the link between cardiovascular and neurological disease. The award will help fund her trip to Gordon Research Conference on Angiotensin which brings together experts on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.
I’m thrilled to have been awarded the Hello Bio travel grant which will support my attendance of the Gordon Research Conference on Angiotensin. I found out at almost the same time that I was selected from the conference abstract submissions for an oral presentation. So it’s been a double celebration! Being able to present my work and meet global experts on this topic will be invaluable for progressing my research. Sonia Shah, Hello Bio travel award winner
Congratulations Sonia. First, can you tell us a bit more about what you're working on at the moment?
I currently hold an NHMRC Early Career fellowship investigating the link between cardiovascular and neurological disease. My focus over the last two years has been on using genetic and genomic data to understand how drugs that are used to treat and prevent cardiovascular disease may effect neurological diseases.
What is it about your field of research that gets you most excited?
It’s the thought that your research will be contributing towards understanding human disease and improving human health. But also the discovery of something new and exciting.
Which scientists working today do you most admire, and why?
Prof Naomi Wray who also happens to be one of our group leaders. It’s the fact that despite having changed fields and having a long career break after having children, she is an extremely successful research scientist (and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science). Having a young family myself, balancing work and life has been challenging, but having Naomi in a leadership role has really been inspirational.
What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing life scientists and their work?
Funding is of course one of them. It’s highly competitive and success rates are very low.
What’s your favorite science quote?
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”― Marie Curie
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Thank you Sonia - we wish you all the best for a successful conference!
You can follow Sonia on Twitter here
Click here to read about our past winners or why not apply for the grant yourself?
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