AChSHM Award for Best Postgraduate Thesis in Sexual Health Medicine
Nominations closed 31 August 2023.
The Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine (AChSHM) recognises the importance of training its workforce in research. AChSHM every year honours a Chapter member for their outstanding postgraduate work.
Eligibility
A nominee must be a registered Fellow or trainee of the AChSHM, who has been awarded a doctorate or masters by research thesis within the last 5 years. You can self-nominate.
Previous recipients of the Award are ineligible for nomination.
Prize
The successful recipient is formally presented with a certificate at the AChSHM Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM).
Selection criteria
The nominator must provide an evaluation of the contribution the nominee’s thesis has made. This can include the:
- quality of the publications
- contribution the work is likely to make in the future to sexual health medicine
- translation into changes in public health or clinical practice
- commercialisation of a product
Nominate
Before proceeding, read the terms and conditions and notify your nominee of your intent to nominate them.
You can self-nominate. Nominators must be a registered Fellow or trainee of the AChSHM.
Submit your nomination form and supporting documents in a single PDF file to Foundation@racp.edu.au.
Nominate
The College Conflicts of Interest Policy (PDF) and Privacy Policy apply to the prize nominees and recipient.
Selection process
All nominations will be assessed by an Award Review Panel, comprised of the Chapter President and appointed Fellows.
The AChSHM will announce the recipient at the AChSHM ASM in 2024.
The Award Review Panel and AChSHM reserves the right to not award the prize if there are no nominations of a sufficiently high standard.
For more information about this Award, contact the RACP Foundation.
Dr Janet Towns | 2023 recipient
Dr Janet Towns is a Sexual Health Physician and Clinical Forensic Physician based at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. She's recently graduated after completing her PhD. Her doctoral thesis entitled "Modern Ethical Syphilology" comprised several research studies on early infectious syphilis. Her major PhD project, the "SOS" or "Shedding of Spirochaetes" study was published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal and highlights high rates of oral and anal detection of Treponema pallidum in early syphilis infection.
She's now a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and continues her research on syphilis through the Central Clinical School at Monash University, and is about to launch the SOS2 project, a sequel to SOS. At Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, she's known as the "Syphilis Queen". In her spare time she enjoys the morning challenge of the cryptic crossword.