A paediatric anaesthetist, a microbiologist solving antibiotic resistance and a trailblazing psychologist advocating for appropriate Indigenous mental healthcare from The University of Western Australia have been announced as WA 2025 Australian of the Year Awards’ finalists.
Professor Britta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg and Dr Kieran Mulroney have been nominated in the category of Australian of the Year and Professor Pat Dudgeon AM is a Senior Australian of the Year finalist.
Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg is a consultant paediatric anaesthetist at Perth Children’s Hospital, the Chair of Paediatric Anaesthesia and the Director of the Institute for Paediatric Perioperative Excellence at UWA and was recently awarded the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Sciences in the 2024 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.
She also leads the Perioperative Medicine Team and co-leads the Perioperative Care Program at The Kids Research Institute Australia.
Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg’s world-leading research is making surgery safer and less traumatic for children and has been incorporated into global practice, reducing complications and mortalities.
Her patient-centred research in close collaboration with consumers of all ages has demonstrated links between family history, modifications in anaesthesia management and the occurrence of respiratory problems.
She also helped advance doctors’ understanding and management of paediatric anaesthesia, including choosing the optimal the method of anaesthesia for the individual patient, and choice of airway device.
“My goal is to ensure that when a child needs a vital operation, it’s as safe and pain-free as possible,” Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg said.
Dr Mulroney, from UWA’s Medical School and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, is CEO of Cytophenix a partnership between the researchers, UWA and a local AI firm, Three Springs Technology.
Dr Mulroney’s research aims to find a viable solution to the global antibiotic resistance problem.
Along with his research team he developed FloCAST™, a sophisticated new diagnostic test that measures hundreds of thousands of individual bacteria in seconds.
This AI-driven technology then predicts which antibiotics will be most effective in treating each infection with 96.9 per cent accuracy.
“Giving the patient the right antibiotic early can be the difference between life and death, or serious complications like amputations,” Dr Mulroney said.
Professor Dudgeon AM is Australia’s first Aboriginal psychologist, the Director of The Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention, and Chief Investigator at the Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing research project, both at UWA.
Professor Dudgeon led the highly influential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project, and currently leads the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project (AIPEP), which promotes the development of culturally appropriate psychology services and the recruitment and retention of Indigenous psychologists.
She is also a founding board member of Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia, the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention.
"We need culturally grounded solutions that empower our communities, strengthen their connection to culture and Country, and create tangible change,” Professor Dudgeon said.
Their stories will be celebrated and recipients in each category will be announced at a ceremony at Government House on Tuesday 12 November.
Image above: Professor Patricia Dudgeon, Dr Kieran Mulroney and Professor Britta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg