Michael Hall Student Innovation Award
Contact person
Stacy Bierwagen
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD
Mail: s.bierwagen@aims.gov.au
or
Jason Thiem
Department of Primary Industries, Narrandera, NSW
Tel: 02 6958 8219
Mail: jason.thiem@dpi.nsw.gov.au
This award was established in 2005 by Mr David Hall in memory of his father Michael Hall to assist innovative research in marine fish biology. Michael Hall was born in Yorkshire in 1938, and after migrating to Australia in the mid-1960s an starting his own company Hallprint. His son David, a fisheries biologist, challenged him to manufacture a superior fish tag for his research, and after much research and development, Michael Hall succeeded in producing external fish tags, which Hallprint has done since the early 1980s. Hallprint tags have gone on to support a vast array of fish and fisheries research projects around the world. You can read the full story of Michael Hall’s life and works on the ASFB Hall of Fame.
The award is to assist with the research costs incurred by an honours or post-graduate student in the field of marine fish biology or fisheries ("fish" includes commercially important invertebrates).
Value of Award
The annual value of the awards will be a total of $2,000 for the Winner and $1,000 for the Runner-up. The Society reserves the right not to make an award in any year.
Closing date for applications
31st May
A decision and notification will be made as soon as possible after the deadline, with a formal announcement made at the ASFB annual conference.
Conditions
Applicants must be full or part time honours or post-graduate students in the first or second year of their degree at an Australian or New Zealand university.
Applicants must be financial student members of ASFB.
The same research proposal can not be submitted to both the Jonassen and Hall grant schemes in the same year
Process for application
Download the application form (now only need one application for all awards applying for) from the ASFB Member’s Only Page.
Students submitting an application for one/multiple awards must include the application form and a letter of support from their supervisor.
All applications must be submitted to awards@asfb.org.au
Past Award Recipients
|
Date |
Name |
Organisation |
Research topic |
|
2023 |
Winner: Ingo Miller |
James CookUniversity |
Investigating the Potential Threat of Plastic Pollution on Whale Shark Aggregations on the East Coast of Australia. |
|
Runner Up: Lachlan Baker |
University of Wollongong |
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and measure fish at cleaning tables to better understand recreational fishing trends. |
|
|
2022 |
Winner: Juan Wang |
University of Melbourne |
Spawning in the rapidly changing ocean: developing an otolith-based tool to assess skipped spawning in wild fishes. |
|
Runner Up: Jaelen Myers |
James Cook University |
Evaluating spatio-temporal distributions and behaviours of Estuary stingrays (Hemitrygon fluviorum) to understand fine-scale habitat use in intertidal estuaries. |
|
|
2021 |
Winner: Molly Moustaka |
University of Western Australia |
Understanding how seascape configuration influences secondary productivity in coastal ecosystems. |
|
Runner Up: Elliott Schmidt |
James Cook University |
Incorporating evolutionary perspectives into conservation: An assessment of local adaptation across the range of a coral reef fish. |
|
|
2020 |
Winner: Jessica Bolin |
University of the Sunshine Coast |
Forecasting body condition of swordfish in a hotspot of marine climate change: a tool for dynamic industry adaption. |
|
Runner Up: Carolyn Wheeler |
James Cook University |
A novel approach to investigate reproduction in a model shark species threatened by ocean warming. |
|
|
2019 |
Winner: David Ellis |
Australian National University |
How does a popular fishery target species respond to seasonal changes in their preferred tropical seaweed habitat? |
|
Runner Up: Adam Downie |
James Cook University |
The changes in physiological performance associated with coral reef fish metamorphosis. |
|
|
2018 |
Winner: Barrett Wolfe |
University of Tasmania |
|
|
Runner Up: Pauline Navaez |
|
|
|
|
2017 |
Winner: Katie Sambrook |
James Cook University |
Beyond the reef: the influence of seascape structure on fish communities on coral reefs and their use of seagrass beds and mangroves |
|
Runner-up: Leteisha Prescott |
James Cook University |
What happens when fish settle onto a degraded coral reef? Impacts to the ‘health’ of the gill. |
|
|
2016 |
Curtis Champion |
University of Tasmania |
Climate-driven range shifts in fishes and the impacts on temperate marine ecosystems |
|
2015 |
Sam Williams |
University of Queensland |
Determining the range-wide genetic population structure of black marlin using citizen science. |
|
2014 |
Isis Lim |
Australian National University |
How does a seaweed-associated reef fish respond to seasonal habitat loss? |
|
2013 |
Phillip Sweetman |
University of Tasmania |
Investigating the effects of climate change and fishing pressure on growth rates of pink ling (Genypterus blacodes) through otolith increment analysis and biochronology development. |
|
2012 |
Susannah Leahy |
James Cook University |
Incorporating ontogenetic habitat shifts into marine reserve designs |
|
2011 |
Sandra Binning |
Australian National University |
Shape up or ship out: Can coral reef fish change their shape to suit their environment? |
|
2010 |
Rosie Sheb'a |
Australian National University |
Functional niche segregation in coral reef damselfishes. |
|
2009 |
Alex Vail |
James Cook University |
Non-lethal predator effects on settlement stage reef fish. |
|
2008 |
Bree Tillett |
Charles Darwin University |
Life history, demography and movement patterns of pigeye (Carcharhinus amboinensis) and bull (C. leucas) sharks. |
|
2007 |
Daniel Wright |
Australian National University |
The wave-swept garden of Eden: Can wave action enhance mussel mariculture? |
|
2006 |
Peter Macreadie |
University of Melbourne |
Determining the effects of seagrass fragmentation on fish species. |
Publications Arising from Michael Hall Award
Williams, SM, Morgan, JAT, Ovenden, JR (2016) The complete validated mitochondrial genome of the black marlin Istiompax indica (Cuvier, 1832). MDN 27: 418-419. [2015 winner]
Macreadie, PI, Hindell, JS, Jenkins, GP, Connolly, RM, Keough, MJ (2009) Fish responses to experimental fragmentation of seagrass habitat. Cons Biol 23, 644-652. [2006 winner]
Tillett, BJ, Meekan, MG, Parry, D, Munksgaard, N, Field, IC, Thorburn, D, Bradshaw, CJA (2011) Decoding fingerprints: elemental composition of vertebrae correlates to age-related habitat use in two morphologically similar sharks. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 434, 133-142. [2008 winner]
Vail, AL, McCormick, MI (2011) Metamorphosing reef fishes avoid predator scent when choosing a home. Biol Lett 7, 921-924. [2009 winner]
Binning, S, Roche, DG, Fulton, CJ (2014) Localised intraspecific variation in the swimming phenotype of a coral reef fish across different wave exposures. Oecologia 174, 623-630 [2011 winner]
Leahy, SM, Russ, GR, Abesamis, RA (2015) Pelagic larval duration and settlement size of a reef fish are spatially consistent, but post-settlement growth varies at the reef scale. Coral Reefs doi:10.1007/s00338-015-1330-y [2012 winner]
Lim, IE, Wilson, SK, Holmes, TH, Noble, MM, Fulton, CJ (2016) Specialization within a shifting habitat mosaic underpins the seasonal abundance of a tropical fish. Ecosphere 7, e01212 [2014 winner]