IMAS student wins prestigious German award

An IMAS and Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS) PhD student is one of just 25 researchers worldwide who have won a place at a prestigious international forum on sustainable development in Germany.

Sierra Ison is one of two Australian-based winners of the German Government’s Green Talents Competition, awarded to young researchers identified as having exceptional potential due to their outstanding achievements in promoting sustainability.

Over the next two weeks the competition winners will visit German research institutions, universities and organisations concerned with sustainability science and discuss their projects with local experts.

Ms Ison, who’s research uses Western Australia’s Northwest Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program as a case study of how to create conservation outcomes in complex stakeholder systems, said she was shocked and excited to win a place.

“I applied initially as a learning opportunity in the first year of my PhD, hoping that I could learn from this year and reapply in 2020,” Ms Ison said.

“So I was really excited and proud to win a place this year.

“It will broaden my awareness and knowledge of different avenues I can take in my career as an interdisciplinary scientist and provide a global network of young scientists and experts.

“I’ll also have the opportunity to expand my research beyond the case study I’m currently working on and by collaborating with an expert in Germany who’s research is in the same field as me, looking at marine science, and integrating multiple knowledge sources across science-policy-society interfaces.”

In 2020 Ms Ison will return to Germany for three months with the other Green Talents winners for a fully funded research stay at an institution of her choice.

She is the second IMAS and CMS PhD student to win a place on the Green Talents program in recent years, after Rachel Kelly was selected in 2016.

The Green Talents program is run by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research and this year’s winners were chosen from 837 applicants from 97 countries.