The ANZIAM MBSIG (Mathematical Biology Special Interest Group) will offer a best student paper prize annually, for an exceptional paper in the field of mathematical biology. The winner of this prize will be awarded $300(AUD) and will be invited to present the paper at the annual MBSIG meeting, associated with the ANZIAM conference (costs not covered).

Closing date

Friday 3rd December 2021.

Eligibility

The prize is open to any student affiliated with the MBSIG. The award may be shared by multiple student authors who have contributed substantially to the same paper.

The awardee(s) must:

• have been normally resident in Australia or New Zealand at the time the research was conducted.
• be a fully paid-up member of ANZIAM.

The paper nominated must have:

• been submitted while the awardee was enrolled as a student (undergraduate or postgraduate), but acceptance may have occurred subsequent to conferral of the nominee’s degree,
• published in final form within the 18 months preceding the closing date for the prize. This includes early online access on the journal webpage.

Decisions regarding eligibility will be made by the judging panel, whose decision will be final.

Application material

Please submit:

• an electronic copy of the paper,
• a statement of contributions (<200 words, if the paper is multi-authored),
• a statement of eligibility,
• a (<500 word) summary, in your own words, of the significance of the paper. Consider questions such as: Why is the work important to you, and to the field? Which aspects of the work are you most proud of? Where might the research go next?

Submissions must be made to mbsig@anziam.org.au by midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time on the closing date.

Judges

The judging panel will consist of three members of the MBSIG committee, and judging panel will rotate annually.

Criteria

We expect there to be a broad collection of papers submitted, covering a range of mathematical biology topics. Novel mathematical techniques will be weighted equally to novel applications by the judging committee. Criteria to be considered by the judging panel include:

• Originality and impact,
• The contribution of the nominee(s),
• Clarity and style.

Awardees

Year	Awardee	Paper title
2021	Yuhuang Wu (UNSW)	"Impact of fluctuation in frequency of human immunodeficiency virus/simian immunodeficiency virus reactivation during antiretroviral therapy interruption"
2020	Alexander Tam (University of Adelaide)	"A thin-film extensional flow model for biofilm expansion by sliding motility”
2019	Alex Browning (QUT)	"Inferring parameters for a lattice-free model of cell migration and proliferation using experimental data"