QUT graduate Mark de Bruyn has won the prestigious D.G. Catcheside prize awarded to the top Australian doctoral student in the field of genetics.
The prize presented by the Genetics Society of AustralAsia, in honour of the late Professor David Guthrie Catcheside, was awarded to Dr de Bruyn in recognition of his PhD thesis on genetic diversity in wild giant freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii).
Dr de Bruyn's research into the evolutionary relationships of wild giant freshwater prawn stocks has found a previously unidentified species, dispelling the idea that there is a single species.
By tracing the origins of the wild giant freshwater prawn stocks, Dr de Bruyn was able to better understand the evolution of the species, and in so doing assist South East Asian aquaculture farmers to develop better breeding programs to improve culture yields.
Studying under the supervision of Associate Professor Peter Mather from QUT's Faculty of Science, Dr de Bruyn's studies included field trips to South East Asia and also across the top end of Australia.
"We found that the giant freshwater prawn, which is currently considered a single species, is actually two very divergent ancient lineages which have been evolving independently for approximately 5.5 million years," he said.
"They should really be accorded separate species status and this is likely to happen in the near future but it can be quite a drawn out process."
Dr de Bruyn graduated from QUT in 2006 and is currently undertaking post-doctoral studies in Europe.
Next year he will take up a prestigious European Union postdoctoral fellowship at Swansea University in Wales.
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