Three researchers from ECU have been recognised with Young Tall Poppy awards.
Three of Edith Cowan University's (ECU) early-to-mid career researchers have been recognised with the esteemed Young Tall Poppy Science Awards for 2025.
ECU's Dr Mohi Ahmed, Senior Lecturer of Computing and Security discipline in the School of Science, Dr Myles Murphy, a postdoctoral clinician researcher within the Edith Cowan University Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute, and Dr Masoumeh Zargar, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering have been awarded for their exceptional research, science promotion and community engagement.
The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards, an initiative of the Australian Institute of Policy and Science (AIPS), aims to recognise excellence in research as well as enthusiasm for communicating science beyond the walls of the laboratory. The awards are widely considered to be an early indicator of Australia's future scientific leaders, identifying excellent early career scientists.
Dr Mohi Ahmed
Dr Mohi Ahmed has been educating the next generation of cyber leaders and researching to disrupt the cybercrime ecosystem. His research is based on offensive security ransomware resilience, cyber governance, and data analytics. He is driven to ensure national security and safeguard critical infrastructures from cyber terrorists. Dr Ahmed has an impressive publication record as a researcher across a range of technology-aligned areas including Critical Infrastructure Security, Ransomware and Governance. Dr Ahmed has achieved a remarkable level of research outputs with over 100 peer-reviewed articles, achieving an h-index of 35 and citation counts close to 8,000. This is a commendable level of achievement, which is significantly higher than most of his peers and rivals many senior academics in the same field.
Dr Mohi Ahmed
Dr Ahmed's latest research has focused on Dark Web Analytics for Ransomware Threat Actor Profiling, Cyber Risk Quantification for Critical Infrastructure Insurance, Cyber Espionage Wargaming, Scam Gamification and Explainable Data Analytics for Illicit Crypto Transactions. At Edith Cowan University, he has actively sought opportunities to promote his research (and by extension, the university) and to engage with community outreach activities through public talks (most notably as an ACM Distinguished Speaker).
While he has engaged in a range of activities, his media exposure (particularly through The Conversation) has been exemplary. Writing for a traditional academic audience is a key skill that academics are trained to do, but engaging with the wider public through the popular media is a challenge that Dr Ahmed has embraced. A direct measure of impact would be the more than 1 million article views across his Conversation articles. His collaborative articles on the Australian Institute of International Affairs have influenced national and international stakeholders, notably the United States Supreme Court.
Dr Myles Murphy
Dr Myles Murphy's research focuses on the assessment, management and prevention of lower body musculoskeletal pain and injury. His research into muscle and tendon injuries helps these people recover and improve their quality of life. His research is informed by industry partner, and consumer needs to improve healthcare outcomes for people around the world. He has developed a globally adopted assessment tool for tendon pain and injury, trialled innovative clinical interventions that harness brainpower to improve rehabilitation outcomes, and collaborated with the WA Police Force and prestigious elite sporting organisations to reduce their burden of musculoskeletal pain and injury.
Dr Myles Murphy
Dr Murphy led an international consortium to change the way we assess Achilles tendon pain and developed the Tendinopathy Severity Assessment–Achilles, which has been downloaded in over 50 countries. His research has also shown how important it is to have the brains motor cortex driving strong muscle contractions and how novel neuroscience interventions, such as non-invasive brain stimulation, can enhance this recovery. Dr Murphy authored the inaugural National Basketball League Injury Report and his prevention research attempts to bridge the gap between research and practice by partnering with industry and consumers to implement effective injury prevention interventions.
Dr Masoumeh Zargar
Dr Masoumeh Zargar is a Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Engineering, and a core member of ECU's Nutrition Health Research Institute (NHRI). She leads the Advanced Materials and Membranes Research Group, supervising more than 10 PhD students and research assistants. She works closely with industry partners to develop advanced functional materials and membranes that tackle urgent environmental and engineering challenges. Her research focuses on removing PFAS, microplastics, and other persistent pollutants from water and wastewater, while also developing sustainable pathways for resource recovery in mining and desalination. She further explores broader applications of advanced materials, from hybrid composites for industrial systems to next-generation membranes for filtration, adsorption, photocatalysis, and food packaging.
Dr Masoumeh Zargar
In addition to her research achievements, Dr Zargar is a committed science communicator and mentor. She engages with schools, community groups, and industry partners to make water science accessible and to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Recognition as a 2025 WA Young Tall Poppy highlights her leadership in research and her dedication to connecting science with real-world solutions.
The Tall Poppy Campaign
The Tall Poppy Campaign was created in 1998 by the AIPS to recognise and celebrate Australian intellectual and scientific excellence and to encourage younger Australians to follow in the footsteps of our outstanding achievers. It has made significant achievements towards building a more publicly engaged scientific leadership in Australia.
In addition, the Tall Poppy Campaign recognises the achievements of Australian scientists through the prestigious annual Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. The Campaign's Tall Poppies engage the winners of Young Tall Poppy Science Awards ('Tall Poppies') in activities to promote interest in science among school students and teachers, as well as an understanding and appreciation of science in the broader community.
