Celebrating Research Excellence: Dr Ed Johnson Awarded Prestigious AINSE Grants

Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Ed Johnson smiles in front of a plain white backgroundDr Ed Johnson, Lecturer in our School of Environmental and Life Sciences, has secured two prestigious awards from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE): the Early Career Researcher Grant (ECRG) and the AINSE ANSTO French Embassies (SAAFE) Research Internship.

Early Career Researcher Grant

AINSE awarded Dr Johnson the Early Career Researcher Grant in recognition of his outstanding contributions as an early-career researcher collaborating with ANSTO. This competitive grant supports independent research expenses and celebrates researchers who are pushing the boundaries of nuclear science and engineering across Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Johnson’s project, “Exploiting surface-grafted polyampholytes for hydration lubrication: structure in complex environments,” investigates how bio-inspired synthetic polymer coatings can enhance hydration lubrication at interfaces by examining their structural and mechanical properties.

AINSE ANSTO French Embassies (SAAFE) Research Internship

AINSE also selected Dr Johnson for the SAAFE Research Internship, a prestigious international exchange program that supports early-career researchers conducting collaborative research between Australia/New Zealand and France.

Through this award, Dr Johnson will travel to the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France, for a two-month research placement. His project, “Interrogating the dynamic properties of surface grafted polymers in natural environments,” focuses on developing new methodologies to study the dynamic behaviour of soft-matter systems at interfaces. This collaboration is expected to spark ongoing partnerships between Australian research groups and the ILL.

Dr Johnson continues to lead innovative research in polymer science, and these awards highlight both the impact and potential of his work.


Related news