The recipients of the Levinia Crooks Emerging Leader Awards 2026 have been announced, recognising future key opinion leaders making an impact and demonstrating outstanding leadership while still early in their career. The winners were announced at the 2026 Australasian HIV&AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health Conferences, held in Naarm (Melbourne) from 14-17 September 2026.
The 2026 Levinia Crooks Emerging Leader Awards were awarded to:
Dr Jillian Lau – HIV
Dr Jillian Lau ensures that people living with HIV are informed and represented in HIV cure research across her clinical, research, and advocacy work. Dr Lau works clinically at Alfred Health and Monash Health and is a postdoctoral research fellow at The Doherty Institute. She has contributed significantly to global efforts around immune-based approaches to HIV remission and cure, with a focus on advancing our understanding of the role of immune checkpoint pathways in HIV persistence – working on clinical trials to evaluate potential HIV cure strategies.
Dr Lau also leads several initiatives bringing together researchers and community, such as the INSPIRE workshop. She ensures that scientific advances in HIV cure are accessible to the community through her work for hivcure.com.au, where she is curator and editor.
Dr Shivani Pasricha – Sexual and Reproductive Health
Dr Shivani Pasricha is the Laboratory Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Doherty Institute, where she applies microbiology and CRISPR to point-of-care testing solutions. Dr Pasricha has been involved in several Australian and world-first breakthroughs. This year, she helped develop the world’s first comprehensive, resistance-informed molecular rapid point‑of‑care platform for a number of common STIs using CRISPR‑Cas technology.
She has also contributed to the development of the MPXV-CRISPR – Australia’s first rapid mpox assay with a 45-minute turnaround time – and in 2024 co-authored the first worldwide study quantifying the effect of COVID-19 public health measures on gonorrhoea transmission using genomic data.
Congratulations to this year’s awardees!
