We are delighted to announce Parasitology's prize winner for the 2025 Early Career Researcher Award (for papers published in the journal in 2024). Only researchers who are no more than 7 years post award of their PhD were eligible to receive the award. Decisions on the winning papers were made by Russell Stothard (Editor-in-Chief) and his team of supporting Editors.
Parasitology's Early Career Research Award 2025 Winner:
Dr. rer. nat. Patrick Unger has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
I am a trained biologist and completed my studies in biology at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. During my studies I discovered my fascination with fish parasites. During my diploma thesis, I focused on the zoogeography of parasites of Baltic herring and subsequently was happy for the opportunity to start my PhD at the University of Rostock. There, I focused on the parasite communities of several economically relevant fish species in the western Baltic Sea. I completed my PhD in summer 2017 and have since coordinated several research projects on parasitological and ecological issues. In addition to my research work, I teach the students on the master's program in aquaculture.
Two special commended papers have been awarded to:
Dr Megan Porter has been selected as one of two special commended papers for the Early Career Researcher Award 2025 for submitting the paper entitled:
I am an early career researcher based on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia, and having recently conferred my Doctor of Philosophy from Charles Sturt University and am now eager to continue my passions in research with a postdoc. Through my multidisciplinary and collaborative PhD research project I published findings in highly ranked, international journals on the parasitism of the black-spotted croaker. My studies revealed new parasite species, utilised parasites to assess fish population connectivity and food web dynamics, and demonstrated how environmental changes affect parasite abundance. Most recently, I have applied my skillset to two important research projects within both industry and university settings, on Mangrove Jack fish species across northern Australia and contributing to a research project using morpho-molecular tools to detect and identify Myxosporean parasites in selected marine fish species.
Jason Sckrabulis has been selected as one of two special commended papers for the Early Career Researcher Award 2025 for submitting the paper entitled:
Large-scale spatial drivers of avian schistosomes in Northern Michigan inland lakes
Jason Sckrabulis is a disease ecologist working at the intersection of experimental and quantitative/theoretical approaches. His scientific approach and philosophy is to conduct well-designed experiments that can be used to simultaneously describe biological patterns empirically and be useful for developing/validating predictive models. He is also an advocate for open data and pushes for open-source software and hardware solutions and code availability.
Jason’s work utilizes metabolic theory as a framework for directly modeling temperature-dependent ectotherm host-parasite interactions, which has been used to successfully predict experimental infection data from a variety of host (amphibians & snails) and parasite taxa (trematodes & fungi). He also has extensive field experience in the distribution and management of both snail-borne parasites and toxic cyanobacteria in lakes.
Previous years winners
Parasitology's Early Career Research Joint Award 2024 Winners:
Nicholas P. Bailey has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Read Nick's blog post here: Rag-and-bone science: interesting results from recycled data
Naima C. Starkloff has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Coinfection rates of avian blood parasites increase with latitude in parapatric host species
Read Naima's blog post here: Birds harbor more infections at higher latitudes
Parasitology's Early Career Research Award 2023 Winner:
Leighton Thomas has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Lurking in the water: testing eDNA metabarcoding as a tool for ecosystem-wide parasite detection
Leighton Thomas was a post-doctoral researcher in Robert Poulin’s Evolutionary and Ecological Parasitology research group at the University of Otago. There he developed eDNA tools to detect parasites, these tools can be used to monitor aquatic ecosystems in the light of global biodiversity change and emerging disease, without the need to rely on traditional methods of taxonomy and lethal sampling. He is continuing to use molecular tools to monitor biodiversity as a post-doctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Bonn. This project focuses on the use of metabarcoding to monitor insect populations caught in Malaise traps in German national parks.
Read Leighton's blog post here: Finding all of the parasites
Parasitology's Early Career Research Joint Award 2022 Winners:
Anna Sophia Feix has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Anna Sophia Feix is an Austrian biologist with a special interest in parasitology, parasite-host interactions and different cell culture techniques. Currently, she is finishing her PhD, entitled “Characterization of Cystoisospora suis sexual stages” in the lab of Prof. Anja Joachim at the Institute of Parasitology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, under a grant of the Graduate School “Pig and Poultry Medicine” of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. Her main research objective is to explore connections between morphological observations and the composition and function of sexual stage specific proteins in the parasite development. During this process, she was able to characterize the sexual stages of C. suis and to establish a new host cell free in vitro culture system. This could also play a role as a model for other Apicomplexans. She plans to finish her PhD in 2022 and continue to work within this topic as a postdoc further funded by the Austrian Research Foundation (FWF).
Read Anna's blog post here: A novel culture model for Cystoisospora suis
João Gameiro and Jesús Veiga have been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Influence of colony traits on ectoparasite infestation in birds breeding in mixed-species colonies
João Gameiro is a researcher focused on ecology, behaviour, and conservation, mainly with birds. He developed his PhD in the BIODIV (Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution) doctoral program, at the cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, University of Lisbon. He studied species interactions in mixed bird colonies established in artificial breeding structures in Southeast Portugal, addressing some consequences of group living such as protection from predators, competition for food, and transmission of ectoparasites. He was interested in how these new consequences could affect the conservation of Lesser Kestrels Falco naumanni and European Rollers Coracias garrulus, two threatened birds in Portugal, but ended up working with other species such as owls, pigeons or starlings. He defended is PhD earlier this year (2022), and he is currently participating in the BIOPOLIS project, Portugal, working with Montagu’s harrier Circus pygargus ecology and conservation.
Jesús Veiga is a postdoctoral researcher focused on the ecology of host-parasite relationships, vector-borne parasites and parasites transmission. He developed his PhD at the Experimental Station of Arid Zones (CSIC), studying the biotic and abiotic determinants of the relationships stablished between parasites and birds in arid zones. During his research he has investigated these relationships in specific ectoparasites species but also in ectoparasites communities, using multi-parasite approaches. He has also explored the role of some ectoparasites as vectors and hence, as determinants of endoparasites presence. After his PhD, he has been working as postdoctoral researcher at the Biological Station of Doñana (CSIC) to investigate the role of environmental and host characteristics on the prevalence of ticks in wild birds. Currently he has a “Margarita Salas” postdoctoral contract to work at Lund University and Granada University to explore the role of mosquito’s microbiota on parasite transmission.
Read João's and Jesús' blog post here: How sociality affects parasitism
Parasitology's Early Career Research Joint Award 2021 Winners:
Rafael Gutiérrez López has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Plasmodium transmission differs between mosquito species and parasite lineages
Rafael Gutiérrez López is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Balearic Islands in Spain, with a strong interest in disease ecology, vector-borne diseases, parasitology and virology. His main research objective is to explore the role of the interactions between hosts, vectors and pathogens in the transmission dynamics of diseases that affect wildlife, livestock and humans.
Joel Barratt and Sarah Sapp have been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Sarah Sapp is a biologist in the Diagnostics & Biology Team of the Parasitic Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She serves as a morphologist and is a part of the DPDx group, providing parasitological diagnosis and training both within the USA and abroad.
Joel Barratt is a research fellow in the Diagnostics & Biology Team of the Parasitic Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His research at CDC involves the development of genotyping techniques to complement epidemiological investigations of parasitic disease outbreaks, and the development of diagnostic tools for parasitic infections.
Parasitology's Early Career Research Joint Award 2020 Winners:
Dr. Romina Petrigh has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Ancient parasitic DNA reveals Toxascaris leonina presence in Final Pleistocene of South America
Dr. Romina Petrigh is currently associate researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina. Her research focus is on the molecular identification of gastrointestinal parasites and their wild mammal hosts in a wide temporal range from the Final Pleistocene to the present.
Marcela Espinaze has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Marcela Espinaze is a postdoctoral researcher at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, with a strong interest in disease ecology, wildlife parasitology and wildlife conservation. Her current research investigates the influence of nest types, and their associated microclimatic conditions, on ectoparasite populations in African penguins in South Africa.
Parasitology's Early Career Research Joint Award 2019 Winners:
Beatrice Tchuidjang Nganso has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
A Cameroonian national, Dr. Beatrice Tchuidjang Nganso is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Volcani Center, Israel under the mentorship of Dr. Victoria Soroker since February 2019. Her research interest focuses on the interactions between the ecto-parasitic mite Varroa destructor and honey bees, which is of global relevance because the mite is considered the greatest threat to the health of honey bees.
Javier González Miguel has been awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize for submitting the paper entitled:
Javier González Miguel completed his PhD at the University of Salamanca (Spain) in 2015, obtaining the PhD Extraordinary Award for their doctoral thesis related to the relationship between the parasite Dirofilaria immitis and the fibrinolytic system of its host. He has done research stays at the University of Parma (Italy), the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Salamanca (IRNASA-CSIC), and the Sechenov University of Moscow (Russia), where he is currently working as a senior researcher. His scientific activity is focused on molecular aspects of the parasite-host relationships, mainly on the interaction of helminth parasites with the haemostatic system of the host.
Each year Parasitology awards an annual prize of £1,000 for the best paper by an early career researcher published in an issue of the journal during the previous year.
Those eligible to apply for this award will be the first, last or corresponding authors of papers published in Parasitology in the previous year.
Only researchers who are no more than 7 years post award of their PhD are eligible to receive the award. Decisions on the winning papers are made by Russell Stothard (Editor-in-Chief) and his team of supporting Editors. The winning papers are made freely available to download.
If you are eligible and would like to be considered for this year’s award, please email Alison Paskins with the following information by, 31st May.
- Your full name and the year of award of your PhD.
- The title of your article published in Parasitology in the previous year.
- A few sentences summarising the findings of your paper.
The Editors will then assess the applications, and announce the prize-winning paper later in the year.