Hubert Stuerzl Memorial Educational Award
Hubert Stuerzl
23/01/1952 - 26/05/2005
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The Hubert Stuerzl Memorial Educational Award was created to honour the memory of the late Hubert Stuerzl.
Hubert Stuerzl was born in Austria, studied science and emigrated to
Australia in the late 1990s. He was to play a pivotal role in the
emergence of “neuro-oncology” in Australia as a multi-disciplinary
specialty. Presciently, he addressed three key elements: clinical care,
education and patient advocacy.
He became the initial Schering-Plough product manager for a new
chemotherapy agent: temozolomide. The drug was not readily available to
Australians with brain cancer but through Hubert, Schering Plough
provided it free of charge to hundreds of glioma patients. As a
consequence, Australian patients had early access to what remains the
best chemotherapy drug for gliomas
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In addition, Hubert imported and distributed over 500 copies of a brain
cancer consumer book specifically written to provide information to
brain cancer and their carers. And, through Schering-Plough, Hubert
underwrote the first ever Australian multi-disciplinary brain cancer
meeting: “Glioma2005”.
Sadly, Hubert died from a Glioblastoma leaving his wife, Wendy, and two young children: India and Luis.
In 2006, Schering-Plough, in conjunction with a number of neuro-oncology clinicians, decided to honour his memory by establishing the Hubert Stuerzl Memorial Educational Award. The award was initially managed by the Medical Oncology Group of Australia and then transferred to the governance of COGNO in 2016.
The Award is a $15,000 prize to an early career investigator showing interest in the field of Neuro-oncology. The purpose is to provide support for travel to a major international conference and to undertake a brief preceptorship at an International centre of excellence. Remarkably, employees at Schering-Plough elected to have money deducted from their own pay packets to support the award.
The award has continued following MSD merging with Schering-Plough and is now one of the most prestigious in any field of Australian cancer medicine.
Previous award winners are listed below and many of them are now significant contributors in the field of neuro-oncology.
2006
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Christine Wong |
Medical oncology |
| 2007 |
Matthew Foote |
Radiation oncology |
| 2008 |
Mustafa Khasraw |
Medical oncology |
| 2009 |
Siddhartha Baxi
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Radiation oncology |
| 2010 |
Melanie Wai Yin Jackson
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Radiation oncology |
| 2011 |
Rumal Jayath |
Neuro-surgery |
| 2012 |
Eric Hau |
Radiation oncology |
| 2013 |
Peter Khong |
Neuro-surgery |
| 2014 |
Sagun Parakh |
Medical oncology |
| 2015 |
Andrew Gogos |
Neuro-surgery |
| 2016 |
James Dimou |
Neuro-surgery |
| 2017 |
James Whittle |
Medical oncology |
| 2018 |
Arian Lasocki |
Radiology
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2019
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Ashray Gunjur |
Medical oncology |
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