The ANSNA
Garry Robins
Early Career Research Award
The ANSNA Garry Robins Early Career Research Award, launched in 2023, recognises significant achievement of an early or mid career researcher in Australian social network research. It will be awarded annually to an early/mid career scholar from an Australian research institution to acknowledge contributions to (1) the scientific study of social networks and (2) to the Australian social network research community.
The award will be given to a scholar who is in the earlier stages of their career (i.e. someone who has received their PhD within the past 15 years, accounting for any career interruptions, e.g. family, health, etc.).
Garry Robins’ contributions to social network analysis in Australia have been profound, not least through the supervision and mentoring of a generation of scholars in the field. His theoretical and methodological innovations are recognised for their significance internationally, and in 2016 he was awarded the Simmel Award.
2024 Winner
Colin Gallagher
Colin Gallagher is a highly regarded, skilled and innovative researcher, with an established and growing reputation within Australia and internationally. He has a clear programmatic and strategic approach to research, particularly in the building of research teams to investigate major societal issues using a network perspective, from disaster recovery to mental health systems. He has played an important role in the decade-long Beyond Bushfires project to investigate recovery from bushfire disasters; and he now leads a large team of researchers on a project comprehensively map the networks of the Victorian mental health system.
He has over 30 research publications including in leading social network journals, and he frequently teaches short courses and seminars in network analysis. He has played an important role in planning and assisting in the hosting of Sunbelt in Cairns in 2022.
2023 Inaugural Winner
Peng Wang
Peng is Associate Professor of Innovation Studies at Swinburne University of Technology. His research focuses on the methodology development for statistical models for social networks, including Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) for social selection processes, and Auto-logistic Actor Attribute Models (ALAAM) for social influence processes. Peng is the designer and programmer for the PNet suite of software package for the statistical modelling of one-mode, two-mode, multiplex, multilevel networks, as well as the co-evolution of network structure and individual outcomes. Peng has applied these models in the research fields of public health, education, management, social-ecological systems, interlocking directorates, public policy, and social network intervention evaluations.