Congratulations to our 2026 Henzell Awardees

October 22, 2026

We are very excited to announce this year’s Henzell Award recipients!

Congratulations to our four awardees from the University of Tasmania, The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland who were selected from a competitive pool of applicants from around the country, all keen to get on the ground experience in agriculture for development early in their studies.

With the support of Ted and Frances Henzell and family, these national awards fund brief visits by Australian undergraduate students to international agricultural research projects in targeted tropical developing countries.

These awards extend the Crawford Fund’s NextGen suite of activities by including undergraduate students. As we have seen with our post-graduate Student Awards and students and Early Career Researchers involved in our RAID Network, we hope the experience will encourage even more interest in further study and ultimately grow the number of Australians in careers of relevance to food production and food and nutrition security of benefit to partner countries and to Australia.

The Crawford Fund wishes to especially thank the judging panel this year.

Nominated by the Crawford Fund:

Emerita Prof Lyn Abbott at UWA, internationally recognised leader in soil science and soil biology, and our WA Committee Coordinator and Dr Kathy Ophel-Keller, retired executive director of the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), with a background in plant biosecurity and molecular detection of plant pathogens, and our SA Committee Coordinator.

Nominated by the Henzell family:

Dr Eoin Wallis, senior Qld executive in Ag R&D, with connections to sugar and horticulture industries and ACIAR.

We look forward to sharing the new experiences of our undergraduate awardees with you, and we wish them well in their travels and studies.

Congratulations to our 2026 Henzell Award Recipients!

Emilia Kerr, University of Tasmania
Degree: Bachelor of Agricultural Science
Focus/Location: Integrating smallholder households and farm production systems into commercial beef supply chains, Vietnam
Other collaborating Australian institutions: ACIAR

Maximus Pollard, The University of Sydney
Degree: Bachelors of Agricultural Science (Economics)
Focus/Location: Integrating smallholder households and farm production systems into commercial beef supply chains, Vietnam
Other collaborating Australian institutions: ACIAR

Anna Stewart, The University of Melbourne
Degree: Bachelor of Science
Focus/Location: Understanding how smallholder farmers make decisions, and how these decisions are shaped by social aspects, Cambodia
Other collaborating Australian institutions: ACIAR

Ella Wightman, University of Queensland
Degree: Bachelor of Agriculture Science (Honours)
Focus/Location: Mango production, Philippines and Indonesia
Other collaborating Australian institutions: ACIAR

You can read about the fantastic experiences of our 2025 awardees here.