2016 DS International Visiting Scholar: Professor Michel Slama

Professor Michel Slama is an international renowned intensivist and intensive care researcher based in Amiens, France. He has over hundreds of publications in the field of critical care echocardiography and haemodynamics, in particular fluid responsiveness.

“Don Stewart was an incredible intensivist beloved by many people at Nepean Hospital. This was an very nice idea to name a scholarship after him. I am really very happy and proud to have been granted the Scholarship.

I spent a year at Nepean Hospital (ICU) with incredible people. For me this scholarship means a lot, because it permitted to me to participate many research programs and permitted to me to give my small help the Nepean Intensive Care Unit. I spent my time to try to push ahead many research projects because I had a lot of time, in fact all my time, for that. I was able to do that because of this scholarship helped me to concentrate all my attention in trying to improve the clinical practices particularly hemodynamic care of critical care patients. Patients in ICU need to be helped because unfortunately, mortality among them is very high. I am working in an identical unit in Amiens in  France and research that I did with Sam Orde, Tony McLean and all the ICU Nepean team was excellent and with a lot of consequences regarding patient care. This scholarship permitted also to me to improve my knowledge because I had time to think and to more understand the hemodynamic of ICU patients. More, because this scholarship was the first step of an Amiens-Nepean relationship we were able to continue to collaborate and to make many research projects together that we published in famous medical journals to widespread our findings. I am wordless to tell how this year was wonderful not only for my personal life, but as well, or much more for an academic and professional point of view.  I don’t know how to thank Nepean ICU and Tony McLean for this opportunity which was one of my best professional experience of my life.

I hope that this Don Stewart Scholarship will continue over the next years and that many intensivists and researchers will have the chance to obtain this grant (which is almost an award in my mind).” – Professor Michel Slama

2018 DS Research Scholarship: Dr Yoann Zerbib

Dr Yoann Zerbib is an intensivist, from Amiens of France, had successfully secured the 2018 DS Research Scholarship. He spent a year with Nepean Hospital Genomic Research Group.

“I never had the chance to meet Don Stewart but from all the testimonies, Don was a much respected intensivist and a great man. I am very proud to have been chosen to receive the Scholarship with his name. I’m a French intensivist, and few years ago I started to be interested in host/pathogen interactions and severe viral infections. I then had the chance to meet Professor Anthony McLean and Associate Professor Benjamin Tang. It was the first step of an amazing Australian journey. I spent a year in Australia, working in the Nepean Genomic Research Group headed by Ben Tang. Thanks to the Don Stewart Scholarship, I was able to focus on my research program from the first to the last day in Sydney. I learnt a lot about genomics, immunology and host response to severe viral infections. My collaboration with the Group continues today and is now even more important in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

This project also gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of incredible people. Besides the professional part, this year has been a wonderful personal experience that I will never forget. The Don Stewart scholarship made all this possible. These few words are of course not enough to express all my gratitude to Tony McLean, Ben Tang and all the research group members.

I hope that the Don Stewart Scholarship will continue to make things possible and help intensivists and researchers in their projects.” – Dr Yoann Zerbib