Rupert Riedl Award 2026 for Cameron Strachan

Cameron Strachan from Vetmeduni’s Centre for Food Science and Public Veterinary Service has been awarded the Rupert Riedl Award for his scientific work. His research investigates how evolutionary processes can help to better classify the diversity of gut bacteria and understand their functions. The award ceremony was held at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

Photo: Clubofvienna

Strachan conducts research at Vetmeduni’s Centre for Food Science and Public Veterinary Service as part of Evelyne Selberherr’s team. In her laudatory address, Selberherr highlighted his scientific achievements and their contribution to a better understanding of microbial communities in the gut.

Sequencing technologies have revealed the enormous diversity of bacteria found in the gut. However, a key question remains: Which bacteria are closely related, which form natural groups, and which perform similar functions? The approach co-developed by Cameron Strachan uses evolutionary patterns to address these questions. Within the gut, individual bacterial lineages that are particularly well adapted can spread rapidly and displace closely related variants. Such developments leave identifiable traces in their genetic material. These traces can help to group bacteria in a meaningful way and more precisely assess their potential role in the gut.

Cameron Strachan is a computational biologist specialising in population genomics and multi-omics. He works as a postdoctoral researcher in Evelyne Selberherr’s team at the Unit of Food Microbiology. Since 2025, he has also been a postdoctoral researcher and Principal Investigator at the Austrian Competence Centre for Feed and Food Quality, Safety and Innovation (FFoQSI), where he also completed his doctoral research. In addition, Strachan has been teaching at the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt since 2020. Before beginning his scientific career at Vetmeduni, he was co-founder and data scientist at Prospect Bio. He completed his doctoral degree at Vetmeduni with distinction in 2025.

The Rupert Riedl Award commemorates the biologist Rupert Riedl. It is awarded annually by the Club of Vienna in cooperation with the City of Vienna. The Club of Vienna is an international association dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary research. The award recognises work grounded in evolutionary questions that is scientifically outstanding and has societal relevance beyond its respective field.

Vetmeduni warmly congratulates on this achievement!

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