PROFESSOR KAY CROSSLEY, WINNER 2020 VICTORIAN PRIZE for SCIENCE and INNOVATION

32 years ago a painfully shy young physiotherapy graduate started work at Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre. Kay Crossley quickly developed into an excellent sports physiotherapist with a longstanding involvement in track & field culminating in her appointment as Australian teamphysiotherapist at the Sydney Olympics. At the same time Kay’s leadership qualities started to emerge and she became Clinic Director.

Kay’s decision to commence a PhD at Melbourne University on the management ofpatellofemoral pain was a turning point in her career. Kay soon became acknowledged as a world expert in patellofemoral pain and has led many international conferences and consensus statements on this common condition. Her interests have subsequently broadened into the areas of knee and hip osteoarthritis, as well as women health, in particular, AFL injuries. After a few years at the University of Queensland, Kay returned to Melbourne in 2015 to take up a role as Director of the newly formed La Trobe Sports and Exercise Medicine Research Centre.

In a short period of time Kay’s outstanding leadership has resulted in the Centre becoming worldrenowned and producing literally hundreds of high quality research papers. Kay herself is the author of nearly 300 research papers and has presented at over 100 national and international conferences. Last year Kay presented the opening keynote lecture at the World Congress of Sports Physical Therapy in Vancouver.

Kay has been the recipient of numerous grants and currently holds three NHMRC Project Grants, an ARC Discovery, a MRFF Project, and numerous NGO grants as chief or co- investigator. She has supervised 49 Higher Degree students, and is a caring and inspiring mentor to a large cohort of post-doc and higher degree students. Kay is currently Editor (Physiotherapy) of the highest ranked sports medicine journal the British Journal of Sports Medicine, and is a co-author of the leading text book Clinical Sports Medicine.

Kay has been awarded the 2020 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in the Life Sciences in recognition of her ‘substantial contribution to our understanding of sports medicine and the role of exercise in the management of knee and hip pain’. Kay joins an elite group of outstanding scientists to have won the prize, and is the first physiotherapist or sports medicine professional to receive the award.

Kay received the prize in an online ceremony hosted by the Hon Jaala Pulford MP, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy

It has been an enormous privilege for me to observe at close quarters the career of this amazing woman. I would like to say I knew from the first day that Kay would be something special, but as she didn’t say a word for the first 12 months at the Clinic, it was hard to predict. Just shows you doesn’t it!

Congratulations KC.