But with her recent promotion to Professor, and a growing list of accolades, the Hunter nutrition and dietetics researcher has become a role model, mentor and advocate - particularly for women - in a realm typically dominated by men.

Professor Burrows was one of three major recipients of grants at the annual HMRI Awards in November, taking home the $20,000 mid career research award.

Last year, the University of Newcastle lecturer was awarded a coveted, highly competitive NHMRC grant worth $1.5 million. Prior to that, she became one of only a handful of people bestowed with the prestigious title of Fellow by the Dietitian's Association of Australia.

For Professor Burrows, these achievements were validation of all her hard work and determination, passion and patience.

But the awards and recognition represented only the tip of the iceberg.

"Receiving that big NHMRC grant was amazing - the highlight of my career," she said. "But that, to me, was the result of a lot of resilience and perseverance.

"The unwritten part of that is that I had nine years of unsuccessful applications, and that's a long time to stay motivated to keep going.

"You see all the wins - but what is rarely seen is all that hard work, perseverance and rejections - it's those type of things you have to be able to bounce back from to be able to keep going," she said. "There are highs, and there are lows - like when you do a whole research study and don't get the answers you want. You still learn from it."

There had been late nights and early mornings to juggle academia with raising two young children, but Professor Burrows is so passionate about her research - which mainly focuses on addictive eating, childhood obesity, and dietary assessment - that it had never felt like work.

"I can see how much it benefits people," she said. "Dietitians are often undervalued because we're perceived as people who just cook and put people on diets - but we are way more than that. These awards and research grants show that dietitians really can make a big difference."

Fellow Hunter researcher, Associate Professor Coralie English, said Professor Burrows was inspiring and encouraging other budding researchers.

"There is a real cliff for women in academia and medical research," she said.

"More than 50 per cent of PhD candidates nationally are women, but then we have this dramatic drop off soon after that. It's the old adage that you can't be what you can't see. We need to stop Australia losing essentially 50 per cent of its talent in medical research. People like Tracy are leading the way."