Reaching those heights, she told the Herald this year, was a win for New Zealand, where she has spent her career, and a win for a women in science, a cause she has long championed.
This year also brought her the UK Royal Society of Chemistry's 2018 George and Christine Sosnovsky Award in Cancer Therapy, for developing an innovative chemistry platform for the development of cancer vaccines.
Brimble's work focuses on developing bioactive compounds from natural products such as marine algae.
These compounds are synthesised in larger amounts for further research and development as potential drugs to treat a range of diseases including cancer and infectious disease.
Her research in drug discovery in New Zealand is pioneering, developing a new treatment for Rett Syndrome, Fragile X syndrome and autism disorders.
The drug, called trofinetide, is in phase III human clinical trials with Neuren Pharmaceuticals.
It will be the first drug developed successfully by a New Zealand company and one of few to be discovered in an academic laboratory.
Her research group is also developing innovative chemical technology to generate cancer vaccines.
But Brimble, 57, gained just as much satisfaction from her academic work as what she described as her "day-to-day job" - working with post-graduate students.
"They are the reason I come to work each day," she earlier told the Herald.
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