Fellows in the news

In this new segment we look at selected highlights of Fellows who have appeared in the news.

One of our corresponding members, UCLA’s Terry Tao, was awarded the inaugural $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, sharing it with five others. Despite the prestigious nature of the prize, Terry said, ‘I don’t feel like I’ve done enough yet.’ Terry was also awarded the 2014 Royal Medal.

Jenny Graves, former Academy Secretary for Education and Public Awareness, wrote an article about how our genes have a role to play in making us gay or straight. This was republished several times and the online article has had more than 800,000 views.

Terry Hughes commented on the findings of a WA study which showed that dredge spoil is linked to coral disease. Hughes said the findings were a ‘game changer’ for the Great Barrier Reef. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg was also in the media with his concerns about the reef.

David Cooper, leading HIV specialist at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, shared in some good news with two men being ‘cleared’ of HIV after bone marrow transplants at the hospital.

Logging practices can greatly increase the severity of fires in extreme weather conditions

David Lindenmayer was in a team of researchers that found logging practices can greatly increase the severity of fires in extreme weather conditions. ‘If we cut down a forest tomorrow, we're still going to be adding to the fire risk in 50 years’ time,’ he told the ABC.

Bryan Gaensler has been part of a team that has developed a new home-grown instrument which gives astronomers the first 'Google street view' of the cosmos.

Based on his presentation at Science at the Shine Dome, Gus Nossal had an article published on the five Australian medical stories everyone should know.

You might have seen reports of a large, burning object crossing the Australian sky in July. Brian Schmidt was quick to explain it was likely a piece of space junk.