Professor Sue Coppersmith FAA – 2024 Women in Physics Lecturer, Australian Institute of Physics
Professor Nanda Dasgupta FAA – Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to the University, Australian National University
Professor Tanya Monro AC FAA FTSE – International Member, National Academy of Engineering (US)
Professor Susan Scott FAA – Peter Baume Award, Australian National University
Frances Separovic AO FAA – 2024 Rosalba Kampman Distinguished Service Award, Biophysical Society and Lorne Protein Life Member
Professor Carola Vinuesa FAA FAHMS FRS – Peter Baume Award, Australian National University
Emeritus Professor David Boger AC FAA FTSE FRS – Companion in the General Division
Ms Catherine Livingstone AC FAA FTSE – Companion in the General Division
Professor Sarah Robertson AO FAA FAHMS – Officer in the General Division
Professor Louise Ryan AO FAA – Officer in the General Division
Professor Joseph Trapani AO FAA FAHMS – Officer in the General Division
Professor Alex McBratney AM FAA – Member in the General Division
If Fellows have been recognised for an award, please let us know via fellowship@science.org.au.
21 May 1926 – 14 December 2023
Professor Allen Kerr was elected to the Academy in 1978 for his work as a plant pathologist, in particular for his discovery of a method of biological control of crown gall, a disease of stone-fruit caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. He is also recognised for his genetic model for pathogenicity in Agrobacterium, showing that the plant tumours result from the transfer of bacterial DNA to the plant cell.
Professor Kerr was born in Scotland in 1926. He studied Botany at Edinburgh University after which he worked in Aberdeen, at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture, from 1947 to 1951. Professor Kerr and his wife sailed to Adelaide in late 1951 where he took a position at the University of Adelaide. As a staff member he was able to enrol as a PhD candidate and he was awarded his PhD in 1956. From 1963 to 1966 he and his family lived in Ceylon, where he was seconded to the Tea Research Institute, studying blister blight of tea. It was on his return to Adelaide that Professor Kerr studied the huge, international economic problem of crown gall in stone fruit. He remained at the University of Adelaide, as Reader in Plant Pathology then Personal Chair in Plant Pathology, until retirement.
Professor Kerr was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1986 and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1991. He was awarded the Walter Burfitt Prize by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1977, the Ruth Allen Award of the American Phytopathological Society in 1982, and the first ever Prime Minister’s Prize for Science (then known as the Australia Prize) in 1990. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1992.
Professor Kerr was an active member of the Academy over many years. He was interviewed by broadcaster and Academy Fellow Robyn Williams for Ockham’s Razor on ABC Radio National in 2016 and 2017.
21 April 1924 – 5 February 2024
Professor Andrew (Andy) Cole was elected to the Academy in 1974 for his contribution to spectroscopy and its application to molecular structure determination. His earlier work pioneered the application of infra-red spectroscopy to the structure determination of natural products such as steroids and triterpenoids. He was the first to adapt the reflecting microscope to measuring infra-red spectra.
After graduating from the University of Western Australia with a BSc (Hons) in chemistry, Professor Cole received a Hackett studentship to undertake his DPhil at St John's College, Oxford (1947-49). In 1950 he accepted a position as postdoctoral research fellow at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. In 1952 he was offered a Nuffield Research Fellowship to set up an infra-red lab at the University of Western Australia, where he arranged for the purchase of a spectrometer. Professor Cole remained at UWA, appointed to positions from senior lecturer in chemistry to Head of the Department of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry, and Dean of the Faculty of Science.
While working at the Commission on Molecular Structure and Spectroscopy for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Professor Cole developed standards in measurement in physical chemistry. In the 1970s he published a manual on accurate calibration of infra-red spectrometers on behalf of IUPAC. His IUPAC work enabled him to maintain connections outside the then very isolated UWA, and to spend time in labs overseas.
Professor Cole was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) in 1956 and was awarded RACI’s Archibald D. Ollé Prize in 1978 and its Leighton Memorial Medal in 1984. In 1992, UWA awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Science.
Professor Cole generously gave his time to the Academy over several decades, and he served on and chaired numerous committee. He was interviewed for the Academy by Professor Donald Watts in 2010. The transcript can be found on our website.
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
