Professor Susan Coppersmith FAA — NSW Premier's Prize: Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry & Physics
Professor Matthias Hentze FAA — German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s Otto Warburg Medal
Professor Emma Johnston, AO FAA FTSE — Marie Claire Eco Warrior of the Year
Professor Matthew Kiernan AM FAA FAHMS — GSK Award for Research Excellence
Professor Mike McLaughlin AM FAA FTSE — Elected a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors
Professor Gerard Milburn FAA FRS — The National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC, UK) Quantum Fellow
Professor Ian Paulsen FAA — NSW Premier's Prize, Excellence in Biological Sciences (Ecology, Environmental, Agricultural and Organismal)
Professor Susan Scott — Australian Mathematical Society’s George Szekeres Medal
Professor Michael Alpers was elected to the Academy in 2012 for his contributions to tropical medicine, most notably his work on the prion disease kuru.
Following his training as a medical doctor, Professor Alpers was appointed Research Medical Officer at the Department of Public Health in PNG in 1961, studying kuru, a disease unique to the Fore people. Here he conducted autopsies and sent brain tissue to the National Institutes of Health in the United States. He continued his studies of kuru at the NIH following his fieldwork in PNG. In 1967, he spent time at Maudsley Hospital, London studying the neuropathology of kuru, then in 1968 studied immunology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Professor Alpers then returned to Australia, to the Department of Microbiology at the University of Western Australia, returning to PNG every year to keep epidemiological records of kuru up to date. In 1977, he moved back to PNG as Director of the PNG Institute of Medical Research where he worked on diseases that most affected the people of PNG, and also trained local scientists while continuing his work on kuru. After 23 years, in 2000, he moved back to Australia, to Curtin University where he remained until his retirement.
Michael received many awards and honours over the years in Australia, PNG and worldwide. These include the Medal of the Collège de France (1984), Macdonald Medal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1990), Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (1991), Macfarlane Burnet Orator, Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (1999), Fellow of the RACP Faculty of Public Health Medicine (2001), Officer of the Order of Australia (2005), Fellow of the Royal Society (2008), Companion of the Papua New Guinean Order of the Star of Melanesia (2008), and the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) Medal (2020).
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