Professor Akshay Venkatesh and Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, both based in the United States, have been admitted to the Australian Academy of Science for outstanding scientific contributions.
Professor Venkatesh is an Australian mathematician currently based at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton. His work uses number theory—the branch of mathematics that deals with the properties and relationships of numbers—as a ‘lens’ to approach a range of fields including homogeneous dynamics, arithmetic geometry and representation theory.
According to Professor Venkatesh’s citation, “He has solved many long-standing problems by combining methods from seemingly unrelated areas, presented novel viewpoints on classical problems, and produced strikingly far-reaching conjectures.”
In 2018, Professor Venkatesh won the Fields Medal—the most prestigious international award in mathematics awarded once every four years to researchers under 40.
Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski is a world-leading chemist at Carnegie Mellon University. His fundamental contributions have changed the face of free radical chemistry and polymer science.
In 1994, Professor Matyjaszewski invented a method of polymerisation—a chemical reaction to produce long chain-like molecules—using a copper catalyst. Called atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP), Professor Matyjaszewski’s method has spawned a prolific area of research and several industry developments, including the commercial production of specialty materials.
Corresponding Members of the Academy are eminent scientists not resident in Australia. They are elected based on scientific excellence, with consideration given to their connection to Australian science.
The Australian Academy of Science will announce the election of 22 distinguished Australian scientists as New Fellows, to mark the start of Science at the Shine Dome, on 28 May 2019.
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