News and views

It's been another eventful year for the Australian Academy of Science, as we continued to support and celebrate excellence in Australian science. There are plenty of highlights—here's a month-by-month snapshot of 2022.

From the germination of 2,000-year-old Judean date palms to tales of beekeepers in the Ukrainian-Russian ‘grey zone’, the Australian Academy of Science’s 7th annual Fellows’ reading, listening and viewing list reveals the diverse interests of Australia’s leading scientists.

There are significant challenges facing teaching and research in the mathematical sciences in Australia, according to a nation-wide review of the discipline.

How Australia should regulate illegal drugs is a debate that continues—with more than 150,000 people arrested each year.

Not only did Dr Benjamin Allen have to contend with having his lunch stolen by samango monkeys while fulfilling his Graeme Caughley Travelling Fellowship, there were also the matters of civil unrest and the outbreak of a pandemic.

The Margaret Middleton Fund for endangered Australian native vertebrate animals was established in 2000 with Dr Margaret Middleton, who donated generously to this fund across her lifetime. Dr Middleton was a long-time supporter of the Academy and early-career scientists, with the fund supporting more than 90 projects to date.

Dr Martin Bush from the University of Melbourne has received the 2023 Moran Award for History of Science Research, for his research proposal ‘Literary skies: the popular astronomy of William Albert Amiet’.

Dr Xuan Li from the University of Technology Sydney has been awarded the WH Gladstones Population and Environment Fund to fund her research into the effect of Australia’s population on the environment.

Nine early-career and mid-career researchers have been awarded the 2023 Thomas Davies Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology.