News and views

The Catalysing Gender Equity 2020 Conference, held on 20 and 21 February in Adelaide, clearly demonstrated the success, impact and growth potential for inclusion and diversity in STEM. The two-day conference was hosted by the Academy in collaboration with Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE).

Dr Michael-Shawn Fletcher and Mr Frank Loban are the recipients of the Australian Academy of Science Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientist Travelling Research Award for 2020.

Two brand new career awards will form part of the Academy’s 2021 award round, honouring two of Australia’s pioneering women scientists.

Above: Professor Laura Mackay was awarded the 2019 Gottschalk Medal by the Academy and later in the year a Prime Minister’s science prize.

The Academy is proud to announce the recipients of two prestigious top-up awards, the J G Russell Awards and the; Douglas and Lola Douglas Scholarships in Medical Science

In a statement on the Australian bushfires published on 10 January 2020, the President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor John Shine, stated that ‘the scale of these bushfires is unprecedented anywhere in the world’.

Five Academy Fellows are among the Australians recognised in the 2020 Australia Day Honours List.

The Academy has announced its inaugural group of twelve STEM Women Changemakers. From start-up founders to organisational advocates, these women are using their knowledge, experience and networks to share their ideas and solutions for gender equity in Australian science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Academy Fellow Professor Lisa Kewley has been named as the recipient of the 2020 James Craig Watson Medal by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC for her pioneering contributions to the study of galaxy formation and evolution.