News and views

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.

Australia’s top scientists are counting the cost of yesterday’s hailstorms after Canberra landmark the Shine Dome sustained serious damage during the extreme weather event.

The Australian Academy of Science acknowledges the devastating impact the Australian bushfires are having—and will continue to have—on people, our environment and our economy.

Australian women in STEM are now more visible than ever with 2272 women joining STEM Women in the past five months. Many are now using the new resource to showcase the depth of talent of those working in the field.

A new study on the Great Barrier Reef assessing how the elemental signatures of coral reefs can signal stress from pollution will be carried out by one of the recipients of the Australian Academy of Science’s 2020 Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award.

What are the biggest questions facing humanity? What are the secrets and motivations behind Darwin’s scientific journey? How might a small Australian country town react to a terrible crime event? These questions, and many more, are tackled in the Annual Fellows’ Christmas book and podcast list 2019.