Distinguished Professor Ivan Marusic FAA FTSE—Elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
Dr Graeme Moad FAA FTSE—Elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
Professor Mathai Varghese FAA FaustMS—2021 George Szekeres Medal, Australian Mathematical Society
Scientia Professor Richard Bryant AC FAA FAHMS FASSA—Leadership in Innovation in NSW, Premier’s Prizes for Science & Engineering
29 July 1933 – 24 November 2021
Educated in Sweden, Professor Olle Erik Björkman was made a Corresponding Member of the Academy in 1986 for his distinguished contributions to modern physiological plant ecology. While a postdoc in the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Plant Biology in Stanford in 1965, Professor Björkman’s exceptional talent in experimental taxonomy saw him appointed, unusually, as a tenured staff member on the spot.
Until his retirement on his birthday in 1999, Professor Björkman led an outstanding group that morphed from physiological through biochemical, biophysical and molecular genetic investigations of the basic mechanisms of photosynthesis. His research on photosynthesis involved him in issues relating to world food supplies and nutrition and the effects of carbon dioxide on plants.
His close association with Australian plant scientists dated from his participation in the inaugural meeting in 1970 on photosynthesis and photorespiration sponsored by the Australia–USA Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation that was held in the Academy.
Professor Björkman received numerous prestigious prizes and awards. When he received the 2001 Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award of the American Society of Plant Biologists, the announcement of his award in Photosynthesis Research (70: 241-24, 2001) congratulated Professor Björkman as follows:
‘Olle: your smile has a peaceful and pleasant effect on all who have met you, and your ideas and concepts continue to fire all those who come near you. Your humility and unpretentious nature have had a great impact on many who have come in contact with you’.
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
