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.

The scale of these bushfires is unprecedented anywhere in the world.

The Academy extends its support and sympathy to all those who have lost loved ones and whose lives are directly and indirectly impacted. We thank the many volunteers, individuals, leaders and foreign nations for their efforts and contributions.

As an independent and authoritative scientific adviser to the parliament and to the nation, the Academy draws on the scientific expertise of Australia’s leading scientists—the Fellows of the Academy.

The scientific evidence base shows that as the world warms due to human induced climate change, we experience an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

As a nation, we must deal with extreme weather events more effectively than we currently do. As such events become more frequent and severe, we must adapt Australia and Australians accordingly, as well as strengthen mitigation efforts.

Bushfires, along with other weather and climate challenges, pose complex and wide-ranging problems. Population growth, climate change, temperature extremes, droughts, storms, wind and floods are intersecting in ways that are difficult to untangle and address.

The good news is that there is already abundant evidence available to help us understand the environment we live in and to design and build the future we want for Australia. There has never been a more important time to draw on that scientific evidence base to help guide Australia’s short- and long-term responses to the devastating bushfires ravaging our nation and that are causing uncertainty about our future.

The Academy’s Fellows are contributing and will continue to contribute their scientific expertise to government and other decision makers in the interest of advancing our nation.

The Academy is resolute that the response to the bushfires must extend beyond the immediate and essential need to rebuild and recover.

Everything, including urban planning; building standards; habitat restoration; biodiversity and species preservation; and land, water and wildlife management will need careful and measured consideration.

We must further improve our ability to forecast changing environmental threats and continually improve climate modelling predictions. We must improve our understanding of fire behaviour and other adverse weather events, and we must continually develop new technologies, practices and behaviours to assist our nation to respond and adapt to, manage, and mitigate against such extreme events.

All the while, Australia must take stronger action as its part of the worldwide commitment to limit global warming to 1.5° C above the long-term average to reduce the worst impacts of climate change.

To have the best chance of succeeding, we must draw on all the available evidence and knowledge, including working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and undertaking further research where it will have the most benefit.

The Academy is aware that Australians are looking for trustworthy information and answers about the links between climate change and the bushfires. With much misinformation in the public domain about the cause and impacts of the bushfires, we urge Australians to continue to consult reputable sources of evidence-based information such as the Australian Academy of Science, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.

In this context, visits to the Academy's website are up 30 per cent compared to the same period last year, and the top visited page is What is Climate Change? Viewing and sharing of the Academy’s video series on this matter published across social media platforms are rapidly rising.

Professor John Shine AC PresAA
President
Australian Academy of Science.

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.

The database was developed by the Australian Academy of Science in partnership with the CSIRO, Science & Technology Australia, and the Australian Science Media Centre, with financial support from the Australian Government.

Users of the database can search for women in STEM based on their expertise, location and other search fields. Freelance science journalist Bianca Nogrady was one of the first to use the database. She contacted Professor Jenny Pringle for her article on the future of battery technology for environmental magazine, Enisa.

The 2019 Women for Media Report found women only appear as a source for news or provide expert comment in the media 24% of the time. With other journalists welcoming the database on Twitter, STEM Women is positioned as a powerful tool to help increase the visibility of STEM women in the media.

STEM Women is also designed to become a key resource for conference and event organisers across Australia. Thanks to STEM Women, the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)  delivered an all women plenary session at the Australasian Leadership Computing Symposium.

Insights into STEM careers

STEM Women has also become a go-to for teachers looking to offer their students real life insights into STEM careers. Teacher Deanna Cammisotto of Prospect Primary School used the database to organise a visit by Kaitlyn Bayly from Accenture, so her students could discover what a career in technology looks like.

ACT teacher Ryan Elwell’s searched ‘geology’ on STEM Women. He discovered Stephanie McLennan and offered her the opportunity to share with students how science and mathematics skills can be turned into a successful and exciting career.

The database also allows users to find a mentor or search for expert insight. Seven early career women have gained great advice and insight into a variety of STEM careers from clinical trials to cyber security. Co-founder of Little Literature Co, Annabel Blake discovered a number of space experts whose research will help shape a set of STEM storytelling games and workshops.

Manager of Diversity and Inclusion at the Australian Academy of Science, Ms Louise Moes, said the opportunities available through STEM Women are endless.

“More than 15,000 searches have occurred on STEM Women with ‘chemistry’ and ‘engineering’ some of the most searched terms,” Ms Moes said.

“We’re also seeing a gradual increase in the number of users as they use the database to discover what is happening across the STEM ecosystem and to find opportunities to collaborate and gain knowledge.”

To find out more about gender equity in STEM actions and initiatives register for the Catalysing Gender Equity 2020 Conference. 

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.

Dr Emma Camp will conduct her research at the University of Technology Sydney using samples of three different coral species that will be subjected to conditions mimicking polluted and non-polluted reef environments.

Dr Camp will use the award to investigate the elemental signatures of corals and how changes in these signatures might be diagnostic of environmental pollution on the Great Barrier Reef. An elemental signature is the unique proportion and concentration of elements in an organism or object and can change as the environment changes.

“This project will explore how the elemental signatures of each part of the coral responds to environmental change with the aim of identifying unique stress signatures in corals”, Dr Camp said.

“The project will enhance our understanding of biogeochemical cycling across coral environments, and how this influences coral traits and the associated costs of survival, thereby revealing the processes that govern coral reef resilience.”

The other recipient of the 2020 award is PhD student Ms Allison Broad from the University of Wollongong. Ms Broad will study the impacts of anchor scour on the seafloor near Wollongong.

Seabed environments are the foundations for biodiversity in the marine domain and are at risk of damage from the heavy anchors and chains used by shipping vessels.

For Ms Broad’s research, specific study sites within a rocky reef habitat will be identified and assessed using remotely operated vehicles and underwater video. Assessments will be done both before and after an anchoring event by a large merchant ship (greater than 200 m in overall length) to monitor and quantify both the disturbance from anchor drop, drag and chain scour and the recovery of invertebrates, algal forests and fish assemblages.

“With the rise of the Blue Economy, it is vital that we identify how marine industries may be interacting with these seabed environments and that we manage them sustainably wherever possible,” Ms Broad said.

The award provides up to $20,000 for early-career researchers working on the conservation of Australia’s flora and fauna, the ecologically sustainable use of resources and the protection of the environment and ecosystem services.

It is named in honour of Academy Fellow, the late Dr Maxwell Frank Cooper Day AO FAA, who spent a lifetime championing entomology, conservation and forestry, as well as helping other scientists.

Four researchers were also ‘highly commended’ for the Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award:

• Dr Catherine Price from the University of Sydney for her project: When it takes one bite: deceiving herbivores to protect rare and threatened orchids;
• Ms Emily Scicluna from La Trobe University for her project: Using personality and cognitive assessment of individuals as a conservation tool for improving reintroduction/translocation success;
• Ms Georgia Sinclair from RMIT University for her project: Developing biomarkers of environmental exposure to poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances to improve environmental policy and health; and
• Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa from La Trobe University for her project: Fighting herbicide resistance with vitamin deprivation.

More information about the 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.

As we have for the past four years, we asked our Fellows to provide their top book suggestions for the year—and this time we’ve included a few podcasts in the list too.

Of the 51 recommendations, there is sure to be something of interest for everyone. Many of the books are of a scientific bent, but they range from new release fiction and classic pieces of literature to biographies and other non-fiction.

Some are inspirational, some are eye-opening, thought-provoking or nostalgic, and others are purely great entertainment.

To inject more wit, wisdom and wonder into your summer holidays, following is a sample of the 2019 list contributed by some of Australia’s most outstanding minds.

Books

Thomas Cromwell: A Life, by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Recommended by Professor The Honourable Barry Jones AC FAA FTSE

MacCulloch is Professor of Church History at Oxford, author of The History of Christianity and an accomplished television presenter. Hillary Mantel who knows a thing or two about Thomas Cromwell writes ‘this is the biography we have been waiting for for 400 years’. MacCulloch’s scholarship, analytical and narrative gifts are outstanding and—despite the grim outcome for Cromwell and so many major characters—often amusing, even hilarious. I read it twice, first very fast, then slowly to savour every line. Don’t miss it.

Darwin's Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory, by James T. Costa

Recommended by Professor Lyn Beazley AO FAA FTSE

This book is a truly engaging journey from Darwin’s childhood through to Down House, his bustling home of forty years, where he kept porcupine quills at his desk to dissect barnacles, maintained a flock of sixteen pigeon breeds in the dovecote, and cultivated climbing and carnivorous plants in the study. He was truly the first ‘community scientist’, engaging naturalists, friends, neighbours, family servants, and even family as assistants in his experiments. It was from the results of these experiments that he plumbed the laws of nature and evidence for the revolutionary arguments of On the Origin of Species and his other watershed works. 

The Overstory, by Richard Powers

Recommended by Professor David Celermajer AO FAA

This powerful book is about the importance of trees to the planet but is so much more than this; beautiful literature, stunning insights into what motivates humans to join a cause and some wonderful science about botany. Of the stories describing the several main characters in Part One of the book, the (partly fact-based) story of the shy but committed scientist who discovers the way that trees communicate with each other and finds love despite her isolation is one of the most splendid short stories you will ever read.

Also recommended by Professor Ian Dance FAA 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction 2019. A collection of interlocking fables, with a central theme of trees. A fact-filled panegyric for old-growth forests in the US, and stories about those who want to preserve them.

Also recommended by Professor John Evans FAA

A weird mix of stories about trees and how humans fail to comprehend what trees achieve because our lives operate at completely different speeds.

Scrublands, by Chris Hammer

Recommended by Professor Roger Tanner FAA

Set in a fictional Riverina town at the height of a devastating drought, Scrublands is one of the most powerful, compelling and original crime novels to be written in Australia. In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself.

The Best Australian Science Writing 2019, edited by Bianca Nogrady

Recommended by Professor Helene Marsh FAA FTSE

Thought-provoking stories, essays and poetry by Australian scientists and science writers. Topics range from astronomy to disease but concerns about the impacts of climate change dominate the book.

Podcast

Bedside Rounds, hosted by Adam Rodman MD

Recommended by Emeritus Professor Neville Nicholls FAA

Bedside Rounds is an engaging and well-researched monthly podcast on the development of modern medicine, told from a historical perspective. Recent episodes have discussed anaesthesia, syphilis, and smoking and lung cancer. The overarching focus is on epistemology—how we know.

A scientist whose research has transformed our understanding of Australia’s iconic mammals has been recognised by the Australian Academy of Science. Professor Marilyn Renfree AO FAA has been awarded the Academy’s highest honour in the biological sciences—the Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture.

For half a century the committed reproductive and developmental biologist and conservationist from the University of Melbourne has been using the tammar wallaby, a small macropodid marsupial native to South and Western Australia, to study their reproduction and development.

Professor Renfree has developed contraceptive strategies for kangaroos and koalas and established marsupials as unique biomedical models for understanding human reproduction.  

World authority

She is now a world authority on marsupial reproduction and development and has pioneered research on some of Australia’s most iconic creatures including kangaroos, koalas and now echidnas.

And with passion for her work as strong as ever, she has no plans of slowing down. Professor Renfree has just embarked on the world’s first study of the development of the embryo and newly hatched pouch young from the echidna.

Professor Renfree said hardly anything was known about marsupials when she started out.

“I’m passionately Australian and I really wanted to work on something Australian but when I started honours I said to my prospective supervisors: ‘I wanted to do biochemistry and fieldwork.’ And they laughed at me. Well, I’m still really doing biochemistry and fieldwork.”

Her first paper published from her PhD in 1972 was a Nature publication.

In her distinguished career Professor Renfree has made numerous research breakthroughs. In research with colleagues Professor Renfree conducted the first genome sequencing of an Australian marsupial, the tammar wallaby, providing new information on their evolution.

She also showed that certain genes directly control sexual development during pregnancy and even after birth in marsupials, providing a new understanding of the relative influence of genes versus hormones in sexual differentiation in all mammals. With colleagues she also discovered a new hormone pathway that explains some human disorders of sexual development.

A biological goldmine

Professor Renfree said Australia is sitting on a biological goldmine because it is home to a unique assembly of mammals—the marsupials and monotremes.

“The impact of Australia’s recent bushfires on Australian mammals has highlighted Australia and the world’s fascination with these special animals. We really need to put more effort, time and money into conserving and doing research on them,” Professor Renfree said.

“Australia has the distinction of having the worst record of mammal extinctions of any developed country and that’s not a record you want to be proud of.”

Professor Renfree said the Academy award is a huge honour.

“I’m receiving it on behalf of all of my students, PhD students and postdocs and collaborators. Without them I could have only done a fraction of what I've done,” Professor Renfree said.

She was nominated for the medal by Professor James Angus FAA from the University of Melbourne.

“Professor Renfree is a pioneer and forward thinker who has an ability to excite and inspire scientists from around the world by providing new insights through the study of the unique evolutionary innovations in the reproductive systems of marsupials and monotremes,” Professor Angus said.

“The basic science and the clinical impact of her work for humans are as important as the direct benefits of her work for Australia’s marsupials. Her research has undoubtedly opened the eyes of the academic world and beyond to the value of these iconic Australian mammals both for their intrinsic interest and as unique biomedical models.”

Professor Renfree will receive the medal and give a lecture at the Academy’s Science at the Shine Dome event in May 2020. The Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture honours the contributions to science by Sir MacFarlane Burnet OM KB MD FAA FRS Nobel Laureate.

Two education experts from the Academy promoted the Primary Connections program at an important international conference on children’s STEM education in Berlin recently.

The Academy’s Secretary Education and Public Awareness Emeritus Professor Hans Bachor, and Director Education Claudette Bateup, represented the Academy at the International Dialogue on STEM Education 2019, the second in a series of biennial conferences on early STEM education. Professor Bachor was co-chair of the event program committee.

The event on 5 and 6 December brought together 100 scientists, representatives of leading STEM initiatives, and decision-makers in politics, economics, civil society and culture, all focusing on early childhood STEM education for sustainable development.

According to the conference organisers, global developments such as digitisation, climate change, increasing social inequality and migration will impact the lives of people still in pre-school today. The aim of early education should be to help children become self-determined adults who can help shape global challenges.

Primary Connections was one of seven education programs from six continents—and the only Australian one—specifically selected as highlights of the conference. Ms Bateup presented a workshop on ‘Not just numbers—how can we make the most of monitoring and measurement to drive change and improvement in STEM education for sustainable development?’ 

“Our hope is that the young generation, starting at just a few years old, will be better informed and develop a healthy critical but constructive and positive attitude to our rapidly changing world,” Emeritus Professor Bachor said.

“At the conference we discussed how this can be achieved across the world. We showcased and compared examples with great impact, including Primary Connections from Australia.”

The International Dialogue on STEM Education 2019 was a joint conference of the Haus de kleinen Forscher Foundation and Siemens Stiftung. It took place under the auspices of the German Commission for UNESCO.

The sustainable transformation of Australia’s cities and regions is being hampered by institutional silos, perennial underfunding and lack of a national vision according to a new report by Future Earth Australia, a program of the Australian Academy of Science.

The report, developed through an extensive consultation process and overseen by leading urban research, practice and policy experts from around Australia, is being launched today at the State of Australian Cities conference in Perth.

It lays out a 10-year plan to transform Australia’s cities and regions and to address urban problems including transport congestion, inflated housing markets, the loneliness crisis, inequity in opportunities and biodiversity loss.

The report responds in part to the CSIRO National Outlook 2019 report, which identified cities and regions as critical sites for change.

Director of the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University, Professor Jago Dodson, chaired the report’s Expert Reference Group.

Professor Dodson said that conversations with stakeholders highlighted the rich variety of local transformation and innovation taking place in suburbs and cities around Australia that is driven by individuals, small businesses, community groups and local government.

“However, these groups felt disconnected from each other across sectors and disciplines,” Professor Dodson said.

“Meanwhile Australia’s urban researchers are stifled by institutional silos and disciplinary or sector-specific remits.

“The report recommends that Australia sets a national vision for cities and establishes a national network of knowledge hubs to empower local innovation."

It also recommends the establishment of new partnerships across urban sectors and capacity building among researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

“Implementing this strategy would set Australian cities on track for future prosperity and sustainability, Professor Dodson said.

The report makes eight recommendations (see page nine of the report) for addressing the barriers preventing Australia’s urban and regional areas from achieving sustainable development.

Project lead and Director of Future Earth Australia, Dr Tayanah O’Donnell, said each Australian city and region has a distinct character, as well as strengths and challenges when it comes to delivering wellbeing for its inhabitants.

“These distinct qualities help us understand what drives sustainable development in different urban contexts. Future Earth Australia held workshops around the country to make sure the plan reflects Australia’s diversity and innovation,” Dr O’Donnell said.

“The report is a bottom-up, cross-sectoral plan for achieving sustainable cities and communities across Australia by 2030. Government, industry, the research sector, peak bodies, the philanthropic sector and civil society all have parts to play in driving this change.

“We're clever enough, there's enough science and enough knowledge to say: ‘We can have green spaces and affordable, plentiful housing, and thriving cities and regions’ so that everybody benefits from that.”

Read the report.

Unlocking climate secrets in tree rings, understanding smoke signals and unearthing ‘fairy circles’ are the aims of some of the researchers awarded the Australian Academy of Science's 2020 Thomas Davies Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology.

Seven researchers are recipients of the award this year.

Dr Danielle Verdon-Kidd from the University of Newcastle will use mangroves (Avicennia marina) to help reconstruct the climate record in east coast Australia. While Australia only has a short history of instrumental climate data, it does have natural archives—such as corals, tree rings and cave formations—that can be exploited to show our past climate.

Mangroves can live for hundreds of years and record environmental information in their wood, including wood density, vessel arrangement and isotopic composition. By studying the species, scientists have the potential to reconstruct the pre-instrumental record of rainfall and streamflow events and help unlock the flood and drought history of Australia’s east coast.

Dr Mark Waters from the University of Western Australia will study interactions between light and smoke signals in plant development, using mutant seedlings of rockcress, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard.

“This project is fundamental in nature and will increase our knowledge of how plants sense changes in their environment and respond accordingly,” said Dr Waters.

Dr Fiona Walsh, consultant ethno-ecologist from the Northern Territory, will investigate the patterns of bare circular patches known as ‘fairy circles’. Widespread across desert spinifex grasslands, these patches are pavements over the top of active or inactive termite colonies.

Desert termites are fundamental to the structure of soils, grasslands and the ecology of deserts. Termites convert dry spinifex and bulk grasses to animal foods and are described as the ‘krill of the desert’ as food for reptiles, echidnas, birds and small mammal species. 

The project draws on ecological methods and the knowledge of Aboriginal desert people, who used termites and termite pavements in many complex ways.

Dr Elisabeth Strain from the University of Melbourne will investigate the role of kelp in mitigating ocean acidification and its capacity to dampen nearshore waves—a key ecosystem service that could help reduce coastal erosion.

Dr Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania will study the role of seabirds as vectors for both soil nutrients and pollutants on islands, and how a decline in seabird population can affect ecosystem processes in these remote locations.

Dr Edwin Lampugnani from the University of Melbourne will study plant cell wall biology using the common liverwort Marchantia as a model for how flowering plants make cellulose—the main substance that gives plant cell walls strength and stiffness and is also used to make paper and cloth.

Dr Simon Williams from the Australian National University aims to establish a system using the bacterium Escherichia coli to produce multiple plant immunity proteins that help plants detect and provide protection against infection by plant diseases.

The Thomas Davies Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology is funded through a generous philanthropic bequest from the estate of the late Thomas Lewis Davies to the Academy.

The award will open for applications for the 2021 round early next year. Science grants of up to $20,000 are available for early- and mid-career researchers in the fields of marine, soil and plant biology. 

More about the Thomas Davies Research Grant

Academy Fellows Professor David Vaux and Professor Andreas Strasser have been awarded the 2019 CSL Florey Medal for their research toward understanding the role of programmed cell death, knows as apoptosis, in cancer and autoimmune disease.

The molecular biologists work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research where they have been making important discoveries over the last 30 years into the control of apoptosis and how this knowledge can be exploited to develop new medical treatments for cancer and other diseases.

Apoptosis ensures that old or damaged cells die and don’t remain to cause disease. It is an important process in living organisms, both during development and for ensuring homeostasis.

Work by the researchers identified that the function of a protein named Bcl-2 was to stop apoptosis and keep cells alive. By studying the role and regulation of Bcl-2, they showed that not all cancer is caused by uncontrolled cell multiplication, it can also be caused by cells that do not follow the normal program of cell death—effectively they ‘fail to die’.

New field of investigation

The findings of Professor Vaux and Professor Strasser have sparked a whole new field of investigation into apoptosis and the origins of cancer and autoimmune disease. Their work has also led to the development of new treatments based on drugs designed to inhibit Bcl-2 and its relatives and thus encourage normal cell death.   

On the basis of their findings, a potent new inhibitor of Bcl-2, developed by others at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in collaboration with US pharmaceutical companies Genentech (a member of the Roche Group) and AbbVie, is now being used to treat leukaemia around the world. Other group leaders at WEHI who were also involved in the generation of this powerful new treatment for cancer include Jerry Adams, Suzanne Cory, David Huang, Philippe Bouillet, Peter Colman, Keith Watson, Guillaume Lessene, Andrew Roberts, Ben Kile and Peter Czabotar.

The Australian Institute of Policy and Science established the Florey Medal in 1998, named in honour of Sir Howard Florey, the Australian Nobel Prize-winning scientist who developed penicillin. Academy Fellows feature strongly: the inaugural award in 1998 was made to Professor Barry Marshall and Professor Robin Warren, who since became Academy Fellows and Nobel Laureates. Another six Fellows have also received the award.

The medal is awarded biennially to an Australian researcher or researchers for significant lifetime achievement in biomedical science or human health advancement. In addition to the silver medal, there is a prize of $50,000 thanks to the support of CSL Limited.

See the full list of past Florey Medal recipients

The Academy has announced the successful recipients of the Australia–India Strategic Research Fund Early- and Mid-Career Researcher 2020 Fellowships.

Each recipient receives up to $16,500 in funding to conduct research at some of India’s leading research institutions.

The fellowship opens doors for connections with global experts within an early- or mid-career researcher’s field, provides leadership opportunities and paves the way for long-term international collaborations.

Fellowship recipients work on a diverse range of subject areas. The Australian National University’s Dr Sergey Kruk is one of the researchers heading to India next year. He is working on developing new technologies in photonics to create miniaturised optical systems for use in the telecommunications industry, collaborating with scientists at the Tata Institute in Mumbai.

Deakin University’s Dr Fiona Mckay will investigate the roles of Punjab women in food production, and the wider issue of global food security. Dr Mckay is interested in how people from different groups across the world react to adversity, and her research and collaborations in India with researchers at Chitkara University will build on this. The long-term aim of her work is to influence policy changes to improve food security and gender equity.

Dr Alison Pearce from the University of Sydney has previously led a research project on the impact of cancer across a range of nations. With the fellowship funding she will study the loss of productivity that results from cancer in an Indian population. She will collaborate with the Healis Public Health Institute in Mumbai and the Public Health Foundation India.

The full list of 2020 recipients are:

• Dr Sumeet Walia, RMIT University – Harness atomically thin materials for pollution sensors and efficient industrial lubricants
• Dr Nagendrakumar Singanallur Balasubramanian, CSIRO – Systems-immunology based approach to study early immune responses to foot-and-mouth disease vaccination in Asian buffalos
• Dr Ravinesh Deo, University of Southern Queensland—Developing resilience to climate change and variability for water resources management and food security with artificial intelligence
• Dr Sergey Kruk, Australian National University—Photonics at the nanoscale: new disruptive ways to control light with nanotechnology
• Dr Morteza Saberi, University of Technology Sydney—Scholarly solution support system
• Dr Fiona Mckay, Deakin University—Documenting the food insecurity experiences and nutritional status of women in India
• Dr Suvash Saha, University of Technology Sydney—Respiratory particle transport: ageing effect and targeted drug delivery
• Dr Jegadesan Subbiah, University of Melbourne—In-situ vibrational spectroscopic studies on the electrode interfacial process for renewable energy storage devices
• Dr Alison Pearce, University of Sydney—The cost of cancer in India: local estimates of lost productivity due to premature cancer mortality
• Dr Shuaifei Zhao, Deakin University—Closing the CO₂ loop in biogas production by innovative membrane technology
• Dr Siva Krishna Karuturi, Australian National University—New-generation materials for low-cost and high efficiency solar hydrogen generation
• Dr Thanh Thi Nguyen, Deakin University—A human–machine teaming framework based on deep reinforcement learning for disaster management
• Dr Sonika Tyagi, Monash University—Using machine learning to develop robust and reproducible miRNA biomarkers to detect preterm labour
• Dr Sanjay Nimbalkar, University of Technology Sydney—Sustainable performance of future high-speed rail and heavy haul freight corridors: effect of climate change and mitigation measures
• Dr Christina Aggar, Southern Cross University—A mobile digital learning program to support nurses’ leadership and communication skills in chronic disease management: a primary healthcare initiative
• Dr Rebecca Zwart, University of Southern Queensland—A genomics approach to understanding root-lesion nematode resistance in chickpea
• Dr Jency Thomas, La Trobe University—Metabolic syndrome influencing neurodegenerative disorder (MIND project)
• Dr Ashmita Sengupta, CSIRO—Developing functional environmental flows framework to enhance resilience and improve water security under climate change and urbanisation scenarios
• Dr Kaya Klop Toker, University of Newcastle—Identification of frog and disease diversity in a remote part of India (Nagaland).

This program is supported by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.