The Australian Academy of Science welcomes Chris Anderson who will commence in the role of Director—Science Policy effective Monday 30 September 2019. 

Academy Chief Executive Anna-Maria Arabia said Chris has outstanding knowledge of the STEM sector, with strong expertise in strategic planning, policy analysis and research. 

“Chris has built excellent relationships, over many years, with STEM sector stakeholders and government agencies,” Ms Arabia said.

“Chris has held senior policy positions in the science and education sectors. In these roles, Chris was the lead advisor on science and research issues, and he developed many high-level policy briefings, reports and submissions.”

Mr Anderson said he was honoured to join the Australian Academy of Science and work with its Fellows, our nation’s top researchers.

“The Academy is the go-to place for independent, high quality scientific advice in Australia,” Mr Anderson said. 

“I look forward to working with the Fellows and staff at the Academy to continue to place science at the centre of public policy.”

Mr Anderson holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Monash University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Melbourne.

He replaces Chris Hatherly who has taken up a role as Executive Director at the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Australia is not in the driving seat when it comes to the digital transformation currently underway worldwide, with scientists today calling on researchers and industry to work together to ensure Australia benefits from a rapidly expanding sector.

That’s the conclusion of a major new plan, Preparing for Australia’s Digital Future, released today by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science.

Australian success stories in digital technology include Atlassian, Technology One, Vitalcare, VPI Photonics and Aconex—but research investment in digital technology is only a tiny fraction of its potential contribution to Australia’s future prosperity.

The plan calls for action on promoting closer partnerships between industry and the research sector to ensure Australia is best placed to realise and capitalise on opportunities in digital technology over the coming decade and beyond.

Professor Glenn Wightwick FTSE, a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering and co-chair of the steering committee that drew up the plan, said: “Digital transformations are continuously and rapidly evolving, driven by aggressive technology progress and accelerating uptake—and Australia is not driving.

“It is essential that, through strategic actions outlined in this plan, we are able to chart our own course.”

Professor Rod Tucker OAM FAA FTSE, a Fellow of the Academy of Science and co-chair, said: “This strategic plan is designed to help Australia do better. Numerous success stories demonstrate our ability to turn excellent science and research into commercial technologies and services that benefit Australia.

“Yet to realise our potential, we need a plan to help Australians recognise, act on and derive as much benefit as possible from opportunities in our digital research and innovation sectors.”

Dr Ziggy Switkowski AO FAA FTSE, Chairman of NBN Co and Chancellor of RMIT University, will join Professors Wightwick and Tucker in speaking at the launch of the report on Wednesday morning.

Dr Switkowski said: “Everywhere we look we see evidence of digital transformations that are shaping Australian society and our economy and which will change this country in the decades ahead.

“In this timely report on digital innovation from two of the Learned Academies, we now have an overarching strategic plan that will help Australians act on and derive as much benefit as possible from opportunities in our digital research and innovation sectors.

“I’m confident this plan can position Australia as a successful, forward-thinking digital nation—one with an enhanced ability to translate our public and private sector ICT research into skills, innovation, public benefit, careers and jobs, and commercial success.”

The plan includes 32 recommendations grouped under five priority areas:

• Encouraging digital leadership in industry
• Fostering research and industry partnership for our digital future
• Safeguarding and strengthening our digital workforce and capability pipeline
• Ensuring whole-of-government action for our digital future
• Delivering research sector reforms

Read the decadal plan

With Nobel Prize winners feted as global celebrities in the science world, it is no surprise that Dr Deepak Jain felt nervous when he approached Professor Donna Strickland at this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting.

The annual meeting in Germany provides an opportunity for the next generation of leading scientists from all over the world to be mentored by Nobel Laureates.

Dr Jain was one of thirteen Australian-based physicists awarded Lindau Fellowships this year by the Australian Academy of Science, thanks to funding from the Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF). The ‘Lindau Aussies’ are well known at these meetings, in part due to the handing out of mini koalas to Nobel Laureates each year.

Dr Jain had been dreaming of visiting Strickland’s lab in Canada for some time. This dream only became stronger when Jain realised Strickland was attending the 2019 meeting, after she became only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.

“At the meeting I plucked up the courage to speak with Professor Strickland and asked if I could visit her lab for a few months, to work under her mentorship,” said Dr Jain, who is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney.

“To my surprise she said yes and now I am planning for the trip, but still need funding to get me there. To work with a Nobel Laureate would be a dream come true. I am really thankful to the Academy and SIEF for giving me this fantastic opportunity, which will add tremendous value to my research career and which I hope comes to fruition.”

SIEF has funded 80 young researchers to attend the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting since 2013. Today the future of the program has been secured with the announcement of $1 million from SIEF to continue funding the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting Fellowships and Heidelberg Fellowships for an additional 10  years.

The announcement comes as 32 alumni of the Lindau Nobel Laureate meetings from the past six years gather for a reunion in Canberra today.

Science leaders welcome funding

Australian Academy of Science President, Professor John Shine, welcomed the funding.

“The impact that this funding will have on the next generation of young scientists is best highlighted by the feedback of those alumni that have attended past Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings,” said Professor Shine.

CSIRO Chief Executive and SIEF Trustee, Dr Larry Marshall, said SIEF and CSIRO shared a mission to invest in the STEM leaders of tomorrow.

“When we invest in developing talented young scientists at the stage in their career where they are most creative, it is an investment in Australia’s future, and plants a seed, stirring them to win Nobel Prizes of their own,” said Dr Marshall.

“So it’s a genuine pleasure to extend SIEF’s support for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Fellowships and Heidelberg Fellowships with another $1 million over ten years, empowering early career researchers to do the science that will change the world.”

PhD candidate Melanie Hampel is researching nuclear astrophysics at Monash University. She also attended this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and sat in on a lecture with Professor Strickland.

“In the open exchange that followed Professor Strickland’s lecture, she answered the questions of many curious young researchers by sharing more anecdotes and stories, from both her professional career and her personal life,” Ms Hampel said.

“To me it was very encouraging and inspiring to be in the presence of such a successful researcher, who is also a mother of two, and who left traditional academia to prioritise her private life before returning to an inspiring career in physics.”

“Meeting so many interesting and talented people has definitely sparked a lot of enthusiasm and inspiration in me, which I have brought back to Australia for my own research.”

Nominations for 2020 now open

Nominations are now open for young researchers to attend the 2020 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Applications close 27 September 2019. 

The Academy has announced the recipients of two travelling fellowships to support outstanding scientists to exchange scientific ideas. The Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship has been awarded to Professor Robert Edwards and the Graeme Caughley Travelling Fellowship has gone to Dr Benjamin Allen.

Professor Robert Edwards is Professor of Computer Science and Biology, and Director of the Biological and Medical Informatics program at San Diego State University. With funding from the Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship he will present his research in Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, and teach a one-week microbiome analysis workshop. Professor Edwards has published leading papers on computer science, biology and bioinformatics, and has developed software that is widely used and cited by researchers around the world.

The Rudi Lemberg Travelling Fellowship commemorates the contributions of Professor Max Rudolph Lemberg FAA FRS to science in Australia. The Fellowship is financed through the generous bequest of Mrs Hanna Lemberg and the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The Graeme Caughley Travelling Fellowship will enable Dr Benjamin Allen, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland’s Institute for Life Sciences and the Environment, to travel to Sri Lanka, Nepal and South Africa. Dr Allen is a highly respected wildlife ecologist who specialises in invasive species and wildlife management, particularly in wild dogs in Australia. On this tour he will share recent Australian advances in best-practice wildlife management with his overseas colleagues.

The Graeme Caughley Travelling Fellowship is offered every two years to an ecologist in Australia or New Zealand, with the purpose of sharing their expertise outside the Fellow’s own country. The Fellowship commemorates the work of Dr G.J. Caughley, FAA in ecology and wildlife management. It is financed through the generosity of his friends and colleagues.

Applications for the Academy’s travelling fellowships will re-open in early 2020.

More about the Academy’s travelling fellowships

“No sector can solve this alone. Leadership is required and it must be accompanied by accountability. We have much to learn from each other.”

ANSTO, Raytheon Australia, Science and Technology Australia and the University of Sydney have heeded this gender equity call and today become the inaugural Champions of the Women in STEM Decadal Plan.

The call for greater accountability and leadership was made by the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering at the launch of the decadal plan earlier this year.

The decadal plan provides a framework to guide the actions of government, industry, academia and the education sector over the next ten years, to achieve gender equity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

Manager of Diversity and Inclusion at The Australian Academy of Science, Louise Moes, said organisations can become a champion by aligning their gender equity activities to the six opportunities outlined in the decadal plan and committing to providing an update on progress in their gender equity journey in 12 months.

“Our inaugural champions have shown they are committed to make the step changes required to realise the vision of the decadal plan, have begun taking action to achieve change and want to share their journey with others,” Ms Moes said.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews called on more organisations to become Women in STEM Decadal Plan Champions.

“Women make up sixteen percent of the STEM workforce in Australia, so help is needed to encourage more women to the STEM sector and keep them there,” Minister Andrews said.

“We need your support and we want to know what your organisation is doing and how we can help you bring about this much needed change.

To discover and collaborate with champions’ activities, to become a champion or for more information visit: www.science.org.au/womeninstemchampions

The Academy will host champion responses on the STEM Women website, to provide a platform to share knowledge, act, evaluate and create accountability.

What do patting a Thylacene, life-changing science, bees’ eyes and a Spinosaurus have in common? They were all part of the Academy's celebration of National Science Week, which engaged thousands of people across the country at events and online.

For the first time the Academy joined forces with BeakerStreet@TMAG, a pop-up science bar in Hobart which merged science with music, food and drinks, art and entertainment. Four talks featuring Academy Fellows were held on Friday 16 August at the Hobart Town Hall as part of the Beaker Street festivities.

Academy Fellows Professor Martina Stenzel, Dr Steve Rintoul, Professor Jenny Graves and Professor Mike Archer each spoke in conversation with Fellow Professor Robyn Williams or Natasha Mitchell of the ABC. The scientists fascinated their audiences with stories of their work: the many uses for the elements of the periodic table, resurrecting extinct species, genes that determine sex in animals, and the warming of the Southern Ocean. Almost 400 people attended these engaging talks.

The Academy hosted a Canberra Speaker Series event highlighting the science of the cochlear implant also during National Science Week. Speakers and Academy Fellows Professor Graeme Clark, developer of the cochlear implant, and Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, renowned food scientist whose life was changed by cochlear implants, told the story of how this science changes lives.

School students took up the challenge and got creative with the periodic table and the elements in the scienceXart competition hosted by the Academy’s National Committee for Chemistry, with the winners experiencing a ‘behind the science’ tour of Canberra. Year 2 student Makan Wang even created a dinosaur using sulfur, phosphorus, indium, oxygen, gold and ruthenium—a Spinosaurus!

To further shine a light on scientific excellence, the Academy profiled three exceptional Australian scientists and Academy Fellows on the National Science Week blog: Professor Kerrie Mengersen, Professor Toby Walsh and Professor Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan. Read about their research and achievements

The Academy’s Shine Dome also played host to InterACTive, a family-friendly afternoon of captivating science-related talks, performances, workshops, exhibits and discussions. Over 3000 people attended this weekend event in Canberra, engaging in topics from drones to the Moon and exploring the heritage-listed building.

National Science Week ran from 10–18 August and involved more than 1 million people in 2000 events across Australia. More about National Science Week

It was a stunning admission by one of the leaders in the global fight against genetically modified food.

“As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counterproductive path and now I regret it completely.”

The dramatic about-face by leading British author, journalist and environmental activist, Mark Lynas, who is now a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University, was brought about by understanding the science.

To help more people understand the evidence, the Australian Academy of Science is today releasing a Q&A on genetic modification (GM) that tackles some of the big questions.

The release of the booklet comes as South Australia plans to lift its ban on growing GM crops on the mainland, and Tasmania extends its moratorium for another 10 years. Meanwhile, the Australian Greens have moved to disallow proposed amendments to the Gene Technology Regulations 2019.

The Academy has written to the crossbench, Greens, Labor and Government MPs to indicate it does not support the disallowance motion, which is expected to come to a vote in the September sitting weeks.

Academy Fellow and plant scientist, Dr TJ Higgins, said many in the Australian community are looking for answers to the questions about the science of genetic modification.

“The latest research by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator found knowledge about what foods in Australia are genetically modified is generally poor. A simple google search demonstrates just how much conflicting and inaccurate information there is out there on genetic modification,” said Dr Higgins.

“This research also shows that while only 13% of Australians said they supported GM foods, 50% also gave conditional support. The conditional support of those who stated ‘Yes but…..’ relied on a desire to be assured GM products are regulated, or to know whether they have environmental or health benefits.”

The booklet provides a clear, concise description of genetic modification technology and draws on the knowledge and expertise of the Academy’s distinguished Fellows and the Australian science community.

It highlights the benefits of GM products which include: a significant reduction in the use of chemical insecticides and improved productivity of existing agricultural land, which both contribute to reduced CO₂ emissions; improved nutritional value from enriched crops; and increased farm incomes.

Academy Fellow and biochemist Professor Marilyn Anderson said one of the most common questions around genetic modification covered in the booklet is ‘are GM products safe?’

“The international scientific consensus is that after 20 years of commercial use, GM technologies used to date pose no greater risk to human health or the environment than similar products derived from traditional breeding and selection processes,” said Professor Anderson.

“Regulators are confident that the GM organisms and products approved so far are as safe as their conventional counterparts.”

Read the Q&A here: www.science.org.au/genetic-modification

Four Academy Fellows have been announced as finalists for the 2019 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

Professor Terry Hughes is part of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, which is a finalist in the NSW Environment, Energy and Science (DPIE) Eureka Prize for Environmental Research.

Professor Stephen MacMahon and Professor Branka Vucetic are finalists in the CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science.

Professor Michelle Coote is part of the Invisible Catalyst team, which is a finalist for the UNSW Eureka Prize for Scientific Research.

50 entries were shortlisted for 17 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes this year. Read about all the Eureka Prize finalists.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday 28 August.

A nation where the traditional knowledge and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples are highly valued and respected by all Australians is the vision for the Australian Academy of Science’s Reconciliation Action Plan, launched today.

Australian Academy of Science President, Professor John Shine, said reconciliation is a journey the Academy is proudly committed to taking.

“Our nation’s future, based on a knowledge economy, will be driven by embracing skills, knowledge and experience from a diverse range of people,” Professor Shine said.

“It is important that this includes and recognises that for tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have had a strong connection to and knowledge of this land, its waterways, oceans and abundant flora and fauna.

“It is crucial that we create opportunities to work respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to address issues that impact them and to support their participation in the Academy’s scientific, policy, international and communication activities.

“The Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan commences a journey where, as one, we can use science to create a better nation and a better world.

“This, our first Reconciliation Action Plan, outlines the practical steps we will take to support positive change and facilitate reconciliation.  In adopting better practices within the Academy, we hope that the Academy can model, encourage and influence greater diversity and inclusion across the STEM sector nationally,” Professor Shine said.

Kamilaroi Water Scientist Bradley Moggridge from the University of Canberra said it had been great to watch a group of committed people and an organisation grow, accept, question itself, develop and hopefully thrive in a space outside of the normal science box.

“With RA’s support this RAP is a perfect start to change,” said Mr Moggridge, who was part of the Academy’s Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group.

The Academy’s Reconciliation Action Plan acknowledges work already underway including:

• an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scientist award launched in 2018 to support emerging scientists
• continued support of the Douglas and Lola Douglas Scholarship in Medical Science; awarded to a top-ranked PhD candidate in Indigenous health research
• the Academy’s school education programs, which have provided professional learning to hundreds of teachers around Australia and have reached many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and students.

Future actions and opportunities outlined in the plan include:

• investigating how the Academy’s national reach and influence may be able to support the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in science, though initiatives such as a professional mentoring program that involves Fellows and National Committee members
• exploring different perspectives of science with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures
• implementing policies to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment, including developing and implementing a policy to attract, develop, and retain Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff to the Academy, incorporating the Indigenous Traineeship Program.

Read the Academy's Reconciliation Action Plan plan

For her contribution to the advancement of gender equality across Australia, Academy Fellow Professor Tanya Monro is the South Australian recipient of the 2019 Australian Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership.

The Awards for Excellence in Women’s Leadership recognise the contribution of women at a National and State/Territory level. More specifically the awards ‘recognise individual women that have, through their actions, improved the likelihood of other women within their field of endeavour having greater access to leadership equality.’

Professor Monro said she was honoured to receive the award.

“Organisations that can create cultures where talent of a diverse workforce can contribute and where people thrive, will ultimately deliver the best outcomes,” Professor Monro said.

In January Professor Monro became the first woman to lead Australia's Defence Science and Technology, replacing newly elected Academy Fellow Professor Alex Zelinsky as Chief Defence Scientist. When she was elected in 2012 Professor Monro became one of the youngest living Fellows of the Academy.

Throughout her career the physicist has also been an advocate for diversity and inclusion and a champion of the Academy’s Science in Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative.

See the full list of 2019 Australian Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership recepients.