Outstanding contributions to science have been recognised by the Australian Academy of Science today with 18 of Australia’s leading scientists and future superstars receiving prestigious 2018 honorific awards.

The scientists’ discoveries cross the breadth of science, from the threat posed by the melting ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, to solving the mysteries of the universe and interpreting how disruptions of brain connectivity can lead to mental illness.

Professor David Cooke from the University of Tasmania has been awarded one of the top honours, the Academy’s Haddon Forrester King Medal and Lecture. Others recognised among the Academy’s lifetime achievement awards include Professor Douglas MacFarlane from Monash University, awarded the 2018 David Craig Medal. 

Mid-career researcher Dr Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, has been awarded the 2018 Nancy Millis Medal for Women in Science. Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth from James Cook University has been awarded the Dorothy Hill Medal. She is one of 10 early career researchers to be recognised in this year’s annual awards. 

Read more about the awardees and their research

Read the Academy's media release

Recipients

Career honorifics (for lifelong achievement)

• 2018 David Craig Medal—Professor Douglas MacFarlane FAA FTSE, Monash University
• 2018 Haddon Forrester King Medal and Lecture—Professor David Cooke, University of Tasmania
• 2018 Mawson Medal and Lecture—Professor Matt King, University of Tasmania
• 2018 Ian Wark Medal and Lecture—Professor Calum Drummond, RMIT University
• 2018 Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture—Professor Geoffrey Burnstock FAA FRS, University of Melbourne (previously announced)

Mid-career honorifics (8—15 years post-PhD)

• 2018 Gustav Nossal Medal for Global Health—Professor Anushka Patel, UNSW Sydney
• 2018 Jacques Miller Medal for Experimental Biomedicine—Professor Swaminathan Iyer, University of Western Australia
• 2018 Nancy Millis Medal for Women in Science—Dr Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Early career honorifics (up to 10 years post-PhD)

• 2018 John Booker Medal—Associate Professor Shanyong Wang, University of Newcastle
• 2018 Frederick White Medal—Dr Alex Sen Gupta, UNSW Sydney
• 2018 Christopher Heyde Medal—Dr Zdravko Botev, UNSW Sydney
• 2018 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal—Dr Irina Voineagu, UNSW Sydney
• 2018 Fenner Medal—Dr Ceridwen Fraser, Australian National University
• 2018 Anton Hales Medal—Dr Rhodri Davies, Australian National University
• 2018 Gottschalk Medal—Associate Professor Alex Fornito, Monash University
• 2018 Pawsey Medal—Dr Paul Lasky, Monash University
• 2018 Dorothy Hill Award—Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth, James Cook University
• 2018 Le Févre Medal—Associate Professor Amir Karton, University of Western Australia

The majority of the awards will be presented at the Academy’s annual signature science event, 'Science at the Shine Dome', on 24 May 2018.

Outstanding contributions to science have been recognised by the Australian Academy of Science today with 18 of Australia’s leading scientists and future superstars receiving prestigious 2018 honorific awards.

The scientists’ discoveries cross the breadth of science, from the threat posed by the melting ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, to solving the mysteries of the universe and interpreting how disruptions of brain connectivity can lead to mental illness.

Professor David Cooke from the University of Tasmania has been awarded one of the top honours, the Academy’s Haddon Forrester King Medal and Lecture. His investigations into the geological processes that produce copper-gold deposits as a result of fluids released from magma deep within the Earth’s crust, have transformed geochemical exploration techniques used by mining and resource companies around the world.

Others recognised among the Academy’s lifetime achievement awards include Professor Douglas MacFarlane from Monash University, awarded the 2018 David Craig Medal. His discovery and research on ionic liquids (salt compounds that are liquid at or around room temperature) has resulted in major advances in solar cell and battery storage technology. His research group has also pioneered the use of ionic liquids in new pharmaceutical products which have opened up new treatments, including a topical treatment for skin cancer.

Mid-career researcher Dr Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, has been awarded the 2018 Nancy Millis Medal for Women in Science. Combining data-crunching with a genetic approach, Dr Asselin-Labat’s research has provided new insights into the development of lung diseases such as lung cancer and emphysema. Her team has demonstrated for the first time that some lung cell types are more efficient than others in repairing their DNA following exposure to damage.

Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth from James Cook University has been awarded the Dorothy Hill Medal. She is one of 10 early career researchers to be recognised in this year’s annual awards. Her research has improved our understanding of how stress responses and diseases occur in corals. Associate Professor Ainsworth has also discovered that while small increases in sea temperatures negatively impact the health of corals, under the right circumstances corals can acclimate to increased sea temperatures and survive the bleaching process.

President of the Academy of Science, Professor Andrew Holmes, congratulated all the award winners for their inspiring research.

“Research by this year’s awardees is addressing some of society’s biggest challenges and also changing the world for the better. It is absolutely crucial that we continue to recognise and support their outstanding contributions so that people continue to be reminded of the important role of science for humankind,” Professor Holmes said.

Read more about the awardees and their research.

The awards go to:

Career honorifics (for lifelong achievement)

2018 David Craig Medal—Professor Douglas MacFarlane FAA FTSE, Monash University

2018 Haddon Forrester King Medal and Lecture—Professor David Cooke, University of Tasmania

2018 Mawson Medal and Lecture—Professor Matt King, University of Tasmania

2018 Ian Wark Medal and Lecture—Professor Calum Drummond, RMIT University

2018 Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture—Professor Geoffrey Burnstock FAA FRS, University of Melbourne (previously announced)

Mid-career honorifics (8—15 years post-PhD)

2018 Gustav Nossal Medal for Global Health—Professor Anushka Patel, UNSW Sydney

2018 Jacques Miller Medal for Experimental Biomedicine—Professor Swaminathan Iyer, University of Western Australia

2018 Nancy Millis Medal for Women in Science—Dr Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Early career honorifics (up to 10 years post-PhD)

2018 John Booker Medal—Associate Professor Shanyong Wang, University of Newcastle

2018 Frederick White Medal—Dr Alex Sen Gupta, UNSW Sydney

2018 Christopher Heyde Medal—Dr Zdravko Botev, UNSW Sydney

2018 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal—Dr Irina Voineagu, UNSW Sydney

2018 Fenner Medal—Dr Ceridwen Fraser, Australian National University

2018 Anton Hales Medal—Dr Rhodri Davies, Australian National University

2018 Gottschalk Medal—Associate Professor Alex Fornito, Monash University

2018 Pawsey Medal—Dr Paul Lasky, Monash University

2018 Dorothy Hill Award—Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth, James Cook University

2018 Le Févre Medal—Associate Professor Amir Karton, University of Western Australia

The majority of the awards will be presented at the Academy’s annual signature science event, 'Science at the Shine Dome', on 24 May 2018.

The importance of improving our understanding of the changing Australian diet has been recognised with a $118,000 grant to develop a national 10-year plan for nutrition science.

This is one of two Australian Academy of Science projects to receive Australian Research Council funding as part of the Council’s Learned Academies Special Projects (LASP) scheme.

The second project—to identify the challenges and opportunities associated with big data in Australian research—has received $210,000.

The two projects are among five to receive a total of $1.15 million from the scheme, announced today by Education Minister Simon Birmingham.

The objective of the scheme is to support the development of Australian research by providing funding to Australia’s learned academies.

The funding was announced alongside grants for the Discovery, Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards, Discovery Indigenous and Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities programs.

‘Nourishing Australia: A decadal plan for nutrition science’ will be led by Chief Investigators and Academy Fellows Professor Stephen Simpson from the University of Sydney and CSIRO’s Dr TJ Higgins. They will develop a plan to address the complex health and environmental challenges associated with changes in food production and consumption.

‘Big data in Australian research: issues, challenges and opportunities’ will be led by Academy Fellow Professor Michael Barber from Flinders University. The project will explore better utilisation of big data for the research sector by mapping existing capability and infrastructure within and across disciplines and identifying challenges and opportunities.

PhD students Ms Melissa Houghton from the University of Queensland and Mrs Charlie Phelps from Edith Cowan University are the 2018 recipients of the Australian Academy of Science Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award.

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, who spent a lifetime championing entomology, conservation and forestry, as well as helping other scientists. He died in July this year aged 101.

Ms Houghton will use the award to conduct the first study of insects, spiders and other organisms without a backbone (invertebrates) on Macquarie Island since the eradication of rabbits, rats and mice in 2014. The World Heritage Listed subantarctic island is located in the Southern Ocean, approximately half way between Australia and Antarctica.

As a dog handler Ms Houghton took part in the successful eradication mission on the island. Now she is studying the island’s 300 native and 50 non-native invertebrate species and their interactions to determine how Macquarie Island’s complex ecosystem is recovering and changing following the conservation effort.

Ms Houghton said invertebrates are often overlooked in conservation science and rarely included in biodiversity monitoring or conservation management.

“Yet they are highly sensitive to environmental change and are great indicators for the health of an ecosystem. How they respond to environmental change enables meaningful assessments of benefit and return-on-investment for large-scale Australian conservation actions, such as island eradications,” Ms Houghton said.

Ms Houghton will return to the island in January for her third and final invertebrate survey. Ms Houghton is supported by the National Environmental Science Programme, Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Mrs Charlie Phelps will study the effects of bacteria, increasing temperature and kelp-eating organisms (herbivory) on the ecologically-important kelp, Ecklonia radiata, sometimes referred to as the ‘biological engineers of temperate Australian reefs’.

The kelp provides habitat and shelter for many marine animals and juvenile fish, enhances biodiversity, assists in nutrient cycling and supports the fishing and tourism industries.

Bleaching of the kelp, where the surface tissue turns white, can have a drastic effect on its health and can lead to death. Increasing water temperatures and bacteria have been identified as possible causes. Mrs Phelps’ study will be the first to inoculate the kelp with microbial pathogens and use interactive stressors (temperature and herbivory) to help determine the extent of bleaching from a type of bacteria known as R10.

Mrs Phelps said she will put bacteria and sea urchins into 40 tanks containing the kelp and simulate several different environmental conditions to see how the kelp responds.

“This research will help inform how the kelp may respond to future heatwave scenarios and other factors, such as the impacts of a tropical herbivore species that could potentially over eat the temperate kelp,” Mrs Phelps said.

Ms Houghton and Mrs Phelps will receive their awards at the Academy’s annual signature science event Science at the Shine Dome on 23 May 2018.

Two researchers were also highly commended for the Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award:

• Dr Tatiana Soares Da Costa from La Trobe University for her project ‘Development of New Herbicide Cocktails for Effective Weed Management’.
• Dr Emma Camp from the University of Technology Sydney for her project ‘Set-Up For Survival – The Holobiont Signature Facilitating Australia’s Coral Communities In The Face Of Climate Change’.

More information about the awards can be found here.

Media contact: Dan Wheelahan – ph: 0435 930 465 – dan.wheelahan@science.org.au

Australian biochemist and molecular biologist Professor John Shine AC has been elected President of the Australian Academy of Science.

Professor Shine became world-renowned for a series of discoveries he made between 1975 and 1985 that furthered our understanding of genes.

He cloned the first human hormone genes, and in the process developed sophisticated gene cloning techniques that helped transform the world of biotechnology.

In his earlier roles in the US biotechnology industry and as Chairman of CSL for the past six years, Professor Shine has a long standing commitment to the translation of research discoveries into advances in health care for the social and economic benefit of the community.

Professor Shine was elected to the Academy in 1994. The Academy’s home, previously known as Becker House, was named the Shine Dome in 2000 in recognition of a $1 million donation made by Professor Shine to help restore the building, one of the most iconic and distinctive in Australia.

Professor Shine was also Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research from 1990 to 2012. He still runs his own lab at the institute, investigating the gene mutations responsible for inherited kidney disorders. 

Other Fellows elected to the Academy’s Council include:

• Professor Elaine Sadler—Foreign Secretary
• Professor Hans Bachor AM—Secretary Education and Public Awareness
• Professor Wendy Hoy AO—Member (Biological Sciences)
• Professor Marilyn Anderson AO—Member (Biological Sciences)
• Professor Frances Separovic—Member (Physical Sciences)
• Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop—Member (Physical Sciences)

Positions will commence after the AGM at the Academy’s annual signature science event ‘Science at the Shine Dome’ on 24 May 2018.

Read the Academy's media release about the announcement

Australia’s role in looking for life on Mars

In the final fascinating event of this year's Canberra speaker series, the Deputy Director of UNSW’s Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Dr Carol Oliver, will explain how Australia is involved in the search for life on Mars. 

5 December at the Shine Dome, Canberra

More information

Brains at the Dome

This one-day program will feature presentations and a panel discussion with senior representatives of the brain science programs in Europe, the US, China, Japan, Korea and Israel, along with Australian brain scientists and representatives of Australian and international neurotechnology companies, and industry groups. 

7 December at the Shine Dome, Canberra

More information

David Craig Medal lectures

Professor David St Clair Black AO FAA is the recipient of the 2017 David Craig Medal and Lecture and will be presenting lectures on molecular design and synthesis in Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Brisbane between November and March.

More information

Selby Travelling Fellowship

Recipient of the 2017 Selby Travelling Fellowship, Professor Xi-Cheng Zhang, is presenting two lectures in three locations in December. The first is Next rays? T-rays! in Melbourne and Adelaide, and the second topic of Puzzle of Terahertz wave emission from liquid water with ultrafast laser pulses will be delivered in Wollongong.

Frew Fellowship Lectures

During November and December, Professor Albert Polman is delivering the 2017 Frew Lecture at the Australia New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics in New Zealand, as well as lectures on light management in photovoltaic materials in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. 

More information

Dear Fellows and friends of the Academy

This month we are delighted to share with you news of the Academy’s recently elected incoming President, Professor John Shine AC FAA. Professor Shine will commence in the role in May 2018 and we very much look forward to working with him to continue to advance science in Australia.  Read about Professor Shine’s work, as well as the newly elected Council members who will commence at the same time.

Joint meeting of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Sciences Council (ISSC)

I attended the ICSU–ISSC joint meeting in Taipei at the end of October together with President Andrew Holmes, Foreign Secretary Cheryl Praeger, and colleagues Nancy Pritchard and Imran Ahmad. 

It was a historic occasion as the meeting agreed to merge two international organisations to form the International Science Council (ISC) whose vision will be to advance all sciences as a global public good. The new council brings together some 40 international scientific unions and associations, and more than 140 national and regional organisations such as academies and research councils. 

The newly formed organisation will continue to be involved in safeguarding the rights of scientists to undertake science freely, without discrimination and with integrity. The global organisation will also maintain a research program on global scientific matters. 

ISC will continue to work closely with the Global Young Academy—a global network of early- and mid-career researchers who are genuinely inspirational. The future is in safe hands with young leaders like these!

I believe ISC’s outcomes will be greater by working with social scientists than by working alone and I very much look forward to maintaining and growing the Academy’s engagement with the newly formed body. Read the Academy’s story welcoming the merger

Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

We have celebrated the awarding to Academy Fellow Professor Jenny Graves AO FAA of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Professor Graves is the first woman to win this prize in her own right. Her transformational scientific work in understanding how humans and all vertebrate animals evolved and function has been accompanied by a deep commitment to training and mentoring the next generation of scientists; progressing the science education agenda; and making progress towards gender equity in science. Congratulations Jenny! Learn more about Jenny’s work

Professor Graves has won many international awards including the 2006 L’Oréal-UNESCO Laureate Fellowship for Women in Science. Recently I had the opportunity to deliver the keynote address at the 2017 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards. 

This months’ newsletter also includes a snapshot of Australia’s involvement in the neutron star collision detection and lots of information about forthcoming opportunities for scientists and events.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition and please be free to contact me at any time.

Anna-Maria Arabia
Chief Executive

Academy Fellow Professor Jenny Graves AO has been awarded the prestigious 2017 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for her pioneering investigations of the genetics of sex.

Professor Graves has transformed our understanding of how humans and all vertebrate animals evolved and function. She has kick-started genomic and epigenetic research in Australia, and predicted the disappearance of the male chromosome.

She has used marsupials and monotremes, birds and lizards to understand the complexity of the human genome and to reveal new human genes. She has transformed our understanding of how sex chromosomes work and how they evolved, predicting the decline of the Y chromosome.

Her research has contributed to a deeper understanding of the immune system, prion diseases and blood proteins, and helped understanding of the tumour driving the Tasmanian devil to extinction.

The wider scientific impacts of Professor Graves’s include deepening the understanding of animal chromosome and genome evolution and its relationship with speciation, finding the chromosome changes involved in the fatal transmissible facial tumour of the Tasmanian devil, and discovering 14 novel human genes, including one which is critical for brain development.

She has also pioneered the fields of comparative genomics and epigenetics globally, been the driving force behind sequencing the first marsupial and monotreme genomes, published more than 440 scholarly works which have been cited more than 17,000 times, and won many international awards.

Many of the scientists she has trained now occupy senior positions in science, medicine, industry and academia.

Knowing that engagement with science starts early, Professor Graves used her position as Secretary of Education at the Academy to advance inquiry-based school science programs in Australia. As the Academy’s Foreign Secretary and a member of international boards, she advocated progressive approaches in Asia.

She has been a role model for girls and women in science in Australia. She was first to introduce measures into the Academy to remove gender bias from election to Fellowship. This was the forerunner of several highly effective equity programs spearheaded by the Academy. Her Academy positions also allowed her to agitate for gender equity internationally.

Academy award winners recognised

Two recipients of Academy awards were also recognised in the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science.

Professor Jian Yang, winner of the Academy's 2015 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal, won the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year for creating ways to understand inherited traits and the human genome, while Distinguished Professor Dayong Jin, winner of the Academy's 2017 John Booker Medal, won the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for creating new technologies to image the processes of life.

Professor Jin and Professor Yang are both former participants in the long-running Australia–China symposia series, and Professor Jin was the Australian nominee for the 2017 ASPIRE Prize.

More about the recipients of the 2017 Prime Minister's Prizes for Science

Do baby simulators reduce pregnancies? What can Viking poo reveal about our past? Does the world have enough food? Could a black hole swallow Earth?

These are just some of the everyday questions the Australian Academy of Science will ask (and answer!) as it launches an ambitious new initiative to connect more people with science. Increasingly the public needs a trusted, credible source they can rely on for scientific information to inform their decisions.

Academy President, Professor Andrew Holmes, said no matter your background, age or education level, every person should be able to access and appreciate the wonders of science.

‘Science is all around us and we want people to discover that. However, we recognise that often the way science is presented can be hard to understand and somewhat dull—we’re about to change that,’ Professor Holmes said.

Using the latest digital grammar and a social-first publishing approach, the highest quality Australian and international science will be delivered globally on the Academy’s Facebook page. The Academy is the brains trust of science in Australia, meaning the best scientists in the country are ensuring content quality. Chinese speaking audiences will be able to access translated content on social media platforms Weibo and Toutiao.

The ANU’s 2017 Australian Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Science survey found just over half the Australian population (54%) reported having a conversation about science most days.

‘Through entertaining and informative content we hope to spark many more conversations about science—an engaged public is so important at a time when science is at the centre of so many critical public policy decisions,’ Professor Holmes said. 

‘The rise of ‘fake news’ has also caught audiences in the middle of a tug-of-war between authenticity and click-bait. We believe credible and verified content has never been more important, to meet a renewed public appetite for scientifically sourced information.’

The Academy is working in partnership with Adam Boland, who reinvented Australian breakfast television and was head of video at NewsDNA (NewsCorp). Boland joins the Academy as Executive Producer of the Academy’s video content. Paul Richards, former Supervising Producer at Channel Seven’s Sunrise, has also joined the Academy and has thrown his talent and skill behind this project.

Find the new content on the Academy's Facebook page or at www.science.org.au/curious.

Print the flyer for the new project (PDF 1.5mb)

More than 300 mathematics teachers across the country are meeting this month to begin a 12-month journey to become Champions of reSolve: Maths by Inquiry, a new national program designed to transform the way the subject is taught in Australian schools.

A 2015 international assessment measuring 15 year-olds’ ability to use their maths knowledge and skills to meet real life challenges found Australia ranked equal 20th compared to the rest of the world, with Australian achievement in this area on a continuous downward trend since 2003.

The program, an initiative of the Australia Government Department of Education and Training, is managed by the Australian Academy of Science in collaboration with the Australian Association of Mathematics (AAMT). It provides Australian school teachers in Foundation to Year 10 with resources to help students learn mathematics in an innovative and engaging way.

Academy President Professor Andrew Holmes said the workshops, which are being rolled out across the country, mark an important milestone in the program.

“The workshops will provide an opportunity for the Champions to come together, learn from each other, and utilise the excellent reSolve resources,” Professor Holmes said.

“The Academy is delighted with the progress of the reSolve project to date. It has produced teaching and professional learning resources that are innovative, engaging and that promote a spirit of inquiry in school mathematics”.

The President of AAMT, Ms Allason McNamara, said AAMT is proud to partner with Australia’s leading scientific organisation to deliver the Champions element of the reSolve project.

According to Ms McNamara, the reSolve Champions have volunteered to undertake this program because they are committed to sharing their knowledge with colleagues as well as ensuring that all their students enjoy the best mathematics teaching.

AAMT counts among its members thousands of Australia’s leading mathematics teachers and university educators. It has a long history of promoting excellence in mathematics teaching and learning.

Executive Director of reSolve: Maths by Inquiry, Dr Steve Thornton, said the resources have been developed by Australian teachers and academics and informed by world best practice.

“Resources alone do not make the difference. That is why the Champions are such an important part of this project. They will promote the reSolve spirit of inquiry across Australia now and into the future,” Dr Thornton said.