Associate Professor Amy Cain, Macquarie University

Antibiotic resistance is predicted to cause 10 million deaths per year by 2050 – more than all cancers combined. This is because our trusty miracle drugs – antibiotics – no longer work against deadly infectious bacteria. Shockingly, we have next to no new antibiotics in the discovery pipeline and a lack of financial incentives for pharmaceutical companies have left academics to drive development of these life-saving drugs. Associate Professor Amy Cain’s research bridges a key gap between finding promising drug targets in bacteria and developing potent new antibiotics. She is developing and applying new technologies to the most deadly hospital bacteria to build blueprints of how their genes adapt during treatment with existing antibiotics, revealing hidden weaknesses that can be targeted with new drugs. She has also established Australia’s first ‘Galleria Research Facility’, an ethical, high-throughput insect model. She uses this to screen drug effectiveness and toxicity, bringing promising new antibiotics closer to human use.

Associate Professor Shom Goel, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Associate Professor Shom Goel is an oncologist and scientist at the University of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Over recent years, his laboratory research has sought to identify and understand treatments that block cancer cell division, with a focus on breast cancer. Through this work, he has made seminal discoveries that have changed the way we think about cancer cell division, cancer immunology, and cancer epigenetics. Importantly, these findings have led Associate Professor Goel to design novel therapeutic approaches for breast cancer and spearhead the translation of his findings into the clinic. The encouraging results from initial trials have triggered him to initiate two global studies that could change breast cancer treatment paradigms within the next 12 months. Importantly, the most recent lab discoveries from the Goel lab have further advanced thinking in this field and are driving the development of yet another generation of novel cancer therapies

Professor Eric Chow, Monash University

Approximately 570,000 cancer cases in women and 60,000 in men are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus transmitted through sexual contact causing cervical, throat, genital and anal cancers. The HPV vaccine can protect women from cervical cancers, but Professor Eric Chow’s work has shown that the same vaccine can also protect men from HPV-related throat and ano-genital cancers, paving the way for new vaccination strategies, particularly in men. In the area of gonorrhoea transmission (more than 82 million cases world-wide annually), his research has identified kissing as the major means of transmission – rewriting 100-year-old paradigms. This finding will drive changes in future sexual health education programs relating to safer sex. Professor Chow has also contributed greatly to understanding changes in transmission of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) in the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging outbreaks of non-classical STIs such as hepatitis A and mpox. Cumulatively, he has made an exceptional contribution to the field of sexual health.

Associate Professor Kirsty Short, University of Queensland

Associate Professor Kirsty Short’s work focuses on pandemic preparedness, with a specific goal to use basic research to improve clinical care and public health policy in the case of a viral outbreak. She has provided some of the first clinical and experimental evidence that overweight, obesity and diabetes affect the severity of both influenza and COVID-19. Associate Professor Short has also played an important role in defining the role of children in spreading SARSCoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Her work has resulted in high impact publications, improved public health and clinical care.

Professor Si Ming Man, Australian National University

Professor Si Ming Man’s work has significantly advanced our understanding of inflammation as an underlying mechanism of health and disease. His achievements are focused in three areas: (1) Identifying the parts of microbes that cause inflammation during infection and the molecules in our immune system that trigger this response. This work may lead to targeted treatments for diseases caused by too much inflammation, for example sepsis, food poisoning and gout. (2) Uncovering previously unknown molecules made by our bodies that directly attack microbes and working out if these can be turned into treatments that will work against bacteria, including those that are resistant to current antibiotics. (3) He discovered that some of the same molecules used by our immune system to detect and respond to microbes by initiating inflammation are also important in preventing cancer. This discovery might be useful in diagnosis or predicting outcomes in cancer or may offer clues to cancer prevention. 

Dr Alisa Glukhova, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

All cellular organisms exchange information with their environment in the form of chemical molecules or light, electrical or physical stimuli. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are primary information sensors at the cell surface and are major drug targets for a multitude of conditions. Dr Alisa Glukhova is using structural biology approaches to understand the biology of GPCRs and, specifically, how these receptors recognise chemical signals and how they transmit these signals inside the cell. Her research provided the first structural insights into the activation mechanism of the A1 adenosine receptor, a target for pain management and heart disease, opening possibilities for structure-based drug design. Her current work, in collaboration with researchers from Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, aims to understand the biology of other members of adenosine receptor family and identify novel mechanisms for targeting them, either through unconventional binding sites or by altering their signalling path. The current research in her lab at WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) is focused on understanding the structural basis of Wnt signalling that involves a different GPCR family that is a major target for cancer therapeutics.

Associate Professor Francine Marques, Monash University

Associate Professor Marques is an emerging global leader in cardiovascular research, who has shown how more dietary fibre will improve our blood pressure and lower chances of serious disease. Uncontrolled high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, can frequently lead to cardiovascular disease, and is the main risk factor for death globally. Yet in too many cases, hypertension is a direct result of our low-fibre, high-sodium Western diet. Through a series of influential and award-winning studies, Associate Professor Marques and her team have shown how gut microbes ferment fibre to create ‘cardio-protective’ molecules, which lower blood pressure and improve heart stiffness. 

These findings are important, because they mean we could treat or prevent cardiovascular disease through better diets and improved gut health.

Associate Professor Muireann Irish, University of Sydney

Dementia is one of the most pressing concerns for our aging society. Despite significant advances in dementia research, it remains challenging to accurately screen for subtle changes in behaviour and cognition at the earliest stages of the disease. 

Dr Muireann Irish’s research has systematically mapped how alterations in the brain’s grey and white matter contribute to memory dysfunction across different dementia syndromes. Her ground-breaking work has further uncovered that in parallel with loss of memory for the past, individuals with dementia have marked difficulties thinking about the future. 

Dr Irish is now developing novel approaches to screen for the earliest signs of underlying brain pathology, long before overt signs of dementia emerge. Her research vision is to advance early detection and swift intervention in dementia to improve quality of life for all affected.

Associate Professor Laura Mackay, Doherty Institute

Associate Professor Mackay’s work contributed to identifying a subset of immune cells, called tissue-resident memory T cells, which provide front-line defence for the body against repeated infection. Her work represented a paradigm shift in thinking about T cell immunity as these tissue-resident memory T cells reside permanently within body tissues and are distinct from the blood populations that are primed in lymphoid organs. Tissue-resident T cells have been found in a variety of tissues throughout the body and Associate Professor Mackay’s ongoing work has provided a new understanding of the body’s immune defences and their role in combating infectious disease. Associate Professor Mackay’s future research is directed toward harnessing these cells to create new therapies for infectious disease, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.

Associate Professor Alex Fornito, Monash University

Associate Professor Alex Fornito’s research aims to understand what the extraordinarily complex network of nerve cells connected by trillions of fibres means for human brain function, and how disruptions of brain connectivity can lead to mental illness. His innovative research combines brain imaging with techniques from psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, genetics, physics and mathematics to map and model the brain as an interconnected system. The ultimate aim is to understand how brain network function supports behaviour and track how disruption to this process causes disease.

2017

Associate Professor Kathryn Elizabeth Holt, University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Holt’s current research tracks the evolution and spread of deadly infectious diseases and the development of antibiotic resistance in Australia and developing countries. Her in-depth studies on the evolution of specific pathogen populations use the most advanced DNA sequencing technologies that allow detailed comparisons of the genomes of hundreds of closely related isolates of the same pathogen. These have revealed how pathogens are evolving in response to exposure to antibiotics, vaccine-induced immunity, or natural host immunity. Her work has provided important advances in understanding disease transmission, control of infection and informs public health policy and practice.

2016

Professor Ostoja Steve Vucic, Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney

Professor Vucic is a translational researcher, whose pioneering research has uncovered novel mechanisms that underlie the development of neurodegeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He has identified important processes that contribute to the triggering of ALS, leading to the identification of novel therapeutic targets and therapeutic approaches. In addition, Professor Vucic has invented a much needed diagnostic technique for ALS, enabling an earlier diagnosis of ALS at a point where the disease may be amenable to neuroprotective therapies, and this technique has also enabled an earlier recruitment of patients into clinical trials. Professor Vucic has also made significant research contributions in the understanding of molecular and genetic processes underlying relapsing and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis, leading to development of novel treatments for these chronic diseases.

2015

Dr Peter Czabotar, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Dr Czabotar’s research is delivering new insights into the molecular control of programmed cell death, an important biological defence mechanism that removes dangerous cells from the body including those involved in tumourigenesis. He has played a key role in the development of therapeutics that induce cell death in tumours and his recent work provides new strategies for developing agents to treat disorders characterised by excessive cell death such as neurodegeneration.

2014

Associate Professor Kieran F. Harvey, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Associate Professor Kieran Harvey’s research findings are important for understanding species diversity and development, and are directly relevant to human diseases such as cancer. Organ size-control is a fundamental aspect of biology and varies greatly among animals. Signalling networks that control organ size are only beginning to be unravelled. Foremost among them is the recently discovered Hippo pathway. Greater knowledge of size control will potentially have a huge impact on human cancer and degenerative diseases, and provide fertile ground for therapeutic interventions. Associate Professor Harvey was an integral member of the team that discovered the Hippo pathway. He was also was the first to show that the Hippo pathway is evolutionarily conserved, and that it is mutated in human cancer. More recently, Associate Professor Harvey' s laboratory discovered that the Hippo pathway controls organ regeneration.

2013

Dr Benjamin Kile, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Dr Benjamin Kile is a molecular geneticist workingon blood cell formation and function, particularly as it relates to haematopoietic stem cell development, leukaemogenesis and inflammation. His group has shed new light on the mechanism by which blood platelets are produced, how their life cycle is regulated, and the impact cancer chemotherapy has on these processes. They have also elucidated the critical role of the potent human oncogene ERG in stem cell function and the development of leukaemia. This work has paved the way to an understanding of how ERG promotes cancer growth, and ultimately, to the identification of new entry points for cancer therapies.

2012

Professor Katharina Gaus, University of New South Wales

Associate Professor Katharina Gaus is a leader in the field of cellular immunology and molecular microscopy. The main aim of her research has been to gain a mechanistic understanding of the organisation of the plasma membrane within cells. She has pioneered fluorescence microscopy approaches to examine and quantify T-cell signalling on a single molecule level (super-resolution microscopy) in living cells. Her research has provided the first evidence for lipids being linked to T-cell activation on a molecular and functional level, and may explain why immune function is compromised in obese people.

2011

Dr Stuart Tangye, Garvan Institute of Medical Research

The primary goal of Stuart Tangye’s research is to investigate the development of different classes of human immune cells, and determine how these processes are compromised in individuals with diseases such as immunodeficiencies that are caused by errors in single genes, and to understand how these gene errors result in catastrophic conditions. His findings have identified important roles of key genes in normal immune responses, and revealed pathways that could be targeted to modulate responses in immunodeficiency or autoimmunity.

2010

Professor James Whisstock, Monash University

James Whisstock studies how our bodies combat infection by bacteria and viruses. He has shown that an important family of human immunity proteins that eliminate cells infected with virus or pre-cancerous cells are related to toxins known to be used by bacteria to destroy human tissue. James’s work may one day help develop new ways to control the unwanted activity of immune proteins in transplant rejection and diabetes.

2009

Dr Carola Vinuesa, Australian National University

Carola Vinuesa’s research in the field of immunology has seen the discovery of key mechanisms controlling antibody formation and quality in germinal centres, revealing a previously unknown immune regulatory mechanism. This is a major conceptual advance in understanding the cause of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and diabetes, and opens up new possibilities for treatments.

2008

Dr Gabrielle Belz, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Gabrielle Belz has made a series of ground-breaking discoveries on the response of the immune system to viruses. These include identifying subsets of dendritic cells that initiate the T-cell response, tracking T-cell proliferation and differentiation during an immune response, and delineating the requirements for T-cell reactivation upon secondary infection. Through this work she and her colleagues have altered the understanding of the role of dendritic cell subsets in ways that will assist the design of vaccines against viruses.

2007

Professor Jamie Rossjohn, Monash University, Melbourne

Jamie Rossjohn’s primary contribution is to provide a structural basis for events central to infection and cellular immunity. He has provided insight into the mechanism of action of the cholesterol-dependent pore-forming toxins and a toxin that inactivates an essential chaperone protein. Jamie has provided an understanding of receptor-recognition events at the immunological synapse. This includes providing insights into the basis of MHCrestricted antigen recognition, T-cell immunodominance, allorecognition and signalling, and also MHC polymorphism in the context of antigen presentation and viral evasion.

2006

Dr Joel Mackay, University of Sydney

Joel Mackay has a distinguished career in human physiology and health research that is focused at the molecular level. He discovered the mechanisms behind the vancomycin group of antibiotics, leading to improved derivatives. He has made valuable contributions to understanding the transcriptional regulation involved with forming red blood cells, tracing point mutations, and protein structures, advancing knowledge of inherited blood disorders such as thalassemia.

2005—R.W Johnstone
2004—M.H. Little
2003—L.M. Khachigian
2002—M. Crossley
2001—C.C. Goodnow
2000—D.L. Vaux
1999—M.W. Parker
1998—D.J. Hilton
1997—P.R. Schofield
1997—B.J. Wainwright
1996—D.I. Cook
1995—M.J. Smyth
1994—P.J. Goadsby
1993—A. Cowman
1992—P.M. Hogarth
1991—R.A. Cuthbertson
1990—N.M. Gough
1989—A.R. Hardham
1988—A. Cockburn
1987—J.J. Burdon
1986—N.A. Nicola
1985—R. Appels
1984—J.A. Angus
1983—G.D. Farquhar
1982—J. Shine
1981—A.W. Burgess
1980—M.B. Renfree
1979—C.R. Parish

Dr Hamish Clarke, University of Melbourne

Wildfires are part of life. Not just in Australia, but all over the world. If we’re going to live with fire, we’d better get to know it. This is according to Dr Hamish Clarke, who studies climate change effects on bushfire risk: how a warming world changes the chances of fire-related threats being realised. His research ranges from the drivers of fire (think fuel, dryness, weather and ignitions), to impacts on people, property and the environment, to prescribed burning. For Dr Clarke, science is half the puzzle – the other half is working closely with fire managers and the community, to understand their values and work to get everyone on the same page. His research shows that the increasing fire weather conditions we currently see could be a prelude to something much worse without strong climate change action. It is also paving a path to quantitative, risk-based approaches to fire management.

Professor Kerrylee Rogers, University of Wollongong

Professor Kerrylee Rogers has made an internationally significant contribution to one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: the impact of climate change on the world’s most threatened and ecologically important habitat, wetlands. Her work has demonstrated that coastal wetlands (mangrove and saltmarsh) respond dynamically to sea-level rise. By trapping sediment and building root systems, wetlands adapt to climate change but also help mitigate climate change by sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. Professor Rogers has used these insights to show that the restoration of coastal wetlands is an effective climate change adaptation strategy that can yield financial benefits to landholders. Carbon captured through wetland restoration can be reported by governments as saved emissions and traded by landholders in emissions trading programs. These insights have been effectively communicated through management and policy-focused papers, presentations and expert advice.

Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, RMIT University

Professor Madhu Bhaskaran is transforming how we imagine, use, and interact with electronic devices. Professor Bhaskaran’s signature advance is in the field of stretchable electronics where she has developed techniques to stretch devices to an unprecedented level – allowing them to be worn on the skin. This has realised a range of visionary applications, such as skin-worn sensors that alert miners to dangerous gas levels, or warn civilians about harmful UV levels. Professor Bhaskaran is currently working with industry partners to bring these sensors out from the laboratory into everyday life. These are in the form of sensors in bedding products for aged care which would non-invasively track presence and biometrics of aged people during night.

Dr Alex Sen Gupta, The University of New South Wales Sydney

Dr Alex Sen Gupta is one of Australia’s foremost experts in large‐scale climate variability and change with a particular focus on the Southern Hemisphere ocean and atmosphere. His work spans a large array of areas and has led to a greater understanding of large‐scale climate variability and change. His world‐class research achievements have provided new insights into improving seasonal forecasts; identifying and correcting errors in modern climate models, improving climate projections, and improving our understanding of how physical changes to our oceans affect marine biology and important fisheries.

2016

Associate Professor Michael James Ireland, Australian National University

Associate Professor Ireland develops and applies the latest optical and infrared technologies to build innovative astronomical instruments to probe the lifecycles of stars and planets. A central aim of his research has been to develop instrumentation and techniques capable of finding out how planets form and evolve. One example of this research has been the discovery of the first planet orbiting another star to be caught in the process of formation. He has also shown, both from theory and from observations using innovative astronomical instruments, just how dying solar-type stars shed their outer layers in a wind of molecules and tiny transparent dust grains. He is currently building innovative astronomical instrumentation for detecting planets around other stars, both for Australian telescopes and the largest international telescopes.

2014

Professor Christian S M Turney, University of New South Wales

Professor Turney is an internationally recognised earth scientist and research leader in both climate and environmental change, from the tropics to the poles. By pioneering new ways of combining climate models with records of past climate change (spanning from hundreds to thousands of years), he has discovered new links between variability mechanisms in the Australian region and global climate change.

2012

Dr Andrew Hogg, Australian National University

Dr Andrew Hogg uses models of ocean circulation to understand the role of oceans in climate. He has discovered new ways in which the ocean can generate low frequency climate variability, and has applied this knowledge to the prediction of the ocean’s response to climate change. He has demonstrated the importance of resolving small-scale circulation features, particularly in the Southern Ocean region, pointing the way forward for the next generation of climate models.

2010

Dr Amanda Barnard, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering

Using Australia’s largest supercomputer, Amanda Barnard studies the possible toxicology and environmental impact of nanoparticles, only millionths of a millimetre in size, by predicting how nanoscale materials could react in different environments. This enables the selection of nanomaterials from the large number currently being produced that are likely to be safest, both for people and the environment, and mitigating the risk of harmful combinations.

2008

Dr Ronald Smernik, The University of Adelaide

Ronald Smernik has made a significant impact on the chemistry of organic materials in soils and sediments. His work focuses on the development and application of innovative and sophisticated nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to characterise soil properties. His research has increased understanding of soil processes and their significance in global carbon cycling, and has important applications in soil management for sustainable agriculture.

2006

Dr James Tickner, CSIRO

James Tickner has made impressive scientific contributions in innovation and has secured six patents. He developed nuclear instrumentation for the mineral industry and invented a new type of camera for finding buried landmines. He co-invented the concept of fast-neutron/gamma ray radiography for rapidly screening bulk cargo. He has made important advances in the fields of nuclear simulation and solving challenging measurement or imaging problems.

2004—M. H. England
2002—L. D. Rotstayn
2000—P. J. Scales
1998—G. I. McFadden
1996—I. E. Woodrow
1994—R.T. Kingsford
1992—M.B. Singh
1990—D.J. Evans
1988—T.J. McDougall
1986—L.R. White
1984—P.M. Colman

Associate Professor Katherine Moseby, University New South Wales

Associate Professor Katherine Moseby is a conservation biologist who specialises in desert ecology. She researches ecosystem restoration and threatened species reintroductions. She is passionate about conducting research and applying the results to improve conservation outcomes. Her work includes co-founding four conservation research initiatives, and she partners with government, NGOs and industry groups to ensure her research is relevant, timely and has impact.

Associate Professor Daniel Noble, Australian National University

Research findings are rapidly accumulating across science. This has caused a revolution in data synthesis (meta-analysis) driving evidence-based advancement of fundamental science, applied research and policy. Ecological data is especially challenging to handle because studies are highly variable (such as different species, ecosystems), but synthesis is essential to predict how climate change, invasive species and human activities affect biodiversity. Associate Professor Daniel Noble is spearheading global initiatives to improve biostatistical analyses of ecological and evolutionary studies. He has developed analytical approaches to deal with existing data; methods to estimate missing data; and user-friendly software for data extraction. His new tools are invaluable to biologists but are also used globally by scientists in fields as diverse as psychology and genetics. Associate Professor Noble is also an effective advocate for open and transparent science, reflected in his collaborative approach to research and his altruist service to the scientific community. This includes curating preprint archives, providing free software, and organising conferences and workshops.

Associate Professor Ana Martins Sequeira, Australian National University

Associate Professor Ana Martins Sequeira is a world-class researcher in marine ecology, focused on the development and application of innovative analytical methods to assist conservation of marine megafauna species such as whales, sharks and turtles. She is interested in understanding patterns of marine biodiversity across the entire planet, particularly those with relevance to assist conservation management. She pioneered the development of statistical models to predict the global occurrence of highly migratory species, and provided the first global assessment of potential human impacts on marine megafauna. She also built large international teams to promote data collection on the global movement of marine megafauna, which has ensured better evidence-based policy to conserve these threatened, charismatic species. Associate Professor Martins Sequeira’s research has helped to change the conservation status of vulnerable species, driven international efforts that shaped the discipline of marine biologging, and championed data sharing of marine megafauna tracks. Her ability to translate academic science to practical outcomes has deep implications for how we sustain biodiversity in our oceans.

Associate Professor Emily Wong, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Associate Professor Emily Wong’s work contributes to our understanding of an overarching question in genetics – how does the genome specify animal form and function. This is a complex problem because, unlike genes that encode proteins, gene regulatory elements cannot be easily defined based on comparative analysis of their DNA sequence alone. The elements that make up these regions remain unclear despite our ability to sequence genomes and map active regions that control gene expression. Associate Professor Wong has used systems biology approaches combining evolutionary, computational and molecular biology skills to interrogate how the non-coding genome determines cell identity. Her work has provided detailed understanding of the complex relationships between the genome and gene activity, including insights into how cis-regulatory elements evolve, and the non-linear relationship between genetic variations and their impact on chromatin structure and gene expression.

Associate Professor Chris Greening, Monash University

Associate Professor Chris Greening’s remarkable discovery that bacteria can live on air has redefined what constitutes life. When bacteria exhaust organic energy sources, they can survive indefinitely by scavenging the unlimited supply of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas present in the atmosphere. This survival mechanism has broad-reaching consequences for global biodiversity, infectious disease, climate change and public health research. Chris has revealed it supports the biodiversity of life’s soils and oceans, regulates greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and enhances agricultural productivity. He has also shown that these gas-eating bacteria provide a basis for life in continental Antarctica, where conditions are too extreme for plants to prosper. Yet similar survival mechanisms are also used by devastating human pathogens, including causative agents of tuberculosis and dysentery. By integrating his One Health microbiology laboratory with large-scale applied programs, Professor Greening is translating these fundamental insights into applied interventions that improve environmental and human health.

Associate Professor Eve McDonald-Madden, University of Queensland

Associate Professor Eve McDonald-Madden aims to improve sustainable policy decisions in the face of inherent complexity in environmental problems – numerous, diverse interacting species, lack of knowledge about how systems work, the impacts of climate change and competing demands for energy, food, water, health, money and nature. The foundation of her work is to maximise the effectiveness of scarce resources while dealing with deep uncertainties. Associate Professor McDonald-Madden has pioneered new approaches to decision-making for key environmental concerns – deciding how to act under uncertainty about climate change, accounting for the reliability of predictions, evaluating the trade-offs in global land use planning to achieve sustainability goals and knowing when spending money to monitor or to learn about ecological systems is not helpful. Her work has far reaching implications for governments, NGO’s and others who manage the environment.

Associate Professor Michael Bode, Queensland University of Technology

Associate Professor Michael Bode develops new mathematical theory and tools to better understand the Earth’s threatened ecosystems to more effectively conserve them into the future. His work has repeatedly overturned established beliefs about the best solution to common conservation problems and has used mathematical logic to convince scientists and managers to re-think conservation dogma and decision-making approaches to conservation across the world, especially of coral reef ecosystems. His marine science work has focused on developing new statistical tools to measure dispersal patterns, and new mathematical theories to understand the implications of these patterns. These new mathematical tools have given coastal marine science the first solid empirical understanding of how larval dispersal varies across space and species and have been highlighted in critical reviews of the field.

Dr Daniel Falster, UNSW Sydney

Walking through any forest, one is struck by the variety of plant forms coexisting. Given that all plants compete for the same basic resources, why is there not a single winner? Through explicit modelling of community assembly, driven by physiological trade-offs and competition for light, Falster’s work shows how particular trade-offs in the functioning of leaves and allocation of energy to reproduction enable distinct species to coexist, even while competing for a single resource. Combining multiple trade-offs predicts correctly the proliferation of shade-tolerant species and enables forests of considerably greater diversity than was previously thought possible. By adding selection into vegetation models, Dr Falster is pioneering a framework that makes first-principles predictions for the combination of traits favoured under any given environment. Combined with the large-scale datasets he has compiled, this work promises to transform community ecology into a predictive and data-oriented science, underpinning effective ecosystem management and restoration.

Dr Ceridwen Fraser, Australian National University

Dr Ceridwen Fraser’s research combines genetic with environmental and ecological data to discover the processes that drive biodiversity patterns. She has contributed extensively to our understanding of how plants and animals can travel long distances to colonise new lands, and to our knowledge of how species responded to past climate change. For example, her work has revealed evidence that, during past ice ages, many shallow-water marine species were scoured from sub-Antarctic shores by sea ice, while land-based Antarctic species sheltered near warm volcanoes. Her research has also helped us to understand how established populations can block immigrants, and how large-scale disturbances (such as earthquakes) that wipe out communities can thus create opportunities for immigration and change. Her research is grounded in assessment of how past processes have influenced contemporary biodiversity patterns, but has important implications for management of biodiversity into the future, particularly in the face of rapid environmental change.

2017

Professor Simon Ho, University of Sydney

Professor Ho has transformed the use of ‘molecular clocks’ in biology – a way of estimating evolutionary rates and timescales from DNA sequences using statistical models. Professor Ho’s most important and influential work has been on models of evolutionary rate variation through time. His research has critically changed the way in which biologists use molecular clocks, especially when studying the timescales of recent events in evolution and human prehistory. This has had important impacts on a broad range of studies in conservation genetics, speciation and diversification, domestication of animals and plants, and the population dynamics of pathogens.

2016

Associate Professor Jane Elith, University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Elith specialises in developing and evaluating species distribution models, statistical models that describe relationships between the occurrence and abundance of species and the environment. These models are used to predict where species occur in the landscape, or where they might occur in the future. Associate Professor Jane Elith has rapidly become one of the world’s most influential researchers in applied ecology. In addition to her major academic impacts, her guides and novel tools for modelling species and ecological communities have been used by government and environmental management agencies in Australia and internationally. The interface between environmental management and science makes extensive use of her research to plan management of invasive species, improve conservation of biodiversity, and contribute to strategic land-use planning. In this way, Associate Professor Elith has substantially influenced academic research, but also impacted environmental management nationally and internationally.

2015

Dr Ian Wright, Macquarie University

Plants grow by investing in leaves, which return revenue by photosynthesis. In Australian field studies and also through international collaborations, Dr Wright has elucidated major patterns governing investment in leaves. He has found there is an economic spectrum for leaves running from cheap to expensive leaf construction, with returns correspondingly running from quick to slow. On low nutrient soils, there is more expensive construction which confers a longer leaf lifespan. In dry environments, there is more nitrogen invested in leaves which economises on water use.

2014

Professor Katherine Belov, The University of Sydney

Professor Belov's research on immunity in marsupials and monotremes provides new understanding of mammalian immune systems and has great potential for managing wildlife diseases. She overturned the paradigm that Australian mammals have primitive immune systems and demonstrated they have immune gene complements similar to our own. She discovered that it is low diversity in the major histocompatibility complex that allows the spread of Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease, and has identified novel antimicrobial and venom peptides of potential biomedical relevance.

2013

Dr Ulrike Mathesius, Australian National University

Ulrike Mathesius is investigating how soil microbes shape the plant. She developed and applied techniques at a molecular, cellular and whole plant level to define mechanisms that symbiotic and pathogenic organisms use to manipulate plant development. A central idea of her work is that microbes have ‘hijacked’ plant signalling pathways for their own purposes. This has implications for utilising microbes to alter crop plant performance and for trying to develop nitrogen-fixing symbioses in non-legumes.

2012

Professor A Harvey Millar, University of Western Australia

Professor Harvey Millar’s research focuses on energy production in plants and how the process of respiration is affected by harsh climates. His work has shown how respiration can be protected in plant cells during environmental stress, how production of the antioxidant vitamin C is controlled in plants, and how the complex links between respiration and plant growth can alter plant yields. His discoveries underpin our understanding of respiratory damage in cell ageing and disease, relevant to both plants and animals.

2011

Dr Bryan Fry, University of Melbourne

Bryan Fry's multidisciplinary research examines the molecular evolution of protein toxins across the full geographical and taxonomical range of venomous animals, from the baking heat of the desert habitat of Australia's inland taipan (the world's most venomous snake) to the deep-sea giant octopus from Antarctica. His research has enabled formulation of a general theory of venom evolution and it has the potential to contribute substantially towards the area of drug development based on peptides from venomous animals.

2010

Professor Robert Brooks, University of New South Wales

Robert Brooks has combined insights from the fields of evolution, genetics, ecology and behaviour to understand the evolution of sex differences. He has achieved insights into the evolution of sex chromosomes, the biology of ageing and longevity, risks of extinction and the genetic benefits of mate choice. He has fundamentally changed the way scientists and the public think about the relationships between sex, death and diet.

2009

Associate Professor Sean Connolly, James Cook University

Sean Connolly’s research pioneers new approaches to understanding the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. He incorporates physiological and biomechanical processes that influence population dynamics, ecological interactions and their effects on the maintenance of biodiversity, and the global dynamics of biodiversity in the fossil record. He produced a modelling framework that has led to the identification of an important aspect of the future effects of ocean acidification – storm-induced dislodgement of coral colonies.

2008

Dr Michael McCarthy, The University of Melbourne

Michael McCarthy is an international leader in theoretical ecology having substantially contributed to risk models for threatened species, disturbance ecology, environmental decision-making and Bayesian methods in ecology. He has developed risk measures, approaches to model testing and validation, and numerical techniques to solve some long standing problems in ecology. He recently produced a book on Bayesian methods in ecology and has been researching decision-making models examining the mathematical structure of decisions.

2007

Dr Peter Dodds, CSIRO 

Peter Dodds is an exceptional and highly creative young researcher in the area of the molecular biology of host-pathogen interactions, specifically the interaction between the flax plant and its flax rust pathogen. He has isolated several genes from flax related to resistance to rust, providing insights into the evolution of these genes and the molecular basis for the specificity of plant-pathogen interaction. He has also isolated the first rust pathogen avirulence genes and developed a general method for isolating and recognising these genes. These discoveries have provided a route towards engineering new rust resistance genes for use in agriculture.

2006

Dr Barry Brook,  Charles Darwin University

Barry Brook is internationally recognised for excellence and innovation in conservation biology. His work has raised awareness of the relevance of past extinctions for present biodiversity loss. His research using analytical and computer simulation modelling has contributed to the modern understanding of species extinction dynamics. He gained his PhD from Macquarie University, Sydney on the subject of population viability analysis.

2005—B.A. Neilan
2004—G.D. Edgecombe
2003—A.G. Young
2002—S. Orgeig
2001—B.J. Pogson
2000—H. Possingham

Dr Linda Armbrecht, University of Tasmania

Dr Linda Armbrecht is a detective who uses fragments of ancient DNA preserved in the seafloor in the polar regions to determine what organisms lived in the oceans in the past. She has pioneered new techniques to minimise contamination and maximise the quantities of ancient DNA fragments that can be recovered from marine sediments. She uses the ancient DNA data to uncover how climate change has impacted Antarctic ecosystems over the last 1 million years. Dr Armbrecht’s work is helping to solve ancient mysteries about the evolution and adaptation of keystone species, such as plankton and krill, in response to past climate change. These species make up the base of the polar food webs and are an indicator of ocean health. This research provides important clues as to how the unique polar ecosystem and food web around the icy southern continent might respond to future climate change.

Associate Professor Ailie Gallant, Monash University

Swings between seasons and years of high and low precipitation are ubiquitous in Australia, leading to our reputation as a land of ‘droughts and flooding rains’. But characterising these precipitation see-saws, and understanding the underlying causes of this variability, remains somewhat elusive. To this end, Associate Professor Ailie Gallant’s work has focused on trying to understand how bad Australian droughts can get using multiple lines of evidence, and by working to understand the underlying causes of precipitation variability and drought. Her work has examined observations to understand how the characteristics of drought vary and have changed, and how these characteristics covary with other climate extremes such as extreme heat and rainfall. She has worked on methodologies to define droughts; from rapidly-onsetting ‘flash droughts’ through to multi-year droughts. She has worked on extending hydroclimatic records using proxies like tree rings and corals to find where modern droughts fit relative to longer-term estimates of climate variability. More recently, Associate Professor Gallant’s team has focused attention on understanding how precipitation is regulated by both large-scale drivers, like El Niño, right down to the weather-scale. Specifically, her team has identified a strong role for heavy rainfall, which may consist of only around a week or so’s worth of rainfall, in ‘making’ or ‘breaking’ droughts; with an absence of significant rainfall during drought conditions, and a return or enhancement following drought conditions. In an era of global warming, understanding the causes and nature of drought is essential to determine any effect of climate change.

Associate Professor Raffaella Demichelis, Curtin University

Discovering what makes a mineral, investigating how minerals form in systems as diverse as coral reefs and the human body, and how they interact with various chemicals, is the focus of Associate Professor Raffaella Demichelis’s research. Her team’s work involves using supercomputers to model the atomic structure, crystal growth and chemical reactivity of different types of minerals. She has led landmark research that opened new perspectives in the fields of chemistry, geochemistry and mineralogy, providing quantitative evidence in favour of non-classical nucleation theory and a solution for numerous debated mineral structures. Harnessing and mimicking the rich chemistry observed in nature offers insights into, among other things, the mechanics of carbon-dioxide sequestration and coral reef preservation, how kidney stones form, and how to control scale formation in industry. Associate Professor Demichelis also contributes to the development of computational tools that are now used in academic and non-academic laboratories conducting research in the fields of chemistry and Earth science worldwide. She also volunteers a considerable amount of her time to inclusion and diversity causes, advocating for accessible and sustainable research careers, and to science outreach.

Dr Samintha Perera, University of Melbourne

Australia’s per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are among the world’s highest and the recent drought and bushfire crises clearly illustrate our vulnerability to increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Although carbon dioxide geo-storage in deep coal seams can play a vital role in emission reduction, conversion of CO2 into a highly chemically reactive “supercritical CO2 (scCO2)” at such deep depths causes unpredictable CO2 flow behaviours in coal seams while modifying its flow and mechanical properties. Dr Samintha Perera discovered the unique interaction between the coal mass and scCO2 and the resulting impacts on underground applications. According to her findings, all these unique scCO2 behaviours in coal seams are caused by the significant coal matrix swelling resulted from the coal-scCO2 interaction. Regardless of that, she found the effectiveness of scCO2 as a fracking fluid for coal reservoirs, which gave a great value to this problematic scCO2 as a reservoir stimulation agent.

Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, UNSW Canberra

Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick is a world-renowned expert on heatwaves. She has dedicated her career to studying key features of these high-impact events, including their definition, their observed trends, future changes, underpinning physical drivers, and the role of anthropogenic influence behind observed events. She has also been at the forefront of the emerging field of marine heatwaves.

He has translated many of his successes from his laboratory to scale, with his inventions adopted in various industry sectors globally, to enable a circular economy, including (petro) chemical re-processing of (plastic) waste, utilisation of renewable chemicals and energy storage through his emerging battery technology.

Dr Rebecca Carey, University of Tasmania

Dr Rebecca Carey is internationally recognised for her research in volcanology. She has contributed significantly to the understanding of eruption and hydrothermal processes on land and on the sea-floor. Her achievements in the field of submarine silicic volcanism include demonstration of the influence of confining pressure provided by overlying ocean in modifying the style of volcanic eruption on the seafloor, and pioneering quantification of volatile fluxes through the magma into the surrounding seafloor. Parallel work on basaltic volcanism has identified a previously unrecognised mechanism for explosive basaltic eruptions involving volatile supersaturation, bubble nucleation and explosive fragmentation, triggered by a compression-decompression wave within a shallow magma conduit, and the first quantification of the duration of magma convection using the microtextures of erupted clasts.

Dr Laurie Menviel, UNSW Sydney

Dr Menviel is an exceptional early career researcher who has made major contributions to our understanding of the oceanic circulation, its variability and its impact on global climate, the carbon cycle and the cryosphere. Widely considered as a leader in our understanding of abrupt climate change, Dr Menviel has made a series of ground-breaking discoveries in several topical areas of earth science: detecting past changes in oceanic circulation; understanding the role of ocean circulation in past and future abrupt climate change; evaluation of the impact of changes in oceanic circulation on the carbon cycle; and constraining the stability and variability of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth, University of New South Wales Sydney

Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth’s research aims to determine the impact of environmental stress on reef-building corals, their host-microbe interactions, symbioses and disease outbreaks. Her studies on the bacterial associates of corals have led to an improved understanding of how coral diseases occur and progress. She has also identified a variety of novel intracellular bacteria that appear to play a key role in the success of corals. She has found that the same bacteria can be found within the tissues of corals in Hawaii and Australia, from the shallows to depths of over 100 metres. She has also extensively researched how increased temperatures affect coral now and will into the future. She has discovered that while small increases in sea temperatures can negatively impact the health of corals, under the right circumstances some corals appear to be able to acclimate to higher temperatures.

2017

Dr Joanne Whittaker, University of Tasmania

Dr Whittaker has made several fundamental contributions to understanding the structure and evolution of the Earth by examining the relationships between deep and surface processes. Her work has provided a new framework for understanding the history of the planet after the breakup of supercontinent Pangaea, particularly the evolution of the ocean basins surrounding Australia.

2016

Dr Andréa Sardinha Taschetto, UNSW

Dr Taschetto is internationally recognised as a leader in the field of climate systems science. She has made major contributions to our understanding of large‐scale oceanographic/atmospheric phenomena in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, and their subsequent impact on regional climate. In particular, based upon her research findings, Dr Taschetto is widely considered as a leader in the development of our understanding about regional climate dynamics and global modes of climate variability, including the El Niño Modoki phenomenon. Her research has significantly and substantially advanced our understanding of the role of the oceans on regional climate variability from seasonal to multi‐decadal timescales and future projections. For these and other high-impact achievements, Dr Taschetto has made a major contribution both within and beyond her field.

2015

Dr Nerilie Abram, Australian National University

Dr Abram’s pioneering research addresses the past behaviour of the Earth’s climate system, and implications for anthropogenic climate change. Her outstanding research portfolio has generated unique new records of past climate and environmental impacts from regions spanning the tropics to Antarctica, and assessing these alongside state-of-the-art climate models. Her high- impact work has led to groundbreaking advances in understanding how climate change is impacting Southern Ocean winds, Antarctic temperatures and Australian rainfall patterns.

2014

Dr Maria Seton, The University of Sydney

Dr Seton has made significant contributions to the areas of global plate tectonics, longterm sea-level change, global geodynamics and back-arc basin formation. Her work on global tectonics has redefined the way that traditional plate reconstructions are achieved, through the development of an innovative workflow that treats plates as dynamically evolving features rather than the previous paradigm, which modelled the motion of discrete tectonic blocks. She has been part of ground breaking studies on the effect ocean basin changes have had on global long-term sea-level and ocean chemistry.

2013

Dr Lisa Alexander, The University of New South Wales

Dr Lisa Alexander's research has focused on our understanding of how climate extremes are changing globally and over Australia. Her key contributions, with marked policy relevance, include providing convincing evidence that future changes in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves in Australia will be strongly dependent on the amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

2012

Dr Karen Black, University of New South Wales

Dr Karen Black is a vertebrate palaeontologist and author of many new fossil species including koalas, possums, marsupial moles, wombat-like diprotodontids and trunked palorchestids. Her internationally acclaimed study of cranial development in a bizarre sun bear like diprotodontid is the first for a fossil marsupial. She spearheads continent-wide research focused on the evolution of Australia’s extraordinary mammals, correlating changes over time with global palaeoclimatic events to provide new evidence-based understanding about current and probable future climate-driven changes in Australian biodiversity.

2011

Dr Kirsten Benkendorff, Southern Cross University

Kirsten Benkendorff is an acclaimed Australian malacologist whose research contributions span from the molecular to the ecosystem scales of marine biology and ecology. Her research approach involves applying sound experimental design, along with the tools of immunology and natural products chemistry to investigate molluscan evolutionary adaptations, thus providing new leads for the development of novel bioresources. Through this approach, she has made significant advances across a range of research disciplines that can be grouped under the themes of environmental, aquaculture and human health.

2010

Dr Nicole Webster, Australian Institute of Marine Science

Nicole Webster has researched many aspects of reef bacterial symbioses, including the specificity of symbiotic relationships and the impact of environmental stressors on these sensitive partnerships. Recent work describes the highest bacterial diversity ever reported for an invertebrate host – over 3000 different bacteria living in one type of sponge. Her discovery of a response of spawning corals to bacterial biofilms could help us to understand and predict how coral communities will recover from disturbance.

2009

Dr Daniela Rubatto, Australian National University

Daniela Rubatto works in the field of high-grade metamorphic petrology and implications for crustal growth and mountain building. Daniela discovered a key relationship that exists in high grade metamorphic rocks between the timing of mineral growth, and the geochemical signature in Ubearing accessory minerals. This geochemical link allows a full characterisation of the pressure–temperature–time path that the rocks have experienced and thus the depth to which the rock suite has travelled.

2008

Dr Sandra McLaren, The University of Melbourne

Sandra McLaren has made contributions to our understanding of diverse areas of Earth sciences, including continental tectonics, thermochronology, microstructural and basin analysis. She has tackled inter-disciplinary many-scale research problems reflecting her broad interests and motivation. Her early research affected a significant paradigm shift in understanding thermal and tectonic processes in the Proterozoic period, including high-temperature, low-pressure metamorphism, crustal anatexis and mineralisation.

2007

Dr Léanne Armand, Laboratory of Oceanography and Marine Biogeochemistry, Marseille

Léanne Armand is the recipient of the 2005–07 European Union Marie Curie Fellowship for her comprehensive taxonomic treatment of Southern Ocean diatoms. She has added rigour to the study of diatoms by applying statistical analysis, increasing the degree of confidence in the reconstruction of sea water temperatures of the past. This has particularly enhanced the value in reconstructing environments during the late Quaternary. The relevance of this type of work is increasing as questions of evolution of our modern environment become more important.

2006

Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz, University of Sydney

Adriana Dutkiewicz has made exceptional contributions in the field of early Precambrian petroleum geology. She was the first to discover oil inclusions preserved in Archaean and early Precambrian rocks and to demonstrate that primordial biomass was sufficiently abundant to generate hydrocarbons. She has shown that eukaryotes survived extreme climatic events including higher temperatures than previously accepted. Adriana has contributed valuable insights relating to the early evolution of life and petroleum exploration.

2005—M.J.H. van Oppen
2004—S.E.A. Wijffels
2003—K.M. Trinajstic
2002—A.D. George

Professor Alison Rodger FAA, Australian National University

Scientific advances invariably depend on the quality and diversity of available techniques and instrumentation and on the ability of researchers to understand the data that are produced. Professor Alison Rodger has spent her career inventing new spectroscopic techniques to advance understanding of the molecular world. She uses polarised light to give data about helical structures and molecular assemblies. She complements the experimental work by developing the theoretical frameworks required to enable use of the data in applications such as characterising the structure of biopharmaceutical products and understanding the basic biology of cell division. Professor Rodger’s most recent invention is that of linearly polarised luminescence where the intensity of polarised light emitted is used to characterise biomolecular assemblies such as DNA-drug complexes. She is passionate about working to ensure equality of opportunity and has benefited from working with a wide range of people from all over the world.

Professor Justin Gooding FAA FTSE, University of New South Wales

Professor Justin Gooding is an international leader in the field of surface chemistry; in particular, he is renowned as a leading authority in the modification of surfaces for the development of better sensing devices. Characterised by using molecular to nanoscale control, his science systematically addresses fundamental questions in electrochemistry and biology, as well as general challenges facing many sensors and analytical devices. He has made outstanding contributions to fundamental and applied research using self-assembled monolayers to fabricate molecular scale constructs on surfaces that provided new measurement tools. Professor Gooding’s work has shown not only how to design and fabricate sophisticated surface architecture for sensing, but he has also changed thinking on both the level of control that is possible and the types of information that can be acquired using that control.

Professor David Craik FAA FRS, University of Queensland

Professor David Craik discovered a family of plant peptides called cyclotides and is a world leader in defining their structures, functions and applications as ecofriendly pesticides and molecular scaffolds in drug design. He has shown how their unique structure makes them exceptionally stable and resistant to enzymes that would normally degrade peptide-based drugs. The work is significant because peptides are widely regarded as exciting drug leads, potentially safer and more effective than existing classes of drugs. However, previous peptide-based drugs are prone to instability and need to be injected (like insulin) rather than orally ingested. Professor Craik’s work on cyclotides shows how peptides can be stabilised and made more drug-like, thereby unleashing their potential in drug design. The natural function of cyclotides is to protect plants from insects and Professor Craik’s work has led to companies exploring cyclotides as pesticides. A cyclotide-based product, Sero-X, is now an approved eco-friendly pesticide for cotton and vegetable crops. 

Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik FAA, Queensland University of Technology

Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik’s work fuses the in-depth understanding of chemical processes that are induced by light with their use to prepare soft matter materials, with applications from 3D printing inks to photodynamic materials. His main body of work – based on an esteemed career in physical-organic chemistry – exploits light as a ‘molecular surgical tool’, where its colour and intensity are finely adjustable gates to ‘operate’ on the molecular structure of materials with unprecedented precision. This precision gives rise to materials whose mechanical strength and chemical composition can be readily adjusted without bringing them in contact with chemicals or heat. Professor Barner-Kowollik’s work has enabled new materials concepts, for example a material that is solely stabilised by light, so-called ‘light stabilised dynamic materials’.

Professor Thomas Maschmeyer FAA FTSE, University of Sydney

Professor Thomas Maschmeyer’s research vision is driven by a strong desire to help address the many urgent physical challenges we face due to climate change and global resource limitations in combination with a growing world population. In this context, he sees catalysis as a key science and technology and has made seminal contributions to catalytic research that have transformed how we design, interrogate (under operating conditions) and use catalysts in (petro) chemical processing as well as photo- and electrocatalysis.

His work has led to fundamental breakthroughs in catalytic materials, in-situ characterisation, green chemistry, hydrothermal processing, ionic liquids and energy materials.

He has translated many of his successes from his laboratory to scale, with his inventions adopted in various industry sectors globally, to enable a circular economy, including (petro) chemical re-processing of (plastic) waste, utilisation of renewable chemicals and energy storage through his emerging battery technology.

Dr Graeme Moad FAA, CSIRO

Dr Graeme Moad is recognised as a world leader in the field of polymer chemistry. His achievements range from fundamental chemistry, in the areas of polymer design and synthesis, and polymerisation kinetics and mechanism, to new materials for industrial uses, nanotechnology, organic electronics and bioapplications. His research has contributed substantially to the development of new synthetic methods for the controlled synthesis of polymers with defined architecture and composition that have revolutionised the field and resulted in highly cited publications and patent applications.

Professor Peter Gill FAA, Australian National University

Professor Gill has made both fundamental and applied contributions to the progress of quantum chemistry. His models for three-electron bonding and dication dissociation have been widely adopted by experimentalists. His developments in efficient two-electron integral algorithms, perturbation analysis, linear-scaling methodology, DFT functionals, the theory of excited states, and Coulomb-splitting techniques have all become mainstream tools in his community and, by implementing many of his ideas within his Q-Chem software package, he has ensured that his advances are rapidly translated to other areas of computational science, including pharmaceutical research and the design of new materials. His recent insights into electron correlation and the nature of the uniform electron gas are changing the underlying paradigms of density functional theory (DFT).

Professor Douglas MacFarlane FAA FTSE, Monash University

Professor Doug MacFarlane’s research has focused on the discovery and development of novel liquid salt compounds that offer unique properties as media and solvents for a wide range of applications. Research into these ‘ionic liquids’ has experienced major expansion over the last 25 years. The discoveries of Professor MacFarlane’s group have contributed to the study and use of ionic liquids, helping to establish the area as a major field of chemistry. His group has explored application of ionic liquids in sustainable energy technologies, producing major advances in energy storage in advanced batteries, as chemical energy storage as hydrogen and ammonia, and as thermal energy storage materials for domestic use. The intellectual property arising from some of these developments has been spun out into several start-up companies. His group has also pioneered the use of biocompatible families of these liquid salts as media for therapeutic proteins and as novel pharmaceuticals. These developments have opened up new treatment modalities, including as a topical treatment for skin cancer.

2017

Professor David St Clair Black AO FAA, UNSW Australia 

Professor Black is recognised as one of the world's leading heterocyclic chemists, having made major contributions to organic chemistry in the general fields of heterocyclic chemistry, coordination chemistry and natural products. His research has focused on the deliberate design and synthesis of new structural types of organic molecules and the discovery of new synthetic methodologies, especially in heterocyclic chemistry, which is the field responsible for the generation of the overwhelming majority of pharmaceutical agents and drugs in use today. While many of these new structures have a link to important natural products, especially in the area of indole chemistry, they are designed to display deliberate reactivity variations that are not found in nature.

2016

Professor Jeffrey Reimers FAA, University of Technology, Sydney and International Centre for Quantum and Molecular Structure Shanghai University

Professor Reimers pioneered the application of the chemical quantum theory of coupled electronic and nuclear motions to large systems of biochemical and technological relevance. His work explains how during photosynthesis the protein structure manipulates the complex light-matter interaction around the ‘special-pair’ solar-to-electrical conversion apparatus to control energy harvesting. He has also developed ways of interpreting the chemical signatures manifested when single organic molecules conduct electricity, and he has evaluated the role of chemical quantum effects in manifesting consciousness.

2015

Professor Denis J Evans FAA, Australian National University

Professor Evans has made outstanding contributions to extending classical statistical mechanics to modern systems. He is regarded internationally as the originator of the Fluctuation Theorems, which extend our understanding of the thermodynamics of small systems observed over short time. His work resolves unsettled foundations in thermodynamics that persisted over 100 years, unifies the field of thermodynamics, and provides rigorous simulation methods that are widely used today.

2014

Emeritus Professor Curt Wentrup FAA, The University of Queensland

Numerous chemical reactions take place via so-called ‘reactive intermediates’, i.e. short-lived molecules that are undetectable under ordinary reaction conditions. In order to understand chemical reactions, it is necessary to understand the role of these reactive intermediates. Curt Wentrup has pioneered methods to study them and observe them directly by combining the technique of flash vacuum thermolysis with low temperature spectroscopy. The resulting knowledge is of fundamental importance for theoretical chemistry as well as practical applications in the synthesis of new types of compounds.

2013

Professor Peter Andrew Lay FAA, The University of Sydney

Professor Lay uses various chemical, spectroscopic, biochemical and cell biology techniques to understand the mode of action and toxicities of metal-containing anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-diabetic drugs and supplements; and to provide fundamental insights into understanding the biochemistry of cardiovascular diseases, cerebral malaria, and meningitis.

2012

Professor Maxwell J Crossley FAA, University of Sydney

Professor Maxwell Crossley is a world leader in research on porphyrins, a class of compounds of great importance to life and for which many new uses are emerging in nanosciences. Haem, the red coloured oxygen carrier in blood, and chlorophylls, green pigments responsible for photosynthesis in plants, are important porphyrins. Professor Crossley designs and constructs new functional porphyrin systems for use in solar energy devices, in mimicry of photosynthesis and also in the burgeoning field of molecular-scale electronics. He has been responsible for many seminal advances in the field.

2011

Professor Ian Dance FAA, The University of New South Wales

Ian Dance has led international research in four areas of fundamental chemistry. He pioneered the preparation and understanding of compounds containing metals and sulphur, he revealed the existence of a large number of basic inorganic compounds in gaseous form, he developed an understanding of the ways in which many molecules recognise and organise their surroundings, and he developed a chemical understanding of the long-elusive mechanism by which plants chemically convert unreactive nitrogen in the atmosphere to the forms required for life.

2010

Professor Robert Gilbert FAA, University of Queensland

Robert Gilbert’s research covers three fields not normally considered to be related: the dynamics of chemical reactions, mechanisms of polymerisation, and the relationship between structure and property of biopolymers. This has led to new types of experiments on complex chemical systems, such as emulsions and paints. His work on starch polymer provides the basis of research to develop plants with improved nutritional characteristics, which is important for people with diabetes and obesity.

2009

Emeritus Professor Leonard Lindoy FAA, The University of Sydney

Leonard Lindoy has made significant contributions to the area of macrocyclic chemistry, molecular and ionic recognition, and metallo-supramolecular chemistry. He has had a long and successful interaction with industry, especially with the design of ligands for the selective extraction of metal ions from mixtures. His work has been acknowledged by many national and international awards, and by invitations to lecture at major conferences. Lindoy has also been an exceptional educator and promoter of science in general, and chemistry in particular.

2008

Professor Leo Radom, University of Sydney

Leo Radom has made major contributions to the use of theory in areas of chemistry. His research covers the application of computational quantum chemistry to the study of chemical structures and reactions. He has contributed to areas such as gas-phase ion chemistry, substituent effects in cations, radicals and anions, free radical chemistry, 'designer chemistry', and transition-metal-free hydrogenation. His early papers provided a template for benchmarking and applying theoretical methods to chemistry.

2007

Professor Hans Freeman, University of Sydney

Hans Freeman has made distinguished contributions to science through the study of the crystal structures of biological coordination compounds including metal-peptide complexes and metalloproteins. He introduced the use of computers for crystallographic calculations to Australia, and his laboratory was the first in the southern hemisphere to determine the crystal structure of a protein, plastocyanin. He has been a selfless advocate for macromolecular crystallography; a recent example is his membership of the Policy and Review Board of the Australian Synchrotron Research Program. He was the Foundation President of the Society of Crystallographers in Australia.

2006

Professor Barry Ninham, Australian National University

Barry Ninham is a talented theoretical physical chemist and one of the world’s leading theoreticians in colloid science. He has specific expertise in molecular self-assembly and non-electrostatic interactions between atoms and molecules. He has pioneered the measurement of surface forces and introduced the ground-breaking concept of well-defined microstructures in substances such as emulsions. He completed his undergraduate and Masters at the University of Western Australia and a PhD at the University of Maryland. He is Founder and Head of the Applied Mathematics Department.

2005—JW. White
2004—AM. Bond
2003—MI. Bruce
2002—LN. Mander
2001—MN. Paddon-Row
2000—NS. Hush

Associate Professor Anita Liebenau, University of New South Wales

Associate Professor Anita Liebenau is recognised internationally as a leading expert in extremal and probabilistic combinatorics. She has worked on enumeration problems of large discrete structures such as regular graphs, problems in Ramsey theory and combinatorial games played on graphs. Among her many achievements, she developed a breakthrough method for enumerating regular graphs, leading to the first progress since 1989. She has also proved important results on thresholds for games on graphs, and has made major contributions towards resolving the Erdős–Hajnal conjecture.

Professor Serena Dipierro, University of Western Australia

After moving to Australia, first to the University of Melbourne and then to the University of Western Australia, Professor Serena Dipierro has significantly contributed to several fields in mathematical analysis, partial differential equations, nonlocal equations and free boundary problems. A characteristic treat in Professor Dipierro’s research consists in the fine analysis of the special patterns created by the interplay between nonlinear and nonlocal structures, also in light of motivations coming from biology and physics. Her works established the regularity properties and the geometric features of the interfaces arising from phase transitions, with special attention to the brand-new, and often very surprising, phenomena produced by far-away particle interactions and by the energy contributions ‘coming from infinity’. Her findings comprise the solution to challenging problems and the opening of brand-new lines of research, which will remain as a solid source of inspiration for future investigations on a number of emerging topics.

Dr Christopher Lustri, University of Sydney

It is often impossible to write down exact mathematical expressions to perfectly describe extremely complex natural systems such as the collective behaviour of a colony of ants, gravitational waves generated by orbiting black holes, or the flow of air over an aircraft’s wing. Asymptotic approximation theory can accurately predict how these complicated systems will change and evolve, even when they are far too complicated to solve exactly. Dr Christopher Lustri is an expert in developing new asymptotic approximation methods that capture important behaviour which is hidden from widely-used classical approximation techniques. Using these new methods, he has resolved open mathematical problems arising in practical scientific settings, such as explaining the shape of waves that form behind submerged obstacles, or the energy loss experienced by pulses in laboratory particle chains. He discovered that complex discrete systems contain important ‘tipping points’ that were previously unknown. If subtle changes are made to how the system is set up when the system is near one of these points, its behaviour can change dramatically. Dr Lustri’s methods make it possible to accurately capture how systems behave when they are near these tipping points.

Dr Valentina Wheeler, University of Wollongong

Dr Valentina Wheeler is a geometric analyst who has made major contributions to the field of elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations. In particular, her work focusses on geometric flows called curvature flows. These describe the movement and/or evolution of a curve or surface through space and time via continuous geometric deformation determined by curvature. Valentina’s contributions include resolutions of open conjectures regarding partition problems and existence of minimal hypersurfaces; completely novel types of singularities for curvature flows; the first global analysis of the Helfrich functional; and a powerful new Harnack convergence argument for fully nonlinear curvature flows with non-smooth speed. Her results include direct applications to real-world problems including modelling for the blood disease spherocytosis, behaviour of other biological membranes, and motion and evolution of merging fire fronts.

Dr Francis Hui, Australian National University

Dr Francis Hui’s research focuses on the development of innovative, fast approaches for the statistical analysis of big data, particularly when many correlated variables are collected in space and/or time to produce richly correlated data. He has made substantial contributions to the literature on efficient approximate methods for fitting multi-level models, techniques for data visualisation of many variables and scalable tools for flexibly fitting non-linear models and for selecting which predictors to include in complex correlated data settings. Dr Hui works at the interface between methodological and applied statistics, ensuring that his research has an immediate and substantial impact on the wider scientific community. His research has been particularly impactful in ecology, where his methods and software are applied by practitioners to project spatio-temporal change of species assemblages under climate change scenarios and for enhancing the understanding of terrestrial and marine ecosystems both across Australia and internationally.

Dr Kevin Coulembier, University of Sydney

Dr Coulembier’s research is in the field of mathematics known as representation theory, which studies how abstract algebraic structures are manifested as the solutions to concrete systems of linear equations. This field retains a strong connection to its origin as the study of geometric symmetry both discrete and continuous, but more recently has developed far beyond this in tackling curved and infinite-dimensional spaces and arbitrary number systems. One of Dr Coulembier’s most important discoveries was of a way to detect the presence of the classical type of symmetry known as an affine group scheme in a more exotic setting known as a tensor category; this problem had defied the efforts of some of the world’s top mathematicians for almost thirty years. He has also solved several other important problems in infinite-dimensional representation theory, and has discovered new unified proofs of major theorems concerning the invariants of groups and supergroups.

Dr Vera Roshchina, UNSW Sydney

Dr Roshchina is an exceptional mathematician and emerging international leader in the field of non-smooth optimization. Her main interest lies in finite dimensional geometry, more specifically, open problems that originate from continuous optimization and related fields. Some significant problems of this kind are in the geometry of polytopes, for example the polynomial Hirsch and Durer conjectures, critical point problems (Fekete problem, Sendov's conjecture) and convex variational problems, such as asymmetric Newton's aerodynamic problem. Resolution of these challenges is critical for making progress with numerous applications, from engineering and economics to medical research and data analytics.

Dr Jennifer Flegg, University of Melbourne

Drug resistance is a growing issue for malaria control. Dr Jennifer Flegg develops predictive statistical models in space and time for the level of drug resistance. These predictive models fill in the gaps where no information is available on drug resistance and have been used by health agencies to develop new polices about where and when certain drugs are appropriate to use.

Dr Flegg also develops mathematical models to describe and help understand the ways that cells and chemicals interact with each other during the healing of a skin wound. By building models that simulate the successful healing of a wound, she provides biological insight into the underlying healing mechanisms. In the case when a wound would not heal without intervention, she uses her models to predict how treatments can help the wound to heal.

Professor Ryan Loxton, Curtin University

Professor Ryan Loxton is pioneering new mathematical algorithms for optimising complex systems in a wide range of applications such as mining, robotics, agriculture, and industrial process control. Such systems are typically of enormous scale in practice, with hundreds of thousands of inter-related variables and constraints, multiple conflicting objectives, and numerous candidate solutions that can easily exceed the total number of atoms in the solar system, overwhelming even the fastest computers. Professor Loxton’s research provides new mathematical advances for overcoming this complexity and deriving fast algorithms for real-world use. He has collaborated with many companies with his work leading to innovative mathematical techniques for solving real-world problems such as providing algorithms for an award-winning Quantum technology platform that optimises the sequence and timing of maintenance activities in mine plant shutdowns.

Professor Geordie Williamson FAA FRS, University of Sydney

Professor Williamson is a world leader in the field of geometric representation theory. Among his many breakthrough contributions are his proof, together with Ben Elias, of Soergel's conjecture—resulting in a proof of the Kazhdan-Lusztig positivity conjecture from 1979; his entirely unexpected discovery of counter-examples to the Lusztig and James conjectures; and his new algebraic proof of the Jantzen conjectures.

Dr Zdravko Botev, University of New South Wales Sydney

Dr Zdravko Botev has developed innovative methodologies that aim to understand the probability structures underlying the occurrence of high-cost, hard-to-predict events. The novel rare-event simulation algorithms he has derived have not only advanced the fields of computational statistics and applied probability, but have been applied in multiple domains, including communication and computer network design, digital watermarking, safety assessment of debris collision in space and chemical geology. His well-cited research further demonstrates the significant influence of his work in his field of applied probability, as well as applications in many areas. His work has also had significant influence in the field of computational statistics, where his methods have been used in innovative ways to develop very fast algorithms for fitting flexible, smooth models to noisy data.

Dr Luke Bennetts, University of Adelaide

Dr Bennetts is an applied mathematician who models how waves of various kinds, e.g. acoustic waves, electromagnetic waves and waves at the surface of the ocean, are affected by solitary objects or assemblages of objects in their path. A major focus is on how ocean waves interact with ice floes in the polar seas, as this phenomenon appears to be a key contributor to the changes the Earth is experiencing in the Arctic Basin and the Southern Ocean due to the onset and furtherance of global climate warming. Because the polar regions are so important to the world’s atmosphere and oceans, the methodology that Dr Bennetts has created is also immediately applicable to the refinement of hemispheric-scale, coupled, operational climate forecasting, as well as contemporary research schema. His fusion of analytical technical mathematics with sophisticated computational methods allows real world problems, including nonlinear modes of behaviour, to be tackled and solved. 

Associate Professor Catherine Greenhill, University of New South Wales

Associate Professor Greenhill is internationally recognised as a leading expert in asymptotic, probablilistic and algorithmic combinatorics, undertaking research at the interface between combinatorics, probability and theoretical computer science. By studying fundamental combinatorial objects, such as graphs, she tackles problems of major significance to pure mathematics. Her highly-cited research achievements include new formulae and algorithms that have found broad application in many areas, from statistics to computer science, physics and cryptography.

Dr Scott Morrison, Australian National University

The interaction of quantum particles or quasi-particles in two dimensions involves a so-called “fusion category” which describes the possible outcomes of collision between the quasi-particles. Diagrams describing the fusion category are analogous to the Feynmann diagrams well known in quantum field theory. Dr Morrison has made remarkable discoveries especially in this diagrammatic description of such low-dimensional processes. In particular he has classified the least complicated such theories that mathematics permits.

Associate Professor David Warton, University of New South Wales

Associate Professor David Warton has made a series of highly significant contributions to data analysis in ecology - new methods for studying size variation, ecological communities and their climatic response, and the spatial distribution of species. Associate Professor Warton's contributions have had substantial influence on statistical practice across disciplines - used in a very large number of articles, in statistics, ecology, other areas of biology, the Earth sciences, agriculture, medicine, chemistry, psychology, engineering, and physics.

Dr Josef Dick, University of New South Wales

Dr Josef Dick is an outstanding young researcher who has undertaken pioneering research in the area of numerical analysis. His main research achievements relate to numerical integration and, in particular, quasi‐Monte Carlo rules. The importance of Dr Dick’s research derives from his ability to obtain practical constructions of well distributed point sets for use in applications from finance, statistics, physics, geoscience and other areas, as well as through rigorous mathematical convergence bounds using advanced mathematical tools.

Dr Anthony Henderson, The University of Sydney

Anthony Henderson has made fundamental contributions in representation theory, an area which concerns the algebraic patterns underlying collections of geometric transformations. He has invented geometric spaces which give new information about common symmetry types, and has introduced new methods for performing calculations in existing geometric spaces which take their symmetry into account. His work combines ideas from different areas of mathematics, and provides explicit formulas for use in a wide range of problems which involve observations on spaces with symmetry.

Associate Professor Stijn Glorie, University of Adelaide

Associate Professor Stijn Glorie studies the interplay between the thermal history of Earth’s crust and large-scale tectonic processes that drive plate deformation and mountain building. Associate Professor Glorie employs novel mineral-based geochronometers to unravel the cryptic records of ancient geologic events, including the formation of metalliferous mineral deposits, which in turn can assist mineral exploration efforts. His research has focused on the protracted crustal deformation in Central Asia, and vast areas of central Australia, thereby filling crucial gaps in our knowledge of the geological evolution of our continent. At the University of Adelaide, he is currently leading ground-breaking method development work to determine the age of a vast range of minerals that were previously considered undatable. This revolutionary geochronology work now allows for unlocking of records of Earth’s ancient history at unprecedented rates and scales.

Dr Andrew King, University of Melbourne

Dr Andrew King is an outstanding early-career researcher with an extensive body of high-impact work focused on climate extremes and climate risk. He has a prolific record of significant first-authored publications, including landmark studies on climate change projections in high-impact journals. He has been very active in the public discourse on climate change through frequent opinion pieces based on his research and interviews in newspapers, TV and radio. The significance and impact of his research and engagement have been recognised in a number of ways. He received an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award in 2018. He was the only early-career climate scientist on the author team for the Academy of Science’s report ‘The risks to Australia of a 3°C warmer world’ in 2021. He was the inaugural winner of the Science Outreach Award of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society in 2018. Dr King was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021.

Dr Teresa Ubide, University of Queensland

Dr Teresa Ubide studies volcanoes by looking at the crystals in previously erupted volcanic rocks. Using the chemistry of the tiny crystals she can decipher the inner workings of volcano plumbing systems and what triggers volcanic eruptions. The aim of this research is to ultimately forecast future eruptions. The research is of utmost importance to millions of people living close to, or visiting, active volcanoes around the world. Her research also explores the link between volcanoes and critical metals that are essential for the development of renewable energy technology, such as wind and solar energy. Dr Ubide loves to communicate her science and was part of the Superstars of STEM program, and has given national and international talks and media interviews about her work on volcanoes.

Associate Professor Jenny Fisher, University of Wollongong

Understanding of the sources, transport and fate of trace atmospheric species is crucial for the development of evidence-based policies for the management of air pollution and to evaluate their contribution to future climate scenarios. Associate Professor Jenny Fisher’s research leads international efforts to model the atmospheric concentrations and transport of these species and to predict their response to future emissions and environmental change, and to quantitatively evaluate impacts of Australian and global environmental policies. The species include mercury, a neurotoxin that is distributed globally through the atmosphere. In recognition of its adverse effects, mercury is now regulated by the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury. Her work also provides new and crucial information on biogenic emissions and atmospheric chemistry of trace species from vegetation which play important roles in air pollutant formation.

Dr Nicolas Flament, University of Wollongong

Dr Flament works at the interface between geodynamics and geology by novel 4D mathematical modelling of flow deep in Earth’s interior. He makes significant contributions to understanding our planet by connecting the evolution of the deep Earth with the evolution of its surface. He shows Earth was largely a water world for the first half of its history with little emerged land, with important implications for the oxidation of the atmosphere and the evolution of early life. He linked the evolution of Earth’s topography, including the Australian landscape and the formation of the Great Dividing Range, to the motion of tectonic plates over Earth’s dynamic interior. He also recently used an innovative synthesis of global geodynamic models with geophysical data to show how the evolution of the deep Earth is dynamic and linked to past configurations of tectonic plates, which is of fundamental importance to understanding the evolution of our planet.

Dr Jan Zika, University of UNSW Sydney

Dr Jan Zika is an outstanding young physical oceanographer with a clear view of the role and importance of the ocean in the global climate system. He’s revolutionised the quantitative approach to determining the ocean’s circulation and mixing by reformulating the problem in water mass properties (rather than in fixed geographical coordinates). This resulted in improved understanding and more accurate estimates of the ocean’s storage and transport of heat and freshwater. Dr Zika’s ideas have found direct application in understanding changes in global-scale atmospheric processes and in using ocean observations to more accurately quantify increases in the global hydrological cycle. The combination of Dr Zika’s deep insight, record of innovation, leadership and collegial approach is being recognised globally.

Professor Isaac Santos, Southern Cross University

Professor Santos works at the interface between coastal oceanography, hydrology and geochemistry. He is a world leader in groundwater-surface water connectivity research, and has developed innovative analytical approaches that put him at the forefront of the field. He has created disciplinary bridges to reveal that submarine groundwater discharge is a major hidden water pathway driving water quality and significant carbon fluxes in iconic Australian estuaries, mangroves, beaches, and coral reefs. His research linked water worlds that are often investigated separately but require integration for optimal management. His influential contributions and extensive engagement with research end users have real world applications, resulting in more effective management of coastal water quality. Isaac is not only a highly regarded Earth scientist, but also an outstanding mentor of students and a candid advocate on environmental issues of major public interest including water quality, carbon sequestration and draining of wetlands.

Dr Rhodri Davies, Australian National University

Dr Rhodri Davies has made outstanding contributions to understanding solid Earth structure and evolution through the development and implementation of powerful computational tools for simulating geodynamical processes. His work builds on a multi-disciplinary base, combining a keen geological insight with a clear understanding of geophysical processes and exploitation of advances in mineral physics under conditions of high temperature and pressure. He has made fundamental contributions by testing controversial hypotheses relating to the nature of the variations in material properties in the Earth's mantle and the way in which these interact with the patterns of flow, showing that purely temperature effects can explain more of the behaviour than hitherto recognised. His recent work on intra-plate volcanism in eastern Australia and the evolution of Pacific hot-spot chains has achieved a very high profile around the world, by its innovative synthesis of careful geodynamic modelling with geophysical and geochemical input.

Associate Professor Juan Carlos Afonso, Macquarie University

Associate Professor Afonso is at the forefront of revolutionising the way that geoscientists interpret the signals they obtain from deep in the Earth by geophysical methods. Up until now, each individual method was treated separately and the results were often incompatible with each other. His approach follows a long-term interdisciplinary program to develop a rigorous computational model that unifies diverse sub-disciplines of the solid earth sciences. This method irons out anomalies that may occur in the individual sub-disciplines, producing a self-consistent whole picture of the physical and chemical state deep in the Earth.

Professor John Paterson, University of New England

Professor Paterson is a world-leading researcher on the earliest animals in the fossil record, using exceptionally preserved Australian fossils to answer major questions relating to evolution, biogeography and palaeoecology during the two greatest radiations in the history of animal life – the Cambrian explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. He has made major contributions to the relative dating and correlation of strata around the globe in order to refine the geologic timescale for the Cambrian Period. He has published innovative research on how exceptional fossils come to be preserved. His rigorous field-based investigations of Cambrian rocks on Kangaroo Island and in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, have brought Australian fossils to the forefront of understanding the evolutionary significance of Burgess Shale-type fossil assemblages and “small shelly” fossils, two of the most informative toolkits for identifying the roots of modern animal diversity in the Cambrian.

Dr Yingjie Yang, Macquarie University

Dr Yang is responsible for a major breakthrough in the treatment and interpretation of seismic data, which has opened up the use of ambient noise signals to decipher structures in Earth’s crust and upper mantle. Up to now, earthquakes or explosions had been necessary to generate seismic data; with Dr Yang’s method the background creaks and groans of Earth can be used to make images of the internal structure of Earth.

Dr Julie Michelle Arblaster, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Julie Arblaster has been involved in, and initiated, distinguished research in the Earth sciences. Her research focuses on many aspects of the workings of the global climate system and its sensitivity to changes. The importance of her research lies in, amongst other things, how it serves to explain many of the causes of climate variability and change. Much of her research pertains directly to the climate of the Australian region, particularly with respect to the ozone hole, El Niño, the monsoon, and Australian rainfall variability.

Associate Professor Wouter Schellart, Monash University

Associate Professor Wouter Schellart has provided fundamental understanding on the evolution and dynamics of the solid Earth. His research breakthroughs have resulted in the development of a new global theory of Earth Dynamics, describing how the size of subduction zones affects the Earth's evolution and geodynamics. The theory explains several fundamental geological observations including the variety in velocity of the tectonic plates and their boundaries, the curvature of deep-sea trenches and volcanic island chains, and the formation of backarc basins and Cordilleran mountains. His work has quantified energy dissipation and flow patterns in the mantle, has identified a Global Terrestrial Reference frame for plate tectonics and provides new understanding for the geological evolution of the Southwest Pacific, Western North America and East Asia.

Dr Todd Lane, University of Melbourne

Dr Todd Lane is an atmospheric scientist at the University of Melbourne. Using state-of-the-art computer models he examines processes such as thunderstorms, airflow over mountains, heavy precipitation events, and bushfire weather. He has also conducted extensive research on turbulence near thunderstorms and the hazards they pose to commercial aircraft, and is currently working on improving methods for turbulence avoidance. He is currently supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.

Professor Craig Simmons, Flinders University

Craig Simmons is an international expert in hydrogeology recognised for his contributions to variable density groundwater flow phenomena. He has greatly advanced our understanding of computer modelling used to solve variable density flow problems, was involved in pioneering work which first detected density driven convection in a field based groundwater system, has developed innovative laboratory equipment for the visualisation of dense plume migration, and has contributed major theoretical advances on how geologic heterogeneity controls dense plume migration. His work continues to transform the discipline of hydrogeology.

Professor David White, University of Western Australia

David White has developed models for the behaviour of the weak and mobile seabed sediments on which the pipelines and infrastructure required to develop Australia’s oil and gas resources must be built. He has led the design and deployment of new instruments to characterise the shifting sands and liquefiable muds found offshore Australia, and his design methods for pipelines and foundations have been rapidly adopted by industry.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Walker, University of Melbourne

Jeffrey Walker is an expert on remote sensing of soil moisture and data assimilation. He did the first study for guidelines on the key requirements for remote sensing of soil moisture by satellite – accuracy, repeat time and spatial resolution. Jeffrey has developed airborne passive microwave remote sensing capability in Australia, and is developing the only imaging active–passive simulator world-wide for use in a satellite scheduled for launch in 2012.