Despite an unprecedented global research effort and record-breaking times to first in-human trials there are no guarantees that a vaccine will be available soon for COVID-19, according to one of Germany’s pre-eminent virologists, Professor Doctor Marylyn Addo.

Professor Addo made the comments during a recent webinar titled ‘Under the Microscope’ held by the Australian Embassy Berlin, the German Embassy Canberra, the Australia-Germany Research Network (AGRN) and the Australian Academy of Science.

The webinar was held on the six-month anniversary of receipt of the first reports of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in China by the World Health Organization. Now the world has just crossed over a minimum of 10 million infections and 500,000 deaths.

“I am optimistic, but nobody can say when we’ll definitely have a vaccine and there are many open questions,” said Professor Addo, who is head of infectious disease at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.

Professor Addo has developed and tested vaccines for Ebola and MERS and is currently developing a viral vector-based COVID-19 vaccine.

“While we are talking about the vaccine it’s critical that we develop other therapeutics. The repurposed drug remdesivir, developed to treat Ebola, is one of the frontrunner options for treating COVID-19, while the search for a vaccine continues,” said Professor Addo.

“It’s got the advantage of already having lots of data from clinical use. It’s not going to be our saving drug but it’s an important first step.”

Professor Addo was joined by patron of the Doherty Institute, Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC FAA FRS. The institute has been at the forefront of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the importance of international collaboration Professor Doherty said there is a massive global commitment to finding solutions to the pandemic.

“I think in general the world is working together very well on this. There is great consciousness that this is a global problem and recognition that this has to be solved globally,” Professor Doherty said.

“This is the only truly novel respiratory virus pandemic in modern history. This is quite a benchmark and I think we should be very much warned that these things are around and out there and there is a lot more of them.”

Professor Addo said the global pandemic has shown how connected we are.

“A unilateral approach is not going to tackle this. There might be a new normal and we must talk about that. We have to be cautious about whether we’ll go back to the way things were,” Professor Addo said.

The webinar was opened by Her Excellency Ms Lynette Wood, Australian Ambassador to Germany, and Emeritus Professor Hans Bachor, Secretary for Education and Public Awareness at the Australian Academy of Science.

Academy Fellow Professor Branka Vucetic of the University of Sydney has been awarded the prestigious CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science for her major contributions to the science of coding theory and wireless communications that underpin much of the wifi technologies we use today. Professor Vucetic was elected to the Academy in 2017.

Also acknowledged at the awards was the Academy’s 2019 Gottschalk Medal winner, Associate Professor Laura Mackay of the University of Melbourne. She was awarded the Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, and is regarded as a leader in the field of immunological ‘memory’. The Academy awarded Associate Professor Mackay the 2019 Gottschalk Medal in recognition of her contribution to the discovery of tissue-resident memory T cells.

Four Academy Fellows were shortlisted for the prizes: Professor Terry Hughes, Professor Stephen McMahon, Professor Branka Vucetic and Professor Michelle Coote. 

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes shine a light on Australia’s world-leading science and scientists, acknowledging leaders and innovators in STEM from primary school students to science journalists, to research teams at our top scientific institutions in 17 separate awards.

The finalists and winners for the awards demonstrated the diversity of the STEM sector and the top-level science that is coming out of Australia. The Academy applauds the introduction of the Australian Government Department of Industry Eureka Prize for STEM Inclusion this year. The inaugural winner of this award was the National Indigenous Science Education Program (Macquarie University, Charles Sturt University and the Yaegl Country Aboriginal Elders).

See the full list of Eureka Prize winners

The newly-formed International Science Council has met for the first time at its founding General Assembly in Paris.

A new board was elected at the meeting, with South African mathematician Daya Reddy announced as President and New Zealander Peter Gluckman as President-elect.

The International Science Council is a merger of the former International Council for Science and International Social Science Council. The Council is set to champion both the natural and social sciences, providing a unified voice to respond to the scientific and societal challenges of the future.

The Academy represented Australian science at the historic meeting, with a delegation consisting of the current and former Foreign Secretaries and the directors of International Programs and Future Earth Australia.

The Academy has represented Australia on the International Council for Science since 1954, and is looking forward to continuing as an active and valued member of the newly merged organisation.

The Australian Academy of Science congratulates Academy Fellows Martin Green, Terry Hughes and Brian Walker on recent international recognition of their research. 

James Cook University Distinguished Professor Terry Hughes received the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation’s 2018 Climate Change Award.

The award recognises Professor Hughes’s contribution to advancing understanding of the influence of rapid climate change on the world’s coral reefs.

The Foundation’s awards ceremony, now in its 11th year, honours key international figures and organisations who have made an exceptional commitment to safeguarding the planet. Previous recipients include Dr Jane Goodall, Professor David Suzuki and Sir David Attenborough.

Solar expert UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green has become the first Australian to win a prestigious Global Energy Prize for his research, development and educational activities in the field of photovoltaics.

The annual Global Energy Prize honours outstanding achievements in research and technology that are addressing the world’s pressing energy challenges. Professor Green shares the prize and $820,000 prize money this year with Russian scientist Sergey Alekseenko, an expert in thermal power engineering. 

Dr Brian Walker, from CSIRO and the Australian National University, has received the 2018 Blue Planet Prize, an international environmental award sponsored by Japan’s Asahi Glass Foundation.

He is only the second Australian in the award’s history to claim the prize, which recognises outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application in solving global environmental problems.

The award recognises Dr Walker’s achievements as a pioneer of ‘resilience science’ in social–ecological systems.

The Australian Academy of Science congratulates its Fellows Professor Michelle Simmons and Professor Graham Farquhar AO, who have been named the 2018 Australian of the Year and Senior Australian of the Year respectively.

Professor Michelle Simmons

Professor Simmons, who becomes the first female Fellow from the Physical Sciences to be named Australian of the Year, is the Director of the UNSW-based Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology and is a Fellow of ATSE, the Academy's partner in the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) program. Her Australian of the Year citation reads:

‘One of the world’s top scientists, Professor Michelle Yvonne Simmons has pioneered research that could lead to a quantum leap in computing and reshape the way we live and how we experience the world—her work is helping develop leading technology on a global scale, right here in Australia.

Since arriving in Australia from Britain in 1999, Michelle has transformed the University of NSW quantum physics department into a world leader in advanced computer systems.

In 2012, Michelle and her team created the world’s first transistor made from a single atom, along with the world’s thinnest wire. The breakthrough means Australia is now at the forefront of what Michelle calls the “space race of the computing era”. 

Michelle’s aim is to build a quantum computer able to solve problems in minutes which would otherwise take thousands of years. Such a discovery has the potential to revolutionise drug design, weather forecasting, self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence and much more.’

Academy President Professor Andrew Holmes said Professor Simmons’ leadership in the field of quantum computing, and as a role model for young women scientists, are a shining beacon for Australian science.

“Michelle is someone who has always been willing to try the experiment that others never dared to do and this had paid off many times. What a thrill it is for Michelle's colleagues to be able to share in her wonderful achievements,” Professor Holmes said.

Professor Graham Farquhar

Biophysicist Professor Graham Farquhar is based at the Australian National University at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. His Senior Australian of the Year citation reads:

‘One of Australia's most eminent scientists, Professor Graham Farquhar is helping reshape our understanding of photosynthesis—the very basis of life on Earth. His work focuses on food security and how the world will feed growing populations into the future.

After growing up with a Tasmanian farming family background, Graham has used his love of science to deliver practical benefits to the agricultural sector. His study of mathematics and physics formed the bedrock of a career creating mathematical models of how plants work. 

His research addresses agriculture and climate change and aims to solve some of the greatest challenges of our generation. Graham has received a string of accolades during his distinguished career for his research examining how water efficient crops can protect food security in a changing climate. Importantly, he has worked to improve world food security by developing strains of wheat that can grow with less water. 

In 2017 Graham became the first Australian to win a Kyoto Prize—the most prestigious international award for fields not traditionally honoured with a Nobel Prize. 

From his long-term base at the Australian National University in Canberra, and now aged 70, Graham is tackling some of the most profound challenges facing humanity and the environment.’

Academy Secretary for Science Policy, Professor David Day, said Professor Farquhar is one of Australia’s most eminent scientists and amongst the very best plant biologists in the world. 

“Professor Farquhar’s seminal work on photosynthesis and the way plants use water forms the foundation for improving crop plant production in a world that is facing an ever-increasing demand for food in a changing climate,” Professor Day said.

“He has received many accolades for his crucial research and is a most worthy senior Australian of the year.”

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

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

It is named in honour of Academy Fellow, the late Dr Maxwell Frank Cooper Day AO, who spent a lifetime championing entomology, conservation and forestry, as well as helping other scientists. He died in July this year aged 101.

Macquarie Island invertebrates

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

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

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

Kelp in temperate Australian reefs

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

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

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

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

Highly commended

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

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

More information about the award

Read the Academy's media release

Early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) gathered in Perth in July to explore the future of nutrition science. Sixty researchers with diverse research backgrounds from Australia and New Zealand critically evaluated nutrition science and identified goals, tools and control points to advance the discipline into the future.

The meeting was dynamic, with regular interactions between the four working groups resulting in revising and redeveloping the program and the path ahead.

Following the event the researchers are continuing to work together to produce a series of discussion papers. These will contribute to long-term strategic planning for nutrition science in Australia being led by the Academy's National Committee for Nutrition.

Rethinking food and nutrition science was the 16th Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank event.

At the ripe old age of 97, the late Dr Max Day AO FAA was still contributing to science, helping to uncover the mystery behind the scribbles on gum trees, considered by many to be an icon of the Australian bush.

Dr Day, who died on Monday 31 July at the age of 101, spent a lifetime championing the study of insects (entomology), conservation, the environment, and forestry. His research also played a major role in controlling Australia’s rabbit problem.

Dr Day was born in Sydney in 1915. He studied science at the University of Sydney and was awarded the university medal in 1937, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in science.

An ecologist and entomologist who collaborated with Australian greats of both disciplines, Dr Day was a member of the CSIRO Executive for eleven years, during which he was responsible for all the CSIRO Divisions dealing with plant and animal sciences.

Dr Day was the first Chairman of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and coordinated the report that led to the establishment of the Institute near Townsville, North Queensland. He was the founding Head of CSIRO’s Division of Forest Research for five years which led to Australia’s international recognition for its contribution to forest research.

Dr Day also worked extensively with the CSIRO insect collection. His passion for studying insects is perhaps best described in an interview he gave with Academy Fellow Professor Robyn Williams AM FAA in 2015.

“Insects, there are so many of them. It’s a field which goes on forever.”

He applied his work on insect hormones and insect digestion to a critical study of how animal and plant viruses are spread by insects. Dr Day worked with Academy Fellow and virologist Professor Frank Fenner AC FAA FRS to control Australia's wild rabbit population using the virus that causes myxomatosis, a project he described as the most satisfying achievement of his career.

“The government introduced myxo into Australia in 1950 to control rabbits as they had become a serious problem across the country,”  he told his Academy colleagues in 2015.

‘Frank, who I had never previously met, approached me at a meeting here in Canberra and said: ‘We believe myxomatosis might be mosquito-borne. Would you be interested in taking on the mosquito side of it while I do the biology?’, and so for the next five years Frank and I worked on the transmission of the myxo virus.”

Elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 1956, just two years after the Academy was founded, Dr Day was the Academy’s longest serving Fellow and one of Australia’s oldest scientists. He told his Academy colleagues that he still clearly recalls watching the then Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies lay the foundation stone for what is now known as the Shine Dome in 1958.

Dr Day was one of the founding members of the Australian Conservation Foundation, a strong supporter of national parks, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1977.

In 2012 aged 97, Dr Day co-authored a paper with Dr Marianne Horak and others about the Ogmograptis scribbly gum moth, describing eleven new species of the moth. Even more remarkable was the recognition that different species made different scribbles.

The author of the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books, May Gibbs, made scribbles a feature of the gumnut babies’ world, and the great Australian poet Judith Wright cemented their place in literary culture with her 1955 poem Scribbly-Gum. 

Dr Day and his co-authors found that the patterns are made by the moth's various developmental stages, and change according to the stage. 

“The eggs are laid on the bark and the caterpillar burrows in and then just goes around making scribbles,” Dr Day said in his 2015 interview with Professor Williams.

In May this year, Dr Day presented two early-career researchers, Mr Nicholas Leseberg and Dr Marta Yebra, with inaugural Max Day Environmental Science Fellowships, established in his honour.

Through sponsoring this award Dr Day acknowledged the support that he himself received as a young researcher to travel overseas to gain his PhD at Harvard. 

Find out more about Dr Day's life and work.

The Academy’s Anton Hales Medal has so far rewarded the extraordinary achievements of nine early-career researchers who are studying our planet. 

The medal is named in honour of the late Professor Anton Hales FAA. Originally from South Africa, the geophysicist’s impressive career spanned three continents and covered nearly nine decades.

The first recipient in 2009 was Professor Jeffrey Walker, a leading Australian expert on the remote sensing of soil moisture.

Walker has gone on to make further significant contributions in the field, including developing algorithms to derive high resolution soil moisture imagery from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite of NASA. The orbiting observatory measures the amount of water in the top five centimetres of soil everywhere on Earth’s surface.

The ninth and most recent recipient of the Medal is Associate Professor Juan Carlos Afonso. He is at the forefront of revolutionising the way that geoscientists interpret the signals they obtain from deep in the Earth by geophysical methods.

The other recipients were rewarded for their research into fossil records, seismic data, global climate, the evolution and dynamics of the solid Earth, weather, groundwater, and seabed sediments.

Professor Hales moved to the Australian National University from the United States as foundation Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences at the age of 62.

Professor McDougall was one of the first members of staff recruited to Hales’s new school, where they worked together over the following decades. Like Hales, McDougall is also an internationally distinguished Earth scientist.

Following Hales’s death in 2006 at the age of 95, a gift from the McDougalls saw the establishment of an award named in his honour.

Known for his capacity for mentoring, the award not only honours Hales but gives career encouragement to young Earth scientists. 

Find out more about supporting the Academy 

Mr Nicholas Leseberg from the University of Queensland and Dr Marta Yebra from the Australian National University are the first two recipients of the Academy’s Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award.

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

Max Day is a champion of entomology, conservation and forestry, and at 101 is the oldest and longest-serving Academy Fellow. The Academy is providing this support to early-career researchers in his honour.

PhD student Mr Leseberg will use his Max Day Award to investigate the ecology of the elusive and endangered Night Parrot, while Dr Yebra will study the moisture content of Australian forests to create models that predict bushfires.

Mr Leseberg and Dr Marta will receive their awards at the Academy’s annual signature science event Science at the Shine Dome on 24 May.

In addition to the awardees, three researchers were ‘highly commended’:

• Dr Hugo Harrison from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University for his project ‘Connecting reefs in the Anthropocene: managing Australia’s coral reefs for recovery and persistence’
• Dr Kerensa McElroy from CSIRO for her project ‘The ‘DNA footprint’ of near extinction: interrogating 100 years of black-throated finch decline by sequencing contemporary and historical specimens’
• Mr Max Worthington from Flinders University for his project ‘Renewable polymers for agriculture and the environment’.

More information on the awardees

Applications for the 2018 Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award close on 1 June.