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Professor Byrne completed a BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Auckland before commencing a PhD degree at ANU in 1981. Following the completion of the degree in Department of Nuclear Physics he held positions with the University of Melbourne and spent over two years in Bonn, Germany as a von Humboldt fellow. He returned to ANU in 1989 as a Research Fellow and in 1991 commenced a joint appointment between the Department of Physics, in the Faculty of Science and the Department of Nuclear Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering. He was Head of the Department of Physics from 2003 to 2007. He is currently the Dean of Science at ANU and the Director of the ANU College of Physical Sciences.
His research interests involve the use of gamma-rays as probes to determine the structure of heavy nuclei and as probes in the examination of the atomic level structure of materials (especially semiconductors); he has published over 200 papers. Professor Byrne has been an active educator at all levels in the University.
Professor Ian Chubb was appointed Vice-Chancellor of The Australian National University in January 2001, having previously been Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University for six years (1995 to 2000). He was the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Monash University from 1993 to 1995, for part of that time simultaneously holding the position of Foundation Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics. From 1986 to 1990, Professor Chubb was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong.
Between 1990 and 1993, Professor Chubb was the full-time Chair of the Higher Education Council (HEC) in Australia, and concurrently Deputy Chair of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training. He served as a member and, subsequently, Chair of the HEC in a part-time capacity from 1994 to 1997. He also served as Interim Chair, then Deputy Chair, of the National Committee for Quality in Higher Education from 1993 to 1994.
Professor Chubb began his university career as a neuroscientist and was the recipient of a number of academic awards and named fellowships at the University of Ghent and Oxford University.
Rado is a past NYSF student from 1993 and is the current IT/web manager for the organisation. He grew up in New Norfolk, Tasmania, and moved to Canberra to complete a a Bachelor of Science with Honours at The Australian National University, and then went on to complete a PhD in physics (rocket science!) at the same institution.
He has published in a diverse range of fields: catchment hydrology, seismic tomography, the imaging of hypersonic fluids, and public science. This eclectic mix of research fields is also reflected in the various scientific departments he’s worked at, including the CRC for Catchment Hydrology at CSIRO, Department of Physics, Department of Mathematics, Research School of Earth Science, Research School of Chemistry, Research School of Humanities and the Research School of Social Sciences, all at ANU.
He is currently the Executive Director at the Forum for European-Australian Science and Technology cooperation (FEAST). FEAST is a quasi-diplomatic unit who’s role it is to oil the wheels of international research collaboration, and in doing so Rado has been involved with a broad range of researchers, universities, public agencies and governments from all over the world and is a sought after speaker on the topic of international scientific collaborations.
In addition to this position, he is also the technical innovation manager at the new Australian National Institute for Public Policy, a partnership between ANU and the Australian Government that aims to leverage ANU research to better inform public policy at the highest levels of the Government.
Dr Cathy Foley is currently Chief at CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE) Division.
Cathy was born in Sydney, NSW on 10 October 1957. Her parents’ occupations were accountant and architect. Her schooling was at St Anthony’s primary school and Santa Sabina College for high school. Early influences were her mother, who died when Cathy was nine years old, and her older brothers and sister.
Cathy initially planned to be a school teacher as she thought only really smart people were scientists and I did not know any. However, when the opportunity arose she enrolled for a PhD in Physics and so commenced her science career. She had always loved nature, was a natural at science at school and had a desire to make a difference.
Her tertiary education was a DipEd, High School Physics, Macquarie University, 1979, a BSc (Hons 1), majoring in Physics from Macquarie University in 1980 and PhD in Physics, Macquarie University, 1984. She spent six months on a scholarship as a Research Fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering, Oregon State University USA in Corvallis while writing up her PhD.
She joined the CSIRO Division of Materials Science in 1985 as a National Research Fellow, being promoted to Senior Research Scientist in 1991, Principal Research Scientist in 1996, Senior Principal Research Scientist in 2000 and Chief Research Scientist in 2008.
Her research interests have been in superconducting materials and electronics and their application. She was Acting Project Leader, Superconducting Sensors and Technology Project 1995-96; Project Leader, Superconducting Devices and Applications Project, 1996-2009; Stream Leader, Applied Quantum Systems, 2003-04; Theme Leader, Nanoscale Manufacturing, 2005-07 and Research Program Leader from 2007- present.
She is Coordinator, Advanced Materials transformational Capability Platform (August 2008-present) and served as Acting Deputy Chief-Research from April to July 2009.
From 1988 to 1993 she was a Science correspondent for ABC 2BL radio evening program and since 1989 has been an Honorary Research Associate of the School of Physics, University of Sydney.
Gordian Fulde is the Director of Emergency Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital. He works clinically in the Emergency Department, as well as being involved in the teaching and training of students and staff in many facets of medicine and emergency medicine. He is a member of the curriculum committee for the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. He is a founding father of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).
In addition, Professor Fulde has published widely, is a member of the editorial board of several medical journals and has recently published the fifth edition of Emergency Medicine: The Principles of Practice. He has served on advisory boards and chaired and participated in many in-hospital, local and state committees representing emergency medicine. Professor Fulde continues to be involved with students or trainees of ACEM, as well as the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the University of New South Wales and the University of Notre Dame.
Benjamin Kile is currently a Sylvia & Charles Viertel Fellow, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, and Laboratory Head in the Cancer and Hematology Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Dr Kile’s research is focused on the molecular regulation of blood cell formation and function, with a particular emphasis on functional genetics and genomics. He has made significant discoveries in the areas of stem cell biology, cancer gene function and blood platelet survival. His research has been published in a range of international journals including Nature, Cell and Nature Immunology. Dr Kile has a growing international reputation in blood cell research, and has received numerous invitations to speak at major international conferences including the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, the Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis & Haemostasis and the International Society for Stem Cell Research Annual Meeting. Dr Kile has a strong interest in the translation and commercialization of research outcomes, and is currently Chief Scientific Officer for the biotechnology company MuriGen Therapeutics. He was recently appointed to the board of the Australian Genome Research Facility, and is the national convenor of the NCRIS-funded Australian Phenomics Network. Dr Kile’s achievements were recently recognized by the Australian Government in awarding him the 2010 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.
Prof. Lawrence M. Krauss is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Physics Dept, Co-Director of the Cosmology Initiative, and Inaugural Director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University. Origins will involve a new and wide ranging interdisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach program focusing on all aspects of origins, from the origins of the cosmos to human origins, to the origins of consciousness and culture. Until Aug 2008 Krauss was Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, Professor of Astronomy, and Director of the Center for Education and Research at Case Western Reserve University. He is an internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research interests, including the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology, where his studies include the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 then joined the Harvard Society of Fellows. In 1985 he joined the faculty of Physics at Yale University, and moved to take his CWRU in 1993. From 1993 to 2005 he also served as Chairman of the Physics Department at Case, where his achievements included building one of the top particle astrophysics programs in the country, and the creation of a novel Master’s Program in Physics Entrepreneurship.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Prof. Krauss is the author of over 300 scientific publications, as well as numerous popular articles on physics and astronomy. In addition, he is the author of eight popular books, including the international bestseller, The Physics of Star Trek., and the award winning Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth… and Beyond. He has lectured to popular audiences at such places as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Natural History in New York, as well as serving on the boards of three different science and natural history museums, and appears frequently on radio and television around the world. Prof. Krauss is the recipient of numerous awards for his research, writing, and lecturing. These include include the Gravity Research Foundation First Prize Award (1984), and the Presidential Investigator Award (1986). In February 2000, in Washington D.C., Prof. Krauss was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 1999-2000 Award for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology, joining previous awardees Carl Sagan (1995) and E.O.Wilson (1994). In April 2001, he received the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society. The citation reads “For outstanding contributions to the understanding of the early universe, and extraordinary achievement in communicating the essence of physical science to the general public”. In April 2001 the American Institute of Physics announced that Krauss had been awarded the 2001 Andrew Gemant Award, given annually to “a person who has made significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimensions of physics”. Previous awardees include Freeman Dyson, Steven Weinberg, and Stephen Hawking. In 2002 Krauss was awarded the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award, for his book, “Atom”. In June of 2003 he was awarded an honorary D.Sc. degree from Carleton University for his scientific contributions and his efforts to improve public understanding of science. In August of 2003 Krauss was awarded the Oersted Medal , the highest award of the American Association of Physics Teachers, for his contributions to the teaching of physics. Previous awardees include Richard Feynman, I.I. Rabi, Edward Purcell, and Hans Bethe. Krauss is the only physicist to have been awarded these three most prestigious awards by the APS,AIP and AAPT. More recently, in 2005, the American Physical Society awarded Krauss the Joseph P. Burton Forum Award for his work on Science and Society.
His last book, Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensionsfrom Plato to String Theory and Beyond, an exploration of our fascination, in art, literature, and science, with the idea that the the three dimensions of space we experience are not all there is, appeared in October 2005, and appeared in paperback in November 2006. His newest book, entitled “Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science” will appear in March 2011.
He has been particularly active in issues of science and society and helped lead the effort by scientists to defend the teaching of science in public schools. His essay in the New York Times on Evolution and Intelligent Design in May 2005 helped spur the recent controversy that has involved the Catholic Church. He also organized a successful campaign to recruit and elect pro-science candidates to the Ohio School Board, defeating all creationist candidates. Most recently he wrote proposing a Presidential Debate on Science, and serves on the steering committee of Science Debate 2008, which has now been co-sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Council on Competitiveness and endorsed by over 12,000 scientists, business leaders, and legislators.
Krauss is also one of the few prominent scientists today to have actively crossed the chasm between science and popular culture. For example, besides his radio and television work, Krauss has performed solo with the Cleveland Orchestra, narrating Gustav Holst’s The Planets at the Blossom Music Center in the most highly attended concert at that venue, and was nominated for a Grammy award for his liner notes for a Telarc CD of music from Star Trek. In 2005 he also served as a jury member at the Sundance Film Festival.
In his spare time, when he is not writing, lecturing etc, he enjoys scuba diving, fly fishing, and mountain biking.
Rolf Landua grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany, studied physics at the University of Mainz and completed his Ph.D. there in 1980. That same year, Rolf went to CERN in Geneva as a visiting scientist to participate in experiments at the LEAR (‘Low Energy Antiproton Ring’) facility. He became a CERN fellow (1982-1985) and in 1987 was offered a position as CERN research physicist. His research field was antimatter, in particular antiprotonic atoms, antinucleon-nucleon annihilations, meson spectroscopy and the search for exotic bound states of quarks and gluons. In 1996, he was one of the proponents of the ‘Antimatter Decelerator’ (AD) at CERN, then a co-founder of the ATHENA experiment, of which he became spokesman (1999-2004). In 2002, the ATHENA experiment reached its goal of producing millions of slow-moving antihydrogen atoms.
Rolf is very active in promoting the public understanding of modern physics, by writing articles in major newspapers and appearing on many TV and radio programmes. He received the communication prize of the European Physical Society in 2003. He has written a short book for the general public on particle physics, cosmology and the LHC at CERN (“Am Rand der Dimensionen”), which explains in simple terms the challenges and the objectives of the LHC experiments. Since 2005, Rolf has been Head of the Education and Public Outreach Group at CERN. His group organizes international and national physics teacher programmes for about 1000 teachers per year, with the goal of bringing the excitement of modern physics research into classrooms. His group is also responsible for the CERN visits programme and all CERN exhibitions.
Professor Penny D Sackett began her appointment as Chief Scientist for Australia in November 2008. She is an accomplished cross-disciplinary scientist with a record of academic excellence on three continents. Previous appointments include the J. Seward Johnson Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, US National Science Foundation Program Director, Chaired Professor at University of Groningen and Director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The Australian National University.
As Chief Scientist, Professor Sackett provides high-level independent advice to the Government on matters relating to science and innovation. She is the Executive Officer to the Prime Minster’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council and also holds a number of ex-officio roles including Chair of the Climate Change Science Framework Coordination Group, and membership of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation Advisory Board and Rural Research and Development Council.
Trained as a physical chemist Professor Senden is focused on developing imaging technologies to study complex physical and biological systems, chiefly using Atomic Fore Microscopy and X- ray micro-tomography.
Using these techniques he has had an opportunity to collaborate in fields such as; fluid flow in porous materials which includes studies in oil recovery, granular materials, wood composites and fluid flow in paper; nano-mechanical properties of single polymer chains; early evolution of vertebrate life (Devonian fish), including the earliest evidence for vertebrate copulation; and use of radioactive encapsulated nano-particles to aid medical diagnosis of diseases such as Deep Vein Thrombosis, liver therapy and diagnostic imaging.
The diversity of these topics reflects his strong belief in cross-disciplinary collaboration and his interest in translating his research into practical applications. He has had the opportunity to commercially develop some of these research activities, and in particular is part of the spin-off company, Digitalcore, a venture to improve oil recovery.
Kate Trinajstic’s entry into palaeontology was entirely fortuitous. As a girl living in northwest Sydney, she watched the nearby dairy farms turn into Macquarie University. Kate was curious about science and the academic world but her teachers didn’t regard research as an appropriate career for young women. So she turned to nursing. Some years later her husband persuaded her to do a science degree, which she completed at Murdoch University.
During her Honours year she was a volunteer at the Western Australian Museum where palaeontologist John Long introduced her to the Gogo fish and encouraged her to do a PhD.
The fish from the Gogo Reef were identified in 1940. About 380 million years ago in what is now the Kimberley Ranges in Western Australia, there was a vast barrier reef. In one part, for reasons that are still unclear, large numbers of fish died and sank to the sea bottom between the reef ledges where they were buried relatively intact. Protective limestone balls formed around them and preserved them over millions of years.
Today, these limestone balls are being exposed by erosion. Tap them with a hammer and about one in fifty cracks open to reveal a fossilised fish. When treated with acetic acid (vinegar), the surrounding rockdissolves, leaving only their bones.
Scientists have been using this technique on the Gogo fish since the 1950s. But in the course of her research looking at hundreds of fish, Kate began to see what looked like muscle fibres between the bones. Her colleagues were sceptical, but she persevered and proved to them that they had been destroying fossil structure with the acetic acid.
That led to a new challenge. How could you study these whole fossil fish without destroying them? Kate turned to X-rays and the latest medical imaging technology to peer inside the fossils and dissect them virtually.
Today she uses a unique CT scanner at The Australian National University with a 3D resolution of two thousandths of a millimetre. She also uses the giant European Synchrotron Research Facility in Grenoble and its smaller cousin, the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne.
The results? Perhaps the biggest discovery was the ‘mother fish’ which had an umbilical cord still attached to its embryonic offspring. This was a vertebrate giving birth to live young some two hundred million years earlier than previously thought. And this discovery has given insight to the behaviour of the Gogo fishes, because internal reproduction implies some sort of mating procedure.
Now she can distinguish the sexes, Kate has shown that the Gogo specimens include many females and few of the smaller males. The females probably schooled while the males were solitary.
Now, with her team at Curtin University, Kate is looking for biomolecules - remnants of muscle and bone proteins. She wants to know if they have a similar structure to those in modern fishes.
She is also developing tools for the oil company Chevron to help it date core samples rapidly and accurately in its search for new oil and gas reserves.
Kate still remembers finding her first fossil and the excitement of “Cracking open a rock and seeing something that’s 380 million years old, that no-one has seen before.”
Marnie Blewitt completed her undergraduate studies at The University of Sydney, with a double major of Molecular Biology and Genetics. She continued at the University for her honours and PhD studies, working with Prof Emma Whitelaw on mammalian epigenetics – the control of gene expression. During her PhD, she designed and developed a sensitised mutagenesis screen to find novel epigenetic modifiers in the mouse, a challenging project for which she was awarded the Genetics Society of Australia DG Catcheside prize for the best PhD in Genetics. Marnie moved to Melbourne at the end of 2005 to take up a Peter Doherty Post-doctoral fellowship with Prof Douglas Hilton at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Here, she has worked on one of the mouse mutants identified in the mutagenesis screen, identifying a critical role for the mutated protein in X inactivation, and has also studied the role of polycomb group proteins in hematopoietic stem cell function. The work above also earned her the Australian Academy of Science Ruth Stephens Gani medal in 2009, and the L’Oreal Australia Women in Science fellowship 2009. Marnie has now established her own group at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, working on the molecular mechanisms behind epigenetic control of gene expression and has just welcomed her first child into the world.
Prof Cowley is a physiologist and bioentrepreneur with a strong focus on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders. Research within the Cowley lab has discovered how the brain detects how much fat the body has stored, as well as how much food has been consumed, and what kind of food. He has mapped the pathways that are engaged by signals of energy state. He was able to discover new signals within the body that regulate energy balance and describe how other known energy signals exert their effects on the brain. In early 2008 he moved back to Australia after a 10 year career in the USA.
His lab uses a variety of methods in several model species, including in vivo physiology studies in animals using remote sensing and electrophysiological studies in brain slices and cultured cells. The lab also runs complex in vivo studies on energy balance in monkeys. Research in the lab has evolved into several clinical trials, ranging from Phase2a through to successfully completed large scale Phase 3 trials.
He has published more than 60 papers and chapters, many in the highest profile journals. He is the inventor of 85 patents, and the founder and was Chief Scientific Officer of Orexigen Therapeutics, a publically listed (NASDAQ: OREX) San Diego biotech company that is translating his discoveries into human therapeutics. In 2009 he was awarded the prestigious Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year, and one of the 100 most influential Melbournians (The Age Melbourne Magazine).
He is the Director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of The Centre for Obesity Research and Education. Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, and of Gubra ApS, Denmark. He is a non-executive director of Verva Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.
Research within the Cowley lab set out to map the pathways that are engaged by signals of energy state, and how these pathways relay information to the rest of the brain. Research in the lab now focuses on how these signals from the body lose the ability to control our weight once the person is obese. We seek to determine how and why the brain becomes resistant to signals that are meant to convey that the body has sufficient stores of energy, and should start to burn more, and eat less.
We recently discovered how obesity causes the breakdown of this brain system that regulates appetite; we found that leptin resistance prevented the arcuate nucleus from taking part in an important signaling function that regulates appetite and body weight. We found that the melanocortin cells in obese mice behaved as if there was no leptin present, even though levels were 40-times higher than in normal animals. We also highlighted a key gene called SOCS-3 involved in the mechanism of leptin resistance.
Leptin resistance means that the body no longer responds to the hormone’s weight suppressing effects. However, is possible that leptin resistance is a selective resistance involving just some parts of the brain, and specifically associated to acute regulation of feeding. But other neurons responsive to leptin could remain intact. In addition to its effects on appetite, Leptin also increases the activity of the sympathetic nervous system which stimulates energy expenditure in adipose tissue. In obesity chronic activation of this leptin signalling may cause simpathoexcitation. A primary research direction in the lab is in determine if high leptin levels in the blood of obese mammals contributes to pathologically high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and decrease glucose metabolism, leading to diabetes/metabolic syndrome by activating the sympathetic nervous system.
Another area of interest in his research is the fact of the melanocortin neurons are not just involved in the control of energy balance. They can regulate the glucose homeostasis too. It is believed that diabetes results from two simultaneous problems: the improper functioning of pancreatic beta cells and the impairment of insulin’s actions on target tissues, including the liver, fat and muscles. Recently our group in collaboration with researchers from Harvard Medical School, has identified a third abnormality that could play an important role in the development of obesity-induced Type 2 diabetes.
Some subpopulations of neurons in the brain become ‘excited’ by glucose. We discover that some neurons that belong to melanocortin system (POMC neurons) are able to sense increases in glucose and then initiate responses aimed at returning blood-glucose levels to normal. We demonstrate that POMC neurons of diabetic mice lose the capacity to sense changes in brain glucose levels, and we found that an increase in the activity of the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 is behind it. This is the first demonstration that glucose-sensing by neurons plays an important role in responding to rising blood glucose levels. This finding could potentially lead to novel treatments for Type 2 diabetes.
A possible explanation for the recent increase in obesity relates to the very rewarding aspects of highly palatable foods, in other words why are sweet or fatty foods more “tasty” than other foods? Furthermore, why do we continue to engage in eating behavior that is obviously bad for us? We wish to determine how the reward based pathways and homeostatic pathways interact, and how reward overrules homeostatic signals of satiety (the feeling that one can always squeeze in one more piece of chocolate cake…). We seek to better understand the structure of the neural pathways by which the reward and homeostatic circuits interact, as well as the mechanism of the interaction.
I spent most of my childhood in Hobart, Tasmania and attended the Friends’ School, a coeducational Quaker school with a strong international focus, although this time was punctuated by spending a year in England and three years in the West Indies with my family as we followed my father’s academic appointments. My tertiary studies were completed at the University of Tasmania where I gained a Science degree majoring in Botany and Zoology, First Class Honours degree and PhD in Zoology. My PhD research concerned the taxonomy, zoogeography and ecology of terrestrial amphipods, which are common crustaceans in Tasmanian forests.
In 1980, after a short stint as an Assistant Curator in the Crustacea Department at the Australian Museum in Sydney, I was appointed as a Research Officer in the Western Australian Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to carry out research into the conservation of the numbat, a small termite-eating marsupial that was close to extinction.
This appointment was the beginning of a very exciting and satisfying career as a research scientist in the Western Australian government’s wildlife conservation agency.
In the early years my work in Western Australia focussed on the conservation of the numbat. I demonstrated that reducing fox numbers by regular distribution of 1080 meat baits resulted in increases in numbat population levels. This was one of two studies that formed the scientific basis of the Western Shield program, Western Australia’s massive and successful fox control and native mammal reintroduction program. Since then, my work has focused on the conservation of a range of threatened marsupials, including the dibbler, red-tailed phascogale, western barred bandicoot, southern brown bandicoot. In 1999 I moved from Perth to Albany to lead the recovery program for the world’s rarest marsupial, Gilbert’s potoroo.
In 1998 I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study the use of dogs and satellite technology in wildlife research and management in New Zealand, North America, South Africa and Namibia. I am currently President of the Australian Mammal Society.
Professor Bryan Gaensler is an astronomer and ARC Federation Fellow at The University of Sydney, having previously held positions at MIT, the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University. His current research is on the origin of magnetism in interstellar space. Gaensler was the 1999 Young Australian of the Year, gave the 2001 Australia Day Address to the nation, and was awarded the 2006 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize by the American Astronomical Society.
Ove is Professor of Marine Studies and Director of the Global Change Institute, at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He completed his training at the University of Sydney (BSc Hons) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, PhD), returning to Australia in 1992 to take an academic position at the University of Sydney. In 2000, he moved to the University of Queensland, where he has took the Chair of Marine Studies and was the inaugural Director of the Centre for Marine Studies. As part of his role as Director of the Centre, he has coordinated an island research station network which includes research stations on Heron Island, Low Isles and North Stradbroke Island. In addition to his role as Director, Ove heads a research laboratory with over 30 researchers and students that focus on how global warming and ocean acidification are affecting and will affect coral reefs now and into the future (lab web site: www.coralreefecosystems.org).
He was recognised in 1999 with the Eureka Prize in 1999 for “ground-breaking research into the physiological basis of coral bleaching”. Ove has published works that include over 160 refereed publications and book chapters, including the first major evidence of the serious threat that climate change poses for coral reefs and other coastal ecosystems. Three of his scientific publications are now the 1st, 4th and 6th most cited works over the past 10 years in the area of “climate change”. Ove is also a regular contributor to the media, with his work featuring on the ABC (Catalyst), BBC (with Sir David Attenborough) and NBC (with Tom Brokaw) in his role as Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and as Coordinator for the Australasian Centre for Excellence and Chair of the Bleaching Working Group within the World Bank-Global Environment Facility Coral Reef Targeted Research project. He has contributed to the IPCC (as an author and recently as a member of the scoping group for the 5th Assessment Report) and key reports such as the Garnaut Climate Change Review.
Ove was recently appointed as Director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland. This institute is focused on a broad set of issues inherent in ocean systems, urbanisation, climate change, and technology transitions. Hoegh-Guldberg interacts with a wide array of national and international scientific, government, business and public networks that focus on the challenges that climate change poses to the health of the world’s oceans. Ove is currently a member of the Australian Climate Group; the Royal Society (London) Marine Advisory Network; and the Board of Editing Reviewers at Science Magazine, and runs the science blog www.climateshifts.org and tweets at www.twitter.com/OveHG.
Rolf Landua was born 1954 in Wiesbaden, Germany. He studied physics at the University of Mainz and completed his thesis in 1980. In the same year, Rolf Landua went to CERN as visiting scientist from the University of Mainz, to participate in experiments at the LEAR (‘Low Energy Antiproton Ring’) facility. He became CERN fellow in the years 1982-1985. In 1987, he was offered a position as CERN research physicist. His scientific research focused on the study of various aspects of antimatter, in particular antiprotonic atoms, antinucleon-nucleon annihilations, meson spectroscopy and the search for exotic bound states of quarks and gluons.
In 1996, he was one of the proponents of the ‘Antimatter Decelerator’ (AD) at CERN and then co-founder of the ATHENA experiment, of which he became spokesman from 1999-2004. In 2002, the ATHENA experiment reached its goal of producing millions of slow-moving antihydrogen atoms.
Rolf Landua is very active in promoting the public understanding of modern physics, by writing articles in major newspapers and appearing on many TV and radio programmes. He has received the communication prize of the European Physical Society in 2003. He has written a short book for the general public on particle physics, cosmology and the LHC at CERN (“Am Rand der Dimensionen”), which explains in simple terms the challenges and the objectives of the LHC experiments.
Since 2005, Rolf Landua is Head of the Education and Public Outreach Group at CERN. His group organizes international and national physics teacher programmes for about 1,000 teachers per year, with the goal of bringing the excitement of modern physics research into classrooms in an intuitive way. His group is also responsible for the CERN visits programme and all CERN exhibitions.
Peter McDonald is Professor of Demography and Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute. He is President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) for the years 2010-2013. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and was formerly a Member of the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council. Prior to his present appointment he was head of research at the Australian Institute of Family Studies for a period of 11 years. He has also worked at the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia, at the World Fertility Survey, London and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Throughout his career, he has been actively engaged in the teaching and promotion of demography as a discipline while applying interdisciplinary approaches in his research. He has a PhD degree in Demography from the Australian National University and an Honours degree in Economics Statistics from the University of New South Wales. In 2008, he was appointed as a Member in the Order of Australia.
Dr Amanda Barnard received her PhD (Physics) in 2003 from RMIT University, on the topic of nanocarbon phase stability. After 2 years as a Distinguished Fellow in the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory (USA) she moved to the United Kingdom, where she held the senior research position of Violette & Samuel Glasstone Fellow at the University of Oxford, and an Extraordinary Junior Research Fellowship at The Queen’s College (Oxford). She returned to Australia in 2008 and has been awarded a prestigious QEII Fellowship by the Australian Research Council for 2009. By combining thermodynamic theory and highly accurate supercomputer simulations, her research focuses on relating the size, structure and shape of nanomaterials to reactivity and stability, for the study of environmental impacts and risk assessment. Dr Barnard is a world renowned leader in theoretical and computational nanoscience, and a winner of the 2008 L’Oreal “For Women in Science” award for her work modeling nanoparticles in the environment. Most recently she was RMIT University’s 2008 Alumnus of the Year, and as been selected by The Age newspaper as the Scientist to Watch in 2009.
Born near Liverpool, England, Dr Alastair Birtles completed his Bachelor Degree in Zoology from Oxford University. He immigrated to Australia where he completed his PhD in Marine Biology from the James Cook University.
Alastair has 40 years of experience in Marine Ecology of Tropical Environments. He has taught for over 15 years at the James Cook University in Townsville, and has supervised over 100 honours and postgraduate students from 25 different countries.
When not swimming with Dwarf Minke Whales as part of his research, Alastair continues a commitment to developing sustainable practices in ecotourism, and working with indigenous communities on marine conservation.
Dr Alan Finkel received his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Monash University in 1981. It was during his two years of postdoctoral study at The Australian National University that he began to build tools to help speed up his own research. When he noticed that many of his peers were using the tools he had made, he knew he was on to something.
With this new direction Dr Finkel established Axon Instruments, a now leading supplier of electronic instruments and software for use in medical and pharmaceutical research.
Dr Finkel is well known for his philanthropic pursuits and also co-founded the popular science magazine, Cosmos. Currently, he serves as Chancellor at Monash University, a position he has held since 1999.
Dr Alan Finkel looks forward to being one of the first 500 passengers to launch into space on the Virgin Galactic.
An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, Tim Flannery has published more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His books include the landmark works span class="italic">The Future Eaters and The Weather Makers, which has been translated into 25 languages. In 2006 it won the NSW Premier’s Literary Prizes, the O2 (German Environmental Prize) and the US Lannan Prize (literary Lifetime Achievement).
In 2001 he received a Centenary of Federation Medal for his services to Australian science, and in 2002 he delivered the Australia Day address. In 2005 he was named Australian Humanist of the Year, and in 2007 honoured as Australian of the Year.
He spent a year teaching at Harvard, and is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society’s representative in Australasia. He reviews regularly for the New York Review of Books.
In 2007 Tim Flannery co-founded and was appointed Chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a coalition of community, business, and political leaders who have come together to confront climate change. He advises various businesses on the climate problem, including Attunga Capital, Deutchebank, and CLSA Asia.
Professor Monro is an ARC Federation Fellow and the Director of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics within the School of Chemistry & Physics at the University of Adelaide. The Centre focuses on developing new classes of micro and nanostructured optical fibres for defence, sensing, nonlinear optics and fibre lasers. She is a member of the South Australian Premier’s Science & Research Council, a founding steering member of the Royal Institution of Australia, and Chair of the University of Adelaide Defence Committee. In 2008, she received the Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, in 2007-2008, she was awarded the ‘Women in Physics Lecture’ by the Australian Institute of Physics and, in 2006, a Bright Spark Award for Australia’s Top 10 Scientific Minds under 45 by Cosmos Magazine. She obtained her PhD in physics in 1998 from the University of Sydney, for which she was awarded the Bragg Gold Medal, and was then awarded an Eleanor Sophia Wood Travelling Fellowship. In 2000, she received a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton in the UK. She came to the University of Adelaide in early 2005 as the inaugural Chair of Photonics. Tanya Monro has published 300 papers in journals and refereed conference proceedings.
As a University of Queensland undergraduate student, Mark “sacrificed” his Australian summer break for a chilling Norwegian winter and an investigation into the engineering behaviour of some of the largest offshore oil and gas platforms in the world. Since that introduction, Mark’s interest in large civil engineering structures has taken his research career from Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, to studying dams at the World Commission on Dams in South Africa, and to positions of research associate, lecturer and now Professor of Civil Engineering at The University of Western Australia (UWA).
Mark is now the Director of UWA’s Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems and is playing a leading role in the recently established $11 million CSIRO Flagship Cluster on “Subsea pipelines for reliable and environmentally safe development of ocean hydrocarbon resources”. His major research contributions are in the development of models applicable to the design of foundations for offshore oil and gas facilities, and he has authored more than 60 international refereed journal articles and conference publications on the topic.
Mark was awarded the Western Australian Premier’s Prize for Early Career Achievement in Science in 2006 and the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year in the 2007 Prime Ministers Awards for Science.
He is still learning to surf.
At various times in my youth I wanted to be a diary farmer, an air hostess (didn’t everyone!), a nurse, and a wildlife photographer. But when I was about 15 I read King Solomon’s Ring by Konrad Lorenz and decided that studying zoology, ecology and animal behaviour was going to be my thing - it still is.
For me, the two main components of an academic job create the perfect balance. The research part is the self-indulgence, while the teaching part is the giving back. What I enjoy most is taking my students out in the bush to open their eyes to their environment and what makes it special. I am very fortunate to have the support of many of my fellow biologists who help me run an ecology field trip in Myall Lakes National Park each September which is the highlight of my teaching year, and, I’m glad to say, apparently the highlight of university life for a lot of the students as well.
Over the last couple of years I have increasingly become involved in academic-related activities outside the university. One of these is working within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN-sponsored organization that synthesizes climate change-related research to produce reports for governments and policy-makers. My second main "other" activity is being the current Chair of the NSW Scientific Committee, a group of scientists appointed by the NSW Government to assess nominations for threatened species. I sometimes think that this work is akin to throwing oneself bodily off the battlements of the academic ivory tower. I deal with an exciting, and at times frustrating, mixture of people including developers, land managers, journalists, farmers and ministerial minders and have had to come to grips with issues ranging from coal mining to dingo conservation.
Over the past year my work has taken me from Beijing to Vienna, and from the cloud forests of Lord Howe Island to the depths of a wild canyon to marvel at the Wollemi pine. I'm lucky to have a wonderfully supportive partner and children who think that what I do is cool; I can't imagine wanting to do anything else.
Alex attended the NYSF in 1993 and went on to study Engineering at UWA.
In December 2005, Alex was named 2005 WA Young Engineer of the Year Award by Engineers Australia. Alex has achieved technical excellence in her field of Transport Engineering, whilst exhibiting strong leadership skills. “Alexandra Piper is an exceptional young engineer who has a genuine understanding of the wider issues currently facing the engineering community today”, said the judges. Throughout her career Alex has been active within Young Engineers and Engineers Australia. She’s currently working for GHD, an international professional services company providing leadership in management, engineering, the environment, planning and architecture She continues to be a strong voice for the engineering industry as Chair of the Western Australian Cycling Committee and as a member of the Transport Strategic Committee.
Dr Greg Woods‘s undergraduate training was at Monash University and his PhD (Studies on T lymphocyte colonies) was undertaken at the University of Tasmania. Greg’s post doctoral training was in Toronto, Canada where his research utilised cellular and molecular biology approaches to analyse cytotoxic T cell function and multi-drug resistance.
Since returning to the School of Medicine Greg has played significant roles in research and teaching activities at the University of Tasmania. His research group has a national and international research profile through contributions to the field of dendritic cells, specifically in the area of Langerhans cells, cancer and the neonatal development of Langerhans cells. This group was one of the first to indicate that immature dendritic cells induce suppression. This has international importance as it is relevant for the development of tumour vaccines.
Current research interests include the analysis of the effects of ultraviolet light on the skin immune system, the development of the neonatal skin immune system, vitamin D and the immune system, novel therapies for cancer and the immune system of native animals. With the recent discovery of the devil facial tumour disease Greg’s interest has been directed towards the immune system of Tasmanian devils to try to understand why the tumour is not recognized by the immune system.
Deanna D’Alessandro is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Molecular Electronics Group at the University of Sydney. Her research involves understanding and mimicking nature using experimental, theoretical and computational techniques to design more efficient molecular electronics devices, particularly for solar energy conversion.
Deanna hails from Cairns in Far North Queensland and obtained her BSc in chemistry, physics and mathematics at James Cook University in Townsville. She received the University Medal in 2000 and completed her PhD (cum laude) in chemistry in late 2005.
She has co-authored over 20 internationally-reviewed journal publications and has recently been named the 2006 Cornforth Medallist of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. The medal is awarded for the most outstanding PhD thesis submitted in any branch of chemistry in the previous year and commemorates Australian Sir John Cornforth, the 1975 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. She was also the winner of Fresh Science 2006 and will take up a British Council study tour of the UK during 2007 where she will present her work at the Royal Institution in London.
Deanna attended the 1996 NYSF as a member of Maxwell and credits the Forum with opening up a world of science to her and inspiring her to pursue a scientific career.
PM Science Prize winner, Ian Frazer, was trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh, Scotland before emigrating in 1980 to Melbourne, Australia to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research with Professor Ian Mackay.
In 1985 he moved north to Brisbane to take up a teaching post with the University of Queensland, and he now holds a personal chair as head of the Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research, a research institute of the University at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
His current research interests include immunoregulation, and immunotherapeutic vaccines for Papillomavirus associated cancers. Prof Frazer holds research funding from several Australian and USA funding bodies. He is a director of a biotechnology start up company, Coridon, with an interest in optimising and targeting polynucleotide vaccine protein expression.
He won the 2005 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and was named Australian of the Year in 2006 for his development of the human papillomavirus (?HPV) cervical cancer vaccines.
Prof Frazer has recently been appointed Chair for 2009 of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation's prestigious Medical Research Advisory Committee. He also chairs the medical and scientific advisory committee of the Queensland Cancer Fund, and advises the WHO and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation on papillomavirus vaccines.
Dr Frazer teaches immunology to undergraduate and graduate students of the University. He was recently made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. In March 2007 he was awarded the prestigious Howard Florey Medal for Medical Research and earlier this year was announced as recipient of the Balzan Prize, a major international award recognising his “outstanding scientific achievement and lasting contribution to preventive medicine”.
Professor Penny D Sackett began her appointment as Chief Scientist for Australia in November 2008. Professor Sackett is an accomplished cross-disciplinary scientist with a record of academic excellence on three continents. She is highly respected in the national and international communities of science and technology, both for her research and her proven experience in research management.
A physicist by training and an astronomer by profession, Professor Sackett was most recently Director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories (2002–2007) at The Australian National University. Other previous appointments include the J. Seward Johnson Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton (USA), Program Director at the US National Science Foundation, and Chaired Professor at the University of Groningen (NL).
As Chief Scientist for Australia, Professor Sackett provides high-level independent advice to the Prime Minister and other Ministers on matters relating to science, technology and innovation. She is the Executive Officer to the Prime Minster’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, leading foresighting activities to identify long-term challenges and opportunities for Australia that can be addressed, in part, through science. Subsequent gap analysis leads to public reports that conclude with whole-of-government recommendations to assist in equipping the nation to meet uncertain and transformational futures. Professor Sackett also holds a number of ex-officio roles including being a member of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) Advisory Board and the Rural Research and Development Council.
Professor Sackett is an advocate for Australian science internationally and a visible contributor to science diplomacy. She also focuses national thinking on science across the states and territories through the Forum of Australian Chief Scientists. An equally important part of the Chief Scientist’s role is to be a champion of science and research in the community, with a special brief to promote science as a career and help break down the cultural barriers that inhibit collaboration between researchers and industry. Finally, Professor Sackett is a communicator of science to the general public, promoting the understanding of, contribution to and enjoyment of science and evidence-based thinking.
Prof Srinivasan holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, a Master’s degree in Electronics from the Indian Institute of Science, a PhD in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University, a DSc in Neuroethology from The Australian National University, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Zürich.
He is presently Professor of Visual Sciences at The Australian National University’s Research School of Biological Sciences and Director of the University’s Centre for Visual Science. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, of the Royal Society of London, and of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He was the recipient of the 2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Srinivasan’s research focuses on the principles of visual processing in simple natural systems, and on the application of these principles to machine vision and robotics. He has published some 200 research papers in these areas.
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