FELLOWS ELECTED IN 2010

Professor Vladimir Bazhanov FAA
Professor, Department of Theoretical Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University

Vladimir Bazhanov has made outstanding contributions to theoretical physics, gaining international recognition as a leading expert in the field of solvable lattice models in statistical mechanics and field theory. He has solved the chiral Potts model, thereby opening up a whole field of solvable three-dimensional models, and has found a fascinating correspondence between the spectral properties of integrable quantum systems and ordinary differential equations such as the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation.

Professor Jonathan Borwein FAAAS FAA
Professor Laureate in Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle

Jonathan Borwein has made seminal contributions to distinct mathematical disciplines that include optimisation theory and practice, number theory, classical analysis, theory of computation, and functional analysis. He is celebrated for his solutions such as the fundamental Borwein-Preiss smooth variational principle in optimisation theory, and his cubic analogue of Jacobi’s seminal 19th century quartic theta function identity in number theory. Borwein is a world leader in the field of experimental mathematics using intensive computation for pure mathematical discovery. 

Professor Francis Carbone FAA
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne

Francis Carbone has made a number of critical discoveries on the nature of immunity, specifically defining the function and behaviour of key cells involved in the response against infection. He has identified mechanisms by which the immune system identifies pathogens and how effective immunity is generated to control these agents. Francis has developed a versatile range of biological tools for the study of immune components that have proven indispensable to the field and are used world-wide.

Professor Allan Chivas FAA
Professor of Geosciences, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

Allan Chivas is a world renowned geologist and a geochemist who has made substantial contributions to the understanding of Earth-surface processes at the younger end of the geological time scale. His work covers a broad field relating to both atmospheric and mantle processes drawing from the biological and physical sciences. In several areas, his work has defined new geochemical and isotopic tools and methodologies, both conceptually and in analytical methods, which are now applied worldwide.

Dr Marianne Frommer FAA
Honorary Researcher, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney

Marianne Frommer is internationally renowned for the invention of bisulphite genomic sequencing that enables accurate mapping of cytosine methylation, a critical epigenetic determinant. The technique is now used worldwide in mammalian developmental genetics and cancer diagnostics. Other contributions include results now used for search protocols of genome databases, and research on the problem of controlling Queensland fruit fly, through which she has provided major advances in the fly’s control and in understanding of molecular genetic bases for behaviours and speciation.

Professor Trevor Lithgow FAA
Professor and ARC Federation Fellow, Medicine Health and Nursing Services, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University

Trevor Lithgow is one of Australia’s leading yeast geneticists using yeast as a model to understand complex aspects of cell biology. His work on mitochondrial biogenesis, particularly the protein import pathway into mitochondria, places him amongst the top molecular microbiologists internationally. His development and use of bioinformatics has enabled the mechanics of protein transport to be characterised in bacteria, Giardia, trypanosomes and other microbes. This research has provided a significant understanding of how molecular machines evolved.

Dr John Oakeshott FAA FTSE
CSIRO Fellow and Chief Scientist, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra

John Oakeshott is an outstanding evolutionary biologist who has provided important new insights into the molecular basis of adaptation through his multidisciplinary studies on Drosophila; the molecular basis of insecticide resistance in blowflies; and the degradation of persistent organic pollutants by bacteria. John has gained international recognition for his work and has applied his research to practical problems that led for instance to the international commercialisation of a novel enzyme-based pesticide bioremediation technology.

Professor Scott O’Neill FAAAS FAA
Professor and Head, School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland

Scott O’Neill is internationally recognised for his contributions to the field of insect symbiosis. He has shown that symbiotic bacterial infection of insects is ubiquitous and can generate major effects on the insect’s reproductive physiology, developmental biology and ecology. He has revealed how insect symbionts exert their effects and the consequences for infected hosts. An applied focus of his work has been the use of insect symbiont systems to establish innovative approaches to control insect transmitted diseases of humans such as dengue fever.

Dr John O’Sullivan FAA
Digital Systems Engineer, Australian Telescope National Facility, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science

John O’Sullivan has made pioneering contributions to the field of digital signal processing relating to the application of Fourier transforms in the telecommunications, electro-acoustic and radioastronomy fields. He is more generally known as the primary inventor of a FFT chip that led to Lake Technologies and the technology that led to the 802.11a/g wireless LAN, where he solved problems considered intractable by the major global companies. John has a world-wide reputation for his significant contributions in radioastronomy.

Professor Michael Parker FAA
ARC Federation Fellow and Associate Director, Biota Structural Biology Laboratory, St Vincent’s Institute

Michael Parker has an international reputation in protein crystallography that derives from his outstanding research on the structures of membrane-associated proteins, especially pore-forming toxins and cytokine receptors, and of detoxifying enzymes such as the glutathione-S-transferases. His research on molecular structures has in all cases led to new insights into the biology of the system, and in some cases opened the way to pursue the discovery of new medicines for infectious disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Steven Prawer FAA
Professor of Physics, School of Physics, University of Melbourne

Steven Prawer is Australia’s foremost authority on the physics of diamond and related materials. His work has brought him international recognition and positioned Australia at the forefront in the field and the development of applications. In particular, he has pioneered the production of a new generation of nanoscale quantum devices based on diamond. His recent results are finding application in single photon sources for quantum cryptography for secure communications and in diamond-based devices for quantum computers.

Professor Robert Pressey FAA
Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University

Robert Pressey is recognised internationally for establishing the field of systematic conservation planning and continues to be one of its leading innovators. He led a world-wide shift towards practical applications, facilitated by his unique combination of scientific leadership and agency experience. His scientific contributions include new concepts and techniques that have increased the effectiveness of conservation planning across the world; innovations relating to the dynamics of biodiversity and human activities; and ground-breaking, intuitive software tools.

Professor Roger Reddel FAA FRACP
Sir Lorimer Dods Professor and Director, Children’s Medical Research Institute, University of Sydney

Roger Reddel has made major contributions to the understanding of cellular immortalisation: a hallmark of cancer and potential target for novel anti-cancer therapeutics. He is known world-wide for discoveries regarding the role of the tumour suppressor proteins in immortalisation, and for studies of telomerase. He is best known for discovering the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism in human cell lines and tumours, and for a substantial body of work analysing its mechanism and significance in cancer.

Professor Jeffrey Reimers FAA FRACI
ARC Professorial Fellow, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney

Jeffrey Reimers is a theoretical chemist of great ability and originality, whose work receives wide international recognition. His work is almost unparalleled in its breadth and depth of the elucidation of electronic and vibrational structure of complex materials. His research covers such fields as fundamental chemical interactions; mutagenesis effects in proteins; understanding single molecule devices: in-depth interpretation of photosynthesis; and organic solar cells. His work is underpinned by an ability to devise computational methods of great power.

Professor Elaine Sadler FAA
ARC Professorial Fellow, School of Physics, University of Sydney

Elaine Sadler is a world-leader in the fields of astrophysics and galaxy evolution. Her fundamental contributions include the discovery that most bright elliptical galaxies have a weak central radio source powered by black-hole accretion, and the first measurement of the cosmic evolution of low-power radio galaxies over the past 5–6 billion years. Her identification of a supernova which collapsed to a black hole rather than a neutron star is a ground-breaking contribution to the field of high-energy astrophysics.

Professor Peter Visscher FAA
Head, Genetics and Population Health, Queensland Institute of Medical Research

Peter Visscher is a leading complex trait geneticist, who has made seminal contributions to quantitative and population genetic theory: with applications in medicine, evolutionary biology and agriculture. He has established a world-wide reputation for his research that includes the development of bioinformatics algorithms for gene mapping, and the use of genetic markers to obtain unbiased estimates of heritability. His developments include new methods on population dynamics and statistical methods for genetic risk prediction.

Professor Raymond Volkas FAA
Professor of Physics, School of Physics, University of Melbourne

Raymond Volkas has made seminal contributions to theoretical particle physics, early-universe cosmology and high-energy astrophysics. He is know internationally for a number of important achievements that include the invention of the mirror-matter model and its application to neutrino physics and the dark matter problem; studies in the persistence of quantal coherence despite strong system-environment coupling; a novel symmetry-breaking mechanism for brane-world models; and pioneering studies on neutrino emission from the galactic centre.