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SCIENCE ACADEMY ELECTS NEW CORRESPONDING MEMBERS
13 April 2007

Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, University of California San Francisco, and Professor Michael Powell, University of Cambridge, join a distinguished group of international scientists who have been elected Corresponding Members of the Australian Academy of Science.

Corresponding Members are eminent scientists residing overseas who have developed links with scientific institutes in Australia and maintain strong ties with Australian scientists.

Professor Elizabeth Blackburn is Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Elizabeth has received many awards and accolades for her discoveries of the roles of telomere sequences at the end of chromosomes, and of telomerase: research that has transformed our understanding of how cells age and die. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to science, Elizabeth Blackburn received the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, shared with colleagues Carol Greider and Jack Szostak. A month later she received the 2006 Gruber Genetics Prize for her research and promotion of science.

Tasmanian born Elizabeth Blackburn maintains robust connections with her Australian peers. She is the Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Monash University, and has also retained close links with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne as a valued advisor.

Professor Michael Powell is one of the principal figures shaping the computational revolution that is among the most significant scientific developments in the second half of the twentieth century. Michael's research has produced new algorithms, convergence theory, numerical implementations, and enlightening examples that have advanced every field of continuous optimisation. Michael Powell's has received numerous awards for his distinguished contibutions, including the Dantzig Prize of the Mathematical Programming Society and the Senior Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society.

Michael Powell is a frequent visitor to Australia, having close associations with Australian researchers who have benefited significantly from his advice and encouragement. He has been instrumental in providing postdoctoral opportunities for Australian graduate students both at AERE Harwell and at Cambridge University.

More information on the Academy: http://www.science.org.au