Media releases
Academy Fellows join giants of science with election to The Royal Society
16 May 2009
Canberra scientists Professor Chris Goodnow and Dr Jeff Ellis, both Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, have been elected as Fellows of the elite UK and Commonwealth academy of science The Royal Society.
The 350 year old Society is an independent, charitable body which supports many top young scientists, engineers and technologists, influences science policy and debates scientific issues with the public as well as championing science in other capacities.
Current Fellows include Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins and past Fellows include Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford and Dorothy Hodgkin. There are currently 21 Nobel prize winners among the Fellows and winners of many other prestigious awards.
Dr Ellis is a research scientist and program leader with the Genetic Engineering for Plant Improvement team at CSIRO Plant Industry in Canberra. He has been honoured for his work applying molecular biology to improve disease and pest resistance in crops. Dr Ellis and his team made a major breakthrough when they succeeded in cloning the first plant rust resistance gene from flax and an avirulence gene from flax rust.
He said he was delighted with his election to the Society and the recognition his team has achieved.
‘This honour is a great acknowledgement of the international significance of the work that my group does in Australia.’
Professor Goodnow is head of the Division of Immunology and Genetics and Chief Scientific Officer of the Australian Phenomics Facility at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University (ANU).
He has pioneered the field of immunology by using mouse molecular genetics to reveal key mechanisms regulating the immune system - in particular the crucial ability of the immune system to learn to differentiate our own ‘self’ tissues from invading foreign microbes.
He has also discovered the capacity of the immune system to lay down specific memory of both self and foreign cells so that autoimmunity is minimised while immunity to infection becomes strong. His work has changed the conceptual framework of the field by showing that tolerance to self is acquired through a series of regulatory checkpoints at many steps in the maturation of immune cells.
Of his election he said:
‘This wonderful honour is especially pleasing because it recognises the quality and impact of Australia's research and training to solve problems of immunity, particularly autoimmune diseases.
‘I am very deeply indebted and grateful for many brilliant mentors, colleagues, and students, and especially for all the support the ANU has given me to make our work successful. There are few universities in the world where it would have been possible to initiate an entirely new research approach, as we have been able to do.’
President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Kurt Lambeck was pleased for the Fellows saying ‘Election to the UK-based Royal Society is one of the highest recognitions for excellence in research that a scientist can achieve.’
Further information:
The Royal Society: http://royalsociety.org/
Dr Jeff Ellis: www.csiro.au/people/Jeff.Ellis
Professor Chris Goodnow: http://jcsmr.anu.edu.au/org/dig/immunogenomics/people/goodnow/bio
Contact:
Dr Jeff Ellis: (02) 6246 5421, jeff.ellis@csiro.au
Professor Chris Goodnow: 0407 257 833, chris.goodnow@anu.edu.au
Academy contact - Richard Bray: (02) 6201 9452, 0447 679 612, Richard.bray@science.org.au
