About the members of Council

About Council

Professor Chennupati Jagadish AC PresAA FREng FTSE

President, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Jagadish is a Distinguished Professor and Head of Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group in the Research School of Physics, Australian National University. He has published widely in semiconductor physics, materials science, optoelectronics and nanotechnology. Professor Jagadish is the Editor-in-Chief of Applied Physics Reviews, editor of 2 book series and serves on editorial boards of 19 other journals. He is a fellow of 11 science and engineering academies in Australia, the US, Europe and India, and 14 professional societies. He has received many Australian and international awards, including a UNESCO medal for his contributions to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnologies, and has been an Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellow and an ARC Laureate Fellow. Professor Jagadish was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2005.

Professor Malcolm Sambridge FAA

Secretary Physical Sciences, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Malcolm Sambridge is a geophysicist with interests in geophysical inverse theory, seismology and structure of the Earth’s interior, mathematical and computational algorithms and geo-data science. He has served the Academy as Chair of both the Anton Hales Medal committee and the Sectional Committee for Earth and Planetary Sciences, and as a member of the review committee of the National Committee for Data in Science. He has served on many university and discipline review committees. Professor Sambridge was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2015.

Professor Bob Graham AO FAA FAHMS

Secretary Biological Sciences, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Robert M. Graham received his medical training and doctoral degree from the University of New South Wales, where he is the Des Renford Professor of Medicine. After 17 years in the US, he returned to Australia as the inaugural Executive Director, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute from 1994 to 2020. He continues there as head of the Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, as well as maintaining an active practice as a consultant physician in cardiorenal diseases. A Foundation Fellow, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and Foreign Member, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, his research is reported in over 290 peer-reviewed papers. He is a Fellow, American Heart Association; Life Member, Heart Foundation of Australia (NSW Division) and Royal Australasian College of Physicians; Fellow, National Heart Foundation of Australia, and Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation. Professor Graham was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2002.

Professor Frances Separovic AO FAA

Foreign Secretary, Australian Academy of Science

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Frances Separovic holds an honorary appointment in the School of Chemistry and is deputy director of the Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne. She is the past president of the Biophysical Society (USA) and president-elect of Division I (Physical and Biophysical Chemistry) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and previously served on the Council of the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) and as Chair of the Academy’s National Committee for Chemistry. Professor Separovic was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2012 for her ground-breaking research in biophysical chemistry and the use of nuclear magnetic resonance to study cell membranes.

Emeritus Professor Ian Chubb AC FAA FTSE

Secretary Science Policy, Australian Academy of Science

Emeritus Professor Ian Chubb was Chief Scientist for Australia (2011–2016). Throughout his career, he has been a strong advocate for higher education, serving as Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (2001–2011), Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University (1995–2000), Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Monash University (1993–1995), and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong and Honorary Professor of Biology (1986–1990). Professor Chubb was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2017 for his science advocacy.

Professor Lyn Beazley AO FAA FTSE

Secretary Education and Public Awareness, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Lyn Beazley is a distinguished neuroscientist and 2015 West Australian of the Year who has made a major contribution to the promotion and direction of science in Australia. As Chief Scientist for Western Australia (the first female to hold such a state role nationally) she championed gender diversity and science in the classroom through programs such as Microscopes in Schools, in addition to shaping science policy. Lyn is also well known for promoting science and technology in the media and she played a key role in bringing the internationally successful FameLab science communication competition to Australia. Professor Beazley was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019.

Professor Marilyn Anderson AO FAA FTSE

Treasurer, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Marilyn Anderson is a Professor of Biochemistry at La Trobe University and Chief Science Officer and Director of Hexima, a biotechnology company she founded with Professor Adrienne Clarke in 1998. Professor Anderson completed her BSc (Honours) at The University of Melbourne and a PhD in biochemistry at La Trobe University in 1976. She has 40 years’ experience in research, the last 20 of which have focused on peptides and proteins produced by plants for protection against insect pests and fungal pathogens. Professor Anderson was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2011.

Professor Alan Andersen FAA

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Andersen is Professor (Research Excellence and Impact) at Charles Darwin University. He was previously a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO Land & Water, and Officer-in-Charge of CSIRO’s Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre in Darwin for twenty years. Professor Andersen’s primary research interests are in the global ecology of ant communities, where he integrates community ecology, historical and contemporary biogeography, and systematics to gain a predictive understanding of ant diversity, behavioural dominance and functional composition in relation to environmental stress and disturbance globally. He applies this understanding to the use of ants as bioindicators of ecological change. He also has broad research interests in the ecology of tropical savannas, and the ecology and management of fire. Professor Anderson was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2018.

Professor David Bowtell FAA FAHMS

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor David Bowtell is co-Head of the Women’s Cancer Program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac). He was Director of Research at Peter Mac from 2000 to 2009. Professor Bowtell has an extensive background in human cancer genome sequencing, with a focus on acquired drug resistance, exceptional responders, and targeted clinical trials in ovarian cancer. He is Head of the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study (AOCS), one of the largest cohort studies of ovarian cancer in the world, and the CASCADE rapid autopsy program at Peter Mac. Professor Bowtell was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2018.

Professor Julian Gale FAA

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Julian Gale is a computational chemist specialising in the simulation of material properties using both force fields and quantum mechanical methods, with a particular focus on the crystallisation of minerals and aqueous geochemistry. After studying at the University of Oxford, he started his academic career at Imperial College London. In 2003, he moved to Curtin University as one of two inaugural Premier’s Fellows in Western Australia, and currently holds the position of John Curtin Distinguished Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow. High-performance scientific computing has been a particular interest, leading to numerous roles including Chair of the National Merit Allocation Committee and visiting Chair in Materials Simulation and Engineering at Université Paris-Saclay. Professor Gale was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2015.

Dr John Kirkegaard FAA

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Dr John Kirkegaard is a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO Agriculture and Food, based in Canberra and Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia and Charles Sturt University. His career has focussed on understanding soil-plant interactions to improve the productivity, resource-use efficiency and sustainability of food production systems. He has led numerous national research programs, is a regular invitee to international forums and advisory committees on agriculture and food security, and was Visiting Professor at Crop Science Department, University of Copenhagen in 2012 and 2019. His team was awarded the Eureka Prize in sustainable agriculture in 2014 for research to improve the water-use efficiency of Australian agriculture. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2016, was recipient of the Farrer Medal for distinguished contribution to agriculture in 2017, and is an ISI Web of Knowledge Highly Cited Researcher for Agricultural Sciences in 2018 and 2019.

Professor Paul Mulvaney FAA

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Paul Mulvaney is currently Laureate Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. He served as Chair of the RACI Colloid Chemistry Division from 2009-2011 and is a founding member of ACIS, the Australasian Colloid and Interface Society (2013). From 2014-2016 he chaired the National Committee for Chemistry under the Australian Academy of Science and led the group that created the first Decadal Plan for Chemistry. He has published more than 330 scientific articles which has involved a lot of fun with over 150 collaborators. His research focusses on light driven chemistry and nanoscale phenomena. His current role is Director of the new, 7-year ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science. This Centre is looking for new materials that can help Australia transition to a sustainable energy future. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciencein 2009.

Professor Colin Raston AO FAA

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Colin Raston is a Professor in Clean Technology at Flinders University where he is a Research Leader in the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. He is recognised for seminal contributions to inorganic, organometallic and supramolecular chemistry, and nanoscience, nanotechnology and flow chemistry. This culminated in the development of the vortex fluidic device as a high shear thin film microfluidic platform with diverse applications in chemical synthesis, materials processing and controlling self-assembly processes. It incorporates green chemistry which is an area Professor Raston led the debate and research in Australia in the late 90s. Professor Raston was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2018.

Professor Louise Ryan AO FAA

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Louise Ryan is an internationally recognized statistician with an outstanding ability to balance deep engagement in applications with fundamental methodological development. She is also well known for her leadership ability and passion for developing young scientists. After 25 years as a faculty member at Harvard University, she returned to Australia in 2009 as Chief of CSIRO’s Division of Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics. Ryan’s contributions to public health research have been recognized through prestigious awards and election to the US Institute of Medicine. She has also made important methodological contributions in survival analysis and the analysis of correlated and multivariate data. Professor Ryan was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2012.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla FAA FTSE

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials’ at the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre, where she is Founding Director. Professor Veena is the inventor of polymer injection technology, known as green steel, an eco-friendly process for using recycled tyres in steel production. In 2018, Veena launched the world's first e-waste MICROfactorieTM and in 2019 she launched her plastics and Green Ceramics MICROfactoriesTM, a recycling technology breakthrough. Veena is the director of the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for ‘microrecycling’, a leading national research centre that works in collaboration with industry to ensure new recycling science is translated into real world environmental and economic benefits. Professor Veena has also been appointed hub leader of the national NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub. In 2021, Professor Veena featured in the ABC’s Australian Story. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2018.

Professor Stephen Simpson AC FAA FRS

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Steve Simpson is inaugural Academic Director of the Charles Perkins Centre and Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney. After graduating from the University of Queensland, he undertook his PhD at the University of London, then spent 22 years at Oxford before returning to Australia in 2005 as an ARC Federation Fellow, then ARC Laureate Fellow. Professor Simpson and David Raubenheimer developed an integrative modelling framework for nutrition (the Geometric Framework), which has been applied to a wide range of organisms, from slime moulds to humans, and problems, from aquaculture and conservation biology to the dietary causes of human obesity and ageing. He also pioneered understanding of swarming in locusts, with research spanning neurochemical events within the brains of individual locusts to continental-scale mass migration. He is Executive Director of Obesity Australia and has been prominent in the media, including presenting a four-part documentary series for ABC TV, ‘Great Southern Land’. Professor Simpson was awarded the Academy’s Macfarlane Burnet Medal in 2022. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2007.

Professor Jonathan Sprent FAA FRS

Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science

Professor Jonathan Sprent is a cellular immunologist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. He has worked on various aspects of T cell biology, including thymic selection, immune memory and homeostasis, transplantation immunity and cancer immunotherapy. While in the USA, he was President of the American Association of Immunologists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society UK, Member of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2006.

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