News and views

Five Academy Fellows are among the Australians recognised in the 2020 Australia Day Honours List.

The Academy has announced its inaugural group of twelve STEM Women Changemakers. From start-up founders to organisational advocates, these women are using their knowledge, experience and networks to share their ideas and solutions for gender equity in Australian science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Academy Fellow Professor Lisa Kewley has been named as the recipient of the 2020 James Craig Watson Medal by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC for her pioneering contributions to the study of galaxy formation and evolution.

A new study on the Great Barrier Reef assessing how the elemental signatures of coral reefs can signal stress from pollution will be carried out by one of the recipients of the Australian Academy of Science’s 2020 Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award.

What are the biggest questions facing humanity? What are the secrets and motivations behind Darwin’s scientific journey? How might a small Australian country town react to a terrible crime event? These questions, and many more, are tackled in the Annual Fellows’ Christmas book and podcast list 2019.

Two education experts from the Academy promoted the Primary Connections program at an important international conference on children’s STEM education in Berlin recently.

A scientist whose research has transformed our understanding of Australia’s iconic mammals has been recognised by the Australian Academy of Science. Professor Marilyn Renfree AO FAA has been awarded the Academy’s highest honour in the biological sciences—the Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture.

Academy Fellows Professor David Vaux and Professor Andreas Strasser have been awarded the 2019 CSL Florey Medal for their research toward understanding the role of programmed cell death, knows as apoptosis, in cancer and autoimmune disease.

Unlocking climate secrets in tree rings, understanding smoke signals and unearthing ‘fairy circles’ are the aims of some of the researchers awarded the Australian Academy of Science's 2020 Thomas Davies Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology.