Professor Branka Vucetic FAA FTSE— CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science (more about this prize)
Professor Jacques Miller AC FAA FRS—joint recipient of the 2019 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, with Professor Max D. Cooper (more about this prize)
Professor John Hamilton FAA—Lifetime Achievement Award, International Association of Inflammation Societies
Professor Nalini Joshi AO FAA—Bragg Fellow, Royal Institution of Australia
Professor Helene Marsh FAA FTSE— Bragg Fellow, Royal Institution of Australia
Professor Alex Zelinsky AO FAA— Bragg Fellow, Royal Institution of Australia
25 February 1924 to 31 August 2019
Professor Brian Johnstone was an auditory neurobiologist, renowned internationally for his discoveries relating to fundamental inner ear biophysics. Elected to the Academy in 1988, some of his many achievements included the first direct measurements of basilar membrane motion in the living cochlea using the Mössbauer effect. His measurements laid the basis for our present day understanding of normal hearing and of the nature of sensorineural deafness.
Professor Johnstone completed his BSc and PhD at the University of Melbourne. He took up positions at the University of Chicago and then the California Institute of Technology before moving to the University of Western Australia in 1962. At UWA he founded the Auditory Laboratory in the Department of Physiology, which at the time was the only location in Australia where auditory physiology research was being conducted.
Professor Johnstone was an active Fellow of the Academy, including serving on the National Committee for Biophysics and the National Committee for Physiological Sciences.
10 May 1941 to 12 September 2019
Professor Sally Smith was Emeritus Professor in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and Adjunct Professor at the Waite Research Institute, the University of Adelaide. She was also Honorary Professor at the China Agricultural University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Professor Smith was a world authority on the mycorrhizal symbiosis between plants and fungi and was elected to the Academy in 2001. She co-authored the most definitive text on the subject and developed many important multidisciplinary collaborations. She made outstanding contributions to our understanding of the structure of the plant–fungal interface, of nutrient transfer across it, and of the molecular processes involved in forming and controlling the interface.
Professor Smith completed her BA and PhD at Cambridge and her DSc at the University of Adelaide. She held a number of positions at the University of Adelaide from 1967 to 2019, including a personal Chair in Soil Science and Director of the Centre for Plant Root Symbioses. She obtained several ARC and other grants and had strong international links, mainly with Denmark and China. She also served for several years on the board of the World Vegetable Centre and then on a USAid program.
Professor Smith was an active Fellow of the Academy including serving as a member of Council. She had been awarded the Royal Society of New South Wales’ Clarke Memorial Medal, the JK Taylor OBE Gold Medal in Soil Science, the JA Prescott Medal from the Australian Society of Soil Science and, recently, an inaugural ‘Eminent Researcher’ award from the International Mycorrhiza Society.
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