Distinguished Professor Susan Scott – elected a 2022 Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG)
Professor Kliti Grice FAA – finalist for the 2022 Western Australian Premier’s Science Award – Scientist of the Year
Professor Veena Sahajwalla – finalist for the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science
Professor Toby Walsh FAA – finalist for the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science
Professor Geordie Williamson FAA FRS – finalist for the Department of Defence Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and Innovation
The Academy also congratulates Fellows who are members of finalist teams in the Eureka Prizes.
9 June 1926 to 21 June 2022
Professor Bob Crompton was a physicist elected to the Academy in 1979 for his experimental studies of electron collisional processes in gases and in particular for his measurements of diffusion and drift, the precision of which is the result of a systematic attack, extending over many years, on sources of experimental error.
Professor Crompton was born and educated entirely in Adelaide, with the exception of a period of study leave in Wales, at the University College of Swansea. Following his PhD, he was appointed a physics lecturer at the University of Adelaide. When Leonard Huxley was appointed Vice-Chancellor in 1961, Professor Crompton joined him to transfer the Electron and Ion Diffusion group from Adelaide to the Research School of Physical Sciences (RSPhysS) at the Australian National University. He became group leader in 1967 and built a world-renowned research group in electron swarm physics, known for its investigations of how electrons behave when they collide and rebound from gas molecules. He remained at the ANU until his retirement in 1991.
Professor Crompton was an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics. He was made a Member in the Order of Australia in 1999 and was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001.
He generously gave his time to the Academy over several decades, including serving on many committees and forums. He also served on the Academy’s Council, on EXCOM as Secretary, and on the Finance Committee from 1984 to 1988. He was interviewed for the Academy in 2014 by Professor Erich Weigold FAA.
11 January 1930 to 3 July 2022
Professor Turner completed his BSC (Hons) in physics and MSc in theoretical nuclear scattering at the University of Sydney and then joined the Cloud Physics Group of CSIRO’s Radiophysics Division.
He commenced his PhD at Cambridge University on Dynamical Aspects of Cloud Physics in 1954. After completing his PhD, Professor Turner worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Department of Mechanics of Fluids, where he worked on the problem of methane layers in coal mines. He returned to his position at CSIRO in 1960, and in 1961 he accepted a position at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA, as Rossby Fellow, then Associate Scientist in the Theoretical Oceanography Department. In 1966 he moved back to Cambridge as Assistant Director of Research in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, but regularly spent time back at Woods Hole as Visiting Investigator. During this period he wrote the influential book, Buoyancy Effects in Fluids, published in 1973.
In 1975 Professor Turner accepted a position as Foundation Professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at the ANU’s new Research School of Earth Sciences. While at ANU he established the connection between the physical processes in the ocean and in liquid rocks (lava and magma). He remained at ANU for 20 years, until his retirement and beyond.
Professor Turner was elected a Fellow of the UK’s Institute of Physics in 1969, the Australian Institute of Physics 1980 and the Royal Society 1982. He was awarded the Academy’s Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture in 1990 and received the Centenary Medal in 2001.
Professor Turner gave his time generously to the Academy, serving on many committees. He was interviewed by Professor Trevor McDougall FAA in 2004 for the Academy.
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