I first wish to pay tribute to my predecessor, Professor Suzanne Cory, for her outstanding and collegial leadership of the Academy over the past four years. As I said at the end of the AGM in Canberra in May, the Academy is truly in a strong position in all areas owing to the inclusive way in which we have worked under her Presidency. We wish Suzanne and Jerry much pleasure in the next phase of their lives as we reflect on Suzanne's amazing contributions as President.
You will be aware that the Science of Climate Change Questions and Answers was published in 2010 and is now available as an app for use on smart phones and tablets. An expert working group in our Academy is working on a revision and update of this publication. After having been reviewed by the Oversight Committee it will be published later in the year.
Council received a remarkably balanced set of nominations for the Fellowship in 2014 and eventually elected nine women and eleven men as Fellows under the 'Ordinary Fellowship' process. We have just celebrated the election of this talented group of individuals in Canberra, and we were immensely proud to hear of the range of outstanding science with which they are occupied. In addition Sir Phil Cohen FRS joined the fellowship as a Corresponding Member and Ms Catherine Livingstone AO was elected by special election for championing science and technology in Australia. Physicist and science educator Harry Messel AC CBE and philanthropist, business giant and champion of science Simon McKeon AO FAICD were both awarded the Academy Medal. We celebrated a range of Academy honorific awards in Canberra. I wish to particularly identify Professor Emma Johnston as a recipient of the inaugural Nancy Millis award. It is appropriate that Emma studied at the University of Melbourne where Nancy Millis spent most of her career. You can see the colourful and inspiring nature of Emma's research on the Academy’s You-Tube channel.
We welcome Professor Pauline Ladiges as the new Secretary for Education and Public Awareness and Professor Cheryl Praeger as Foreign Secretary. Pauline replaces Professor Jenny Graves who has completed eight years of sterling service on Council. We welcome Professor Susanne von Caemmerer and Professor David de Kretser and we thank Dr TJ Higgins and Professor Steve Simpson for their extensive contributions to Council. It is my hope that we may involve more members of Council in Committee work in the Academy in the future.
Members of the Executive Committee and the Council, together with the Secretariat’s Science Policy team led by Dr Martin Callinan, have continued to meet and engage with the Government. In November 2013 the Industry Minister The Hon Ian MacFarlane and the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Senator The Hon Brett Mason joined the Executive Committee for lunch. The issue of the absence of a Science Minister was discussed and we were assured of Minister Macfarlane's commitment to science. He pointed out that the Minister responsible for Science was presently a high ranking cabinet minister. However, it has been observed that it is difficult for the community to identify with the arm of government that is responsible for the science base of the nation when the word "science" is absent from a ministerial portfolio. In March Suzanne Cory and I together with International Director Nancy Pritchard and Dr Callinan met the Foreign Minister to follow up on Senator Mason's earlier visit and to emphasise the need for support for a range of international partnerships, especially in areas where our scientific links were strong. Later in April Suzanne Cory and Secretary for Science Policy Professor Les Field met with the Prime Minister where again the need for investment in science over the long term was discussed.
Now that the Federal Budget for 2014 has been released we can see strong support for medical research, for the NCRIS program and for the Future Fellowships program. We are also pleased that continuing support for our school education programs has been announced. These decisions reflect the fact that the government has been able to react positively to constructive discussions on various topics. We shall wish to continue the positive interactions as government policy evolves. We shall also need to work more effectively in the areas that have not been so strongly supported.
At the AGM I was able to deliver a brief oral report and a more substantive written report that appears on the Fellows' area on the website. Despite reductions in the traditional areas of support on international collaborations we have been able to sustain much activity thanks to the ingenuity of our international section in obtaining strategic support for international programs. In addition I wish to highlight three extra areas where we have managed to expand our profile. We were hosts to the Executive Committee to the Global Network of Science Academies in Canberra in October. These representatives of more than 25 world academies of science were most impressed with the scale of the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science dinner at Parliament's Great Hall, and they later saw the Primary Connections education program in action at Fadden School. We have also been well represented at the International Council of Science (ICSU) where Professor David Black is Secretary-General and has been nominated for re-election at the September General Assembly in Auckland for a second term. I have been privileged to serve on an International Expert Review Panel of ICSU. This is the first review since 1996 and much has changed in the intervening years. I shall deliver an oral report also in Auckland. Then in the last week of June Australia will host the International Day at the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting on the theme of physiology or medicine. This has been sponsored in part by a generous grant from the Department of Industry thanks to the support of Minister Macfarlane and the Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb AC. We have three of Australia's Nobel Laureates in attendance and shall take the chance to share with the 600 delegates from over 60 countries some of the highlights of Australia's science base together with some cultural and educational achievements.
Over the next few months I intend to participate in meetings with members of the Fellowship in the various regions. I need to get to know people and to give them the chance of talking with me and my colleagues. We have a wonderful excuse to do this within the context of the $12m Enlightening Capital Campaign that we have launched. My visit will allow me to introduce you to our recently appointed Philanthropy Manager, Ms Bea Brickhill. Our campaign has started well with the Fellowship. It has been quite remarkable how this has drawn Fellows together to discuss our future.
Although not directly sponsored by the Academy of Science two eminent visitors made a great impact during their visits to Canberra and Melbourne. The UK Minister for Universities and Science, the Rt Hon David Willetts impressed everyone who heard him lecture about the UK's continuing commitment to the science base. He was followed by Sir Paul Nurse who delivered the 2014 David Rivett Memorial Lecture at CSIRO on the topic "Making Science Work". It is no surprise that part of the success is that these two individuals have demonstrated the ability to work closely together.
Our 2014 public speaker series, Science stars of tomorrow, continues to impress with a range of young researchers from diverse disciplines speaking about their innovative work. The series is being chaired by Fellows, Professors Robyn Williams and Tim Flannery, and by ABC radio broadcaster Louise Maher. Each talk is broadcast live on the internet and subsequently made available for viewing on YouTube.
We are celebrating our foundation more than 60 years ago (on 16 February, 1954). Much of the Science at the Shine Dome program was a forward look at what we might tackle in the next 60 years. Your Academy needs you! Your input through submissions to Ms Joanne Monks, Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive joanne.monks@science.org.au would be much welcomed.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew B Holmes
President, Australian Academy of Science
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