Ruby Payne-Scott Medal and Lecture for women in science

Professor Kerrie Mengersen FAA, Queensland University of Technology

Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen’s 35 year post-PhD research career has focused on the development of new statistical methodology motivated by challenging real-world applications. As a pioneer and leader of Bayesian statistics in Australia, her first 25 years focused substantively on research and translation of Bayesian methods and computational algorithms. In the last decade, her research has expanded further to embrace new types of data and data science, with the former including digital and citizen science data, and the latter focused on the intersection between statistics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Professor Mengersen’s work is explicitly multidisciplinary and all of her contributions have been jointly developed with collaborators. She has maintained a career-long focus on engaging with and mentoring women in mathematical and applied sciences, and has more recently had the pleasure and honour of working with Indigenous Australian researchers.

Professor Jennifer Graves AC FAA, La Trobe University

Professor Jenny Graves is an international leader in comparative genomics of vertebrates, arguing that Australian animals are particularly valuable as “independent experiments in evolution”. She exploits the biology of Australian marsupials, monotremes and reptiles to dissect conserved genetic structures and processes, pioneering a comparative approach that has led to many fundamental discoveries. She produced unique data that successfully challenged accepted ideas, leading to new hypotheses about the origin and evolution of human sex chromosomes and sex determining genes. She showed that human sex gene and sex chromosomes evolved quite recently, and the Y chromosome is degrading rapidly and will disappear in a few million years. She made fundamental discoveries about how the X chromosome is genetically silenced in female mammals, showing that genes on the inactive X are not copied into RNA, and that DNA methylation suppresses transcription. She initiated and guided collaborative research on the epigenetic control of environmental sex determination in Australian reptiles. 

Dr Liz Dennis AC FAA FTSE, CSIRO

Dr Liz Dennis is a distinguished plant molecular biology researcher. She has addressed important basic questions in plant development, vernalisation-induced flowering and the increased yield of hybrid varieties. A feature of her research is that she has worked with Arabidopsis, a plant favoured in laboratory research, and then transferred her discoveries to crop plants. This has been a powerful strategy. Her analysis of the basis of hybrid vigour has been outstanding in Arabidopsis and subsequently in rice. The development of hybrid mimics in rice has removed the first-generation limit for hybrids and facilitates a continuity of high food grain production. The development of high yielding mimic varieties can be expected in many other crops.

Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger AC FAA, University of Western Australia

Professor Cheryl Praeger’s work on the mathematics of symmetry has been in the vanguard of a mathematical revolution caused by the classification of the finite simple groups, the atoms of symmetry from which all finite groups are built. She has elucidated the internal structure of these simple groups, and driven research on applying their immensely powerful classification to study symmetric structures.

Professor Praeger has developed a theory of quasiprimitive groups which, via her innovative ‘normal quotient method’, established a new paradigm for working with symmetric graphs and exploited the simple group classification.

Professor Praeger demonstrates an extraordinary ability to foster and inspire others, supporting women, advocating for mathematics in schools, and promoting mathematics in emerging economies.