Academy Fellow Professor Jane Visvader (pictured) and researchers at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Prof Jane VisvaderHall Institute have found that anti-cancer compounds called BH3-mimetics were effective in treating the most common types of breast cancers.
The team say they are hopeful the discovery will mean clinical trials of BH3-mimetics as a breast cancer treatment within the next few years.
Seventeen of Australia's most outstanding researchers have been awarded a total of $47 million in research funding with the announcement today of the 2013 Australian Laureate Fellowships.
Six went to Academy Fellows: Trevor Lithgow, Tanya Monro, Hugh O’Neill, Hugh Possingham, Michelle Simmons, and Xu-Jia Wang
World leaders in artificial intelligence, brain imaging and the ethics of neuroscience and 60 of the brightest young researchers from around Australia will converge on the Melbourne Brain Centre this week to do some serious thinking about brain research.
The Australian Academy of Science's 2013 Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank on Inspiring smarter brain research in Australia will provide a unique forum bringing scientists, doctors and ethicists together to build links between different research disciplines.
President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Suzanne Cory, visited Adelaide yesterday to attend a meeting with South Australian Fellows and was taken on a tour of The Braggs building, which houses the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS). IPAS Director and Academy Fellow Professor Tanya Monro introduced Professor Cory to the young women who work in the IPAS Institute.
Academy Fellow Professor Rodney Baxter FAA FRS has been awarded The Royal Society’s Royal Medal for his work in mathematical physics.
Royal Medals are awarded annually for the most important contributions in the physical, biological and applied sciences. Also known as the Queen’s Medals, they are awarded by the Queen on the recommendation of the Council of the Society.
Sixty of the brightest young scientists from Australia and the region gathered in Melbourne recently to explore the future of brain research in Australia, at the Academy’s annual Theo Murphy (Australia) High Flyers Think Tank
Held at the Melbourne Brain Centre and Australian Synchrotron, the Think Tank made a number of key recommendations, to be published later this year, and generated significant activity on social media, which buzzed with discussions about ageing and dementia, neurogentics, artificial intelligence and more.
Action is required at every stage of career development to ensure women and men enjoy equal opportunity for promotion in science, Academy President Professor Suzanne Cory wrote in a recent opinion piece in The Australian.
She called on men, as well as women, to take a pro-active role in implementing a range of approaches to ensure that Australia does not lose half its potential scientific talent.
A major new fossil site has been discovered by UNSW scientists beyond the boundaries of the famous Riversleigh World Heritage area in north-western Queensland.
Dubbed “New Riversleigh”, initial indications are that it represents a different time period and poorly-known stage in the evolution of Australia’s unique biota. The prehistoric bone-bed contains the remains of a wide range of previously unknown marsupials and bats.
Long-time science journalist Dr Peter Pockley, a pioneer of science Peterpockley programs at the ABC, died at his home in Sydney yesterday.
Dr Pockley was the first and only journalist to be awarded the Academy Medal. He was one of the founders of the ABC Science Unit in the 1960s, and has been called the father of science communication in Australia. He mentored many Australian scientists and science communicators over decades and was an established writer and broadcaster in his own right.
Australia goes to the polls on 7 September 2013. So far, in the first week of campaigning, little attention has been paid to science, research or any big questions such as climate policy. Peter Lee, vice-chancellor at Southern Cross University, and Les Field from UNSW explain what they’ll be looking for in the policies covering science and research that the major parties present to Australian voters.
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