Diana Temple
At an ANZAAS Congress in Canberra in 1984, WISENET was founded, derived from participants in a well-attended women's studies forum at that Congress.
The aims of ANZAAS, encouraging the promotion of science across disciplinary boundaries and the communication of science to people in general, are related to those of WISENET. However, only 8% of the more than 100 presenters of papers at the 1995 Congress were women, most of whom were in the ecology section. These included Patricia Caswell of the Australian Conservation Foundation and Kath Bowman of CSIRO; Karina Kelly was an effective moderator of a debate on science communication. The Newcastle University-based organising committee of the recent Congress, despite finding only a few women speakers, did employ Ruth Appleby as an efficient organising manager.
Comments on the scarcity of women were made to me by a number of women participants and by the ubiquitous Robyn Williams of the ABC.
This, the 64th ANZAAS Congress, was held in the Newcastle Convention Centre in late September 1995, generously sponsored by Orion Energy and others. About 600 scientists were there, including nearly 200 year 10 students at Youth ANZAAS.
The Minister for Science Senator Peter Cook opened the Congress with a stirring speech about Australian science. This country's expenditure on research and development has traditionally been deplorably low; the Minister told us it has risen to 1.58% of GDP.
More than a quarter of current degrees are awarded in science-related disciplines, while women comprise about half of these graduates, a record better than most countries in the world.
He said that, far from suffering a brain drain, Australia was attracting scientists from overseas at an increasing rate.
Senator Cook then proposed that ANZAAS should play a wider role in the Asia-Pacific region and that its annual Congress might become an Asia Pacific Science Forum, bringing to Australia each year the best science in the region. Federal funding and resources could be made available for such a gathering. This is the subject of discussion between ANZAAS officers and the office of the Minister for Science.
A number of scientific gongs were presented at the Newcastle Congress. The ANZAAS Medal, for "service to science", was awarded to Professor Harry Messel, who has been executive chancellor of Bond University during its recent troubled times, and who spoke vehemently about the need for high quality education.
The Mueller medal, awarded annually for distinction in one of the fields of botany, zoology, geology or anthropology, went to Dr Winifred Curtis, a former Reader in Botany of the University of Tasmania, for a lifetime of work on the flora of Tasmania. Articulate and dignified at ninety, Dr Curtis appeared a model for us all.
See "Gongs" in News and Crosslinks, page 26, for more information about Dr Curtis, and for details on the Unsung Hero of Science award and the Michael Daley awards for science journalism. Congratulations to them all.
Associated with the ANZAAS Congress was the Great ANZAAS Science Show, the producers of which invited WISENET to contribute and arranged for our display stand to be sponsored by the Science and Technology Awareness Program of the federal Department of Industry, Science, and Technology. The producers of the Great Australian Science Show have consistly encouraged WISENET at previous shows.
For five days the WISENET poster exhibition about Australian women in science was shown, together with many popular science exhibits, in the Newcastle Regional Museum. While interest in our topic was evident, few new members signed up. The WISENET exhibit was staffed by volunteers from the Newcastle region, including some science students from Newcastle University, all bright and cheerful women whom WISENET thanks for their help.