WAIS - Women Achieving in Science
compiled by Diana Temple
Professor Fiona Stanley and Professor Nancy Millis are
among five
eminent
scientists whose faces are to appear on Australian stamps in 2002,
Australia Post announces. The men are Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty, Professor
Sir Gustav Nossal and Professor Don Metcalf. What a fine innovation after
years of sporting stars!
Fiona Stanley, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of WA, is famed for
her work in epidemiology, particularly in children and Aboriginal people.
Nancy Millis, Emeritus Professor in Microbiology at Melbourne University, and
expert in recombinant DNA, is Chancellor of La Trobe University.
Dale Spender, Queensland feminist writer and academic, is famed for
promoting the IT revolution in society, in universities and in schools. The
author of 30 books, she was profiled recently (the Weekend Australian 5
December 2001) where she is described an an E-prophet and the "woman in
purple".
Jean Weber, who is WISENET's Honorary Website Editor and former
editor of this Journal, has been achieving in her fashion by touring the far
north in a desert-equipped solar motorhome, taking hundreds of photographs and
displaying them online to inspire others to travel to those parts. But the
host company for Jean's digital photo-show has gone missing and all links to
it are dead; Jean is "a bit shocked"!
Source: Sydney Morning Herald 21 Jan 2002
Galina Kaseko is a graduate of the Moscow Medical Academy,
described as one of the top six medical schools in Europe. She came to
Australia to UNSW and is now Research & Development Manager, Biomedical, of
FuCell, a company formed to commercialise UNSW's production of human-based
antibodies. Dr Kaseko speaks of the tragedy of young researchers having to
leave Russia for economic reasons.
Sheila Messer is also part of a reverse brain drain into Australia.
An electrical engineering graduate from California, she came back to Adelaide
with a Rotary Ambassadorial (post-graduate) scholarship, having earlier been
an exchange student in Adelaide. She is working on the Heard Heart Sound
Biomonitor Project at Adelaide University's Centre for Biomedical Engineering.
Electronic stethoscopes record phonocardiograms which are used as a diagnostic
tool for heart problems; the project's aim is to improve these records by
reducing extraneous sounds.
Source of above two items: Australasian Science 22, March 2001
Two women scientists in Sydney are researching from quite different angles
potential treatments for Mesothelioma, a rare but very serious form of lung
cancer caused by asbestos dust. Professor Judith Black and her group,
at Sydney University, are studying matrix metallinproteinase enzymes in lung,
which may affect the migration of the cancer cells in lung. Dr Helen
Wheeler at Royal North Shore Hospital heads a group which is studying the
use of thalidomide in the lung; thalidomide has the potential to block blood
vessel growth within tumours.
Source: Today's Life Science 13, July/Aug 2001
Dr Sandra Webb has been appointed Managing Director of the Melbourne
firm AMRAD, which focuses on biotechnology research and development. Melbourne
born and educated, Sandy's career has been as a clinical trials and drug
development executive with international experience; her previous post was
Executive Vice-President with Cromedica Global Inc, based in Canada.
Source: AMRAD Website
Dr Judith Slocombe of Melbourne has won the Australian Business Woman
of the Year award, from more than 1000 entries Australia wide. Dr Slocombe
established in 1989 a company called Veterinary Pathology Services; she sold
out to the Gribbles Group and stayed on as managing director of what is now
the National Testing Authority of Australia. It trains veterinary
diagnosticians and serves clients like the Melbourne Zoo and Healesville
Sanctuary. Dr Slocombe also has nine children aged from 21 to 4.
Source: Sun-Herald, Oct 7 2001
Galina Kaseko
is a graduate of the Moscow Medical Academy, described as one of the top six
medical schools in Europe. She came to Australia to UNSW and is now Research &
Development Manager, Biomedical, of FuCell, a company formed to commercialise
UNSW's production of human-based antibodies. Dr Kaseko speaks of the tragedy
of young researchers having to leave Russia for economic reasons.
Sheila Messer is also part of a reverse brain drain into Australia. An
electrical engineering graduate from California, she came back to Adelaide
with a Rotary Ambassadorial (post-graduate) scholarship, having earlier been
an exchange student in Adelaide. She is working on the Heard Heart Sound
Biomonitor Project at Adelaide University's Centre for Biomedical Engineering.
Electronic stethoscopes record phonocardiograms which are used as a diagnostic
tool for heart problems; the project's aim is to improve these records by
reducing extraneous sounds.
Source of above two items: Australasian Science 22, March 2001