2002 Science Prizes
Compiled by Diana Temple
The
glittering dinner for the annual award of the Science Prizes held on 20
August, 2002 in the Great Hall of Parliament House was attended by a number of
WISENET representatives: Anna Robinson (National Convenor), Rosemary Sutton
(immediate past National Convenor). Sarah Miller (Treasurer), Julie Evans
(Journal Editor) and members, Haley Jones, Janet Salisbury, Miriam Baltuck and
Juliann Crossley.
Women scientists featured prominently as prizewinners.
The main award, the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science ($300,000) went to elder statesman of science, Professor Frank Fenner, Life Scientist of the Year, famed chiefly for his contributions to the eradication of smallpox from the world in 1980, and for the introduction of myxomatosis to control Australia’s rabbit plague.
The
McIntosh Prize ($35,000), in honour of the late Dr Malcolm McIntosh years or
under. This award was won by Professor Marcela Bilek of Sydney
University. The Science Minister’s prize, Life Scientist of the Year, awarded
to a researcher 35 years of age or less, was won by Dr Joel Mackay of
Sydney University. He works on the control of genes, with the potential for
controlling cancer. Given the secrecy surrounding the awards, the two younger
researchers could not have known beforehand that they share much in common,
apart from working in the same university. They are both keen to dispel the
myth that science is a lonely career spent locked away in a laboratory. It’s a
team endeavour, with lots of travel, they say. Their scientific curiosity has
taken them both around the world. Born a week apart, Bilek in Prague,
Czechoslovakia and Mackay in Auckland, New Zealand, they both credit some of
their initial enthusiasm for research to dedicated high school teachers.
Two prizes for Excellence in Science Teaching were introduced in 2002, to emphasise the importance of science education. The Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools ($35,000) was won by Mrs Marianne Nicholas from Walkerville Primary School, Adelaide. Marianne Nicholas has taught science in primary schools for 10 years. She captures childrens’ interest by explaining the science in everyday life. The Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools (also $35,000) was won by Mrs Ruth Dircks from Dungog High School, NSW. Ruth, a former member of WISENET, is the author of the Dircks Report on science teaching, commissioned by the Australian Academy of Science in the 1990s. She first did consulting work then returned to science teaching after having retired to a farm near Dungog, because of her love of teaching. She is critical of science teaching in Australia because of the lack of resources Her acceptance speech, described by the Sun-Herald newspaper as “the speech of the night”, is reproduced below, slightly edited.
The Sydney Morning Herald has given permission to reprint an edited version of an article about Marcella Bilek by science journalist Deborah Smith (published in SMH, 21 August 2002). We were delighted when Ruth Dircks kindly agreed to Sarah’s request to have her response printed in this WISENET Journal. Both articles make for thoughtful and inspiring reading – our thanks.
Professor
Marcela Bilek, winner of the McIntosh Prize, Physical Scientist of the Year.
Abalone shells are one of nature’s wonders. They are made from two very weak substances - a soft, squishy protein, and a very brittle mineral. Yet they are extraordinarily strong. The trick used by the abalone to build its almost unbreakable home, is to stack extremely thin layers of each substance in an alternating pattern. It’s a strategy Marcela Bilek is keen to emulate.
Bilek, 34, the first woman to have been appointed a professor of physics at the University of Sydney, is an expert in designing super tough new materials. To match the mollusc, she uses the latest nanotechnology techniques and equipment to deposit different substances, one atomic layer at a time, creating unique coatings and surfaces. Industry is seeking her help to solve manufacturing problems. “The potential uses for super-tough metals, glasses and plastics are limited only by our imagination and budget” says Bilek, who has an eye for the business side of science. “This is not a case of having scientific knowledge that is looking for an application.’’
Bilek immigrated to Sydney at age four with her parents, who were political refugees from the 1968 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. At Heathcote High, in the city’s south, she not only had very good maths and science teachers, but also an economics teacher who encouraged her to stretch herself intellectually and ``think outside the box’’. They both enjoy the challenge of endurance sports. ``Problems seems less of a problem when you’re fit,’’ say Bilek, a long distance cyclist who has toured Eastern Europe by bike, and likes the coastal ride to Wollongong.
Bilek began her PhD at Cambridge, via a circuitous route. Travelling has always been a passion, which is why she quickly ruled out medicine or law professions with qualifications that are not always recognised by other states or countries. The first chance for an overseas trip came during her undergraduate degree, when she topped her year in computer science. IBM offered her 12 month’s work in Japan. ``I jumped at that. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn Japanese and I learnt so much about the culture and business.’’ After graduating she spent two years working in industry, at the Comalco Research Centre in Melbourne. But Cambridge beckoned. Like Mackay, Bilek won a scholarship to attend the world famous university. ``It was one of the best decisions I ever made,’’ she says. ``The real attraction is the richness of cultures. There are so many international students and scholars, and there was always an expert in everything you might have a question on.’’ Bilek liked it so much she stayed on at Cambridge in a research position that allowed her to travel and work in Germany and the US, as well. She also completed an MBA part time ``to understand how business people think.’’ With universities being pushed to find funding outside the traditional granting bodies, Bilek could see business nouse would become increasingly important. Contacts between academics and those in industry were often problematic, she realised, because ``they were not talking the same language’’. She contemplated going into business after the MBA but was lured back to Sydney two years ago by the physics professorship and the warm weather. Bilek, who drives her father’s old car, will probably spend some of it (her $35,000 prize money) on a new one.
The super tough materials Bilek’s team is developing have many applications, including to coat high performance machine tools, reducing the need for environmentally damaging lubricants. In the biomedical industry, implants, such as artificial hearts, require coatings to ensure they survive as long as the patient. Thin film laminates are also being developed for solar power applications. ``Industry is coming to us and asking us to develop materials for them,’’ says Bilek, who has filed for three patents so far in her two years back home. She is using sophisticated computer techniques to predict the structure and properties of new materials and alloys before attempting to fabricate them. To lay down the surfaces she starts with material in an ionised gaseous form, or plasma. Then she uses electrical pulses or magnetic fields to deposit them. ``We need to control what happens at the growth surface. We can change the way the atoms bond by throwing them down with a lot of energy or putting them down gently.’’ Abalone shells consist of 90 per cent aragonite, or calcium carbonate, a mineral that is easily snapped. Bilek believes the key to the strength of the shells, could be the way the layer system arrests the growth of any cracks. She admits she spends much of her time, even when cycling, thinking about her latest scientific puzzle, in search of inspiration.
The persistent image of a physicist is ``some old guy in a lab coat playing with machinery with no-one else in sight,’’ she says. The reality is much more exciting. “It’s an international discipline. It’s about team work. There’s never a dull moment. And there’s a lots of travel.’’
Response by Marianne Nicholas, winner of
the Prime Minister’s Prize for
Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary schools: I am very proud, very
humbled and very overwhelmed to be one of the recipients of this inaugural and
most significant award. An award for science teaching that to my knowledge is
without precedence.
Teachers are not dissimilar from politicians and scientists. We too can
influence many lives, and potentially mould the future of our society and our
country through our work. As science teachers, we can inspire the scientists
of the future. Perhaps some of you here tonight may remember being drawn to
science because of the skill and passion of one of your teachers. I remember
my own high school science teacher who made the subject come alive for me,
with lasting effects.
When I began my job as a specialist science teacher in a Junior Primary School in 1989, none of my three sons had yet begun school. For the next 10 years I brought home baby ducks and chickens, lizards and butterflies, electrical, circuits, crystals, mirrors, magnets, marble mazes, rock collections and water rockets and tried my science lessons out on my children.
Interestingly all of them now aspire to careers in science. But none of them are attracted to teaching.
I am very aware that it is only because of my very supportive family and in particular my husband, Steve, that I have been able to pursue my passion for science teaching in the way I have.
However, this award is not so much personal, but a validation of the vital importance of educators and education in our society. Of particular note is that this unprecedented award acknowledges the importance of the teaching of science in Primary and Junior Primary Schools.
Certainly this is a time in a child’s life where attitudes towards learning are shaped. And the teaching of science in the early years is so much more important than that, as science investigations develop a child’s ability to think, to question, to reason and to seek solutions.
Investigative science activities can help those students who are struggling with literacy and numeracy to be successful, and it can extend those students who are academically gifted to achieve much greater heights.
Thank you for this recognition of the importance of education and in particular, science education, to the community.
While I am overwhelmed at being a recipient, I am even more proud of belonging to a nation that would honour teaching and teachers with such a prestigious accolade.
Response
by Ruth Dircks, winner of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science
Teaching in Secondary schools: I don’t regard this as my prize. I am just
representing all those science teachers out there, who are doing an excellent
job, in a variety of challenging circumstances. There are those in selective
schools whose eager students, between them, want to know about the forefront
of science across all the disciplines so that these teachers are struggling to
keep up with the whole range of advances in science. There are those teachers
in places like the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne whose students,
especially the Year 9 boys, regard the claim that they are bored to be a badge
of honour. And there are those teachers in country schools who feel isolated
and travel large distances to interact with their peers and who, unlike me,
have not had the good luck to be drawn into wider projects.
But in spite of the efforts of a lot of good teachers, and largely because of the excessive demands of the job, secondary science in Australia is not in a good condition. I hope that those of you who acknowledge this don’t join in the popular cry that teachers are a hopeless lot. But rather, I hope you will say, at every opportunity, that teachers need help. Some support is being provided but it is patchy and inadequate and often doesn’t get to the most needy. And I am pessimistic about it being otherwise, while ever we have eight different ways of designing and implementing the science curriculum.
The Australian Academy of Science has made several attempts to produce excellent teaching materials but, because they have tried to meet the needs of all States and Territories, these resources have finished up being satisfactory to none. Because our small population is divided into eight parts we are missing out on economies of scale but worse still we are, by and large, failing to share good ideas across State and Territory borders.
If secondary science is to improve, we need commitment from politicians and from academics and from the Australian Science Teachers Association. I hope very much that any awareness-raising that results from this award will lead to a more common sense approach to science education so that we can do the right thing for Australian kids, because that, after all, is what it is all about.
Photographs used with the permission of the Department of Education,
Science and Training (www.dest.gov.au/scienceprize/)