Women Achieving Recognition in
Science
Compiled by Diana Temple and Jo O'Neil
Fiona Stanley is Professor of Paediatrics, founding Director of the Institute of Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia and chief executive officer of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth. Her work on child health and as a splendid communicator has been recognised in several ways - AC (Companion in the Order of Australia) 1996, the Tall Poppy Award from the Australian Institute of Political Science 2000, and most recently elected Australian of the Year for 2003.
Today’s Life Science March/April 2003
Beryl Hesketh, who has been dean of the Science faculty at the University of Sydney since 1999, has been appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Science and Technology). A psychologist, Beryl Hesketh’s research area is applied decision making. She won the Australian Psychological Association Elton Mayo Award in1997 for her work in organisational research.
University of Sydney News 28 Feb 2003
Anne Kolbe, paediatric surgeon has been elected as the first woman president of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. This makes Anne Kolbe the world’s first female head of a surgical college.
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 March 2003
ARC Federation Fellowships
Four women are among recent recipients of these highly sought-after fellowships that were introduced by the federal Government to attract and keep scientists of international standing in Australia.
Marcela Bilek, Professor of Physics at University of Sydney, conducts research on polymer surfaces with many medical and physics applications. The fellowship, Professor Bilek says, will give her more time and resources for research, and provide new people and equipment.
Marilyn Renfree, Ian Potter Chair of Zoology, at the University of Melbourne, has received a number of other awards including the Gottschalk Medal (Australian Academy of Science) in 1980 and the Mueller Medal ANZAAS) in 1997. Her research is on the control of reproduction and development in mammals with special interests in the Australian mammalian fauna, particularly marsupials and monotremes and the evolution of reproduction.
Michelle Simmons, Professor at the University of New South Wales conducts research that represents a new initiative to build silicon devices containing only a few tens of atoms and is relevant to minaturisation of semiconductors, with potential relevance to processing and storing information.
Amanda Lynch, currently at the University of Colorado will return to Australia to take up a Chair at Monash University. Her research involves methodology to address extremes in climate impact assessment including coastal flooding and bush fires.
University of Sydney News, 28 March 2003; www.arc.gov.au/
Suzanne Cory, Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, in 2002 won the Royal Medal for Science awarded by the Royal Society, London. She is the first Australian woman to have achieved this honour.
The Charles Perkins Memorial Prize, awarded annually to an indigenous student of outstanding academic merit, was won this year by Llewellyn Williams. An honours graduate in Health Science from Yooroang Garang School of Indigenous Health Studies, Llewellyn comes from Gladstone, Queensland, the daughter of a Wakka Wakka Willi Willi mother and a Torres Straight Islander father. Her thesis studied the media portrayal of indigenous people, showing how their health suffered from the usually negative portrayal in television media.
University of Sydney News, 3 Jan 2003
Sandra Capra has become the first Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics in N.S.W. with her appointment in the Faculty of Health at the University of Newcastle. She has a PhD in nutrition, and extensive academic experience. Another nutritionist, Professor Jennie Brand-Miller of Sydney University, has received a Clunies Ross Science and Technology Award for 2003. She has studied the conversion of different carbohydrate sources into blood glucose and classified them according to their glycaemic index. High blood sugar is common in adults who do not have diabetes, and can be deleterious to the cardiovascular system, the eyes, kidneys and nerves.
Sydney Morning Herald, Mar 19 and 27 2003
Christine O’Keefe, a CSIRO mathematician of CMIS, has been invited to sign a square in the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame Signature Quilt Project, the first stage of which was launched on International Women’s Day this year. Known as the Patchwork of Empowerment, this project celebrates the achievements of Australian women over the last century, containing almost 350 signatures of women who were first comers in a variety of fields.
www.pioneerwomen.com.au/sigquilt.htm
Devi Stuart-Fox of the University of Queensland has won a UNESCO-L’Oreal Fellowship. These international awards were created in 1998 to recognise outstanding women research scientists, see www.forwomeninscience.com. She will investigate colour change in chameleons in different environments in South Africa, following on from her Queensland work on evolutionary lizard biology.
LabNews
April/May 2003
Liz Kernohan, once a Sydney University agricultural science academic and a former director of the University Farms at Camden, has had a long stint as a member of the Legislative Council of NSW, from which she has recently retired.
Gail Risbridger, Professor and Head of the Monash University Institute of Reproduction and Development (IRD) Centre for Urological Research, has received a Senior Fullbright Fellowship. Earlier this year Gail and her institute were awarded $800,000 to investigate the role of adult stem cells in prostate disease. Gail has been a key mover in the establishment of a program at IRD called WISE (Women in Scientific Excellence). This was established in September 2002 and consists of a group of women whose objective is to fund awards for high quality students, especially women, wishing to study through Monash IRD.
Monash Memo, 5 February & 16 April, 2003
Victoria Fellowships
The $50,000 Victoria Prize and six $15,000 Victoria Fellowships recognise the contribution of scientists, engineers and innovators to Victoria’s future prosperity and quality of life. A woman is yet to receive the Victoria Prize, however four women were among the six recipients of the 2002 Victoria Fellowships. They were: Tracey Bessell, a pharmacy graduate at Monash Institute of Health Services Research; Danielle Forster, an electrical engineer working with the new start-up initiative, Dynamic Hearing, spun off from the Co-operative Research Centre for Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid Innovation; Rachael Prince, honours graduate and PhD student in Civil Engineering from Swinburne University of Technology, is currently investigating what causes discoloured drinking water in collaboration with industry partner South East Water Limited; and Cindy Yap, postdoctoral fellow at the Australian Centre for Blood Disease, whose work on stroke prevention and treatment has been patented through a biotechnology company based in Victoria which is investigating the possibility of developing commercially new and safer antiplatelet drugs.
Lesley Rogers, professor and neurophysiologist at the University of New England, and publicist of women in science, was a recipient of a Centenary Medal.
Cathy Foley of CSIRO Applied Physics has received a Public Service Medal for her work in scientific research, the popular promotion of science and social responsibilities of scientists.
Joan Mason, founder of AWISE, WISENET’s British counterpart, and a former member of WISENET, has been honoured with the award of an MBE. She has provided the following outline of her career: “After postdoccing in California and London, then dropping out (husband-following, 3 children) our family returned to London (my husband moved to a chair at King’s). This was just as the Open University was starting up, and I got a job on the Chemistry staff of the Open University... I’d known the Professor at Cambridge, so perhaps I plugged into the old boy network ... the OU needed some female faces on its TV in science. I then encountered the usual problems, seeing younger colleagues promoted over my head (since my husband could keep me). So I complained to the Vice-Chancellor; who noticed my publication record and told me to apply for a Cambridge D.Sc., then I’d be promoted. So I did and I was. They made me a Reader, and if I had had another year or two before the retiring age, they’d have made me a Professor”.