Outstanding Australian scientists recognised with election to the Australian Academy of Science

A contributor to discoveries at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the researcher who determined the molecular mechanism behind coral bleaching, and a leader in human disease gene mapping are among 20 new Fellows to be elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2013.

Representing leading research scientists from institutions around Australia, the Australian Academy of Science annually honours a small number of Australian scientists with election to the academy for their outstanding contributions to science.

“I applaud all of our new Fellows for their internationally significant achievements in a broad range of scientific disciplines,” said Academy President Professor Suzanne Cory.

The new Fellows will be admitted to the Australian Academy of Science and present summaries of the work for which they have been honoured at the academy’s annual three-day celebration, Science at the Shine Dome, on 29 May in Canberra.

Also today the academy announced the election of two Corresponding Members - researchers living and working overseas who have made a significant contribution to science and who have strong connections with Australia.

New Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science are:

• Dr Benjamin Hardwick Andrews FAA - works on differential geometry and related partial differential equations and is well known for his work in geometric evolutions.
• Professor Matthew Arthur Brown FAA - played a significant role in the development of genome-wide association studies. 
• Professor David James Craik FAA - made important discoveries in structural biology, particularly in the structural elucidation of peptide toxin. 
• Professor David Alexander Day FAA - an international leader of research into plant mitochondrial respiration and symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
• Professor Yuri Estrin FAA - a world leader in materials science who has significantly advanced physically based materials modelling.
• Professor John Richard Evans FAA - internationally renowned for his work on photosynthesis and carbon dioxide diffusion within leaves.
• Professor Bryan Malcolm Gaensler FAA - made contributions to understanding the universe through research on high-energy astrophysics, cosmic magnetic fields and the structure of our galaxy.
• Dr Andrew Wollaston Hassell FAA - a leading Australian mathematical analyst who specialises in the spectral theory of partial differential equations and harmonic analysis of manifolds.
• Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg FAA - discovered the molecular mechanisms that trigger coral bleaching and was one of the first scientists to identify coral bleaching and ocean acidification as major threats on coral reef and marine ecosystems.
• Professor Ian Neil Sandford Jackson FAA - researched the physical properties of earth materials and their application in understanding the Earth’s interior structure and behaviour.
• Professor Sharad Kumar FAA - made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of programmed cell death and the regulation of protein homoeostasis.
• Professor Max (Gao Qing) Lu FAA - a world-leading scientist in materials science and chemical engineering.
• Professor Boris Martinac FAA - a leading membrane biophysicist known for his pioneering studies of ion channels in microbes.
• Professor James Cleland Paton FAA - has made major scientific contributions to the field of pathogenesis and prevention of bacterial infectious diseases.
• Dr Richard Anthony Richards FAA - the world leader in the use of physiological traits in the breeding of crop plants.
• Professor Michael Andrew Sandiford FAA - has made important contributions to metamorphic geology, tectonics, earthquake geology, geomorphology and geothermics.
• Professor Geoffrey Norman Taylor FAA - played a major role in the design and construction of the advanced detectors for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
• Dr Brian Harrison Walker FAA - ecologist at the forefront of the interdisciplinary area of resilience in complex adaptive systems.
• Professor Andrew Gerard White FAA - pioneered world-leading experiments in quantum computation and quantum optics.
• Professor Bryan Raymond George Williams FAA - internationally recognised for his work on innate immunity and mechanisms of interferon action.

Corresponding Members:

• Professor Chunli Bai - has made many important contributions in developing new research techniques and methodologies and applying them to research in chemistry and molecular sciences..
• Professor Birger Lindberg Møller - has made exceptional contributions to the areas of photosynthesis, bioactive natural products and synthetic biology.