Axon, C3 alumni among Clunies Ross winners

Bioscience entrepreneurs, including Axon Instruments founder Alan Finkel and Fiona Wood and Marie Stoner of Clinical Cell Culture, have dominated the winners' circle at this year's ATSE Clunies Ross Awards.

The awards, named after pioneering Australian researcher Ian Clunies Ross, recognise people who have made important contributions to science and its application for the economic, social or environmental benefit of Australia.

Finkel, a neuroscientist and electrical engineer, was awarded for his development of the single electrode voltage clamp, an instrument that records the electrical activity of excitable cells, such as nerve cells and cardiac cells.

On the strength of that discovery, Finkel founded Axon Instruments, which he sold last year to US firm Molecular Devices. Judges said his research had led to better understanding of pain, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, cystic fibrosis and other diseases, as well as to develop medical equipment such as pacemakers.

Plastic surgeon and Australian of the Year, Fiona Wood, and her medical scientist colleague Marie Stoner, were jointly recognised for their development of an aerosol system that applies cultured skin cell suspensions to wounds.

As well as receiving a Clunies Ross Award, the two business partners -- Wood and Stoner are directors of listed company Clinical Cell Culture (ASX:CCE), which was set up to commercialise their work -- were also jointly presented with the inaugural Australian Technology Achievement Award.

Selected from the group of award winners by the ATSE board of governors, this new award honours a scientist notable for the breadth and depth of the positive impact of their technological and scientific innovation.

The first to receive an award for 2005 was Meat and Livestock Australia genetics manager Dr Robert Banks, for the development of Lambplan -- software for analysing animal genetics, and credited with helping Australian lamb to grow into a $2 billion industry.

Prof Alexander Zelinksy, founder of Canberra-based company Seeing Machines, received a Clunies Ross Award for his pioneering development of computer-vision technology to monitor driver inattention and fatigue. Judges said the technology had potential to improve safety in trains, planes and construction equipment, and ultimately reduce the estimated 80 per cent of road fatalities in which fatigue is a factor.

The fifth ever Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr Joe Baker, chief scientific advisor of Queensland's Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. An expert in chemistry, biotechnology, marine science and sustainable natural resource management, Baker made an inspirational speech in which he thanked his wife and her love of fishing for helping redirect his career from the land to the sea.