Fellowship feeling for AAS

Sixteen new fellows have been elected to the Australian Academy of Science, including a number of well-known life science researchers.

The new fellows include:

Professor Marilyn Ball, head of ecosystem dynamics at ANU’s Research School of Biological Sciences, for her work on plant physiology: stress tolerance in plants and their ability to function in complex, highly variable environments.

Professor Andy Choo from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute for his work on human molecular genetics: chromosome stability and replication in the development of vectors for gene therapy.

Professor Charles Mackay, director of the immunology and inflammation research program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. for his work on immunology: chemoattractant receptors and inflammatory therapy.

Professor Rob Parton of UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience for his work on molecular cell biology: characterisation of novel proteins involved in plasma membrane organisation of mammalian cells.

Professor George Paxinos of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute for his work on neuroscience: construction of brain and spinal cord atlases.

Professor Leigh Simmons of the Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA for his work on evolutionary biology: theoretical models of sexual selection and life history evolution of vertebrates and invertebrates.

Professor Peter Waterhouse of CSIRO Plant Industry and the University of Sydney for his work on plant molecular biology: gene silencing and virus resistance.

Professor Mark Westoby from the School of Biological Studies at Macquarie University for his work on ecology and evolution: mapping and modelling of key ecological traits in plant species.