New President for the Australian Academy of Science

In its four-yearly swing to the physical sciences, the Australian Academy of Science has elected a pioneer of research in organic electronics, Professor Andrew Holmes, as its next President.

The presidency alternates between the physical and biological sciences and the term lasts for 4 years.

Holmes, a Laureate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute, a CSIRO Fellow and Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the Imperial College London, will take up the role after the Academy’s next Annual General Meeting in May 2014.

The current President, immunologist Professor Suzanne Cory, said, “Professor Holmes will lead our Academy with great distinction, energy and integrity.

“As Foreign Secretary, he has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Academy and its programs, with the deep conviction that Australia’s future prosperity depends on strong research and education in science and mathematics and in further developing international science linkages.”

Holmes graduated in chemistry from the University of Melbourne and completed a PhD at University College, London. He then moved to Cambridge University, where he became Professor of Organic and Polymer Chemistry and Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis.

In the 1990s, Holmes achieved international prominence when the team he was working with developed a new class of light-emitting polymers. These polymers transformed technology for televisions and computers with lightweight, super-thin, flexible video screens bright enough to be viewed even in direct sunlight.

Holmes returned to Melbourne in 2004 as a Federation Fellow to establish a laboratory at the then newly established Bio21 Institute. He was instrumental in forming the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium.

In 2000, Holmes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded its prestigious Royal Medal in 2012. He was elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2006 and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2004 Australia Day Honours list.