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2006 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Naomi McClure-Griffiths

Where do we live? And what’s the neighbourhood like? Astronomer Naomi McClure-Griffiths has set about answering these questions with the help of “The Dish”, the 64-metre Parkes radio telescope.

Her research has dramatically reshaped our knowledge of the structure and evolution of our galactic home – the Milky Way.

It turns out that we don’t really know what our galaxy looks like. The familiar images of our galaxy are really little more than guesses. [Read more…] about 2006 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Anna Davis

Anna Davis began teaching at Casimir Catholic School in Marrickville in 1998. Since her arrival, results across Year 12 science courses have improved by 17% and students now achieve above the state average.

For Anna, it is the culmination of 16 years of teaching and turning her own passion for science into words, thereby helping students in some of Sydney’s more challenging schools achieve beyond their and their community’s expectations.

She has contributed to the education of countless students who have benefited from her innovative teaching plans, ideas and materials, and her inspirational leadership and mentoring of other teachers. [Read more…] about 2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

Marjorie Colvill

Marjorie Colvill has a clear idea of the perfect science class. It is one in which students set up their own investigations and make their own discoveries – and she has the proof that it works. From kindergarten and primary, to student teachers – she has taught them all. Not only that, Marj is now looking forward to building on her initial research, which indicates that good primary science teaching also enhances literacy!

With nearly 30 years devoted to education and science, the Tasmanian teacher has spread her passion for science from the classrooms of the state’s primary schools to the lecture halls of its university, at the same time finding time to hold a range of positions within the state’s Department of Education. [Read more…] about 2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

David Boger

As a young man at the University of Illinois, David Boger was offered a swag of lucrative chemical engineering jobs. Instead, his pioneering spirit took him to the newly established Monash University and a career in fluid mechanics.

It was the right move. Today the research teams he created are solving industrial problems large and small – eliminating the tailing dams synonymous with mining and inventing new ways to use minute droplets of fluids in nanotechnology devices. Along the way he discovered a new kind of fluid that now bears his name.

For a lifetime of pioneering work in fluid mechanics, first at Monash and then at the University of Melbourne, David Boger receives the 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. [Read more…] about 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

2005 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Harvey Millar

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of all animal and plant cells. These small semiautonomous units have their own DNA and proteins. They deliver the energy that drives our muscles, our brain and almost all life on earth.

Surprisingly, while we know much about animal mitochondria, plant mitochondria are a mystery. Harvey Millar, a 34 year old biochemist at the University of Western Australia, is changing that. He has already identified how plant mitochondria produce vitamin C and other antioxidants to protect cells from free radicals. He hopes that a better understanding of how mitochondria help plants handle stress will transform the way we breed plants to cope with drought, salt and other stresses. [Read more…] about 2005 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

2005 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Cameron Kepert

Cameron Kepert, a 34 year old professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Chemistry, is at the forefront of a chemical revolution. Chemists are mimicking nature and becoming molecular engineers, constructing new molecules and materials with great precision.

Cameron has engineered materials that can grab a small target molecule and then signal the event through a change of colour, shape or magnetism. He has also developed another group of materials that contract as they are heated and are attracting so much interest that he and his colleagues are setting up a company to commercialise the patented technologies

His new materials are expected to find application in many fields including electronics, photonics, sensing, agriculture, and energy storage. For his remarkable early career achievements and leadership in chemistry and molecular nanoscience, Cameron Kepert has been awarded the 2005 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year. [Read more…] about 2005 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Mike Roach

In the early 1990s Mike Roach realised that space and astronomy ignited a passion in his students for learning about science.

Today, Mike has brought space science into much of the science curriculum at Hamilton Secondary School in Adelaide and runs an annual space science school in South Australia, now in its ninth year.

He is a passionate advocate for improving the science and technology curriculum and a mentor for teachers, both in his state and nationally.

Mike Roach’s innovation in science teaching and commitment to developing the profession has earned him the 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools. [Read more…] about 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

Mark Merritt

Mark Merritt believes that primary science teachers have a critical role to play in instilling an enduring enthusiasm for science in their students.

“We need to make sure that future generations move into science research and science education. It’s vital that we start in the early years so we can embed in the children a love of science and knowledge,” he says.

Mark, who teaches science at the Marmion Primary School in the northern suburbs of Perth, has had a highly successful 21 year career in primary school teaching. He believes his next challenge will lie in teacher education – enthusing the next generation of primary school science teachers. [Read more…] about 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

2004 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

Graeme Clark

Graeme Clark believes all children should have the opportunity to hear their own parents’ voices.

That idea has driven him to provide hearing to more than 55,000 deaf people in more than 120 countries through his invention of a multi-channel cochlear ear implant. What is possible now is the culmination of more than 35 years of effort that began when he turned to research from a comfortable life in private medical practice by undertaking a PhD.

Along the way he has overcome fierce medical criticism from colleagues and a series of technical, financial and ethical hurdles. And he isn’t finished yet. At 69 years of age he is planning a new technological assault on deafness, and is developing radical plans to apply the concepts behind the bionic ear to repair spinal cords and other neural injuries.

Professor Graeme Clark AC receives the 2004 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for the discoveries which led to the first routinely used, successful and safe electro-neural interface with the central nervous system. His bionic ear enables deaf people to participate in a world of sound. [Read more…] about 2004 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

2004 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Jamie Rossjohn

Proteins are the molecular machines of all life. Their shape is the key to understanding how they function, or malfunction. We can use this knowledge to understand the natural world, and to guide the development of tests, vaccines and drugs to fight disease.

Jamie Rossjohn is one of Australia’s leaders in structural biology and X-ray crystallography, a burgeoning field of science built around understanding the shape and function of proteins and other biological molecules. [Read more…] about 2004 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

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