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Re-engineering nature to fight for global health: 2016 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Richard Payne

Richard Payne (Photo credit: Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear)

Richard Payne makes peptides and proteins. He sees an interesting peptide or protein in nature, say in a blood-sucking tick. Then he uses chemistry to recreate and re-engineer the molecule to create powerful new drugs, such as anti-clotting agents needed to treat stroke. [Read more…] about Re-engineering nature to fight for global health: 2016 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Conservation that works for governments, ecosystems, and people: 2016 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Kerrie Wilson 

Kerrie Wilson (Photo credit: Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear) What is the value of the services that ecosystems provide—services such as clean air, water, food, and tourism? And what are the most effective ways to protect ecosystems? Where will governments get the best return on their investment in the environment? These questions are central to the work of Associate Professor Kerrie Wilson. [Read more…] about Conservation that works for governments, ecosystems, and people: 2016 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Turning students into scientists: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Suzy Urbaniak

Suzy Urbaniak (Photo credit: Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear)

Geoscientist Suzy Urbaniak combined her two loves—science and education—by becoming a science teacher 30 years after finishing high school. But she couldn’t believe it when she saw how little the teaching styles had changed over the years. [Read more…] about Turning students into scientists: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Media Kit

  • Reptile guru Rick Shine wants to release small cane toads to protect native snakes, lizards and quolls (Sydney)
  • Michael Aitkin is making stock markets fair and efficient; can he do the same for the health system? (Sydney)
  • Colin Hall’s plastic mirrors are the beginning of a new manufacturing technology, and jobs (Adelaide)
  • Kerrie Wilson is providing the evidence-base for good conservation decisions by putting a value on clean air, water, food, tourism and the other benefits that forests, rivers, oceans provide (Brisbane)
  • Richard Payne is re-engineering peptides from ticks, bacteria, and leeches to create new drugs for stroke, TB, and malaria (Sydney)
  • Suzy Urbaniak’s #therealclassroom in Perth’s Kent Street school is setting up students for jobs in mining, conservation, tourism and more
  • Gary Tilley is turning the next generation of primary teachers on to science at Seaforth school and Macquarie Uni in Sydney

[Read more…] about Media Kit

2016 PM’s Science Prizes – video links

Links to YouTube versions which you can embed in websites, social media, etc. are now available below. 

Rick Shine – Prime Minister’s Prize for Science: YouTube video

Michael Aitken – Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation: YouTube video

Colin Hall – Prize for New Innovators: YouTube video

Richard Payne – Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Life Scientist of the Year: YouTube video

Kerrie Wilson – Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year: YouTube video

Suzy Urbaniak – Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools: YouTube video

Gary Tilley – Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools: YouTube video

2016 PM’s Science Prizes – high res photos

Click on image to access/download high res version 

[Read more…] about 2016 PM’s Science Prizes – high res photos

Where’s wallaby? Last call for online wildlife spotters

Monday 5 September 2016

The ABC’s Wildlife Spotter project and competition closes at midnight tonight. But the project has been so successful that the wildlife spotting will continue into the future.

emu In just one month, 44,000 citizen scientists have classified frogs, feral cats, bettongs, bandicoots, birds, Tassie devils, dingoes, and other animals caught on camera in more than 1.6 million images as part of the ABC’s citizen science project Wildlife Spotter. This breaks the record of last year’s Galaxy Explorer project, which involved 20,000 people helping astronomers classify galaxies far, far away.

Volunteer wildlife spotters have collectively spent more than 16,000 hours assisting scientific research by identifying two million animals in the images.  [Read more…] about Where’s wallaby? Last call for online wildlife spotters

Innovative Victorian kids headed for Silicon Valley

  • Smart stickers for greener buildings
  • DIY box-set to teach electronics and programming skills
  • And a virtual reality travel guide that lets you shop in Italy from the couch.

On Saturday the schoolkids behind these three projects pitched their ideas to industry.

And the winning team, who are marketing the DIY box sets, will head to Silicon Valley in January with all expenses paid—visiting Google and other high-tech companies.

It’s the first time Australia has run the TiE Young Entrepreneurs competition – a program designed to teach entrepreneurship and business skills to high school students through practical experience and mentoring.

The students behind these projects, aged between 12 and 17, come from: Box Hill High School; Auburn High School; Mount Waverley Secondary College; Aquinas College; Notre Dame College in Shepparton; and Weeroona College Bendigo.

[Read more…] about Innovative Victorian kids headed for Silicon Valley

Breeding mosquitoes; turning Aussie wheat into Indonesian exports; connecting land and sea; the first 1,000 days of life

Aus indo logoToday in Surabaya, the third Indonesia-Australia Research Summit discusses research to change lives, including:

  • What happens when islands and remote communities get electricity? How does 24/7 power change families, businesses, and hierarchies?
  • Families hatching and releasing mosquitoes to fight dengue
  • Joint competitive advantage – working together to build our economies
    • Australian wheat becomes Indonesian noodles for global export
    • Australian cotton and rayon transform into Indonesian fashion exports

[Read more…] about Breeding mosquitoes; turning Aussie wheat into Indonesian exports; connecting land and sea; the first 1,000 days of life