The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were presented by the Prime Minister and the Innovation Minister at the Prize Dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House on Wednesday 17 November.

John Shine As a PhD student at the Australian National University, John Shine discovered the importance of a brief sequence of genetic code. It took him three years to determine that sequence and what it does. At its core are five letters—GGAGG—which tell ribosomes, the protein factories in all living things, to start making a…

Katherine Trinajstic Three hundred and eighty million years ago, on the Gogo Barrier Reef in what is now the Kimberley Ranges, our early ancestors were developing teeth, jaws, limbs, and even a womb.

Benjamin Kile Benjamin Kile is unravelling the secrets of blood in a series of discoveries at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne. He has discovered why platelets—the blood cells responsible for clotting—have a short shelf life at the blood bank. There’s a molecular clock ticking away that triggers cell death.

Matthew McCloskey Matthew McCloskey is in the vanguard of the renaissance of primary science teaching in Australia—bringing real science experiments back into the classroom, building on his own experience as a research scientist and zoologist.

Debra Smith Over thirty years of teaching, Debra Smith has not only inspired thousands of students, she has helped redefine how science is taught in Queensland and across Australia.