Brian Schmidt took part in an AusSMC background briefing in May 2009 where he described in simple terms the concept of dark energy and supernovae.  To listen to that presentation click here.

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories.  Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 7120 8666 or by email.

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Professor Suzanne Cory is President of the Australian Academy of Science

“On behalf of all his colleagues at the Australian Academy of Science, I offer my warmest congratulations to Brian Schmidt and his colleagues for this richly deserved accolade. This is a great day for Australian science.

Over just a few short years in the 1990s, Brian and his American colleague Professor Adam Riess discovered through their study of exploding stars – supernovae – that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Racing to the same discovery was Professor Saul Perlmutter in the United States, who shares the Nobel Prize with Schmidt and Riess. This discovery had a profound and immediate effect on cosmology. Previously it had been thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing, or proceeding at a steady rate. Astrophysicists say the finding that the expansion is in fact accelerating has completely altered our understanding of the universe and opened up important new fields in the study of time and dark energy.

For his part in this astounding discovery, Brian Schmidt was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2008. He is an energetic and highly respected member of the Australian National University’s astronomy and astrophysics team.”

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Professor Bryan Gaensler is Australian Laureate Fellow at The University of Sydney and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO)

“Most science is incremental. Even the Nobel Prize often goes to what might seem to the general public to be an obscure or technical discovery. But in 2011, the Nobel Prize for Physics has recognised one of the most jaw-dropping, unexpected, craziest results in the history of science – the Universe is accelerating! The prize deservedly goes to the leaders of the teams who first measured this effect – Australia’s Brian Schmidt, and Americans Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess.

It’s hard to overstate the profound fundamental change that this discovery wrought on all of cosmology and discovery. In barely more than a decade, we have gone from a comfortable picture of a mainly empty, gently decelerating, Universe, to broad acceptance that we live in a bizarre cosmos, suffused with as-yet-unexplained Dark Energy, tearing itself apart as it gains speed in all directions.

The underlying concept was simple enough – that distant supernova explosions could be used as ‘standard candles’ to measure the distance scale of the Universe. But the brilliance of Schmidt, Perlmutter and Riess was in the execution: these supernovae are rare and faint, and even just finding them right after they occur is a feat in itself. But then one needs to carefully calibrate and correct for a myriad of obfuscating and subtle effects in order to tease out the faint signal of the accelerating Universe. It is a testament to the expertise and skill of these astronomers that not only were they able to convince themselves of this weak effect to a level such that they were comfortable in publishing their work, but that after publication, the results were quickly accepted and applauded by the community rather than questioned or queried. The combination of brilliance, exquisite care and dogged determination that Schmidt, Perlmutter, Riess and their teams applied to their work has been rewarded by a Nobel Prize.

Beyond the celebration of these three Laureates, special acknowledgement must also go to Professor Robert Kirshner of Harvard University. Bob Kirshner was the PhD advisor and mentor for both Schmidt and Riess, and was very much the initial inspiration and motivation behind the team’s search for the supernovae that led to this momentous discovery. The Nobel limit of three Laureates per year means some tough calls inevitably need to be made. Kirshner’s key contribution and involvement in this work should not be overlooked.

Australia has much to celebrate by the award going to our own Brian Schmidt. Media reports might claim Schmidt as an ‘American-Australian’ or an ‘adopted Australian’, but make no mistake: despite his Montanan/Alaskan twang, Schmidt is an Australian scientist who did his Nobel-prize work in Australia, and is still very much an active researcher, leader and mentor within Australian astronomy. Beyond his outstanding research record as recognised by the Nobel committee today, what sets Brian apart is his unstinting commitment to Australian science – he is extraordinarily generous with his time for students, public events, review panels and committees; he often takes sides in debates that are to the detriment of his own interests but represent what’s best for the community; and he has even funded research activities at ANU out of his own personal funds when no other money was available. A devoted family man, a talented viniculturist, a good friend to many within Australian astronomy, and now a Nobel Laureate – congratulations to Brian Schmidt!”

Declaration of conflict of interest: Brian Schmidt and Bryan Gaensler are collaborators within the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO)

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Dr Cathy Foley, President of Science & Technology Australia

“The Nobel Prize and the tremendous impact the work of scientists can have reminds us all of the long‐term benefits of investment in research and the importance of fostering a culture of inquiry. This award is testament to the quality research performed by Australian scientists who generate under 3 per cent of the world’s knowledge. Professor Brian Schmidt is an inspiration to us all.”

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Dr Marc Duldig is President of the Australian Institute of Physics

“The Australian Institute of Physics congratulates Brian Schmidt, Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess on the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics.

They discovered that the Universe isn’t just expanding. The rate of expansion is increasing. Their discovery transformed astronomy. Today scientists are searching for dark energy – in part to explain their discovery.

Brian Schmidt, from ANU in Canberra, led one of two competing teams. But there were several other Australians in both teams including CSIRO’s Brian Boyle and Swinburne’s Warrick Couch. The two teams: the Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-z Supernova Search Team, discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.

An accelerating universe was a crazy result that was hard to accept. Yet, two teams, racing neck and neck, simultaneously came to the same conclusion. Their discovery led to the idea of an expansion force, dubbed dark energy. And it suggests that the fate of the universe is to just keep expanding, faster and faster.

The two teams expected to find that the universe would either expand then contract, or it would expand for ever but slowing over the millennia. But there were a growing number of hints that all was not right with the theories of the time.

To find out, they not only needed to be able to measure the speed with which distant objects are traveling away from us, but also how far away they are. And to do this they needed standardized light sources – very bright ones that would be visible to Earth-based telescopes despite being billions of light years away and billions of years old.

The standard light sources they used were exploding stars – in particular Type Ia supernovae. But finding them wasn’t easy. Then the analyses over the results turned up very surprising results. “The data wasn’t behaving as we thought it would,” says Schmidt. “There was a lot of nervous laughter,” says Perlmutter. For both teams it was not what they were expecting. For months they both tried to figure out where they had gone wrong, searching for any tiny source of error. But the data was right. The accepted model of the universe was wrong.

Today Perlmutter, Schmidt and their colleagues continue to explore the implications of their work. Schmidt has developed the SkyMapper project, a telescope to map the southern sky. Perlmutter is working on a satellite mission that would study supernovae and the nature of dark energy.”

Background information courtesy of Science in Public and the Gruber Foundation

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 7120 8666 **Note new number** or by email.

Professor Bob Williamson, University of Melbourne, and Secretary for Science Policy of the Australian Academy of Science

“What an excellent choice! Elizabeth Blackburn is an exceptionally talented Australian cell biologist who has made important contributions to our understanding of how cells in each new generation renew their potential to grow, develop and live for a normal lifespan. Her work on telomere regeneration is not only relevant to normal embryonic development, but also helps in our understanding of why cancer cells are able to divide without normal control. In the long run, her research could give rise to new approaches to treatment for cancer and other diseases. All of us at the Australian Academy of Science are proud she is one of our Fellows.”

Professor Roger Reddel, Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney

“The Nobel Prize to Professor Elizabeth Blackburn and her colleagues is for discoveries about telomeres (which are the ends of the chromosomes into which all of our DNA is bundled), including discovery of the telomerase enzyme. It is now known that telomerase is an enzyme that 85% of all cancers depend on for their continuing growth. This discovery may make it possible to treat most cancers by developing anticancer drugs that block the activity of telomerase.

The telomerase story is an outstanding illustration of the value of basic research. The work on telomeres and telomerase which are recognised by the 2009 Nobel Prize was done to solve a fundamental question about biological processes without any known relevance to cancer or any other human disease. The research was immediately recognised by the scientific community as outstanding. It was several years before other researchers made a connection between telomerase and cancer. The research also has implications for ageing, and for a number of inherited diseases.”

A/Prof Tracy Bryan and Dr Scott Cohen, Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney

“Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider showed amazing insight in predicting the existence of this enzyme and then setting out to find it. Their work, along with that of Jack Szostak, is also a beautiful illustration of the potential value of basic research in model organisms”.

The prize winners are:

• Prime Minister’s Prize for Science: Professor Ian Frazer, Diamantina Institute for Cancer Immunology & Metabolic Medicine, Queensland

• Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year: Dr Carola Vinuesa, Australian National University

• Malcolm MacIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year: Professor Tanya Monro, University of Adelaide

• Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools: Ms Bronwyn Mart, Magill Primary School, Adelaide

• Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools: Mr Clay Reid, Clare High School, SA

For further details on the winners, including  citations, photos and videos go to:  www.scienceinpublic.com.au username: pmp, password: pmp2008

To organise interviews with recipients, please contact: Niall Byrne (Science in Public): 0417 131 977 or Leigh Exelby: 0422 396 111.

Below, colleagues and members of the Australian scientific community respond to the announcements. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories after the embargo is lifted.  Any further comments will be posted here. For any general enquiries, don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Prime Minister’s Prize for Science
On Ian Frazer:

Professor Emeritus Sir Gustav Nossal is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne

“It is an enormous thrill to hear that Professor Ian Frazer of Brisbane has won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for 2008. His achievement is a monumental one – a vaccine against the dreaded human papilloma virus (HPV) which is the cause of cervical cancer in women. This vaccine has been brilliantly successful and the rollout in Australia has really led the world in terms of both uptake and freedom from any significant side effects. Frazer is currently working very hard to get this vaccine into the developing countries where the need is greatest. Over a quarter of a million women die each year from cervical cancer and most of these are in developing countries. The award to Frazer will be universally welcome right around Australia and around the world.”

Professor Nikolai Petrovsky is Director of at Endocrinology at Flinders Medical Centre (at Flinders University) in Adelaide

“Vaccines remain the most cost effective means of improving public health.

Vaccine development by definition is a complex task which involves many contributors. However, prizes must go to individuals and hence this prize to Ian Frazer recognises his commitment and that of his research team and the teams of Merck, GSK and many other scientists globally to the task of making an effective vaccine against HPV and thereby against cervical cancer, which has been a remarkable achievement. Hopefully this recognition of Ian Frazer’s achievements will flow into better government support of vaccine research and development in Australia not just by Ian Frazer but also by the many other less public but equally dedicated vaccine researchers.”

Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year
On Carola Venuesa:

Professor Nikolai Petrovsky is Director of at Endocrinology at Flinders Medical Centre (at Flinders University) in Adelaide

“Dr Vinuesa is a deserving recipient of this award, having dedicated herself to the pursuit of science and having made many significant discoveries of relevance to understanding of functioning of the immune system. Her ability to maintain this prodigious output at the same time as having children is a testament to her dedication and love of science. Bravo Carola!”

Malcolm MacIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
On Tanya Monro:

Dr Cathy Foley is President of the Australian Institute of Physics (she’s located in Sydney)

“The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) is very proud that one of our outstanding members has won the Malcolm Macintosh Prize for the Physical Scientist of the year. Tanya Munro was the 2007/8 AIP Women in Physics Lecturer who committed to give talks to colleagues and school students as well as the general public about her work in optical fibres and their application. She is an outstanding physicist and shows that even with a busy schedule of running a research centre and maintaining life balance of work and family, she is able to demonstrate high impact and a significant scientific career. Tanya’s most cited paper on Holey Optical Fibres has been the basis for new applications and innovations for the use of optical fibres around the world in many new industries.

Congratulations Tanya.”

Professor Bryan Gaensler is Professor of Physics in the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Sydney

“Tanya Monro is the epitome of the can-do attitude of the new generation of Australian scientists. After a lengthy stint overseas, Monro has been back in Australia for only three years, but has quickly built up a large and dynamic team at the University of Adelaide. Her novel approaches to fiber sensing technology are having a dramatic impact in industry, in defence, and in our everyday lives.  Monro is not just a successful scientist but is also a committed and dedicated mentor, as evidenced by the large number of enthusiastic students with whom she works.”

Professor Ken Baldwin is Deputy Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra

“Tanya Monro represents a group of rising stars in Australian science who will inspire future generations to contribute to our high international scientific profile.  Attracted back to Australia in 2005 to set up a new experimental facility in Adelaide for developing novel types of optical fibres using soft glasses, Tanya Monro has in a short time established a series of important research programs linking academia, government, industry and the defence sector.

The new optical fibres being developed are deliberately designed with air-filled microstructures to allow precise control over their light transmission properties.  This will provide a new enabling technology for optical communications, novel lasers, and sensors to monitor chemical and biological processes.

Tanya Monro has exhibited strong leadership in establishing the Centre of Expertise in Photonics in Adelaide, drive and enthusiasm in engaging with a range of sectors, and skill at communicating the excitement of science to the wider community.  She is a shining example of the type of new generation Australian scientist that the nation should be attracting back from overseas, having gained essential expertise and establishing networks which will serve the nation well into the future.

Tanya Monro is a deserving winner of the Malcolm MacIntosh Prize, and has great potential as a scientific leader in this country.”

Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools:
On Science Education/Teaching:

Professor Ian Frazer, recipient of the 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science speaking on the importance of the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science Teaching.

“Science provides the knowledge that enables solutions to many of the challenges facing society today .

A quality science education for the next generation is the key to a scientifically literate community. Such a community, knowledgeable of the scientific method, can understand and accept that research will always be preferable to  intuition as a means of making decisions about what to do when faced with problems.

Good science teachers encourage our natural inclination to experiment to see how the world works, and thus to learn by observation that science solves problems.

Great science teachers also act as role models for the next generation of scientists.”

Peter Russo is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Science Teachers Association

“The Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) is delighted to congratulate and acknowledge the awarding of the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools to Bronwyn Mart of Magill Primary School, SA and for Secondary Schools to Clay Reid of Clare High School, SA. Both of these teachers epitomise the dedication and commitment to the science teaching profession required to make a real difference to the lives of their students.

Both of these excellent teachers, through their work in the classroom and in the wider community, have highlighted the importance of nurturing curiosity in children as a key driver of engaging young learners in science and possibly into pursuing a rewarding career in the field. ASTA believes that this leadership in creative and innovative learning is crucial to the well-being of our nation.”

Bees, serpins and the Milky Way are the research subjects of three winners of the 2006 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science that have become our national tribute for excellence in Australian science.

The major prize, the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, is one of the nation’s most highly-regarded awards and the premier national award for scientific achievement.

The Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year and the Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year are awarded to scientists who are thirty-five years of age or younger, and are designed to highlight our early-stage career scientists that are producing world-class research.

Background material is available online at www.scienceinpublic.com. Please contact niall@sciencinpublic.com or phone Sarah on 0413 332 489 for further information.

For information about the prizes, click here.

Below, fellow scientists and colleagues respond to the announcement of the winners. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories or if you would like to interview these or additional scientists, call the Australian Science Media Centre on (08) 8207 7415 or email us.

Professor Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan from the Australian National University receives the 2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for a remarkable and unique research career that has revealed the working of the insect mind, and helped redefine robotics research.

Professor Ian Chubb is Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU).

“During the many years that Professor Srinivasan has worked at ANU, he has continuously made us proud through his work, which takes nature’s designs and applies them to impressive technology.

Professor Srinivasan’s dedication to discovery and passion for new knowledge typify the mission of The Australian National University. He is an inspiration to us all.”

Professor Allan Snyder is Director of the Centre for the Mind, a joint venture between the Australian National University and the University of Sydney.

“Professor Srinivasan pioneered the understanding of how insects navigate our world. He ingeniously applied these principles of insect navigation to devise novel forms of seeing machines for unmanned planetary explorations and low flying microfliers for tactical surveillance. He has richly contributed to Australia’s high scientific profile.

I first met him when we were both working at the Yale School of Medicine in the 1970s. Personally, Srini is one of the warmest, most generous scientists with whom I have had the pleasure to collaborate.”

Dr Alex Zelinsky is Director of the CSIRO ICT Centre.

“Professor Srinivasan has made substantial breakthroughs in the understanding of visual insect navigation, through a sustained and unrelenting effort in studying honey bees.

The significance of Professor Srinivasan’s work is that if the visual navigation mechanisms of honey bees can be understood, it would then be possible to control unmanned flying vehicles. This will have enormous commercial and public good usages in emergency situations, national defence and space exploration.”

Professor Sue Serjeantson is Executive Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science.

“Professor Srinivasan was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1995 and to the Royal Society of London in 2001 in recognition of his novel and outstanding contributions in the visual sciences.

Srini is an exceptional scientist who has brought his mathematical ability and training as an engineer to experimental design. These creative experiments have revolutionised our understanding of insect vision and insect flight. Srini has received international recognition and acclaim for incorporating this knowledge into robots, or machines, that see.”

Dr Naomi McClure-Griffiths from the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility receives the 2006 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for her insight into the structure of our galaxy, and her research leadership.

Professor Bryan Gaensler from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Sydney has worked closely with Naomi on many projects.

“Naomi McClure-Griffiths has carved an enormous niche for herself in the study of hydrogen in the Milky Way, and in the process has established herself as one of the world’s premier observational astronomers. Naomi is unbelievably good at discovering remarkable new things hidden in vast data-sets; over the last five years, she has taken a well-established area of astronomy and turned it upside-down.”

Dr Ron Ekers is Federation Fellow and past chair of the International Astronomical Union, Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO. He knows Naomi through her work as a John Bolton Post-Doctoral Fellow with CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility.

“Naomi likes to tackle the big problems in astronomy and she does so with a broad perspective. Her specialty is the cycle of birth and death of stars and she is now the worlds expert in the way the gas from the exploding stars can eventually returned to form new stars. She is a passionate observational astronomer with a big vision. She has been undaunted by the major international coordination needed to lead a huge observing programs using the worlds largest telescopes from both hemispheres.

Naomi is a natural and inspirational leader, and is an excellent scientist and I am sure Malcolm Macintosh would have been very proud of what she has already achieved.”

Professor John Dickey is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Tasmania. He has known Dr McClure Griffiths since 1996 when he was her thesis adviser for her PhD at the University of Minnesota. He described her then as “the best young scientist we ever had on our graduate program in the 22 years that I was there”.

“McClure Griffiths is one of the strongest leaders in astronomy of her generation in the world. Australia leads the world in radio astronomy. We have some of the most modern and most technically advanced telescopes. The Parkes telescope has the newest and most competitive receivers on it, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array at Narrabri is one of the most advanced interferometers in the world.

What Naomi worked out was how to bring out the best qualities of each telescope to get a detailed map of large areas of the sky. She pioneered the application of that technique on the entire Milky Way and although she is still very young she has already made a significant stamp on her field.”

Professor Brian Boyle is Director of the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility.

“I am absolutely delighted that Naomi’s outstanding achievements have been recognised by the award of this year’s Malcolm McIntosh Prize. Using Australia’s world-class radio telescopes, Naomi has re-written the textbooks on our understanding of our own Milky Way galaxy thorough extensive observations of hydrogen gas in the Galaxy. This has very important implications for how our own galaxy and, indeed, other galaxies formed.

The Malcolm McIntosh Prize is a well-deserved recognition of the impact of Naomi’s science on the world stage. I am also delighted that Australian astronomy can provide the environment and access to leading-edge facilities that enables scientists of Naomi’s calibre to flourish.”

Dr James Whisstock from Monash University receives the 2006 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year for his discoveries of novel serpins, and his research leadership in protein biology.

Professor Christina Mitchell is Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University.

“James Whisstock is a brilliant and contagiously enthusiastic young scientist who is characterising how proteins function and misfunction within cells using a variety of cutting edge techniques including bioinformatics and X-ray crystallography.

His work has concentrated on a group of proteins called “serpins”, that are important as when they misfunction they cause human diseases such as thrombosis, liver cirrhosis and dementia. James has assembled and mentored a large team of scientists and students to work together to determine the structure and function of serpins. His work is exciting and ground breaking.”

Professor Jamie Rossjohn from the Department of Biochemistry anApril 3, 2009The award of the 2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year to Associate Professor James Whisstock duly recognises his achievements as a scientist, a mentor and his research leadership role.

“James, alongside his colleagues, has made a sustained and impressive contribution to the field of proteases and their proteinacious inhibitors, the serpins. These important proteins play diverse roles in biology, including controlling bacterial virulence, regulating blood clotting, controlling inflammation and packaging DNA. His multi- pronged approach, effected by a broad network of collaborators, had enabled his team to make fundamental contributions to this important field of biomedical science.

These contributions, combined with the enthusiasm and passion James exudes for science, makes him a most worthy recipient of this prestigious prize.”

]]> http://www.smc.org.au/2006/10/rapid-roundup-scientists-react-to-news-of-the-winners-of-the-2006-prime-ministers-prizes-for-science/feed/ 0 http://www.smc.org.au/2006/10/rapid-roundup-scientists-react-to-news-that-an-australian-scientist-has-won-the-gruber-genetics-prize-announced-in-new-orleans-today/ http://www.smc.org.au/2006/10/rapid-roundup-scientists-react-to-news-that-an-australian-scientist-has-won-the-gruber-genetics-prize-announced-in-new-orleans-today/#comments Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:58:04 +0000 AusSMC http://www.aussmc.org/?p=1879 Tasmanian born scientist Elizabeth Blackburn opened up a huge area of research when she and her colleagues discovered telomerase, the enzyme that repairs the ends of chromosomes, which are called telomeres. It transformed our understanding of how cells age and die. She is also famous for taking a stand against the politicisation of science when she was dismissed from President Bush’s Council on Bioethics for insisting that the council’s reports should incorporate the best possible scientific information.

Click here for further information about Dr Blackburn’s work.

For details of the prizes: www.petergruberfoundation.org

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories or if you would like to interview these or additional experts, call the Australian Science Media Centre on (08) 8207 7415 or 0424 676 136 or email us. As further comments come in, we will post them here.

When contacted in New Orleans for a comment on the Australian stem cell debate, Dr Elizabeth Blackburn said:

“In Australia as in the United States, scientists need to be willing and available to inform public debate on stem cells and other science-based issues. We need to do what we can to ensure that accurate science is provided for the discussion.

We mustn’t over interpret what has been achieved to date. In truth we don’t actually have enough information to choose a path forward yet. So we need to maintain a broad research base.”

Sir Gustav Nossal is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne, a former President of the Australian Academy of Science and Australian of the Year in 2000.

“Elizabeth Blackburn is one of Australia’s finest scientists and I’m really thrilled to see her win this important and well-endowed prize. I actually think Dr Blackburn is an excellent candidate for a Nobel Prize because her work on cellular aging is critically important to cancer and many other fields.”

Professor Sue Serjeantson is Executive Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS). The Academy is a national, independent, non-profit organisation that was established to promote and share scientific knowledge. The Fellowship of the Academy is made up of about 380 of Australia’s top scientists.

“The Australian Academy of Science congratulates Elizabeth Blackburn on the award of the 2006 Gruber Genetics Prize. Just last month, Elizabeth shared the prestigious Lasker Award with Carol Greider of John Hopkins University and Jack Szostak, of Harvard University, for their telomerase research. More than 70 Lasker Award recipients, including Australian Peter Doherty, have gone on to win a Nobel Prize. Elizabeth was a popular winner of the Australia Prize, the forerunner to the Prime Minister’s Science Prize, in 1998″.

Professor Bob Williamson is Senior Principal Research Fellow of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Professor of Medical Genetics, at the University of Melbourne. One of his major interests is national science policy and ethics and he publishes widely on stem cell science.

“Professor Liz Blackburn thoroughly deserves this award. Her research into the structure and function of short sequences at the ends of chromosomes, known as telomeres, was instrumental in showing how human cells age over time. Her current studies of telomere shortening and lengthening in embryonic and adult stem cells may allow scientists to prevent cancer when cells are transplanted for therapy. Liz Blackburn studied at the University of Melbourne before moving, first to Cambridge and then the University of California San Francisco, but she has retained close links with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne and with Monash University.”

Dr Tracy Bryan is head of the Cell Biology Research Unit at the Children’s Medical Research Institute at Westmead, NSW. During her PhD studies she discovered a new mechanism for maintenance of telomeres in human tumours. Her research continues to focus on the role of telomeres in the growth of cancer cells.

“It is wonderful to see Elizabeth Blackburn’s work given recognition, since she was responsible for the early, ground-breaking work on telomeres and telomerase. It is also a testament to the value of curiosity-driven research, since the work was carried out in a one-celled pond organism called Tetrahymena. At the time, it was not known that this work would turn out to have such far-reaching implications for cancer and aging in humans. Elizabeth Blackburn’s work has lead to the rapid growth of a large and vibrant field of research, in which there is a lot of interest in developing telomerase inhibitors as potential anti-cancer agents.”

]]> http://www.smc.org.au/2006/10/rapid-roundup-scientists-react-to-news-that-an-australian-scientist-has-won-the-gruber-genetics-prize-announced-in-new-orleans-today/feed/ 0