AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE NEWSLETTERNobel poster launched Sir Gustav Nossal, left, Professor...

Copies of the poster – which is free toschools – are being distributed throughstate, Catholic and independent schoolauthorities and state science teacherassociations.

Supported by the AustralianFoundation for Science

NEWSLETTERAUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

April–June 1997 Number 36

Academy puts the case for universityresearch and scholarshipThe Academy has urged the FederalGovernment to favour universityresearch and scholarship in its plans forhigher education.

In its submission, in April, to theReview of Higher Education Financingand Policy, the Academy emphasised theimportance of research and scholarshipand the vital contribution that scienceand technology have made to economicgrowth, the quality of life and theenvironment. The review was set up bythe Minister of Employment, Education,Training and Youth Affairs, SenatorAmanda Vanstone, and is being chairedby a retired Sydney school principal, MrRoderick West.

The President of the Academy, SirGustav Nossal, stated, ‘Our first concernwas to highlight the vital role played by

the universities in basic research.Universities do most of Australia’s basicresearch and without them the nation’sinfrastructure for innovation would beimpoverished.

‘We recognise the universities cannotstand still. The age of mass tertiaryeducation has placed burdens on theuniversities and on their governmentpaymasters that demand innovation inuniversity management, researchfunding and teaching. However, thepreponderance of the universities’funding must continue to come from thegovernment, as it does in mostcomparable countries.

‘The government’s reduction offunding in last year’s budget went farenough. There is no scope for furthercuts.’

The Academy pointed out that theWest committee needed to considercarefully which areas of researchdeserved assistance. It discouragedfunding for individual academics whosought research assistance to improvetheir teaching. ‘With the rapid advancesin information technology, it can beargued that lectures are not the mostsuitable vehicle for transmittinginformation,’ the submission stated. Itshould be possible for a good teacher tokeep up with the implications of recentadvances in knowledge withoutnecessarily being involved in activeresearch but they will need assistance todo so.

The Academy strongly supported asystem of peer assessment of researchers

continued on page 2

The joint winner of the 1996 Nobel Prizein physiology or medicine, ProfessorPeter Doherty, launched a posterdescribing his prize-winning workduring the Australian Science Festival inCanberra in April.

Professor Doherty arrived at theNational Press Club on an ACTGovernment bus decorated with hispicture; the bus is being sponsored bythe Institute of Advanced Studies at theAustralian National University.

The major sponsor of the poster wasthe pharmaceutical firm, Eli LillyAustralia. Other sponsors were the Co-ordinating Commission for the Presenceof Switzerland Abroad, the John CurtinSchool of Medical Research at the ANU,Novartis Australasia, the University ofQueensland, the Australasian Society forImmunology, CSL Ltd, Reckitt andColman Australia, AMRAD Corporation,Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals,and the Australasian Society of Clinicaland Experimental Pharmacologists andToxicologists.

Nobel poster launchedSir Gustav Nossal,left, ProfessorPeter Doherty andMs NancyPritchard, of theAcademy, withthe Nobel Prizebus and poster.

The poster explains how ProfessorDoherty and Professor Rolf Zinkernageldiscovered fundamental attributes of theimmune system. It includes an interviewwith Professor Doherty. The aim is tohelp school students realise thatAustralian science can be world class.

Australian Academy of Science Newsletter

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Office-bearers ofthe AcademyPresident

Professor Sir Gustav Nossal

Secretary (Physical Sciences)Professor Kurt Lambeck

Secretary (Biological Sciences)Professor James Pittard

Secretary (Science Policy)Professor John White

Foreign SecretaryProfessor Michael Pitman

TreasurerProfessor Athel Beckwith

Telephone numbersExecutive Secretary (06) 247 5777Publications (06) 247 5385Awards (06) 247 5777Finance (06) 249 1362Fellowshipadministration (06) 247 3966National Committees (06) 247 3966Internationalexchanges (06) 247 3966Library (06) 247 3966Australian Foundationfor Science (06) 247 5777Facsimile (06) 257 4620

[email protected]

World Wide Webhttp://www.science.org.au

Published by the AustralianAcademy of Science, GPO Box783, Canberra ACT 2601.

Honorary editor: Professor NevilleFletcher FAA; production byGreen Words, Canberra. Otherassistance: members of Academycommittees and Academy staff.

Printed by Inprint, Brisbane.

The material in this newsletter iscopyright but may be reproducedwith acknowledgement. To receivea regular copy of the newsletter, tocontribute an item of interest, or torespond to material in thenewsletter, write to the ExecutiveSecretary at the Academy.

ISSN 1031-9204

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Database copyright workshop

University research continued from page 1and research projects and was adamantthat only the most gifted and ablepeople, including junior academic staff,should qualify for funding to enablethem to perform high quality andinternationally significant research.

Rather than block grants forresearch infrastructure, the Academyfavoured a system of competitivegrants in this area based on researchperformance.

Recently the government increasedand differentiated Higher EducationContribution Scheme fees. Thesubmission warned that this coulddiscourage worthy students frompursuing careers in science andengineering. The submission stated, ‘Itis crucial for the future internationalcompetitiveness of Australia thatsufficient numbers of our best studentsare attracted into science andengineering courses’.

The Academy told the Westcommittee that, while it favoureddiversity in the university system, anyvocational subjects offered inuniversities should have a rigorousacademic foundation. Otherwise, suchtraining should be the responsibility ofTAFE or other non-academic colleges.

The submission argued that studentdemand and employer needs shoulddetermine the courses offered by auniversity. Management from a centralbureaucracy must be avoided.

Chemists’ submissionThe Academy’s National Committeefor Chemistry prepared a separatesubmission to the review, addressingmatters of particular concern tochemists. The chemists agreed with theAcademy’s submission on the subst-antial contribution that universitiesmake to research, development and

innovation in Australia, and tointernational knowledge.

They stated that the country needs amix of basic, strategic and appliedresearch but the most important rolefor the higher education sector is toaddress basic research. There is apressing need to upgrade basicresearch infrastructure.

The submission considered theimportance of higher education toAustralian society and the Australianeconomy, sources of finance for highereducation, the structure of theuniversity system and the shape of thenew university.

The submission stated that aneducated populace enables society toassess and process information, todiscuss new developments which affectus, and to decide what to do in thefuture. The graduates of highereducation institutions underpin thedevelopment of current industries andprovide the initiative and ideas, incollaboration with others, for thecreation of new industries.

However, the submission arguesthat, given our projected populationgrowth, it is difficult to support theview that Australia needs 37universities with full teaching andresearch roles. ‘The higher educationsector should not be unified,’ thesubmission stated. ‘There should be anational meritocracy supported bydifferential funding; not all universitiesshould be funded equally.’

In the allocation of governmentfunds, the chemists recommended thatthe nexus between student numbersand funding should be carefully re-examined and that different algorithmsfor university funding be investigated.

The submission also recommendedincentives to produce qualitysecondary school science teachers.

A workshop on the World IntellectualProperty Organisation’s proposedtreaty on the copyright of databaseswas held at the Academy on 18 April1997. The workshop was organised bythe International Copyright Section ofthe Attorney-General’s Legal Practiceand supported by the Academy.

Scientists fear that the proposedtreaty would restrict researchers’ accessto information (see AAS Newsletternumber 35). A discussion of the treaty

scheduled for an intellectual propertymeeting in Geneva in December 1996was postponed. A committee of expertsis due to meet in September 1997.

The workshop informedparticipants of the progress of thetreaty, explained its purpose, scope andimplications for the users and ownersof databases, and provided a forum forthe discussion of issues of concern. Afull report will be in the next AASNewsletter.

Number 36, April–June 1997

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The Academy has made a submissionto the Federal Government’s review ofbusiness programs emphasising theimportance of research anddevelopment in keeping Australianbusiness internationally competitive.

The Minister for Industry, Scienceand Technology, Mr John Moore, set upa review of the various forms ofgovernment assistance to industry inNovember 1996. The review is beingchaired by the Chief Executive of TNT,Mr David Mortimer.

The Academy said that Australiacan compete in the research business.Australia is increasingly seen as a low-cost research and developmentprovider of excellence by somemultinational companies.

In its submission, the Academystated, ‘The current trend towardsshort-term decision-making risksunder-performance of research anddevelopment. Governments ofdeveloped and developing countrieshave recognised that they mustsupport the whole continuum of

research from basic research tocommercial development.’

The submission outlined the conceptof market failure, which occurs whencompanies, which do not gain the fullbenefit of research, fail to invest in it.Governments have responded withincentives for private investment inresearch and with public funding forbasic research in universities andresearch institutes. However, ‘thedeclining infrastructure of our publiclyfunded research effort and thediminished career prospects of our bestyoung researchers threaten the capacityof our basic and strategic research tosupport our economic and policyneeds.’

The Academy argued that taxincentives are better for assistingresearch than subsidies or grants. Thedecision to reduce the 150 per cent taxdeduction for research expenditure to125 per cent had created uncertaintyfor businesses. A survey by PriceWaterhouse showed that half thecompanies surveyed would reduce

their research expenditure by 20 percent because of this change. This couldalso inhibit the interaction betweenscientists and industry in theCooperative Research Centres Scheme.

The submission stated, ‘Australiashould note the policies of its economicpeers and competitors and strengthenthe programs that supporttechnological innovation. In particular,the 150 per cent tax deduction forresearch and development expenditureshould be restored or replaced by anequally beneficial tax credit scheme ofthe kind available in some otheradvanced economies, and the Factor (f)scheme maintained.’ The FederalGovernment has announced a newfive-year scheme to follow the Factor(f) scheme when in ends in 1999.

The submission said Australia canalso derive benefit from technologicalinnovation without starting newindustries. Patented innovations cangenerate profits from deals with largecompanies.

Business needs science

In February the Academy wrote a letterto the Federal Government’s review ofpublicly funded science andtechnology in Australia, suggestingmechanisms for the setting of prioritiesand the provision of policy advice. Thereview is being conducted by the ChiefScientist, Dr John Stocker, for theMinister for Science and Technology,Mr Peter McGauran.

In the letter, the President of theAcademy, Sir Gustav Nossal, wrote, ‘Itis of the utmost importance thatgovernments define in broad but clearterms the national goals that scienceand technology are to serve.’

No account of priority setting inscience and technology was adequateunless it recognised the role ofresearchers, their organisations,funders and users in making informeddecisions about the best use ofresources. ‘In other circumstancesscientific quality should be the onlycriterion imposed by the resourceproviders, leaving it to the researchersto set the priorities in matters on whichthey are most expert.’

Some of the other points made inthe letter were:

• Australia has a duty to add itsportion to the growing body of thescientific understanding of theworld. This is the cultural role ofresearch.

• A sophisticated appreciation of theAustralian economy is needed tounderstand the contribution ofscience and technology toinnovation. In some casesAustralians use new knowledge togenerate new products, whether bymanufacture in Australia or bylicence to major firms overseas.More frequently, industry uses theexpertise of people trained in high-quality research.

• The loss of the Factor (f) scheme forpharmaceutical research would notonly reduce industry funding forresearch but would also throw intodoubt the existing level of supportfor leading-edge biomedicalresearch in Australia. A similar pointcan be made in relation to otherindustries.

• Within the bureaucracy there arestrong constituencies for scientificexpertise.

Review of the public funding of researchOn the matter of expert advice on

science policy, the letter said that thePrime Minister’s Science andEngineering Council and the ChiefScientist needed the support ofbalanced, expert advice, on demand orin response to warnings of what wason the government’s agenda. TheAcademy has recommended makingthe Australian Science, Technology andEngineering Council more like the USNational Research Council. It would bemore confined to the scientific andtechnical and would be driven by theexperts, with less reliance on theinitiatives of staff and consultants. Itwould be a private body working onlong-term contract to the government.

Sir Gustav concluded, ‘I alsowonder whether the involvement ofgovernment departments in thedelivery of programs aimed atincreasing the public profile of scienceis appropriate. It would be moreappropriate for the government to fundcompetent organisations to achievetheir stated goals. Would the NobelPrize be better conducted by theSwedish Government?’


4

Medals awarded at AGMSeven medal winners were announcedon the first day of the Academy’sAnnual General Meeting on 1 and 2May 1997. Fellows elected in 1996 wereadmitted to Fellowship and newFellows were elected. On the secondday of the meeting, a symposium oninformation technology was held (seeseparate report).

Burnet Medal and LectureProfessor Suzanne Cory received theBurnet Medal and delivered the BurnetLecture. The medal is awarded everytwo years in honour of the NobelLaureate Sir Macfarlane Burnet.Professor Cory’s lecture was titledRegulating cell proliferation and death:lessons from cancer.

Professor Cory is Director of theWalter and Eliza Hall Institute ofMedical Research and ResearchProfessor of Molecular Oncology at theUniversity of Melbourne.

Professor Cory is a molecularbiologist whose research has rangedfrom basic questions about genestructure to the intricacies of theimmune response and thedevelopment of cancer.

In 1976, using the new techniques ofgenetic engineering, she and hercollaborator, Dr Jerry Adams, made apenetrating analysis of antibody geneswhich has helped to change the face ofimmunology. In 1981 they redirectedtheir attention to the genetic accidentsthat cause cancer, discovering cancer-promoting genes. The current focus ofher laboratory is the molecularregulation of cell death.

Professor Cory was elected a Fellowof the Academy in 1986 and of theRoyal Society of London in 1992.

Lyle MedalProfessor Anthony Thomas wasawarded the 1997 Thomas Ranken LyleMedal. The medal is awarded onceevery two years to the author ofoutstanding research in mathematics orphysics. The award was set up by theAustralian National Research Councilin 1931.

Professor Thomas has madeimportant contributions tounderstanding the quark basis ofnuclear physics. He and hiscollaborators predicted in 1983 that thed-bar distribution in the proton shouldbe greater than the u-bar distribution;

this was confirmed experimentally in1991.

His group developed a quark modelbasis for understanding the basis offinite nuclei, defined generalisedpolarizabilities of nucleons andproposed a practical way to extractthem from data. This led toexperimental programs in the UnitedStates and Europe.

Professor Thomas is Elder Professorof Physics and Mathematical Physics atthe University of Adelaide and Directorof the Special Research Centre for theSubatomic Structure of Matter. He waselected a Fellow of the Academy in1990.

Hannan MedalProfessor Neil Trudinger won the 1997Hannan Medal. The medal is fordistinguished research in eitherstatistical science, pure mathematics orapplied and computationalmathematics. It commemorates theresearch achievements of the lateProfessor Ted Hannan, a statistician.

Professor Trudinger has made majorand influential contributions tomathematics. His early work onembeddings has led to what is nowknown as the ‘Trudinger inequality’ incurrent literature.

He was the first to identify the now-famous inconsistency in Yamabe’stheorem and to rectify it in cases wherethe integral of the scalar curvature isnegative or sufficiently small. His workhere has led to a lot of importantresearch including proof of thecomplete theorem.

He is Professor of Mathematics atthe Australian National UniversityCentre for Mathematics and itsApplications and Dean of the School ofMathematical Science.

The medal will be presented toProfessor Trudinger at an Academyfunction later this year.

Gottschalk MedalThe 1997 Gottschalk Medal was sharedby Dr Peter Schofield and Dr BrandonWainwright. The Gottschalk Medalcommemorates the work of AlfredGottschalk, who was a leadingauthority on glycoproteins. It isawarded annually for distinguishedresearch in either the medical orbiological sciences. Recipients areyoung scientists who are not Fellows ofthe Academy.

Professor Suzanne Cory

Professor Anthony Thomas

Dr Peter Schofield


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Dr Schofield, a principal researchfellow at the Garvan Institute ofMedical Research at St Vincent’sHospital in Sydney, has made manyoutstanding contributions to Australianbiomedical research. He hasestablished an international reputationin the field of neuroscience for hisresearch on receptors and their ligands.

In 1990 he was rewarded for hiswork on molecular biology with theAW Campbell Award of the AustralianNeuroscience Society.

Dr Wainwright is an associateprofessor in biochemistry at theUniversity of Queensland and DeputyDirector of the university’s Centre forMolecular and Cellular Biology. Heused genetic methods to locate thecystic fibrosis gene and continues toprobe the molecular basis of the diseaseand means of ameliorating it. Hisgroup has studied other genetic defectswhich lead to human disease. Theysucceeded in isolating the generesponsible for the most common formof cancer, basal cell carcinoma of theskin.

He has worked extensively todisseminate information to the generalpublic on human genetics. Since hisarrival at the University of Queenslandin 1990, his efforts have generated over$2 million in project funding.

Pawsey MedalDr Murray Batchelor was awarded thePawsey Medal. The medal is awardedeach year to a young scientist fordistinguished research in physics. Ithonours the work of Joseph LadePawsey, who was an astrophysicist.

Dr Batchelor is an expert instatistical mechanics at the AustralianNational University School ofMathematical Sciences. He has doneground-breaking work on reflectionmatrices. This has enabled surfaceproperties to be calculated and theircritical behaviour obtained. He hassuccessfully applied these techniquesto many of the solvable models instatistical mechanics.

Moran MedalThe Moran Medal was awarded toDr Matthew Wand. This medal isawarded for distinguished work instatistics. It commemorates thecontribution of Professor PAP Moran.

Statistical regression analysis aimsto determine relationships between

quantities, based on observedmeasurements of these quantities.Classical regression models assumethat these relationships are linear. DrWand has contributed to thedevelopment of non-linear regressionmodels.His contributions have been at severallevels: theoretical, methodological,computational and in applications tomedicine, engineering and finance.

Dr Wand is a senior lecturer at theAustralian Graduate School ofManagement, University of New SouthWales.

Dr Brandon Wainwright

Dr Murray Batchelor

Dr Matthew Wand

Life on earthOn 17 April Britain’s Chief Scientist,Sir Robert May, a CorrespondingMember of the Academy, delivereda public lecture at the Academy inCanberra on the topic, The inventoryof life on earth: past, present and likelyfuture. The entertaining lecture,delivered to a packed auditorium,was sponsored by the Academy andCSIRO.

Sir Robert, whose area ofresearch is the dynamics ofpopulations, addressed thefollowing questions: Of all thespecies that have existed on theearth, what fraction are alive today?How many living species have beennamed and recorded, and how largemight the real total be? How muchof our heritage of biologicaldiversity is likely to survive thenext 100 years?

Sir Robert, a CorrespondingMember of the Academy, was bornin Australia. For a profile see AASNewsletter number 34.

Italian AcademyThe Academy has made an agreementwith the Italian National Academy ofthe Lincei to allow for the exchange ofscientists and other scientific cooperat-ion. The agreement follows a meetingbetween the Scientific Attaché at theEmbassy of Italy in Canberra, ProfessorSilvio Dottorini, and the Academy’sformer Foreign Secretary, ProfessorRoger Tanner. Professor Dottorinipresented a signed copy of the agree-ment to the Academy on 6 May 1997.


6

New members of Council New FellowsAt its Annual General Meeting in May,the Academy elected 13 new Fellows.They are:

Dr Robin Bedding, Chief ResearchScientist in the CSIRO Division ofEntomology, Canberra

Professor Ian Dance, Professor ofInorganic Chemistry at the Universityof New South Wales

Professor George Dracoulis, Head ofthe Department of Nuclear Physics atthe Australian National University

Professor Graham Goodwin, Dean ofthe Faculty of Engineering at theUniversity of Newcastle

Dr Adrienne Hardham, Senior Fellowin the Plant Cell Biology Group at theAustralian National University

Professor Philip Kuchel, Professor ofBiochemistry at the University ofSydney

Dr Trevor McDougall, Chief ResearchScientist in the CSIRO Division ofOceanography, Hobart

Dr Brendan McKay, Reader inComputer Science at the AustralianNational University

Professor Elspeth McLachlan, SeniorPrincipal Research Fellow at the Princeof Wales Medical Research Institute inSydney

Professor Marilyn Renfree, Head ofthe Department of Zoology at theUniversity of Melbourne

Professor Colin Sullivan, Head of theCentre for Respiratory Failure andSleep Disorders at Royal Prince AlfredHospital in Sydney

Professor Grant Sutherland, Directorof the Department of Cytogenetics andMolecular Genetics at the AdelaideChildren’s Hospital.

Special election

Emeritus Professor Sir Rupert Myers,former Professor of Metallurgy andVice-Chancellor at the University ofNew South Wales.

There will be more on the new Fellowsin the next issue of AAS Newsletter.

The Academy of Science has electedseven new members to its governingbody, the Council.

Professor John White is the newSecretary (Science Policy). ProfessorWhite is Dean of the Research School ofChemistry at the Australian NationalUniversity. In his research he has usedneutron scattering to unravel thestructure and dynamics of molecularliquids, absorbed phases, polymers andthe templates used in the synthesis ofchemical and biological materials.

Professor Michael Pitman was electedForeign Secretary. Professor Pitman isan Honorary Professor in appliedscience at the University of Canberra.He is a plant physiologist who wasformerly Australia’s Chief Scientistand, before that, Director of the CSIROInstitute of Biological Resources.

Professor Athel Beckwith is the newTreasurer. He is an Emeritus Professorof the Australian National Universitywhose research in chemistry hasranged from theoretical calculations tothe synthesis of complex organicmolecules. He is best known for hiswork on the structure and behaviour oforganic free radicals.

Professor Michael Barber representsthe physical sciences. He is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the Universityof Western Australia. His researchinterest is the application of statisticalmechanics to materials science,particularly fracture and crackpropagation.

Dr Angus McEwan also represents thephysical sciences. He is a former Chiefof the CSIRO Division ofOceanography. He advises the CSIROand the Bureau of Meteorology onoceanography and participates in thework of several international scientificcommittees.

Professor Robert Symons representsthe biological sciences. ProfessorSymons is a plant molecular biologistat the Waite Institute in SouthAustralia. His research concerns theplant viruses that infect crops andgrape vines.

Dr Elizabeth Truswell represents thebiological sciences. She was formerlyChief Research Scientist at theAustralian Geological SurveyOrganisation. She serves on a numberof science advisory bodies.

Twenty-one science teachers fromacross Australia exchanged views withAustralia’s leading scientists at theAcademy’s Annual General Meeting inCanberra on 1 and 2 May 1997.

They attended the symposium (seearticle opposite) and a specialworkshop on the applications ofinformation technology in teachingscience, sponsored by EricssonAustralia, with support from Alcatel.

The President of the Academy, SirGustav Nossal, said that the event

enabled teachers to appreciate theextent of Australia’s involvement in theinternational scientific effort. He said,‘As scientists, we also value theopportunity to learn from scienceteachers. They provide the first contactand inspiration for students who maywant to choose science as a career. It isimportant to find out how we cansupport them.’


Teachers and scientists meet

Teachers from around Australia with Sir Gustav Nossal at the Academy’s symposium.


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Symposium on information scienceThe next breakthroughs in computingwill be driven by our need to commu-nicate with increasingly complexsoftware systems, says Dr Robert Daleof the Microsoft Research Institute inSydney.

He was speaking at the Academy’ssymposium on information science andtechnology on 2 May. The symposiumwas organised by Dr Bob Frater,CSIRO’s Deputy Chief Executiveresponsible for information technology,manufacturing and services, andProfessor David Skellern, the Head ofthe Department of Electronics atMacquarie University and Chair of theAcademy’s National Committee forRadio Science.

Machines are becoming moreintelligent and will need tocommunicate with us, Dr Dale told thesymposium during his presentation.The other area of concern he identifiedwas the problem of informationoverload due to the ever-increasingbulk of digitally encoded informationeverywhere, especially on the Internet.

The solutions to these problemscould come from an area of researchknown as human language technology,which uses knowledge about languageto provide practical solutions to morenarrowly focused problems.

Communications is at the heart ofwhat distinguishes a society from anindividual and hence the recentemergence of the computer as animportant tool for communications.The Internet was surely a turning pointfor society and civilisation, ProfessorDavid Messerschmitt, Professor ofElectrical Engineering and ComputerSciences at the University of California,Berkeley, told the symposium.

In his paper, The Internet: fantasticsuccess or impending failure, ProfessorMesserschmitt summarised thecharacteristics that have made theInternet so successful and an inspira-tion for future technologies. Hestressed the importance of govern-ment-sponsored research in this field

Partly due its intellectual andfinancial origins, and to its immaturity,the Internet also faces serious problemsas a long-term commercial entity.Professor Messerschmitt outlined theseproblems and said the solutions lay inthe careful consideration of social andeconomic issues surrounding thedevelopment of new technologies.

The Professor of Telecommunica-tions at Curtin University of Techno-logy, Professor Tony Cantoni, took thesymposium on a high-speed tour of theside streets and back alleys of theinformation highway. We may well beexperiencing a three-day tour ofEurope with a glimpse of the country-side but very little access to the infor-mation-rich culture of towns, villagesand cities.

Professor Cantoni examined thenetwork topologies and technologiesthat are creating new opportunities forimproving performance on thesuperhighways.

The Coordinator of the Telecommu-nications Research Group at theUniversity of Melbourne, ProfessorRodney Tucker, gave an overview ofthe impact of lightwave technology oncommunications and looked at growthtrends in telecommunication systems.

Advances in optical fibre telecom-munications have led to remarkableincreases in the capacity of telecom-munication systems. The single-modeoptical fibre, the semiconductor laserand the optical fibre amplifier were keycomponents of a cost effectivetechnology base that is increasing theavailable capacity of telecommunicat-ion systems.

With this technology, large global,national and regional networks, inwhich huge data rates could be offeredto all customers, was conceivable.

The Professor of MicroelectronicSystems at Macquarie University,Professor Neil Weste, formerly of BellLaboratories Research, spoke on thescientific challenges that face themicroelectronics industry.

The last 30 years have seen massiveimprovement in the speed, density,power and cost of integrated circuits.Currently, tens of millions of transistorscan be put on a single chip, which canrun at high speeds.

Professor Weste told the symposiumthat the hardware-oriented integrateddesign team has to become a softwaredesign team to improve productivitythrough the use of computer-aideddesign tools or programmableapproaches to building hardware.

The Professor of InformationTechnology at Macquarie University,Professor Ray Offen, explored the needto better understand and capitalise onthe human aspect of computer systemsengineering.

Computers and networks providedthe technology, software the functional-ity, while other softer social disciplinesilluminated the intersection betweenthe system and the user’s needs andperceptions. This people-centred, socio-technical perspective was all too oftenmissing in systems development,frequently with unfortunate conse-quences, Professor Offen explained.

As electronic commerce becomesmore and more widespread, the needfor privacy and security of electronictransactions grows as well. TheProfessor of Computer Science at theUniversity of Wollongong, ProfessorJennifer Seberry, told the symposiumthat classical cryptography had alwayswrestled with the problem of keydistribution. Until recently it seemedthat factoring big numbers wouldremain beyond the capabilities of anycomputing devices.

However, if a quantum computercan be built, Professor Seberry said itwould be the end of cryptography aswe know it.

Science festivalin CanberraFellows of the Academy were promin-ent at the Australian Science Festivalheld in Canberra from 12 to 20 April.The ABC science presenter (a Fellow),Robyn Williams, hosted a forum calledChaos, sex and the end of science whichfeatured Britain’s Chief Science, SirRobert May, a Corresponding Member,among others.

The Nobel Prize winner andAustralian of the Year, Professor PeterDoherty, spoke at a National PressClub lunch, an ABC radio broadcastand on other occasions. Following thelunch, the President of the Academy,Sir Gustav Nossal, and the Chief of theCSIRO Division of Plant Industry(another Fellow), Dr Jim Peacock, werepanellists at a seminar calledCommunicating for cash: new sources ofscience funding.

The Academy distributed copies ofits Science and Technology Bicycle TrailMap, and screened five interviewsfrom its Video Histories of AustralianScientists program.

Supported by the AustralianFoundation for Science.


8

Korean synchrotronworkshop

A second National Academies’ Forumon the world’s changing climate washeld at the Australian NationalUniversity on 29 and 30 April 1997. Thefirst forum, held in November 1996(see AAS Newsletter number 35),focused on the science of climatechange; the second dealt with specificpublic policy issues.

Speakers from a range of disciplinesconsidered how Australia shouldrespond to climate change. Speakersincluded Dr Graeme Pearman, theChief of the CSIRO Division ofAtmospheric Research, Professor TonyChisholm, an agricultural and resourceeconomist from La Trobe University,Associate Professor Jeff Bennett, alecturer in economics and managementfrom the Australian Defence ForceAcademy, Professor Warwick

In recent years Australian use ofoverseas synchrotron radiation sourceshas been growing rapidly. The PohangLight Source, a world-class third-generation synchrotron, opened in 1995at the Pohang Science and TechnicalUniversity in Korea. This raised thepossibility of a workshop bringingtogether scientists from the twocountries.

The Korean-Australian workshop onapplications of synchrotron radiationwas held in Pohang from 24 to 27February 1997, in association with ameeting of Korean synchrotronradiation users from universities andtechnical institutes. Australiandelegates from universities, CSIRO, theAustralian Nuclear Science andTechnology Organisation, and BHPattended.

The workshop was sponsored by theAustralian Academy of Science, theAustralian Academy of TechnologicalSciences and Engineering and theKorea Science and EngineeringFoundation. The coordinators wereProfessors Tong Nyong Lee and KiBong Lee from the Pohang Science andTechnical University and ProfessorJohn Boldeman from the AustralianSynchrotron Research Program at theAustralian Nuclear Science andTechnology Organisation. The Aust-ralian Synchrotron Research Programoperates the Australian NationalBeamline Facility at the Photon Factoryin Japan and also deals with theAdvanced Photon Source in the USA.

The program comprised severaldays of formal presentations, postersessions, tours of the Pohang LightSource and other facilities in Pohang,and a round table discussion exploringpotential areas for collaborationbetween Australian and Koreanscientists.

The Pohang Light Source cost aboutUS$180 million to build and employsabout 100 staff. A linear acceleratoraccelerates electrons to an energy of2 GeV before deflection into the storagering. The members of the Australiandelegation were extremely impressedwith the foresight, skill and dedicationthat had been needed to construct thesynchrotron. Professor Boldemanreported that the performance of thefacility was outstanding and

commensurate with other third-generation facilities. Use of thesynchrotron has grown rapidly.

Everyone agreed that the workshophad been extremely successful;delegates were surprised by the widerange of future collaborations thatemerged. The Koreans’ recentexperience of construction of asynchrotron places them in an excellentposition to advise Australian engineersand scientists on the design of asynchrotron and related devices inAustralia. Australian scientists andengineers can help the Koreans designinstruments for use with the beams ofradiation.

Australian synchrotron users havevaluable international experiencewhich they can share with therelatively young Koreans. Theexchange of young scientists andpublications was planned.Collaboration in specific areas – studiesof reflectivity, polyurethane, x-rayscattering, topography and mineralogy– will proceed. Potential industryinvolvement could come from a Koreancompany, Hanwa, which operates azirconia powder plant near Perth.

Reports of the papers presented atthe workshop are available from YukoKawano at the Academy, [email protected].

Second climate forumMcKibbin, from the Research School ofPacific and Asian Studies at theAustralian National University, DrClive Hamilton from the AustraliaInstitute, Professor Aynsley Kellow, anenvironmental scientist from GriffithUniversity, and officials fromgovernment agencies.

The Australian forums arepreparation for an internationalconference on climate change to beheld in Japan later in 1997.

The forum was convened byProfessor Stuart Harris. The NationalAcademies’ Forum was set up by theAcademy of Science, the Academy ofthe Social Sciences in Australia, theAustralian Academy of the Humanitiesand the Australian Academy ofTechnological Sciences andEngineering.

FirststratosphericmeetingThe first General Assembly of theInternational SPARC project(Stratospheric Processes and their Rolein Climate Processes) was held at theUniversity of Melbourne in December1996. The SPARC project was set up bythe World Climate Research Program,part of the International Council ofScientific Unions, in 1992.

Over 200 people from 20 countriesattended. The conference was hostedby the Cooperative Research Centre forSouthern Hemisphere Meteorology atMonash University.

Dr Marie-Lise Chanin, from theSPARC office, Dr John Zillman,President of the World MeteorologicalOrganization, and Professor DavidKaroly, Director of the MeteorologyCooperative Research Centre, openedthe assembly.

The assembly focused on how thestratosphere affects climate,considering topics such as circulationmodels, climatology, gravity waves,transport, chemistry, ultravioletradiation and other aspects ofstratospheric processes. ProfessorMario Molina, who shared the 1995Nobel Prize for chemistry for researchinto the depletion of the ozone layer,attracted considerable interest.


9

Students from St Thomas the ApostleSchool, Kambah ACT, participating inthe Primary Investigations program,invent a device to guide a marblealong an obstacle course and into acontainer.

Primary Investigationstraining packageThe Science and Technology AwarenessProgram of the CommonwealthDepartment of Industry, Science andTourism has granted $30 000 towardsdeveloping a video training packagefor the Academy’s Primary Investigat-ions program. The training packagewill enable teachers in country primaryschools to learn how to use PrimaryInvestigations in their classrooms.

Work with the Victorian Departmentof Education’s STEP program iscontinuing on a series of four televisionsatellite broadcasts scheduled forAugust and September.

Primary Investigations has beendiscussed on the ABC’s radio program,The Science Show. In an interview onscience education in Western Australia,Ruth Hickey, from MurdochUniversity, talked about the value ofPrimary Investigations.

The James N Kirby Foundation hasprovided funding over two years toprovide starter grants for schools withspecial needs to take up the PrimaryInvestigations program.


In an initiative aimed to involve youngscientists in the work of its NationalCommittees, the Academy, through itsNational Committee for Biophysics,has provided funds to enablepostgraduate students from aroundAustralia to attend a specialistworkshop in Melbourne. Theworkshop, on fluorescencespectroscopy for the biosciences, washeld at the University of Melbournefrom 5 to 9 February 1997.

The workshop was designed toprovide advanced training influorescence spectroscopy as it isapplied in biochemistry and cellbiology. Morning lectures werefollowed by afternoon laboratorysessions.

Overseas speakers assisted theworkshop: Professor Enrico Grattonfrom the University of Illinois, DrRobert Clegg from the Max Planck

Institute for Biophysical Chemistry andDr David Jameson from the Universityof Hawaii.

Forty-five people attended thelectures, the laboratory sessions werelimited to 25. The response fromparticipants was extremely favourable.There was general agreement that theworkshop had provided valuablepractical experience and should berepeated in two or three years.

The workshop was organised by theAustralian Society for Biophysics andtwo members of the NationalCommittee for Biophysics, ProfessorBill Sawyer from the University ofMelbourne and Dr Cris dos Remediosfrom the University of Sydney.Laboratory sessions were supported byfour major equipment companies:Rofin Australia (SPEX), MEECOHoldings (Hitachi), Perkin ElmerAustralia and Beckman Australia.

Fluorescence spectroscopy

At the University of Melbourne for the Selby Lecture on 6 March are Mr BennSelby, left, Professor Bruce McKellar, Professor James Barber, the Selby Fellow,and Professor Jim Pittard, the Academy’s Secretary (Biological Sciences).

Selby FellowshipThe Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College, London,Professor James Barber, presented the 1996 Selby Lectures in Brisbane,Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Townsville. The topics included Solarenergy – its capture and conversion in biology and Photosystem II: the engine oflife.

The Selby Lectures are supported by the Selby Scientific Foundation.They provide opportunities for distinguished overseas scientists to visitAustralia for public lecture and seminar tours and to visit scientific centres.


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The Royal Australian ChemicalInstitute has awarded its 1997 LeightonMemorial Medal to Professor AthelBeckwith, an Emeritus Professor of theResearch School of Chemistry at theAustralian National University. Theaward is the institute’s mostprestigious medal and is made inrecognition of eminent services tochemistry in Australia.

Professor Suzanne Cory, the Directorof the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute ofMedical Research in Melbourne, hasbeen elected a Foreign Associate of theUS National Academy of Sciences.

Belgium’s Université Catholique deLouvin has awarded an honorarydoctorate to Professor Peter Hall.Professor Hall, of the ANU Centre forMathematics and its Applications, wasrecognised for his many contributionsto probability and statistics. He wasalso elected Fellow of the AmericanStatistical Association at the JointStatistical Meetings in Chicago recently.

Professor Jörg Imberger, Chairman ofthe Centre for Water Research at theUniversity of Western Australia, was

Honours for Fellows

On 2 February 1997, the distinguishedWestern Australian physicist, Dr TedMaslen, died suddenly. He was 61.

Maslen was born in East Coolgardie,Western Australia, on 8 August 1935;12 years later his family moved to thenorthen coastal town of Geraldtonwhere he completed his secondary

named Citizen of the Year for theProfessions in the Western AustralianFoundation Day Awards for his workon algal bloom and other water qualityproblems.

La Trobe University has awarded SirGustav Nossal an honorary doctorateof science.

The Korean Academy of Science andTechnology has elected ProfessorRalph Slatyer as an Honorary ForeignMember. Professor Slatyer is anEmeritus Professor of the ResearchSchool of Biological Sciences at the

education at St Patrick’s College.In 1952 his tertiary education began

well at the University of WesternAustralia when he won the first-yeargeology prize. Four years later hegraduated with a BSc Honours inphysics. With the Rhodes Scholarshipat Oxford University he gained a DPhilin chemical crystallography in 1960.

In postgraduate studies while atOxford, he determined the molecularconformation and crystal structure ofcephalospirin C, a successsful antibioticmarketed under the name Cephorin.He was supervised by ProfessorDorothy Hodgkin, who later won theNobel Prize for research in the samearea.

He became a physics lecturer at theUniversity of Western Australia in 1960and was promoted to senior lecturerthree years later. In 1972 he became thefoundation Director of theCrystallography Centre at theuniversity. By 1993 he was Head of theuniversity’s Department of Physics.

Maslen is recognised internationally

for his contributions to high-resolutionx-ray diffraction imaging of the three-dimensional electron densitydistribution in crystals. Early in hiscareer, his objective was to assesswhether the measurement of electrondensity redistribution in chemicalbonding was feasible. High precisionmeasurements of such redistributionhave been compared with weighing aship’s captain by subtracting theweight of the ship from that of the shipplus the captain.

After identifying some majorobstacles, Maslen succeeded in makingimportant progress. Most significantwas his use of synchrotron radiation tomeasure diffraction which improvedthe precision for the weaker reflectionsso dramaically that very small crystalscould be studied.

His extracurricular activitiesincluded sport, particularly rowing,and local politics. He served four termson the South Perth City Council from1976 to 1996.

Australian National University.

Professor Neil Trudinger has beenawarded a Senior HumboldtFellowship for 1997. He is Dean of theSchool of Mathematical Sciences at theAustralian National University.

The Dean of the Research School ofChemistry at the Australian NationalUniversity, Professor John White, haswon the HG Smith Memorial Medal ofthe Royal Australian ChemicalInstitute. This annual award recognisesthe most significant contribution topublished research in chemical science.

Ted Maslen

Ted Maslen

Bye BonnieIn April, Fellows, diplomatsand friends gathered atthe Academy to farewellMs Bonnie Bauld, theAcademy’s InternationalPrograms Officer for 14years. She is pictured,right, with the President,Sir␣ Gustav Nossal, and hersuccessor, Ms ThérèseLewis.


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One of the pioneers of Australianpalaeontology and a former Presidentof the Academy, Dorothy Hill, died inBrisbane on 23 April 1997.

Dorothy Hill was born in Brisbanein 1907. She went to Brisbane GirlsGrammar School and the University ofQueensland, studying geology ratherthan her first preference, medicine. Shewon the University Gold Medal ingeology and an Australian universitiesblue in hockey. In her field work shemapped the coal resources in the upperBrisbane valley. Near the town ofMunduberra she discovered a richcollection of fossil corals, a find whichchanged the course of her research.

In 1930 she won a scholarship toCambridge University where shestudied Australian carboniferouscorals. She spent seven years atCambridge, gaining a PhD and beingelected a Fellow of Newnham College.She did further studies of fossil coralsin Britain and elsewhere.

The climate at Cambridge did notagree with her; a grant from the

Council for Scientific and IndustrialResearch brought her back to theUniversity of Queensland in 1937.There she studied the palaeontologyand stratigraphy of the Great BarrierReef.

Hill had gained her pilot’s A licencein 1936. During the war she was on theoperations staff of Royal AustralianNavy, deciphering communications.

After the war she was appointedlecturer in geology at the University ofQueensland. Her aims were to build upa school of palaeontology withemphasis on stratigraphic and tectonicapplications, to produce geologicalmaps of Queensland, to build up thedepartmental library and to studysedimentary petrology. She also actedas a consultant to the Bureau ofMineral Resources and oil explorationcompanies.

In a recent article in The Australian,Professor Ken Campbell, a formerstudent of Hill’s, wrote, ‘When researchin Australian universities was at a verylow ebb, and the University of

Dorothy Hill

Queensland was among the poorerperformers even in thisundistinguished company, she insistedthat good teaching and good researchwent hand in hand.’

During the 1950s Hill beganwinning international recognition forher research. She was invited to writeon palaeozoic corals for the Anglo-American International Treatise ofInvertebrate Palaeontology. She alsoprepared a textbook on Australianinvertebrate palaeontology, a paper onthe Gondwana system in Queensland,a confidential review of the oilpotential of the Great Barrier Reef andmany journal articles.

Hill broke new ground as a womanin science. In 1956 she was the firstwoman elected a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of Science. In 1959she was appointed research professorat the university and in 1960 fullprofessor.

Following a visit to Moscow in 1960Hill became more interested in a groupthat lived briefly, forming reefs in theCambrian seas, the archaeocyathids.She published a definitive review ofarchaeocyathids from Antarctica in1965.

During the 1960s and 1970s Hillwon many medals and other honours,joined editorial committees, chaireduniversity boards and led scientificsocieties. In 1965 she was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of London.In 1970 she became the first womanPresident of the Australian Academy.She became Commander of the Orderof the British Empire in 1971 andCompanion of the Order of Australia in1993.

Professor Campbell wrote, ‘Despiteher many achievements, she wasalways approachable and friendly, andto the end of her teaching careerattracted students by the warmth of herpersonality as much as by heracademic reputation.’

Dorothy Hill in 1975

John EcclesThe Nobel Laureate and secondPresident of the Academy, Sir JohnEccles, died in Switzerland on 2 May1997. A summary of his career willappear in the next issue of AASNewsletter.

Closing dates 1997France exchange 1 JuneUK exchange 1 JulyKorea exchange 1 AugustTaiwan exchange 1 AugustJapan postdoctoral and short-term fellowships 1 SeptemberChina exchange 1 OctoberGermany program 1 OctoberFor further information, email ThérèseLewis on [email protected] or consulthttp://www.science.org.au/internat/exchange/contscix.htm.

National Science andIndustry ForumMonday 14 July 1997Australian Academy of Science(the Dome), Canberra

Automation in themining industry:which way forward?Please contact Faye Nicholas forinformation: phone (06) 247 5777,fax (06) 257 4620, [email protected].


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The European Union of Geoscienceshas awarded the Alfred WegenerMedal, one of the most prestigiousinternational awards for scientificachievement in the earth sciences, tothe Professor of Geophysics at theAustralian National University inCanberra, Professor Kurt Lambeck.

The Alfred Wegener Medal isawarded every two years forsuccessfully bringing together variousfields of the earth sciences in order tosolve geodynamic problems in thespirit of Wegener. Wegener was aGerman meteorologist whosuccessfully developed the concept ofcontinental drift in the first quarter ofthis century. He brought together apowerful range of disciplines to arguehis case for the drifting of continentsacross the earth’s surface on geologicaltime scales.

The medal has been awardedpreviously to the leading earthscientists of Europe and NorthAmerica; this is the first time that it has

gone to an Australian scientist.Professor Lambeck’s work has

contributed to our understanding ofthe physical properties of the earth andthe processes that occur in it. He hasused satellite data for thedetermination of the geoid and gravityfield of the earth. He has studied thevariations in the rotation rate of theearth. His research into thedeformation of the crust andlithosphere has shown much about theviscosity of the earth. His book,Geophysical Geodesy; received acclaimfor its comprehensiveness andoriginality.

Professor Lambeck is Secretary(Physical Sciences) of the Academy ofScience and winner of the Academy’s1996 Jaeger Medal for research into thesolid earth or its oceans, as well asother Australian and internationalawards.

The medal was awarded at themeeting of the European Union ofGeosciences in Strasbourg in March.

Professor Lambeck will deliver threeWegener Lectures at the University ofOxford, the Institut de Physique duGlobe de Paris and the University ofUtrecht in May.

Lambeck wins top European award

Professor Kurt Lambeck

The Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Peter McGauran, left, Sir Gustav Nossal,and Mr Phillip Dean, from BHP, at the launch of the Nova World Wide Web site.

The Academy launched its new WorldWide Web site, Nova: Science in the news(http://www.science.org.au/nova/) on8 April 1997.

The Minister for Science andTechnology, Mr Peter McGauran,launched Nova at Parliament House,Canberra. He said that the site was a

one-stop science shop for reliable andup-to-date material, and that it bridgedthe gap between classroom theory andreal-life science. He called it ‘a potentweapon in the battle to encourage moreyoung people into science careers’.

The President of the Academy, SirGustav Nossal, said that the purpose of

Nova weaves science Web

Nova was to provide accurate and up-to-date information about the scientific,health and environmental issuescovered in the news media. ‘The site isaimed at teachers, but it is useful toanyone with an interest in modernscience.’

Topics now available includecloning, mad cow disease, rabbitcalicivirus, the Human GenomeProject, ozone depletion, uraniummining in Australia, direct solar energy,threatened species, and genetechnology and plants.

The site was developed withfunding from the AustralianFoundation for Science, the Science andTechnology Awareness Program of theDepartment of Industry, Science andTourism, and BHP. Other organisations,including ACT Healthpact, the Walterand Eliza Hall Institute of MedicalResearch, the CSIRO Division of PlantIndustry, the CSIRO Division ofBiomolecular Engineering and theBiomolecular Research Institute, theInstitute of Advanced Studies at theAustralian National University and theMazda Foundation, have contributedto particular topics.


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