Professor Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney has scooped the top award at last night’s Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, for his prompt efforts to understand the coronavirus genome.
The 2020 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science have recognised momentous achievements in astrophysics, sustainability innovation, epigenetics and primary and secondary teaching excellence.
Cheryl Praeger was awarded the 2019 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. She has spent more than four decades inspiring a love for maths in others, and has created a vast body of academic work in the process.
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Lee’s research identified the cause of mysterious and devastating mass frog extinctions that spread across the world starting in the 1970s: it was a skin fungus.
Kurt Lambeck’s work has been vital for developing GPS systems we all rely on for navigation.
Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear
The 2018 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were awarded at Canberra’s Parliament House on October 17. Along with the top prize, life science, physics, innovation and teaching were recognised.
It’s just a tiny part of the Y chromosome that kickstarts the development of testes.
Kelly Searle/Unsplash
There are many cultural and social factors involved in making a baby into a man or a woman. But biologically speaking, sex starts when you’re just a tiny group of cells in your mother’s uterus.
Jenny Graves published her first paper on sex genes in 1967.
Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear
The 2017 Prime Minister’s Science Prize winner is genetic researcher Professor Jenny Graves, well known for her 2002 suggestion that the male Y chromosome will self-destruct.
Just what the doctor ordered - more cane toads.
AAP Image/DPAW
It sounds weird, but releasing small cane toads ahead of the main invasion front can help predators learn to avoid the biggest, most toxic ones. Here’s exactly how it works.
Rick Shine aims to save Australia’s reptiles.
University of Sydney
University of Sydney conservation scientist Rick Shine has won a top science honour, for work that uses evolutionary theory to try and keep cane toads from killing Australia’s native wildlife.