The Royal Society of New South Wales Citation
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About the Citation
The Royal Society of New South Wales Citation was introduced in 2019. It is awarded to a Member or Fellow of the Society who has made significant contributions to the Society, but who has not been recognised in any other way. The Awards Committee considers nominations made by a Member or Fellow. A maximum of three Citations in any one year may be awarded.
Nominations for the RSNSW Citations close on 30 September of each year. The application procedure for the citations is described on the nomination form. Each application must comply with the conditions of the award and consist of a completed nomination form together with supporting documentation as specified on the form. Completed nominations should be sent to the email address listed on the nomination form.
Recent Citation Recipients
2021 Citation Recipients
The Honourable John Dowd AO QC FRSN
Having previously served in prominent roles in the NSW Parliament and NSW Government, in 2002, The Honourable John Dowd AO QC FRSN was elected as Chancellor of Southern Cross University, serving until his retirement in 2014. In 2005, he was appointed Protection Ambassador for ActionAid Australia (previously AUSTCARE) and became a Director of the organisation in 2008 and President in 2009. In May 2011, Dowd launched The Justice Campaign in a show of support for human rights and justice with a focus on alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere with a particular focus on David Hicks.
John Dowd provided the Royal Society of NSW with outstanding service in 2020 when he provided extensive pro bono legal advice over an extended period of time on the revision of the Society’s Rules which had not been comprehensively reviewed since 1968. This exercise was complex and extensive and involved liaison with a wide range of members of the Society. It resulted in a modernised set of Rules which will stand the Society in good stead for many years to come. This outcome could not have been achieved without his input.
Mr Hubert Regtop MRSN
Hubert Regtop MRSN is a biochemist and microbiologist with a Master of Science from the University of NSW (1973). He has a long and esteemed career as a university lecturer, research fellow, and research director of publicly listed companies, receiving multi-million dollar grants, and responsible for hospital funded projects and partnerships with universities in the US and UK. In the mid-nineties, he was responsible for introducing standardised herbs in Australia. As a director of Trilogie Pty Ltd, established in 1994, he currently consults and lectures to major health food companies, doctors, and pharmacists in Australia, on the role of nutrition in medicine. He has authored twenty-two publications and has had twenty-three patents approved. He has been a long-standing Chair of the Society’s Southern Highlands Branch to which he has made a significant contribution over ten years maintaining an active branch with a strong events program.
Mr Richard Wilmott MRSN
Richard Wilmott MRSN is recognised for his significant service to the Society as Treasurer and Council Member over many years, especially as the pandemic began to impact business continuity and operations of the Society from early 2020.
2020 Citation Recipient
Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora FRSN FAIP FInstP
The Royal Society of NSW Citations are awarded to a Member or Fellow of the Society who has made significant contributions to the Society, but who has not been recognised in any other way. A maximum of three Citations may be awarded in any one year.
Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora, of the UNSW (Sydney), has served the Royal Society of New South Wales with distinction over many years. Professor Hora is a former Vice-President and Councillor of the Society and is a current member of the Fellows and Members Assessment Committee, to which he has made significant contributions over several years. In that role, he has helped ensure that the most talented and qualified individuals across many fields join the ranks of the Fellowship of the Society. In addition to his extensive service to the Society, Professor Hora is a noted theoretical physicist who has made and continues to make significant contributions to solid state physics, the optical properties of plasma, and non-linear dynamics with the application of lasers to the production of nuclear fusion energy.
2019 Citation Recipients
Dr Erik Waldemar Aslaksen FRSN
Erik W. Aslaksen FRSN is a senior, highly experienced systems engineer having worked in the US, Switzerland and Australia in fields as diverse as microwave components, power electronics, quantum electronics and communications, in areas ranging from basic research to corporate management. He has ongoing involvement in transport infrastructure and the design of industrial plant and is the author of five books (one with W.R. Belcher) and over seventy papers. His book, The Social Bond (Springer 2018) brings his engineering, systems approach to society as a whole. He will continue this theme with The Stability of Society (expected mid 2020). With these books, Dr Aslaksen continues the Enlightenment tradition of the RSNSW.
Dr Aslaksen was a member of the Council of the RSNSW from 2013 to 2019 and during that period was a tireless worker for the Society. He worked closely with The Association Specialists during the transition establishing outsourced back-office services for the Society and was instrumental in developing the relationship and ensuring that the transition was seamless. He served energetically on the Executive Committee and continues to be a highly efficient Secretary of the Fellows Assessment Committee.
Prof. E. James Kehoe FRSN
Professor E. James Kehoe FRSN is a behavioural neuroscientist whose areas of interest are associative learning, its neural substrates, and neural network models. He has worked in instructional design, researching working memory, schema formation and computer-based learning. He is a senior officer in the Australian Army Reserve, advising on character and values, and teamwork and leadership development.
Professor Kehoe was an enthusiastic member of Council from 2016 to 2018. The particular contributions that Professor Kehoe made to the renaissance of the Society were editing The Bulletin (2015–17) and chairing the Awards Committee (2016–19). Drawing on his extensive experience in newspaper publishing early in his career, he steered The Bulletin in a direction that gained a substantial readership. This publication is an important means of communicating to members and to the broader community and was an important component of publicising the progress that the Society was making across a range of activities. Professor Kehoe continued and nurtured our association with the Chief Scientist and Engineer of NSW and the yearly meeting of Deans of Science and Engineering to advise the Awards Committee.
