Royal Society of NSW News & Events

Paul Jeans FRSN was farewelled in style by town and gown at the “Celebration and Thank You to Our Chancellor” dinner in the Great Hall of the University of Newcastle on 24 November. Serving as Chancellor for the past ten years, Paul will be retiring from his role at the end of 2023. The speakers paying tribute to Paul were as one in saying what a p...

The Royal Society of NSW was delighted to learn that two of its Fellows were named as recipients of the 2023 NSW Premier's Prizes for Science and Engineering, announced at a ceremony held at Government House, Sydney on the evening of Wednesday, 15 November. Emeritus Professor Trevor McDougall AC FRS FRSN FAA of UNSW Sydney was named the 2023 NSW Sc...

The Society's 1317th Ordinary General Meeting and 2022 Clarke Memorial Lecture was held in the Metcalfe Theatre of the State Library of NSW on 8 November 2023 at which the audience enjoyed a highly informative presentation titled "Caves as observatories of groundwater recharge", on the critical role of groundwater, delivered by Professor Andy Baker...

The Society was delighted to learn that Society Fellow, Professor Muireann Irish FRSN FASSA, an ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience one the School of Psychology and the Brain and Mind Centre of the University of Sydney, has been inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in November 2023. The Academy c...

The Council of the Society was delighted to learn that Fellow and former Society President, Emeritus Professor Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN of the School of Chemistry at UNSW Sydney has been awarded the 2023 Royal Australian Chemical Institute Leighton Memorial Medal, which recognises eminent services to chemistry in Australia. Brynn is a retired ana...

Society Fellow and Vice-President,  Professor Peter Shergold AC FRSN FASSA, has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Western Sydney University (WSU). Professor Shergold, who is the Emeritus Chancellor of WSU, was recognised for his outstanding contributions to Australian public life and education during a recent WSU graduation...

The Royal Society of NSW and Learned Academies Forum for 2023, with the theme of  Our 21st Century Brain, was hosted at Government House Sydney by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC on 2 November 2023.  The archived page of the 2023 Forum, with links to the program brochure and video presentations, is now available from ...

The Council of the Society was delighted to learn that Fellow, Professor Sami Kara FRSN, of the UNSW School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, was recently elected as a Fellow of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (ACATECH) for his lifelong contributions to sustainable manufacturing—with reference to the fields of ener...

At a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 12 October 2023, His Majesty King Charles III presented the 2022 and 2023 Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Engineering. These prizes, inaugurated in 2011, recognise engineers responsible for groundbreaking innovations that have been of global benefit to humanity. The 2023 QE Prize for Engineering was awarded to an Au...

At a presentation dinner held on the evening of 16 October 2023 at Parliament House Canberra, Distinguished Fellow, Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons AO FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE FAAAS of UNSW Sydney was announced as the winner of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. This award recognises the work of Professor Simmons in creating the new fiel...

The Society was delighted to learn that Society Fellow, Professor Rebecca Ivers FRSN FAHMS, Scientia Professor of Public Health and Head of the School of Population Health at UNSW Sydney, was inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) on 12 October 2023. The AAHMS citation reads as follows: Professor Rebec...

The Royal Society of New South Wales was delighted to learn of the awarding of the Mitchell Prize by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis to one of its Fellows, Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie FRSN FAA, from the University of Wollongong (UoW). The prize, awarded in August 2023 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Toronto, Canad...

The Society was delighted to learn that Distinguished Fellow, Professor Brian Schmidt AC FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE, Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University was inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) on 11 October 2023. The ATSE citation reads as follows: Vice Chancellor Professor Br...

Most face-to-face events and all online events conducted by the Royal Society of New South Wales are recorded and made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/royalsocnsw. On the evening of Wednesday, 4 October 2023, an audience of approximately fifty people at the State Gallery of NSW enjoyed a highly topical and thoug...

Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons AO FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE of UNSW Sydney, a pioneer in atomic electronics and a global leader in quantum computing, has been named the ABC’s Boyer Lecturer for 2023. This year’s series of four Boyer Lectures is titled ‘The Atomic Revolution’ and will cover manufacturing at the atomic scale, why Australia is perfec...

The Society's 1316th Ordinary General Meeting was held in the Gallery Room of the State Library of NSW on 4 October 2023. An audience of approximately fifty people enjoyed a highly topical and thought-provoking presentation titled "Australia's nuclear future: a new discourse for the 2040s", delivered by international nuclear law specialist, He...

Through its then President, the Royal Society of New South Wales signed the Uluru Statement of the Heart declaration in January 2018. The Society’s Statement of Support, which has been on our website since 2018, included the following paragraph: Our mandate, as the Royal Society of New South Wales, Australia's oldest peak scholarly body, is th...

The Royal Society of NSW warmly welcomes 32 new members to the Society's ranks, effective from 6 September 2023. FellowsProfessor Alaina AmmitProfessor Vicki BitsikaAssociate Professor Amy CainProfessor Ben ColagiuriProfessor Andrew CondonEmeritus Professor Rosalind CroucherProfessor Catherine GreenhillProfessor Steven LangfordAdjunct Professor Kim...

Most face-to-face events and all online events conducted by the Royal Society of New South Wales are recorded and made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/royalsocnsw. Challenges for Open Enquiry and Scholarship in a Divided Age On the evening of Wednesday, 6 September, an audience of approximately forty people ...

The Society was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Fellow, Professor Emeritus Stephen Gaukroger FRSN FAHA FRHistS FRSA, on 3 September 2023 after a short illness. Stephen Gaukroger was one of the world’s leading historians of science, mathematics, and philosophy, and in each of these fields, he was recognised as one of the most significant fi...