Royal Society of NSW News & Events

The Royal Society of NSW records with great regret the passing of one of its Past Presidents, Dr David F. Branagan AM FRSN, on 9 January 2022 at the age of 91. David Branagan was born in Broken Hill in 1930 and combined his love of geology with his equally strong love of singing and choral music, in which he was heavily involved. He was amongst Aus...

The Royal Society of NSW records with great sadness the passing of one of its valued and eminent Fellows, Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Harcourt AC FRSN FASSA, on 7 December 2021 at the age of 90. Geoff Harcourt was a graduate of Melbourne and Cambridge universities. He taught at Adelaide and Cambridge, which has remembered him as an economist o...

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted to learn of the recognition of one of its Fellows as a new Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering, elected in November 2021.  He is Professor Jason Sharples FRSN FTSE of UNSW (Canberra), a Bundjalung man, who uses predictive mathematical models to prevent catastrophic bushfires. Professor Jaso...

The Royal Society of NSW, together with its Learned Academy partners, is pleased to announce that the recordings from the 2021 Forum, Power and Peril of the Digital Age, are now available on the Society's YouTube channel. This year the Forum was held online over two mornings on 4 and 5 November 2021. The recordings can be accessed directly fro...

All online events from the Royal Society of NSW are recorded and are made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/royalsocnsw, as well as being curated on the Presentations page of this website (under the Publishing menu).  In the final event for this year, held on 1 December 2021, Professor Richard Bryan...

Society Fellow and UNSW Sydney Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla FRSN FAA FTSE was named as the 2022 NSW Australian of the Year at a ceremony held at Luna Park, Sydney on the evening of 15 November 2021. Professor Sahajwalla is a distinguished waste research engineer who is the founding director of the UNSW Centre for Sustainable Materials Resear...

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted to learn of the recognition of four of its Fellows as new Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, elected in November 2021.  They are Professor Bernard Balleine FRSN FASSA of UNSW (Sydney), Professor Catherine Coleborne FRSN FASSA of the University of Newcastle, Emeritus Professor Andrew Ja...

The Council of the Royal Society of NSW is delighted to learn that two of its Fellows have been recognised with the two highest awards in the 2021 Prime Minister's Science Prizes in an online ceremony on 3 November 2021. They are Professor Edward Holmes FRSN FAA FRS, of the University of Sydney, who has won the 2021  Prime Minister's...

All online events from the Royal Society of NSW are recorded and are made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/royalsocnsw, as well as being curated on the Presentations page of this website (under the Publishing menu).  In September, Dr Jessica Milner Davis FRSN treated the Society to an insight into&...

The Council of the Royal Society of NSW was delighted to learn of two Fellows of the Society who have recently received prestigious awards. Professor Maria Kavallaris AM FRSN FAHMS was a member of a team from the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW (Sydney) who was awarded the ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology, for the development of a hi...

The Council of the Royal Society of NSW extends its warmest congratulations to two of its Fellows who have been awarded major prizes in the chemical sciences and engineering. Scientia Professor Rose Amal AC FRSN FAA FTSE from UNSW Engineering has been awarded the 2021 Chemeca Medal by the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers ...

A number of Society Fellows are amongst the Finalists of the 2021 Australian Museum Eureka Awards—the country’s most comprehensive national science awards, honouring excellence across the areas of research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science. Presented annually in partnership with some of the nation’s leading scientif...

The Society is saddened to learn of the death on 6 September 2021 of Mr Edric Chaffer, a former President of the Society. He was 88 years old. Edric Keith Chaffer was one of the longest-serving stalwarts of the Society, dedicating much of his life to its well-being. Joining as a student in 1954, he later served on Council for many years and was Hon...

From Dr Susan Pond AM FRSN, President of the Royal Society of NSW On behalf of the Royal Society of NSW, I extend wholehearted congratulations to one of our Distinguished Fellows, Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons AO FRS DistFRSN FAA of UNSW (Sydney), on being awarded the Bakerian Medal and Lecture 2020 by the Royal Society. Professor Simmons has...

All online events from the Royal Society of NSW are recorded and are made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/royalsocnsw, as well as being curated on the Presentations page of this website (under the Publishing menu).  Amongst the most recent events are Music as a Superfood presented as part of the I...

The Society is pleased to introduce a new initiative titled Meet the Fellows comprising a series of 3-minute video interviews with Fellows, commencing with those who have been elected most recently.   Since the Fellowship category of membership was introduced in December 2013 to recognise individuals who are leaders in their fie...

The Society is pleased to announce the launch of its Twitter account today (3 August 2021) in this its bicentennial year.  The Society is now active on three social media platforms, Twitter (@royalsocnsw), YouTube (royalsocnsw), and Facebook (@royalsoc), with these to be followed shortly by a presence on LinkedIn.  Please consider followi...

During February and March of 2021, the Royal Societies of Australia in partnership with Inspiring Victoria presented an online symposium in three parts titled Stewardship of Country. These presentations aimed to elevate a broad range of perspectives, generating discussion on landscape and environmental management that bridges Indigenous, agric...

The Council of the Royal Society of NSW warmly congratulates one of its Fellows, Professor Kathy Belov AO FRSN of the University of Sydney, on being awarded the MJD White Medal of the Genetics Society of Australasia (GSA).  The award, which commemorates Michael White who proposed the formation of the Genetics Society in 1953, recognises e...

The Royal Society of NSW records with great regret the passing of one of its valued Fellows, Emeritus Professor Jim Kehoe FRSN, on 15 July 2021. A senior academic from the School of Psychology at UNSW, Jim became a Fellow of the Society in 2012 and contributed in many ways to the expansion of the society in the mid-2010s. He was an enthusiastic mem...