Royal Society of NSW News & Events

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted that one of its Fellows, Professor John Shine AC FRS FRSN FAA, has just been elected, in 2020, as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He is well known for his role in discovering the Shine-Dalgarno gene sequence, and was responsible for the initiation and termination of protein-synthesis. Further, he was a central figure in the cloning of the insulin and growth hormone genes, was the first to clone a human gene, and the first to demonstrate that hormone genes cloned in bacteria could be expressed in a biologically active form.

Professionally, he served as Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research from 1990 until 2011, and as Chairman of the biopharmaceutical company CSL from 2011-18. He is also an ex-Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) and a past President of the Museum of Applied Arts and Science (the Powerhouse Museum and Sydney Observatory).

He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1996 for services to medical research, and in 2010 was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Science, the nation‘s highest scientific award. In 2017, he was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia. Since May 2018, he has been President of the Australian Academy of Science, of which he has been a Fellow since 1994.

Archer Materials, an Australian start-up led by CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair—a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW and a former member of the Society’s Council—has just joined the IBM Q Network. Archer, which is developing room temperature quantum computing technology, is the first Australian company to join the IBM Q network as an ecosystem partner. Dr Choucair speaking with the industry newsletter ZDNet spoke of advancing the commercial readiness of Archer's 12CQ qubit technology and his desire that Australian businesses and consumers will be amongst the first beneficiaries of this exciting new technology. Chip prototypes for the 12CQ qubit processor are being built at the Sydney Nanoscience Hub at the University of Sydney.

The Society is saddened to learn of the death of one of its Distinguished Fellows, Lord May of Oxford, OM AC Kt FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE HonFAIB, on 28 April 2020, aged 84. Lord May was a pioneering Australian scientist whose work in biology led to the development of chaos theory. He was one of Australia's most accomplished scientists, being elevated to the peerage in 2001, and rising to serve as the Chief Scientific Advisor to the United Kingdom Government (1995–2000), and as President of the Royal Society (2000–05).

Born in Sydney on 8 January 1936, he completed his PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Sydney in 1959, before taking a lectureship in applied mathematics at Harvard University (1959–61) and subsequently returning to the University of Sydney in 1962 where he was appointed to a Chair in Theoretical Physics, in 1969, at the age of 33. His career then took him to Princeton where, as Professor of Zoology, he made pioneering advances during the 70s and 80s in the field of population biology through the application of advanced mathematical techniques. He played a key role in the development of the field of theoretical ecology, subsequently applying these methods to the study of disease and biodiversity. From 1988 to 1995 he held a Royal Society Research Professorship at Imperial College and the University of Oxford, where he became a Fellow of Merton College.

He was awarded a Knighthood in 1996 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1998, both for “services to science” In 2001, he was one made of the first 15 Life Peers created by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, while in 2002, Her Majesty The Queen appointed him to the Order of Merit—only the ninth Australian in its 100-year history.

His many honours included the Royal Swedish Academy’s Crafoord Prize; the Swiss-Italian Balzan Prize; and the Japanese Blue Planet Prize. He was a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, an Overseas Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and several other Academies and Learned Societies in the UK, USA and Australia, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW. In 2007, he received the Royal Society's Copley Medal, its oldest (1731) and most prestigious award, given annually for “outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science”.

Tributes to the passing of a truly gifted polymath whose achievements spanned biology, physics and public policy can be read in his obituary in the Guardian. Other obituaries and links to his achievements can be found in Lord May's entry on the Late Distinguished Fellows page.

From time to time, the Society recognises Members and Fellows who have made important contributions to the Society and its work. This is through the Society Medal, which is awarded from time to time to a Member or Fellow who has made meritorious contributions to the Society’s administration, organisation, and endeavours, and through the Society Citations, which recognise significant contributions to the Society which have not been recognised in other ways.

This year, at the 1282nd Ordinary General Meeting, held on 22 April 2020, the Society Medal for 2019 was awarded to previous Emeritus Professor Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN, a past President and current Vice-President of the Society, while Citations for 2019 were awarded to past Council members Dr Eric Aslaksen FRSN and Professor E. James Kehoe FRSN. To read further about their outstanding contributions to the Royal Society, please follow the links provided.

A high proportion of COVID-19 patients experience a total or partial loss of smell. This, in turn, has led to a call for anosmia (smell loss) to be treated as a symptom of the disease. Of importance in managing the coronavirus pandemic is the possibility that smell loss can begin as the only symptom in a person who is otherwise well, but who may be an unaware carrier and a potential spreader of the virus.

A current paper in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of NSW by Dr Graham Bell FRSN describes a novel, simple home test (requiring only regular household items) for detecting any loss in the sense of smell, as soon it it happens, alerting individuals to the potential onset of COVID-19.

On 27 February 2020 the Royal Society of NSW and the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts presented a celebration of the 300th anniversary of Bach’s solo violin pieces with a lecture by Dr David Hush FRSN on Bach’s enduring popularity and influence. The evening featured performances by award winning violinist Anna Da Silva Chen of Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001 and the World Premiere of Partita for Solo Violin (2019), composed by David Hush and commissioned by the Royal Society.

The evening’s program can be accessed from the Royal Society's YouTube Channel through the following playlist links:

• Lecture Part 1
• J.S. Bach Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin in G Minor, BWV 1001
• Lecture Part 2
• David Hush Partita for Solo Violin
• Questions and Answers

In the spirit of advancing knowledge, the Royal Society of NSW is making available the videos from the 7th November 2019 Forum “Making SPACE for Australia”, held in conjunction with the four Learned Academies. The videos and related slide presentations for each individual speaker have been uploaded to the Society’s YouTube channel, launched on 19 March 2020.

You can conveniently access these via the “Making SPACE” article which provides the event’s program and speaker list (with links to the video and presentation slide content), together with a report on the day. You are welcome to share these links or the link to any individual presentation via your own communication channels.

We also encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel (for which a Google account is required) and to click on the bell icon to be notified by email when new content is posted.

The Royal Society of NSW wishes to assure all Members and Fellows of the Royal Society of NSW that the Society’s Council takes very seriously its responsibility to safeguard the health of its constituency throughout the pandemic, and not only to conform to Government expectations but also to encourage others to do so as well. Therefore, no face-to-face meetings, lectures, or social events can be held.

The Society will use this time to polish its 21^st century digital skills. We will continue our usual programs and introduce new ones, all online and cost free. We intend to help you enjoy weeks or months in solitary splendour with:

1. The Ordinary General Meetings and other lectures to be held online.
2. The Annual General Meeting and the Council election to be held online, allowing all Members and Fellows to take part in voting—a first for the Society, and an improvement to our election process: previously, it was difficult to vote if not attending the AGM in person.
3. We were about to invite our Members and Fellows to a new series of occasional lectures titled [email protected]_house, which Her Excellency, the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW, had asked us to hold at Government House, followed by a reception. We hope that these will still be held as online events, but unfortunately, Her Excellency’s generous hospitality cannot be enjoyed virtually!
4. A new interview series, in which you will get to know Members and Fellows and the subjects they study.
5. YouTube videos and podcasts of lectures and performances such as the wonderful Speaking of the Music … the Magic of Solo Violin by David Hush with live performances by Anna Da Silva Chen—accessible from the preceding link or via our YouTube playlists.
   
   This week, the Society made available the videos from the 7^th November 2019 Forum Making SPACE for Australia, held in conjunction with the four Learned Academies. The videos and related slide presentations for each individual speaker have been uploaded to the Society’s YouTube channel which was launched on 19 March 2020. You can conveniently access these via the Making SPACE article. This provides the event’s program and speaker list (with links to the video and presentation slide content), together with a report on the day. You are welcome to share these links, or the link to any individual presentation, via your own communication channels.
   
   It is planned to release new content, including recordings of the events described here, on a regular basis.
   
   We also encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel (for which a Google account is required), and to click on the bell icon to be notified by email when new content is posted.
6. SMSA-RSNSW joint lectures for this year, On the Shoulders of Giants, will take place online.
7. The programs of the Hunter Branch and the Southern Highlands Branch will join Sydney programs online, so we all get more programs and tap into a larger pool of talent.
8. The Annual Dinner, scheduled for May, to our great disappointment, had to be cancelled. Professor Brian Schmidt AC FRS FAA DistFRSN, Vice-Chancellor of the ANU and Nobel Laureate in Physics, was to be our speaker. We have invited him to give his lecture, “Evidence and expertise in a post-truth world“, online.

The year 2020 is a special year as we plan for our 200^th Birthday in 2021. We will celebrate our 199^th Birthday in June of this year. We want you all to be there in person or, more likely online, to join in the celebration.

We urge all our Members and Fellows to follow the medical advice from the Commonwealth and NSW Departments of Health. Stay well, so we can all look forward to better days and meet face-to-face for our Bicentennial. In the meantime, stay in touch through the Society’s monthly Bulletin and our improved website.

Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan AO FAA FRSN
President, Royal Society of NSW

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted that one of its Fellows and leading childhood cancer researcher, Professor Maria Kavallaris AM FRSN, has been named NSW Woman of the Year for 2020 by the NSW Premier, Ms Gladys Berejiklian.

Maria’s pathway to cancer research, and the development of less toxic treatments for childhood cancers, had a very personal beginning, with her diagnosis of cancer at the age of 21. Speaking with the Sydney Morning Herald, she referred to “getting high doses of chemotherapy, which had many-side-effects” and decided that “if she got through the aggressive treatment, she would do something to improve therapies.” Professor Kavallaris is Head of the Tumour Biology and Targeting Program at the Children’s Cancer Institute and is Director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine at UNSW.

The Society warmly congratulates Maria Kavallaris on this recognition of her outstanding, internationally-recognised, 35-year research career.

The Society is pleased to announce that the March 2020 edition of the Bulletin (Issue 440) and the December 2019 edition of the RSNSW Journal and Proceedings (Vol. 152-2) are now available on the website and are available for downloading. A table of contents of this issue of the Journal is also available, enabling access to individual articles.

The December 2019 edition of the Journal and Proceedings contains six papers (three submitted, two commissioned, and one reprint), together with five PhD thesis abstracts and an obituary for the historian Ann Moyal FRSN who passed away in 2019. In additiion,

The Journal also lists the events held by the Society and its Southern Highlands and Hunter branches during 2019, the Award Winners for 2019, and the new Fellows of the Society (for 2018) that were gazetted by the NSW Government on 31 January 2019.  

The list of Fellows and Distinguished Fellows, elected by the Royal Society of NSW during 2019, was gazetted by the New South Wales Government on 26 February 2020.  

The 2018 Liversidge Lecture of the Royal Society of NSW was delivered at UNSW Sydney on the evening of 20 February 20120 by Scientia Professor Martina Stenzel FAA of the UNSW School of Chemistry.

A report on the lecture delivered by Professor Stezel is now available. 

The Hunter Branch has just announced its second event for the year, a lecture by Professor Tony Capon of Monash University titled “Planetary Health: Safeguarding Health in the Anthropocence Epoch”, to be held at Newcastle City Hall on 25 March. 

Also, a report on the Branch’s first meeting of the year (31 January) that included a presentation  by Professor Ryan Loxton (Curtin University), titled “Mathematics in Industry: Optimisation in Action”, has just been published.

The Royal Society of NSW records with great regret the passing of one of its valued Fellows, Dr Brian Spies FRSN FTSE.

Dr Spies worked in research and management in the resource and environmental sectors in Australia and the USA, with positions in industry, academia and government.  His roles in Australia included Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO, Director of Physics at ANSTO. and Science Manager at the Sydney Catchment Authority.  Dr Spies was a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Royal Society of NSW, and in 2003 was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for his services to geoscience.

All of us in the Royal Society of New South Wales have been distressed and saddened by the devastating bushfires that have darkened our skies, our landscape, and our spirits over the summer. Some of our Members and Fellows have suffered personal loss of irreplaceable property. Some have been personally involved in firefighting while others have donated generously to the organisations staffing the front lines. All of us are devastated by the scale of the ecological disaster. On behalf of the Royal Society, I want to express heartfelt sympathy with those who have suffered loss, and our admiration and gratitude for all those who have been helping in the efforts to control the fires and their aftermath.

In the community, there is a natural desire to understand the causes, learn the necessary lessons, and take action. To what extent are the fires the results of policies and practices surrounding controlled burning? To what extent can global warming be held responsible for the severity of this and future fire seasons? How can our nation best respond to the resulting environmental, social, and economic challenges that will face us in the future?

The Royal Society is committed to a dispassionate evidence-based understanding of all these issues. In the case of bushfire management, we must listen to fire chiefs and fire research scientists. We must accept the unequivocal conclusions of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering that the science is in: the climate is changing, in a way that has been predicted by Australian and International organisations for many years; and human activities since the beginning of the industrial revolution are in significant part responsible.

For those who wish to gain a better understanding of the science, I can recommend the statements on climate change from the Academy of Science and the Academy of Technology and Engineering . I also refer you to the more extended (30 page) Academy of Science booklet and informative YouTube videos from the Academy.

We must be prepared to do more to limit further changes, and to adapt to the many challenges that are already apparent. With your support the Royal Society can play an important role in finding solutions.

Ian H Sloan
President, Royal Society of NSW
29 January 2020

The Society is pleased to note the award in the 2020 Australia Day Honours List of a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) to our Patron, The Honourable Margaret Beazley, Governor of New South Wales. Her Excellency received the award for eminent service to the people of New South Wales, particularly through leadership roles in the judiciary, and as a mentor of young women lawyers.

The Society is also pleased to acknowledge the award of an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) to Mr Robyn Williams for distinguished service to science as a journalist, radio presenter and author, and to education.

From time to time, the Society and its Fellows and Members are mentioned, or are published, in the media, or in other sources or outlets. This page summarises such mentions, providing links either to the original sources, or to news items that include links to original sources. For readership transparency, the following annotations are used:

• Society Position: indicating that the contribution builds on a formally adopted position of the Society, which is referenced
• Opinion: indicating that the article is solely the opinion of the author, irrespective of the existence of, or alignment with, any formally adopted position of the Society
• Unclassified: indicating that the reference is informational in its nature.

2020

• Hugh Mackay (Opinion), The Age of Loneliness, appeared as a panellist on ABC TV Q&A, 14 September 2020
• Thomas Keneally (Opinion), Politics turned nasty after Sydney Olympics but social cohesion is once more our virtue, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 2020 
• Jillian Broadbent (Opinion), Panel of Wisdom, appeared as a panellist in ABC TV Q&A, 31 August 2020
• Justin Gooding, awarded the Jaroslav Heyrovsky Prize for Molecular Electrochemistry by the International Society of Electrochemistry, 1 September 2020 
• David Gonski (Opinion), ANZ's Gonski says reputation must remain a top goal for banks, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 August 2020
• Emma Johnson (Opinion), Govt to introduce legislation changing the way it funds degrees in STEM subjects, interviewed on ABC Radio National Breakfast, 27 August 2020
• David Gonski (Opnion), Gonski backs lockdown strategy, Australian Financial Review, 26 August 2020
• Mary O'Kane referred to in Landowners in fire-prone areas to be required to do hazard-reduction burns, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 August 2020 reporting on the release of the Final Report of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry, 31 July 2020, of which Professor O'Kane was a co-author
• Matthew England, Trevor McDougall, and Steven Sherwood (Opinion) as co-athors of a letter addressed to Australia's Chief Scientist reported in Australia's Chief Scientist is wrong on gas, say leading experts, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 August 2020
• Nalini Joshi, Remembering Maryam Mirzakhani, ABC Radio National Sunday Extra, 23 August 2020—a replay of the Ockham’s Razor broadcast first aired on 21 January 2018 in which Nalini Joshi pays a personal tribute to the life and legacy of Maryam Mirzakhani, the first female winner of the Fields Medal, who died in 2017
• Andrea Morello, UNSW launches new degree in quantum engineering, ABC Radio Science Show, 15 August 2020
• Emma Johnston, State of the Environment Report co-chiefs appointed, Australian Government Minister for the Environment (The Hon. Sussan Ley), 13 August 2020
• Thomas Keneally, Sacred Space Tom Keneally, broadcast on the Compass program on ABC TV (Religion and Ethics), 10 August 2020
• Hugh Mackay, Hiding in plain sight, an extract from The Inner Self – the Joy of Discovering Who We Really Are by Hugh Mackay (Macmillan Australia), published in the Weekend Australian magazine, 8-9 August 2020
• Jake Olivier (Opinion), quoted in Heartbroken mother calls on drivers to drop ‘she'll be right’ attitude, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 2020
• Len Fisher (Opinion), Scientists struggle with their message, ABC Science Show, 24 July 2020
• Peter Shergold, quoted in Call for ‘learner profile’ of students to end dominance of ATAR, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 2020
• Herbert Huppert, Society Fellow awarded the 2020 London Royal Society Royal Medal, and Royal Society (News), 4 August 2020
• Barney Glover (Opinion), Powerhouse Parramatta will be bigger and better than before, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 2020
• Ian Sloan (Society Position), Premier's zeal for museum's move must be explained, Sydney Morning Herald (President's Letter to the Editor), 29 June 2020
• Thomas Keneally (Opinion), Cultural cringe + market economics = lower education, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 June 2020
• Lord Robert May, Vale the professor of everything, ABC Science Show, 13 June 2020
• Belinda Hutchinson, Stephen Garton, Roy MacLeod, Queen's Birthday Honours 2020, 8 June 2020
• Gary Froyland, Katrina Joliffe, Ian Paulsen, Professors Froyland, Joliffe and Paulsen, RSN Fellows, elected as Australian Academy of Science Fellows, 30 May 2020
• John Shine, Society Fellow awarded a prestigious international fellowship, 15 May 2020
• Mohammed Choucair, Quantum computing startup led by Royal Society Fellow joins the IBM Q Network, 5 May 2020
• Lord Robert May, Death of Lord Robert May of Oxford-Distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW, 30 April 2020
• Maria Kavallaris, RSNSW Fellow named NSW Woman of the Year 2020, 7 March 2020
• Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley, Australia Day Honours 2020, 26 January 2020

2019

• Rebecca Johnson, RSNSW Fellow appointed Chief Scientist of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 18 December 2019
• Rose Amal, Nalini Joshi, Society Fellows awarded NSW Premier's Science Prizes, 31 October 2019
• Elizabeth New, Society Fellow wins 2019 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, 19 October 2019
• Leo Radom, Katherine Belov, Michelle Simmons, Keith Suter, Queen’s Birthday honours for RSNSW Fellows, 10 June 2019
• Jillian Broadbent, Leonard Fisheer, Barney Glover, Adrian Hibberd, Robert Thomas, FRSNs in 2019 Australia Day honours, 29 January 2019
• Mark Compton, FRSN to be Lord Prior of St John International, 10 January 2019

Dr Rebecca Johnson FRSN, Chief Scientist at the Australian Museum and a leading koala conservation expert, has just been appointed to the highly prestigious post of Chief Scientist and Associate Director at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Johnson referred to her new role as the “biggest and best gig” in the world of natural history, saying that she was both “excited and honoured by the prospect to join an institution which represents the highest level of scientific endeavour.”

The Royal Society of NSW extends its warmest congratulations to Dr Rebecca Johnson on this exciting international leadership opportunity.

The Royal Society of New South Wales, one of Australia’s oldest societies, deplores the Prime Minister’s proposed restructure of public service departments, in which Arts is moved to a mega-department with responsibilities for infrastructure, transport, cities and communications—surely an unpromising home for the Arts. And the situation is made worse by the fact that Arts is not mentioned in the title of any department.

The Society’s view is that the Arts play an essential role in Australian society, and that governments play a key role in ensuring their vitality. The proposed changes leave the unavoidable impression that the federal government’s commitment to the Arts is weakening.

The Council of the Royal Society of New South Wales is pleased to announce its Awards for 2019. The award winners are:

 •  James Cook Medal — Scientia Professor Matthew England
 •  Clarke Medal — Professor Dietmar Müller
 •  Edgeworth David Medal — Professor Si Ming Man
 •  History and Philosophy of Science Medal — Professor Evelleen Richards
 •  Walter Burfitt Prize — Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh
 •  Royal Society of NSW Scholarships — Emma Austin, Shayam Balaji,
     Michael Papanicolaou, and Thomas Pettit.

Further information about the awards and their recipients is available on the website.