The Royal Society of NSW is delighted to learn of the recognition of three of its Fellows, Professor Gary Froyland FRSN FAA, Professor Katrina Joliffe FRSN FAA, and Distinguished Professor Ian Paulsen FAA FRSN,  being elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science in May 2020.   As Fellows of the Australian Acacdemy of Science, they are among Australia’s most distinguished scientists, elected by their peers for ground-breaking research.

The Academy citation for Payne-Scott Professor Joliffe, of the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, refers to her “a leader in the fields of supramolecular and organic chemistry [making] world-leading contributions to organic synthesis, anion recognition and molecular self-assembly. Her international reputation is a result of her expertise in the design and synthesis of complex molecular architectures, which she uses to generate new molecular structures. Jolliffe’s transformative achievements include the development of selective receptors for pyrophosphate and sulfate ions, and the development of new methods that enable the synthesis of macrocyclic peptides. She has been awarded the Beckwith, Biota, Birch and H.G. Smith medals of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. ”

The Academy citation for Professor Froyland, of the School of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW Sydney, recognises that he “has significantly influenced the fields of dynamical systems and ergodic theory and has made major contributions to discrete optimisation. He is a world authority on the application of transfer operator methods to geophysical fluid flow, and his imaginative program of mathematics has reshaped scientific views on how to characterise complex fluid flow. Froyland has led multidisciplinary teams to solve pressing scientific problems in physical oceanography and atmospheric science, and to make port operations more efficient. His research on open-pit mine optimisation has had a profound impact on the scheduling of base metal mines internationally and will make cancer radiation therapy safer. ”

The Academy citation for Distinguished Professor Paulsen, of the Department of Molecular Sciences at Macquarie University, states that he “is a world leader in microbiology and a pioneer in microbial genomics. His work has focused on informatic followed by experimental characterisation of bacterial transport systems for nutrients and toxic compounds. He has discovered several novel classes of multidrug efflux pumps that can make bacteria resistant to multiple drugs by pumping them out of the cell. Paulsen’s work has revealed that these pumps have natural roles in the cell and have been opportunistically co-opted by hospital pathogens as a resistance mechanism against antibiotics. His global genome-based analyses have revealed fundamental strategic differences in transporters between single and multicellular lifeforms.”

The Council of the Royal Society of NSW extends its warmest congratulations to Professors Joliffe, Froyland and Paulsen on this recognition of their outstanding scientific achievements.