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- Policies and initiatives
Emissions reduction
Industry innovation and science
- Artificial intelligence
- Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
- Australian Space Agency
- Boosting innovation and science
- Co-hosting the Square Kilometre Array
- Increasing international collaboration
- Industry growth centres
- Industry Innovation and Science Australia
- National Measurement Institute
- Optical astronomy in Australia
- Participating in the digital economy
- Promoting innovation precincts
- Science in our department
- Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
Energy
Resources
Northern Australia
Trade
Business support
Measurement services
Government to government services
- Regulations and standards
Emissions reduction
Energy
Resources
- Applying to export rough diamonds
- Applying to export uranium and controlled ores
- Offshore mineral exploration and mining
- Offshore oil and gas exploration and development
- Offshore petroleum exploration acreage release process
- Regulating offshore oil and gas in Australian Commonwealth waters
- Regulating the Ranger Uranium Mine
- Taxes and royalties on minerals and petroleum
Measurement
Trade
Space industry
Building industry
Business support
- Funding and incentives
Emissions reduction
Industry innovation and science
- Australian Square Kilometre Array Fellowships Programme
- Business Research and Innovation Initiative
- Business-research collaboration
- Collaborating with Asia-Pacific on science, research and innovation
- Collaborating with China on science and research
- Collaborating with India on science and research
- Cooperative research centres
- Enabling international space investment
- Industry 4.0
- Inspiring Australia: Science engagement in Australia
- International research collaboration
- Moon to Mars: opportunities for Australian businesses
- Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
- Research and Development Tax Incentive
- Supporting advanced manufacturing
- Supporting business and innovation
- Supporting space infrastructure growth
- Transitioning Australia’s automotive manufacturing industry
- Venture capital
Resources
- About us
COVID-19
Jobs
Who we are
- Our Ministers
- Our Executive team
- Organisation chart
- Our portfolio agencies
- Overseas engagement
- Anti-Dumping Commission
- Anti-Dumping Review Panel
- Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
- Australian SKA Office
- Australian Space Agency
- Critical Minerals Facilitation Office
- National Measurement Institute
- Office of Innovation and Science Australia
- Office of Northern Australia
- Office of the Chief Economist
- Office of the Chief Scientist
Who we work with
Reporting and accountability
- Annual report
- Assurance and Audit Committee
- Budget statements
- Campaign Certification Statements
- Continuing Order of the Senate
- Corporate plan
- Deregulation agenda
- Freedom of information
- Gifts and benefits register
- Grants reporting
- Information Publication Scheme
- Our contracts
- Privacy impact assessments
- Public interest disclosure
- Senate Order 15: portfolio appointments and vacancies
Our online presence
Contact
- Publications
- News
- Policies and initiatives
Emissions reduction
Industry innovation and science
- Artificial intelligence
- Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
- Australian Space Agency
- Boosting innovation and science
- Co-hosting the Square Kilometre Array
- Increasing international collaboration
- Industry growth centres
- Industry Innovation and Science Australia
- National Measurement Institute
- Optical astronomy in Australia
- Participating in the digital economy
- Promoting innovation precincts
- Science in our department
- Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
Energy
Resources
Northern Australia
Trade
Business support
Measurement services
Government to government services
- Regulations and standards
Emissions reduction
Energy
Resources
- Applying to export rough diamonds
- Applying to export uranium and controlled ores
- Offshore mineral exploration and mining
- Offshore oil and gas exploration and development
- Offshore petroleum exploration acreage release process
- Regulating offshore oil and gas in Australian Commonwealth waters
- Regulating the Ranger Uranium Mine
- Taxes and royalties on minerals and petroleum
Measurement
Trade
Space industry
Building industry
Business support
- Funding and incentives
Emissions reduction
Industry innovation and science
- Australian Square Kilometre Array Fellowships Programme
- Business Research and Innovation Initiative
- Business-research collaboration
- Collaborating with Asia-Pacific on science, research and innovation
- Collaborating with China on science and research
- Collaborating with India on science and research
- Cooperative research centres
- Enabling international space investment
- Industry 4.0
- Inspiring Australia: Science engagement in Australia
- International research collaboration
- Moon to Mars: opportunities for Australian businesses
- Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
- Research and Development Tax Incentive
- Supporting advanced manufacturing
- Supporting business and innovation
- Supporting space infrastructure growth
- Transitioning Australia’s automotive manufacturing industry
- Venture capital
Resources
- About us
COVID-19
Jobs
Who we are
- Our Ministers
- Our Executive team
- Organisation chart
- Our portfolio agencies
- Overseas engagement
- Anti-Dumping Commission
- Anti-Dumping Review Panel
- Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
- Australian SKA Office
- Australian Space Agency
- Critical Minerals Facilitation Office
- National Measurement Institute
- Office of Innovation and Science Australia
- Office of Northern Australia
- Office of the Chief Economist
- Office of the Chief Scientist
Who we work with
Reporting and accountability
- Annual report
- Assurance and Audit Committee
- Budget statements
- Campaign Certification Statements
- Continuing Order of the Senate
- Corporate plan
- Deregulation agenda
- Freedom of information
- Gifts and benefits register
- Grants reporting
- Information Publication Scheme
- Our contracts
- Privacy impact assessments
- Public interest disclosure
- Senate Order 15: portfolio appointments and vacancies
Our online presence
Contact
- Publications
- News
- Home
- Publications
- Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science 2019 to 2015
Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science 2019 to 2015
The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science recognise the contributions our scientists, innovators and science teachers make to Australia's scientific and commercialisation capabilities.
Watch our video
Celebrating 20 years of the PM Prizes for Science.
Prof. Jennifer Graves:
I guess the reason I love science is partly because science is fascinating, it’s a never-ending detective story, but also the life of science is tremendously fun.
Some of the most important work I did was very early on looking at X-chromosome inactivation, the mapping was a huge revolution, the sequencing even more huge revolution, it makes it possible to look at questions that we were asking in the ’60s that we can now actually answer.
Prof. Stuart Wyithe:
The most satisfying moment I think I’ve had in science is when I realised the giant regions of ionised gas that formed around the first galaxies had a finite size that could be observed.
And this is something that’s very important for the next generation of radio-telescopes, because it sets the resolution that they need in order to study the first galaxies properly.
Associate Prof. Lee Berger:
By the end of the ’80s there was a huge concern that frogs were disappearing.
Initially we were suspected there might be a virus that was killing them, but it turned out to be this superficial fungus that grows on the skin that caused the fatal disease.
So this fungus, it’s among the worst infectious diseases in history, it’s caused over 200 hundred species of frogs around the world to decline or become extinct. I’ve loved being a researcher because I feel like it’s making a difference to the world.
Prof. John Shine:
I discovered the way that genes are regulated and how proteins are initiated and terminated, how we make the products of genes.
The discovery was a simple sequence known as the Shine-Dalgarno Sequence that lets you regulate the amount of protein that is made off a clone gene.
Sarah Chapman:
I like doing experiments with things that students don’t expect.
We have a V8 supercar race which occurs just at the front of the school, and my Year 11 students examine the health of our local estuary before and after the V8 race in order to establish if there are any impacts with the V8’s.
We have around 90 per cent of our students that choose to do tertiary studies, choosing a science-based study.
Prof. Eric Reynolds:
There was a unique form of calcium that was very bioavailable, and it was made that way by specific proteins in milk.
We actually could isolate those and then deliver those in pure form, and in concentrated form to show that we could strengthen tooth enamel and make it more resistant to tooth decay.
Prof Geoff Rogers:
Cardiovascular disease in Australia alone is responsible for five deaths every hour.
And the major reason is because clinicians can’t get access to the problem site.
The technology they currently use is a tiny wire called a guide wire. What we’ve done is make that tip robotically steerable inside the patient using a joystick controller.
Prof. Ingrid Scheffer:
Since we found the first gene for epilepsy in 1995 we now know of many genes for epilepsy, and we’ve been involved in finding roughly half of those.
Prof. Samuel Berkovic:
We’re now identifying the cause in a much greater number of people with epilepsy.
Brett Crawford:
I love it when we find something happening in an experiment and the student turns to me and says, ‘Mr Crawford, why is this going on’? And I can say to them, ‘I don’t know, isn’t it great’! Because that means that we are mutually learning something new. It empowers them and you explain to them, no, not magic, science.
Prize recipients
- 2019 prize recipient citations
- 2018 prize recipient citations
- 2017 prize recipient citations
- 2016 prize recipient citations
- 2015 prize recipient citations
Read more
- See previous prize recipient citations on the National Library of Australia's Trove archive
- See all prize recipients on the honour roll
- Find out more about the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
Contact us
Email pmprizes [at] industry.gov.au
