news
campusreview.com.au
Society life for Aussie scientists
Elon Musk joins Australian academics in being
welcomed into the prestigious Royal Society.
By Loren Smith
N
ew life has entered the oldest scientific academy in
continuous existence. The London-based Royal Society
has inducted 50 new fellows and 10 new foreign members
into its hallowed community for their “substantial contribution to
the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics,
engineering science and medical science”.
Among the new lifetime recruits are Elon Musk, the only
non-academic, as well as seven researchers from Australian
universities:
• Geordie Williamson, professor of mathematics, School of
Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney
• Ingrid Scheffer, professor and chair of paediatric neurology
research, University of Melbourne, and senior principal research
fellow, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
• Peter Visscher, professor and chair of quantitative genetics,
and director, Program in Complex Trait Genomics, University
of Queensland
• Michelle Simmons, professor of physics and director, Centre
for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology,
University of New South Wales
• Graeme Jameson, laureate professor and director, Centre for
Multiphase Processes, University of Newcastle (NSW)
• Frank Caruso, Melbourne laureate professor and NHMRC
senior principal research fellow, Department of Chemical
Engineering, University of Melbourne
• Jillian Banfield, professor, University of California,
Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and
University of Melbourne.
They are joined by fellows from the US, UK, Israel, Ethiopia, Italy
and Switzerland.
Graeme Jameson’s work on fluid and particle mechanics,
and especially the flotation process for recovering valuable
minerals, enthralled the society. “I’m still rather dazed about [my
appointment],” he humbly reflected.
The chemical engineer is famed for his invention of the
Jameson Cell: a mineral processing technology now widely
used in 25 countries for everything from coal, gold and copper
extraction, to the removal of suspended solids in products at
dairies and wineries.
“Not only does the Jameson Cell recover billions of dollars of
fine coal and minerals each year, it has also been used for industrial
and environmental applications, including extracting oil from tar
sands in Canada, cleaning up industrial wastewaters in Newcastle
and other Australian locations, and removing blue-green algae
from Australian inland waterways,” UON vice-chancellor Professor
Caroline McMillen added in congratulating Jameson.
The 2018 Australian of the Year, Michelle Simmons, shares
Jameson’s Royal Society accolade. The quantum physicist was
“delighted” and “honoured” by her inclusion.
Known for her breakthroughs in designing the world’s smallest
precision transistor, the narrowest conducting wires in silicon and
the first transistor where a single atom controls its operation, her
designs could fundamentally change computing.
The Royal Society counts approximately 1600 fellows and foreign
members among its ranks. Operating since 1660, it selects up to
52 fellows and up to 10 foreign members annually from a pool of
about 700 candidates proposed by existing members. Eighty Nobel
Laureates belong to the society, as do, or did, the scientific greats:
Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking,
and the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee.
Famous Australian scientists, too, have belonged, including Sir
Gustav Nossal (physics), Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (immunologist),
Sir John Eccles (physiologist), Sir Howard Florey (penicillin), and,
more recently, Peter Doherty (influenza), Elizabeth Blackburn
(telomeres), Ian Frazer (herpes va ccine) and Barry Marshall
(stomach ulcers).
Fellows must make financial contributions to the society. They
can also stand for one of its 21 council posts, and, of course, elect
new fellows.
The society performs a range of functions, chiefly bestowing
research fellowships, grants, awards and medals, and offering
lectures and courses. In 2008, it launched the Royal Society
Enterprise Fund, which invests in new scientific companies, and
also advises the European Commission, the United Nations and
the UK government on scientific matters. ■
5