Five leading scientists to join academy council

The Australian Academy of Science has announced that five of Australia’s leading scientists will join its council in 2015.

The council, which has overall responsibility for managing the academy, is made up of 17 members from a diverse range of disciplines across the physical and biological sciences. These scientists are elected by the Academy Fellowship.

The five new members are:

• Professor Sue O’Reilly - Professor of Geology, Distinguished Professor of Macquarie University (physical sciences)
• Professor Mandyam V Srinivasan - Professor of Visual Neuroscience at the Queensland Brain Institute and the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering of The University of Queensland (physical sciences)
• Dr TJ Higgins - Honorary Fellow, CSIRO (biological sciences)
• Professor Ian Hume - Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Sydney (biological sciences)
• Professor John Mattick - Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (biological sciences)

Dr Higgins will also join the council’s executive committee as the Secretary for Biological Sciences.

Academy President Andrew Holmes congratulated the new members on their election, saying they bring “a wealth of experience that will undoubtedly help the academy to champion excellence in Australian science”.

He also thanked retiring council members Professor Marilyn Renfree, Professor Nalini Joshi, Professor Ian Frazer, Professor Rick Shine and Professor Mike Raupach for their hard work and dedication.

The new council members will formally take up their positions after the 2015 annual general meeting, to be held in May.