Two new national awards

The Australian Academy of Science has announced two new national awards, following a generous donation by immunologist and Corresponding Member (international Fellow) of the academy Professor Sir Marc Feldmann.

The Gustav Nossal Medal for Global Health has been established to honour the contributions made to fields of cellular immunology, antibody formation and tolerance and vaccine research science by former academy president Sir Gustav Nossal. According to current president Professor Andrew Holmes, Sir Gustav “made outstanding contributions to vaccine research and public health, particularly in the developing world”.

The Jacques Miller Medal for Experimental Biomedicine will meanwhile honour the contributions made to science by Professor Jacques Miller. Professor Miller discovered the function of the thymus - “an organ we now know is a fundamental part of the immune system”, said Professor Holmes - and identified, in mammalian species, the two major subsets of lymphocytes and their functions.

The medals may be awarded to Australian early- and mid-career researchers up to 15 years post PhD. Nominations can be made by anyone in the scientific community, but the awards are restricted to candidates who normally reside in Australia and for research conducted mainly in Australia.

“It is fantastic to be able to honour the tremendous contributions of two living legends in Australian science with these new awards,” said Professor Holmes.

“I hope these new medals will encourage our up-and-coming researchers in the fields of public health and biomedical sciences to aspire to similar heights of scientific endeavour.”

The first awards will be presented in 2015. Nominations are open until 24 September 2014.