Graham Douglas Farquhar, AO , FAA , FRS (born 8 December 1947) is an Australian biophysicist, Distinguished Professor at Australian National University, [1] and leader of the Farquhar Lab. In 2018 Farquhar was named Senior Australian of the Year.
Farquhar attended Wesley College, finishing in 1964, [2] and went on to earn a BSc from Australian National University in 1968, a BSc with Honours in Biophysics from University of Queensland in 1969, and a PhD from Australian National University in 1973. [3]
Farquhar was appointed Professor of the Australian National University’s Research School of Biology and Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. His work to model plant biophysics has helped to understand how cells, whole plants and whole forests work, and to create new water-efficient wheat varieties. His latest project is attempting to determine which trees will grow faster in a high carbon dioxide atmosphere. [4]
In 2014 Farquhar, along with CSIRO agronomist Richard Richards, was awarded the Rank Prize in Nutrition, for "pioneering the understanding of isotope discrimination in plants and its application to breed wheat varieties that use water more efficiently", which related to a discovery the pair made in the 1980s. [5]
Farquhar was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in 2015 for his modelling of photosynthesis [6] and the Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture by the Australian Academy of Science in 2016. [7] In 2017 he is the recipient of the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (Biology). [8]
On 25 January 2018, Farquhar was named Senior Australian of the Year. [9] [10] By the number of citations, he is the most cited author of some plant science journals such as Planta, Plant, Cell and Environment, Functional Plant Biology. [11]
Frank John Fenner was an Australian scientist with a distinguished career in the field of virology. His two greatest achievements are cited as overseeing the eradication of smallpox, and the attempted control of Australia's rabbit plague through the introduction of Myxoma virus.
WEHI, previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his work in immunology, was director from 1944 to 1965. Burnet developed the ideas of clonal selection and acquired immune tolerance. Later, Professor Donald Metcalf discovered and characterised colony-stimulating factors. As of 2015, the institute hosted more than 750 researchers who work to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases (autoimmunity) such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease; and infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and hepatitis B and C.
John Shine is an Australian biochemist and molecular biologist. Shine and Lynn Dalgarno discovered a nucleotide sequence, called the Shine-Dalgarno sequence, necessary for the initiation of protein synthesis. He directed the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney from 1990 to 2011. From 2018 to 2022, Shine was President of the Australian Academy of Science.
Gordon Leslie Ada AO, FAA was an Australian biochemist best known for his seminal contributions to virology and immunology and his long leadership of the Department of Microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University, where Peter C. Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel performed their Nobel winning research in his department. Both Zinkernagel and Doherty held him in high regard, and he was invited by them to attend the Nobel award ceremony and dinner in Stockholm.
Marshall (Hal) Davidson Hatch AM (born 24 December 1932) was an Australian biochemist and plant physiologist. He was the chief research scientist at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and was awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Göttingen and the University of Queensland. In Australia, in 1966, he elucidated, jointly with Charles Roger Slack, the C4 pathway for the fixation of carbon, which is also sometimes known as the Hatch-Slack pathway. He is now retired.
Ralph Owen Slatyer was an Australian ecologist, and the first Chief Scientist of Australia from 1989 to 1992.
The ANU College of Science is a college of the Australian National University (ANU) that delivers research and teaching in physical, life, mathematical, and environmental sciences, as well as science communication. The College is composed of the Research Schools of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, and Physics; Fenner School of Environment and Society; Mathematical Sciences Institute; and Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science.
Richard Shine is an Australian evolutionary biologist and ecologist; he has conducted extensive research on reptiles and amphibians, and proposed a novel mechanism for evolutionary change. He is currently a Professor of Biology at Macquarie University, and an Emeritus Professor at The University of Sydney.
Distinguished Professor David Lindenmayer,, is an Australian scientist and academic. His research focuses on the adoption of nature conservation practices in agricultural production areas, developing ways to improve integration of native forest harvesting and biodiversity conservation, new approaches to enhance biodiversity conservation in plantations, and improved fire management practices in Australia. He specialises in large-scale, long-term research monitoring programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily in forests, reserves, national parks, plantations, and on farm land.
Jennifer Ann Marshall Graves is an Australian geneticist. She is Distinguished Professor within the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Australia and Professor Emeritus of the Australian National University.
Marilyn Bernice Renfree is an Australian zoologist. She completed her PhD at the Australian National University, was a post-doctoral fellow in Tennessee and then Edinburgh before returning to Australia. Since 1991, Renfree has been Professor of Zoology at the University of Melbourne. Her main research interest focuses on reproductive and developmental biology of marsupials.
Marilyn Ball is a professor at the College of Medicine, Biology and Environment at the Australian National University (ANU), and leader of the Ball (Marilyn) Lab for Ecophysiology of Salinity and Freezing Tolerance.
Ulrike Mathesius is a German–Australian plant microbiologist in the Division of Plant Sciences at Australian National University (ANU). She is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow at the ANU, National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) member and Professor at the ANU in plant science, biotechnology and plant-microbe interactions. Her research focuses on root microbe interactions and symbionts to parasites. Mathesius won the 2013 Fenner Medal awarded by the ARC for research in biology for outstanding early-career researchers under the age of 40.
The Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences is awarded once a year by the Inamori Foundation. The Prize is one of three Kyoto Prize categories; the others are the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology and the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy. The first Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences was awarded to Claude Elwood Shannon, the “Establishment of Mathematical Foundation of Information Theory”. The Prize is regarded as a prestigious award available in fields which are traditionally not honored with a Nobel Prize.
The Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture of the Australian Academy of Science is awarded biennially to recognise exceptional research by Australian scientists in the physical sciences. Nominations can only be made by Academy Fellows.
Susanne von Caemmerer FRS is a professor and plant physiologist in the Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology at the Australian National University; and the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. She has been a leader in developing and refining biochemical models of photosynthesis.
Professor Julie Hazel Campbell AO FAA is an Australian vascular biologist from Sydney, Australia. Campbell is a professorial fellow at the Australian Academy of Science and is a world leader in the field of smooth muscle biology and, along with her husband, holds two patents for vascular implant material.
Thomas D. Sharkey is a plant biochemist who studies gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere. His research has covered (1) carbon metabolism of photosynthesis from carbon dioxide uptake to carbon export from the Calvin-Benson Cycle, (2) isoprene emission from plants, and (3) abiotic stress tolerance. Four guiding questions are: (1) how leaf photosynthesis affects plant yield, (2) does some carbon fixation follow an oxidative pathway that reduces sugar output but stabilizes photosynthesis, (3) why plants make isoprene, and (4) how plants cope with high temperature.
The Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture is a biennial award given by the Australian Academy of Science to recognise outstanding scientific research in the biological sciences.
Frank William Ernest Gibson was an Australian biochemist and molecular biologist, Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research in the John Curtin School of Medical Research, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London He undertook his most notable work at the University of Melbourne. He and his research group were responsible for the discovery of chorismic acid. He later worked at The Australian National University (ANU).