Sandra Rees

Last updated

Professor Sandra Rees
CitizenshipAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Sydney, University College, Monash University, University of Melbourne
Scientific career
FieldsDevelopmental Neurobiology

Professor Sandra Rees is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. [1] Her major research interests have been directed towards understanding the pathogenesis of brain injury resulting from fetal hypoxia, infection, alcohol exposure, growth restriction and prematurity. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Sandra Rees was born in Melbourne in 1942, and moved to Sydney in 1952 as her father, an Army officer, was appointed to the School of Military Engineering at Casula. She earned a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 1963 and Master of Science in 1965, both from the University of Sydney. During this time she studied the structure and function of the visual system in the Department of Physiology, chaired by Professor Peter Bishop.

In 1965 Rees received a Lady Leitch Scholarship for overseas study, and relocated to London to complete a Master of Philosophy at University College in 1968. She then returned to Melbourne to complete her Doctor of Philosophy at Monash University in 1977. [3] Under the supervision of Dr Brian Cragg, Rees learned to perform electron microscopy to examine the ultrastructure of the normal and abnormal brain. It was from this work that she became particularly interested in brain development, and during her career she investigated the normal development of the somatosensory system and environmental factors that adversely affect the structural and functional development of the brain, such as hypoxia, infection, alcohol exposure and prematurity. In collaboration with neonatologists and obstetricians she devised clinically relevant animal models. She was also involved in trialing neuroprotective agents to ameliorate injury in the developing brain. For her contribution to the field of neurobiology and neurosciences, Rees was awarded a Doctor of Science from the University of Melbourne in 2011.

Work

In 1984, Rees joined the Department of Physiology at Monash University where she carried out research until 1992. She then moved her laboratory to the University of Melbourne where she was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999, and Professor in 2007. Her expertise in teaching spans participation in a wide range of undergraduate courses and postgraduate research supervision. Prior to her appointment at the University of Melbourne she lectured and demonstrated in the department of physiology at the University of Sydney, University College, London University and Monash University in neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and brain development. At the University of Melbourne from 1992–2009 Rees taught undergraduate courses in neuroscience, histology, developmental neuroscience and cell biology and carried a full teaching load with convening responsibilities. She has had extensive experience on committees at the university, faculty and departmental levels, serving on academic boards, equity and staff development committees and various selection committees for student and career interruption scholarships, as well as leadership programs for women. She has been actively involved in mentoring young scientists, and has participated in women's mentoring programs, leadership courses and has given invited presentations to talk about women in research. Her laboratory has collaborated with research groups at Monash University, INSERM U676 Paris, France and Washington, Harvard and Oxford Universities. She has given plenary lectures at international meetings, regularly reviews papers for neuroscience journals and grants for national and international bodies. She has been the Victorian representative on the Council of the Australian Neuroscience Society (1992–95), an examiner for the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists (1997-2003), the Royal Australian and NZ College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (1999-2001). She has authored 140 papers in international journals, written 5 reviews and 8 book chapters and supervised 13 PhD students.

Personal

Rees still maintains strong links with science. She was the Chair of the Science Programs Committee of the Council of the Royal Society of Victoria until 2017 and maintains her involvement in the Society's events. She also volunteers on the science program 'The Uncertainty Principal' on Vision Australia Radio and is on the board of directors of Life's Little Treasures Foundation, [4] a charity for children born sick or premature.

Awards and honors

2019 Royal Society of Victoria - Inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria "for outstanding contributions to science and the Australian science community" [5]

2008 Nina Kondelos Award – Australian Neuroscience Society for outstandingcontribution to neuroscience [6]

2004 Australian Academy of Science – Scientific Visits to Europe Award

1993 Award from Italian Science Foundation and Catholic University of Rome

1991 Ian Potter Foundation Travel Award, Vice Chancellor's Foundation Travel Award, Medical Faculty Travel Award

1988 Ian Potter Foundation Travel Award, Trust Fund of Australia Travel Award

1974 – 1977 Commonwealth Scholarship for Ph.D. candidature

1965 – 1966 Lady Leitch Scholarship for overseas study, Victorian Women's Graduates Association [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustav Nossal</span> Australian research biologist (born 1931)

Sir Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal is an Austrian-born Australian research biologist. He is famous for his contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance.

Elsdon Storey is an Australian neurologist, former Rhodes Scholar & Professor of Neurology at Monash University. His clinical and research interests are in neurogenetics and behavioural neurology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carla J. Shatz</span> American neuroscientist

Carla J. Shatz is an American neurobiologist and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. G. L. Shaw</span> 20th and 21st-century Australian historian

Alan George Lewers Shaw was an Australian historian and author of several text books and historiographies on Australian and Victorian history. He taught at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, and was professor of history at Monash University from 1964 until his retirement in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Finkel</span> Australian neuroscientist, engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist

Alan Simon Finkel is an Australian neuroscientist, inventor, researcher, entrepreneur, educator, policy advisor, and philanthropist. He was Australia’s Chief Scientist from 2016 to 2020. Prior to his appointment, his career included Chancellor of Monash University, President of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), and CEO and founder of Axon Instruments, and CTO for the electric car start-up Better Place Australia.

Sir Edward Byrne is a neuroscientist who served as Principal of King's College London from August 2014 until January 2021. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of Monash University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Isabel Campbell</span>

Dame Kate Isabel Campbell, DBE, FRCOG was a noted Australian physician and paediatrician. Campbell's discovery, that blindness in premature babies was caused by high concentrations of oxygen, resulted in the alteration of the treatment of premature babies world-wide and for this she received global recognition.

Michael Cowley FTSE is an Australian physiologist. He is best known for his mapping of the neural circuits involved in metabolism and obesity and diabetes treatment. He is a professor in the Department of Physiology at Monash University in the Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences. He is also a director of the Australian diabetes drug development company, Verva Inc, and director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute] (modi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cordelia Fine</span> Canadian-born British psychologist and writer

Cordelia Fine is a Canadian-born British philosopher of science, psychologist, and writer. She is a full professor in the History and Philosophy of Science programme at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Fine has written three popular science books on the topics of social cognition, neuroscience, and the popular myths of sex differences. Her latest book, Testosterone Rex, won the Royal Society Science Book Prize, 2017. She has authored several academic book chapters and numerous academic publications. Fine is also noted for coining the term 'neurosexism'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Darbyshire</span> Australian businessman

Andrew Charles Darbyshire AM is an Australian software company executive, philanthropist, author, and speaker. He is chairman of Pacsoft, a software development company, and is also active in several charitable and fundraising organisations.

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.

Mollie Elizabeth Holman was an Australian physiologist whose work focused on muscles and the central nervous system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauleen Bennett</span> Australian scientist

Pauleen Charmayne Bennett is an Australian scientist researching anthrozoology at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia.

Professor Susan Rossell is a British researcher based at Swinburne University of Technology specialising in Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging. Originally from Nottingham, UK; she now resides in Melbourne, Australia. Her research on the neuropsychology of schizophrenia and body dysmorphic disorder is internationally recognised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Richards (neuroscientist)</span> Australian neurobiologist, educator and researcher

Linda Richards is an Australian researcher at Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingrid Scheffer</span> Australian paediatric neurologist

Professor Ingrid Eileen Scheffer is an Australian paediatric neurologist and senior research fellow at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Scheffer has made several major advances in the field of epilepsy research. Scheffer is credited with finding the first gene implicated in epilepsy. She has also described and classified novel epileptic syndromes such as Epilepsy limited to Females with Mental Retardation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeanne Carey</span> Australian occupational therapist and neuroscientist

Professor Leeanne Carey is a world leading Australian neuroscientist in occupational therapy and stroke rehabilitation and recovery research. She is the founding leader of the Neurorehabilitation and Recovery research group in the Stroke division at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia, and currently holds a Future Fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Professor Lynda (Lyn) Dent Beazley is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia, and the Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Professor of Science at Murdoch University. Among other awards, she has been named an Officer of the Order of Australia for her contributions to medical science a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Matosin</span> Australian scientist researching stress

Dr. Natalie Matosin is an Australian scientist known for research into the impacts of the human brain in health and disease, and particularly stress and its role in mental illness. Matosin's research has been published in prestigious academic journals, as well as on The Conversation. Matosin spoke at TEDx Hamburg in June 2017 and is the 2021 Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellow. She was previously a National Health and Medical Research Council CJ Martin Early Career Research Fellow, and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. In 2017, Matosin was listed as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe in the category of Science & Healthcare, placing her in the top 1% of innovators worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorna Verdun Sisely</span> Australian surgeon (1916–2004)

Lorna Verdun Sisely, MBBS, MS, FRACS, FACS, CM was a surgeon from Victoria, Australia. She was the founder and the consultant surgeon of the Queen Victoria Medical Centre Breast Clinic, the first of its kind in Victoria. She was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1947. She was the first woman to do this by passing the RACS Fellowship Examination. She was awarded an OBE in 1980 in recognition of her service to medicine.

References

  1. "The University of Melbourne Find an Expert".
  2. "Sandra Rees Royal Society of Victoria".
  3. Rees, Sandra (1977), Ultrastructural studies of the mammalian cerebral cortex, Monash University, retrieved 4 August 2024
  4. "Life's Little Treasures Foundation". Life's Little Treasures Foundation - Improving the lives of premature and sick babies. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  5. "Fellows of the Royal Society of Victoria". rsv.org.au. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  6. "Nina Kondelos Award".
  7. "AFUW Vic Discontinued Scholarships" (PDF). gradwomenvic.org.au. Retrieved 31 March 2015.