MEDIA RELEASE – 19 March 2014
Awards announced by The Royal Society of Tasmania
The Royal Society of Tasmania has announced its latest awards honouring
outstanding achievements by Tasmanian researchers. For 170 years the Society has
been promoting Tasmanian historical, scientific and technological knowledge for the
benefit of Tasmanians.
Exciting new research into the physiology and clinical consequences of high blood
pressure has won Dr Martin Schultz from the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania
the Society’s Doctoral Award. Dr Schultz’s research program highlighted novel
clinical discoveries and the outcomes can immediately be applied to lifestyle
intervention.
‘The Society commends Dr Schultz for his work and is confident that it will have
widespread impact,’ said Prof. Ross Large, President of The Royal Society of
Tasmania.
Professor Brad Potts from the University of Tasmania has won the Clive Lord
Memorial Medal for his work on eucalypt genetics. The medal is awarded to a
scholar distinguished for research in Tasmanian science or Tasmanian history. While
Prof. Potts’ particular focus has been Tasmanian eucalypts, he is the most highly cited
researcher world-wide on eucalypt genetics and has over 200 publications.
‘This award is recognition of the dynamic group of scientists and students working on
eucalypts at the University of Tasmania, strong support from industry and national
and international science collaborators as well as the fantastic living laboratory
afforded by Tasmania’s eucalypt forests,’ said Prof. Potts.
Professor Potts’ research has taken him to numerous countries around the world
where eucalypts, particularly the Tasmanian blue gum, are grown.
‘Australia’s iconic eucalypts are the most widely planted hardwood trees in the world,
and the Tasmanian blue gum is one of the most widely grown eucalypt species,’ Prof.
Potts said.
The prestigious Royal Society of Tasmania Medal, first awarded in 1927, has
been awarded to eminent oceanographer Prof. Trevor McDougall for his
internationally recognised research on ocean mixing and how it is represented in
climate models. His work on ocean physics is fundamental to understanding ocean
circulation and the way that heat is transferred between the ocean and the
atmosphere in the climate system.
Prof. McDougall was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of London in 2012 and
was nominated as the leading figure in the thermodynamics of seawater. He is now at
the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney and is also an Honorary Fellow at the CSIRO Marine Labs in Hobart.
Interested community members will have the opportunity to hear more about Prof.
McDougall’s work later this year when he delivers The Royal Society of Tasmania
Lecture in Hobart.
The M R Banks Medal (first awarded in 1997), awarded to a scholar of distinction
in mid-career, has been won by Prof. Emily Hilder from the University of Tasmania
for her exciting work in the field of chemistry.
Prof. Hilder is Professor of Chemistry in the Australian Centre for Research on
Separation Science (ACROSS) and Director of the ARC Training Centre for
Portable Analytical Separation Technologies at UTAS. Her research in separation
science has focussed on the design and application of new polymeric materials to
improve analytical separations and on ways to make analytical systems smaller and
more portable.
Prof. Hilder’s ground-breaking research has included the development of the
MilliSpotTM polymer technology and the ACROSS bomb-detection project.
She will deliver the M R Banks Lecture on 1 April 2014 at 8 pm in the Royal
Society’s lecture room at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Interested members of the public are warmly invited to attend the Society’s lectures.
Membership of the Royal Society of Tasmania is open to all. Members come from
many walks of life and have a variety of interests.
Since 1849 the Society has published its Papers and Proceedings featuring research
that focuses on Tasmania or is particularly relevant to Tasmanians. Contributions are
of international standard.
More information about the Society is available at: www.rst.org.au
For further information please contact the Society’s publicity officer, Mary Koolhof:
mary.koolhof@gmail.com
