Bulletin

Issue: May 2004

People

Honours for La Trobe scientists

La Trobe Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Nancy Millis, and the Director of the University's Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptive Research, Professor Ary Hoffmann, have been elected to the Australian Academy of Science.

And eminent La Trobe biochemist, Emeritus Professor Bruce Stone, is one of 17 Australian scientists presented with Citation Laureate awards by the American company Thompson ISI, a provider of website information.

Professors Millis and Hoffmann were among 20 of Australia's leading scientists - from 11 Australian universities, CSIRO and medical research institutions - honoured by the Academy recently. Election to the Academy recognises a career that has significantly advanced, and continues to advance, world scientific knowledge.

Generally, the Academy of Science elects each year 16 scientists to the Fellowship. In 2004, to commemorate its 50th anniversary, it elected an additional four Fellows.

Professor Nancy Millis was one of two 'Special Elections' of eminent Australians who the Academy said had 'rendered conspicuous service to the cause of science or whose election would be of signal benefit to the Academy and to the advancement of science'. She was elected for her efforts to increase 'public awareness of science'.

One of Australia's pre-eminent researchers in microbiology, Professor Millis has been Chancellor of La Trobe University since 1992. She co-wrote the first biotechnology textbook and taught the first biotechnology course in Australia.

She also oversaw the introduction of genetic engineering into Australia, monitoring safety and ethical issues surrounding the science of genetically modified organisms.

In addition, Professor Millis was instrumental in fostering the study of fermentation technology in Australia. Her specialties are in waste-water treatment and industrial microbiology where she has led research into improving the environmental effects and degradation processes on natural mud and wastes.

Professor of Genetics and Director of the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptive Research (CESAR), Professor Ary Hoffmann has a world reputation in the field of genetics and evolutionary biology.

As director of CESAR - an Australian Research Council-funded special research centre - Professor Hoffmann brings together the skills and expertise of participants from La Trobe, Melbourne and Monash universities.

CESAR's mission is to understand the way organisms respond and adapt to changing and stressful environmental conditions, and to disseminate this information to industry and community groups, aiming to meet these objectives by performing research in three core areas, climatic stress, chemical stress and monitoring environments for stress.

Emeritus Professor Bruce Stone of La Trobe's Department of Biochemistry has received an Australian Citation Laureate award for his contributions to agricultural science.

Those receiving the Citation Laureate awards were selected on the basis of the number of times their research papers have been cited by other researchers - an accepted objective way of measuring the impact an individual has.

His laboratory's primary research areas involve improvements in grasses and cereals. He has contributed significantly to the fundamental understanding of the structure of complex carbohydrates, especially complex lignin and the effect this has on the digestibility of fodder plants by ruminants.

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