Vice-Chancellor's Fellow: Dr Elizabeth Finkel

Dr Elizabeth Finkel holds a PhD in biochemistry and was a research scientist at the University of California, before becoming an award winning Melbourne based writer.

Her work has appeared in publications ranging from the US journal Science to ABC radio’s Science Show. She is the  author of two books. Stem Cells: Controversy on the Frontiers of Science published in 2005, won a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award.  The Genome Generation, published in 2012, was described by The Canberra Times as “science writing of the highest order.” The Weekend Australian described her as a “scientist with a journalist’s genes.”

Her work for Cosmos Magazine (which she cofounded in 2006) has snapped up four Publishers Australia Excellence Awards. In 2011 she was named the National Press Club’s Higher Education Journalist of the year.  In 2013 her story “Fields of Plenty”, won the Crawford Prize for agricultural journalism. In 2015, she won the Eureka Prize for Science journalism for “A Statin a Day”.

Since 2013, she has been editor in chief of Cosmos magazine.