PM Transcripts

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Professor Frank Fenner, a Visiting Fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra and a pioneer in his field of virology, is the winner of Australia';s most prestigious science award, the $300,000 Prime Minister';s Prize for Science.
Professor Fenner has been Australia';s leading scientific ambassador in the international virology community, and his outstanding career has contributed greatly to the reduction of human suffering.
The last sixty-four years of his life, dedicated to science since he graduated as a doctor in 1938, have been marked by two achievements of considerable magnitude, namely the global eradication of smallpox, and the control of Australia';s rabbit plague through myxamatosis.For this work he has won numerous awards, and had the honour of announcing the eradication of smallpox to the World Health Assembly in 1980. The eradication of the disease, which had claimed millions of lives, remains one of the greatest achievements of medical science.
As well as some 290 papers, Professor Fenner has written many books, and played a leading role in the creation of a world leading research department as the founding professor of Microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, and later as its director. Importantly, he inspired and nurtured many of the great researchers who came through the John Curtin School, including Nobel prize winner Peter Doherty, who paid tribute to Frank Fenner in his Nobel lecture.
Along with Professor Fenner these awards honour two of Australia';s most promising young researchers, and, for the first time, the vital role that science teachers play in nurturing a new generation of enquiring minds.
The $35,000 Malcolm McIntosh Prize - Physical Scientist of the Year, (awarded to a scientist under 35 years), has been won by Professor Marcela Bilek of Sydney University for her work in creating designer materials invaluable for industry, using plasma arcs and beams, magnetic fields and high energy electrical pulses.
The $35,000 Science Minister';s Prize – Life Scientist of the Year (awarded to a scientist under 35 years) is award to Dr Joel Mackay, of Sydney University, for his work in studying how genes are controlled, which could lead to a cure for cancer.
The 2002 Science Teaching awards, each valued at $35,000, are presented to Marianne Nicholas, from Adelaide';s Walkerville Primary School, the inaugural winner of this year';s Prime Minister';s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools, and Ruth Dircks, from Dungog High School in New South Wales, the inaugural winner of the Prime Minister';s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools.
I congratulate all the prize winners for what they have achieved and for their ongoing work in research and science teaching which is so vital to the future of Australia.