Scientists receive Australia Day honours

From: ABC Science Online, Australia - Jan 26, 2004

Heather Catchpole
ABC Science Online

Australian scientists living at home and abroad have been honoured in today's Australia Day honours list.

Scientists who received honours today include: Chief Scientist Dr Robin Batterham; Professor Graeme Clark, inventor of the cochlear ear implant; botanist and past CSIRO chairman Professor Adrienne Clarke; and two Australians now working in the USA, Dr Victor Fazio and Professor Enid Gilbert-Barness.

Batterham, who has been Chief Scientist since 1999, received an Officer of the Order of Australia. He is also chief technologist at Rio Tinto. He is a past chief ofCSIRO's minerals division, and is particularly interested in mineral processing.

Clark, the foundation director of Melbourne'sBionic Ear Institute and Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne has received a Companion of the Order of Australia for his work on the cochlear implant, which has made hearing possible for over 20,000 people in 55 countries.

The cochlear implant is a shell-shaped electronic device that is inserted into the inner ear, near the cochlea. The implant produces electrical signals, which stimulate the nerves of the inner ear to produce hearing sensations.

Professor Adrienne Clarke, of the Plant Cell Biology Research Centre at the University of Melbourne also received a Companion of the Order of Australia. Clarke was a past chairman of the board at the CSIRO and works on cellular recognition in plants, particularly looking at insect-resistant strains of genetically modified cotton.

Dr Victor Fazio graduated from the University of Sydney but is now working in the colorectal surgery department of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He was honoured for his work on Crohn's disease.

Fellow University of Sydney graduate Professor Enid Gilbert-Barness, an Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison, was honoured for her research into cardiovascular, genetic and metabolic disease.

Fazio and Gilbert-Barness were awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia.

For a full list of people who received Australia Day honours see www.itsanhonour.gov.au .

© 2003 ABC