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YOUNG GUNS BRIDGE GAP TO BRAVE NEW FRONTIERS
18 February 2008

Q: What do you get when you take Australia's leading younger researchers in biology, earth sciences, chemistry, astronomy, physics and statistics and put them in a room together for two days to present their research at a level they can all understand?

A: Innovation, innovation, innovation, new ideas and better Australian science.

The Australian Academy of Science will be doing just this at its third Australian Frontiers of Science symposium from 21–22 February at the Shine Dome.

The President of the Academy, Professor Kurt Lambeck, said: 'The symposium will bring together some of Australia's best young scientists to discuss emerging technologies, new opportunities and exciting cutting-edge advances in their fields. These young scientists will explain what they do and why, and most importantly will discover how ideas can bridge disciplines.'

Chief Scientist, Professor Jim Peacock, will speak at a dinner on Thursday evening about the importance of cross-discipline approaches to science as well as the need to support early-career researchers.

The symposium aims to open up narrow channels of research, generating networks and collaborations that extend into the future, one discipline of science informing another.

One key requirement is that all speakers present their work at a level understandable across all fields - an astronomer should be able to understand a talk by a biologist and vice versa.

Participants come from universities, government and industry. Chairs of sessions, organisers, speakers and participants are selected from all states of Australia, with most participants hand-picked by their organisations to attend the event.

Many speakers are recent recipients of prizes offered by the Australian Academy of Science and others including the Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.

Some key speakers are:

Dr Léanne Armand from CSIRO's Marine and Atmospheric Research division in Hobart will discuss her research of key microscopic algae as indicators of past climate change, and their role in monitoring the effects and rapidity of future climate warming in subantarctic and polar regions.

Dr Peter Dodds, senior research scientist from CSIRO's Plant Industry, who will discuss his leading research on how a plant's immune system responds to rust fungi, which is a threat to cereal crops worldwide and particularly the Australian wheat industry.

Professor Cameron Kepert from the University of Western Australia whose key work in chemistry on metal-organic frameworks has implications for the storage of hydrogen, as well as for electronic and magnetic functions.

Speakers from earlier Australian Frontiers of Science symposia and other winners of Academy early-career medals have gone on to become Academy Fellows, some of Australia's most distinguished scientists.

There is a growing recognition in science that all things are, in the end, connected. Physics underlies medical technology and helps to explain geological processes, the geology of the Earth informs us about other planets, and the study of other planets and the wider field of astronomy leads us back to discoveries in physics.

The Frontiers of Science symposium is a highly successful US concept which has been adopted by the Academy to push the boundaries of Australian science.

All media are welcome to the symposium and the dinner. Please let us know if you wish to attend. Attendance and interviews can be arranged by calling or emailing the media contact below.

The symposium program is available at: www.science.org.au/events/frontiers2008/index.htm. Further information on the symposium can be obtained from: Fenja Theden, 02 6201 9410.