Professor Susan Scott wins Australia’s first science prize

“Einstein himself really thought there was no hope in hell that anyone could detect gravitational waves, given the small amplitude of theirs,” said Professor Scott.

On Wednesday evening, Professor Scott and three other Australian physicists won the $ 250,000 Prime Minister’s Science Award for helping to prove they exist.

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Become the first female physicist to win Australia’s top science prize.

“It’s a very important milestone,” he said. “It is incredibly important that young women can see that we can have successful female role models in this field. I would like to be such an example “.

Professor Scott, Professor Emeritus David Blair, Professor David McClelland and Professor Peter Veitch have worked closely together for nearly a quarter of a century as principal members of OzGrav, a team of researchers in Australia who work closely with detectors of LIGO in the United States.

In 2015, LIGO was able to prove the existence of gravitational waves for the first time, a feat that won the 2017 Nobel Prize.

To do this, physicists had to transform the four-kilometer-long detectors into some of the largest and most sensitive instruments ever created, accurate to one thousandth of the width of a proton.

Each scientist played a different role. Professor Blair has developed methods for filtering out interference caused by sound waves. Professor McClelland filtered out the popcorn crackle of quantum interference. Professor Veitch has invented a new super sensitive laser sensor.

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And Professor Scott builds mathematical models that unlock the next stage in gravitational wave astronomy: understanding what extraordinary and violent event elsewhere in the universe generated the waves.

“We have opened a new window into the universe,” said Professor Scott. “It’s similar to the moment when Galileo first looked through a telescope.”

Professor Mark Dawson, associate director of research translation at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, received the $ 50,000 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year for his work on epigenetics, the mechanism that turns our genes on and off .

Humans have around 20,000 genes. But each cell in our body only uses between 5,000 and 10,000. These genes are turned on and off by both our genetic model and our environment; humans are both nature is to feed.

Think of a humble caterpillar turning into a butterfly, Professor Dawson suggested. “The genetic code is identical,” he said, but the epigenetic mechanism at work means the creatures are completely different.

Professor Dawson made an important contribution to the discovery that those mechanisms can be detected and corrupted by cancer. By controlling the epigenetic mechanism, a cancer cell can activate genes that give it the superpowers of a stem cell: unlimited lifespan, the ability to transform into any cell it wants.

Ten drugs to disable that control mechanism are in clinical trials for cancers around the world, including two to which he contributed directly. He hopes to see them enter the clinic soon.

Other winners:

Professor Thomas Maschmeyer of the University of Sydney wins the $ 250,000 Prime Minister’s Innovation Award. His research underpins catalytic hydrothermal reactors, which transform plastics into petrochemicals, and zinc-bromide gel batteries, a new type of low-cost and long-lasting battery; $ 120 million was raised to commercialize both technologies.

Scientia Associate Professor Xiaojing Hao, of the University of New South Wales, won the $ 50,000 Malcolm McIntosh Award for Physical Scientist of the Year for developing kesterite sulfide solar panels. These panels do not require the scarce or toxic materials found in ordinary solar panels.

Flinders University Associate Professor Justin Chalker won the $ 50,000 New Innovators Award for developing a new class of sustainable sulfur-based plastics and rubber.