Fellowship ​

Melbourne Laureate Professor Hugh Taylor holds the Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health at the University of Melbourne. Prior to that, he was Head of the University of Melbourne Department of Ophthalmology and founded the Centre for Eye Research Australia. Professor Taylor’s current work particularly focuses on Aboriginal eye health including the elimination of trachoma in Australia and the provision of eye care services. He has written more than 600 scientific papers and 30 books and reports. He has received multiple international awards and prizes and in 2001, was made a Companion in the Order of Australia.

Professor Sinclair’s groundbreaking research, including the discovery of the Y-linked SRY (testis) gene, underpin our understanding of normal and dysfunctional gonad development and its impact on children with Disorders of Sex Development. Importantly, he has translated his work into the clinic by developing much-needed rapid and accurate diagnostic tests. His research excellence, along with his prominent role in research translation, exemplary service to medical genetics community and more broadly as President of the Australian Society for Medical Research and member of the NHMRC Human Genetics Advisory Committee makes Professor Sinclair an outstanding candidate for election to the Academy.

Professor Jonathan Shaw is one of the world leaders in the epidemiology of diabetes. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, has over 2,700 citations annually, and was one of only seven Australians listed in the Clinical Medicine section of the Thomson Reuters “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014”. His work has ranged from discovering risk factors for diabetes to developing clinical guidelines and a diabetes risk screening tool. His frequent media appearances contribute to the public understanding of science, and he has taken a leading role in academic and clinical aspects of Indigenous health as it relates to diabetes.

Professor Ingrid Scheffer is a physician-scientist whose work as a paediatric neurologist and epileptologist at the University of Melbourne and Florey Institute has led the field of epilepsy genetics over more than 20 years, in collaboration with Professor Samuel Berkovic and molecular geneticists. This resulted in identification of the first epilepsy gene and many more genes subsequently. Professor Scheffer has described many novel epilepsy syndromes and performed genotype-phenotype correlation. She recently played a key role in the first major reclassification of the epilepsies in two decades as Chair of the International League Against Epilepsy Commission for Classification and Terminology.

She obtained her medical degree from Monash University and her PhD from the University of Melbourne for which she received the Chancellor’s Award. She trained in paediatrics at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, paediatric neurology at The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London UK, and epileptology at the Austin Hospital. In her PhD on the genetics of the epilepsies, she described four novel epilepsy syndromes which served as the basis for gene discovery.

She has received many awards: 2007 American Epilepsy Society Clinical Research Recognition Award, 2009 RACP Eric Susman Prize, 2013 GSK Award for Research Excellence, ILAE Ambassador for Epilepsy Award, 2013 Australian Neuroscience Medallion, 2013 Emil Becker Prize for child neurology and the L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Laureate for the Asia-Pacific region for 2012. In 2014, she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 2014 for “distinguished service to medicine in the field of paediatric neurology as a clinician, academic and mentor, and to research into the identification of epilepsy syndromes and genes”. Together with Professor Sam Berkovic, she was awarded the 2014 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.