The Australian Research Council has recently announced the 2013 Australian Laureate Fellows. This is a bit like the Malins for research scientists, except that there are many more $$$ attached and, dare I say it, more prestige. The recipients are being acknowledged as some of the best research scientists in the country. Only 17 Fellowships are awarded each year out of (this year) 112 applications. I'm please to note that, "Fourteen (12.5%) of all Australian Laureate Fellowship Candidates in this round are female. Of the approved Australian Laureate Fellows, four (23.5%) are female". Obviously women are still underrepresented in science but the trend seems to be in the right direction. The most successful institution was ANU with 4 recipients, followed by 2 each for Monash, Adelaide and Melbourne. Three awards went to non-sandstone universities or, to phrase it another way, outside the 'group of eight'. These were Griffith, Macquarie and Wollongong.
My attention was drawn to the awards because Prof Bert Roberts from SEES at UoW is one of the recipients. This makes two Laureates in our School out of only three on campus. Not bad for a discipline that seems to have to constantly battle for its survival! Bert intends to set up the Australian Centre for Archaeological Science to help unite what is a very fragmented field. The award will fund some full-time staff, 4 post-docs and 6 PhD students. (And desk space is already like hen's teeth.
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http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/laureate/...e_outcomes.htm
http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/FL13/FL13%...n%20Report.pdf
http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW153090.html
