Professor Michelle Simmons is a physicist and pioneer in assembling tiny atomic-scale electronic devices for future computers and Associate Professor Brett Neilan is a molecular biologist who has worked out ways to detect toxic algae in drinking water (see details below).

Professor Simmons has won the 2005 Australian Academy of Science's Pawsey Medal and Professor Neilan has won the Academy's Fenner Medal. Both awards are made specifically for excellence by younger scientists.

The Academy was founded in 1954, with the distinguished physicist Sir Mark Oliphant as founding President, and its fellowship is made up of about 350 of Australia's leading scientists.

"It's wonderful to see the extraordinary young talent we have within the Faculty being acknowledged at such a high level for such exceptional work," said the UNSW Dean of Science, Professor Michael Archer.

"These awards are richly deserved and I think they show that if you're brilliant, UNSW is the place to come. It's a real privilege to learn, teach and conduct research in a place where we can daily rub shoulders with so many clever and talented individuals."

"It amazes me that Michelle and her team can work with such extreme precision to assemble individual invisible working machines, individual atom by atom. These will be key elements of the super-powerful computers of the future.

"Brett's research has also been into events taking place beyond the powers of the human senses, using his great understanding of processes happening at the scale of single genes within cells. The potential benefits to public health and wellbeing are enormous."

Professor Michelle Simmons is a physicist and is 37. She was born in London, England, and took a double degree in physics and chemistry at Durham University, where she was awarded her doctorate in 1992. She spent six years as a post-doctoral researcher at the famous Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. She came to Australia in 1999 as a QEII Fellow to set up a research program in quantum electronics at UNSW, She is now a Federation Fellow in the UNSW School of Physics. She is also co-author of the book "Nanotechnology, Small things, Big Science", (Chapman and Hall, May 2002).

Professor Simmons now heads one of the world-leading research groups in electronic device fabrication in silicon at the atomic-scale, in the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology. She has built on her extensive expertise in semiconductor physics and crystal growth to make significant breakthroughs in two important areas.

First, she has made several major advances in our understanding of the fundamental physics of conduction in semiconductors. Second, she has led a team of researchers at UNSW to demonstrate that it is possible to build a working electronic device in silicon at the near-atomic scale, assembling atoms one by one.

The Pawsey Medal:

This medal commemorates the contributions to science in Australia by the late Dr J. L. Pawsey FAA. Its purpose is to recognise outstanding research in physics, for work carried out mainly in Australia. The recipient must be no older than 40.

Associate Professor Brett Neilan was born in Sydney and is 40. He obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science through the University of Technology, Sydney and completed his doctoral studies at UNSW. He is a Fellow of the Australian Research Council and holds the Chair of Environmental and Health Microbiology in the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. He won a Eureka Prize for Scientific Research in 2001 and a Young Tall Poppy Award in 2004.

Professor Neilan is a molecular biologist who began his research career studying the genetics of human disease. In the early 1990s he switched his attention to the blue-green algae that live in waterways and produce potentially fatal toxins. These algae are found in many countries and when they occur in large numbers in rivers, lakes and reservoirs the water is unsafe to drink for people and other animals. With its limited surface water supplies, these algae pose a particular problem for Australia. Professor Neilan and his colleagues have since been able to use genetic fingerprinting techniques to identify the particular algal genes that produce these toxins, enabling tests to be devised to detect their presence in waterways. This work has been acknowledged by several international and national awards and forms the basis of a new commercial venture, which applies molecular biology for environmental management.

More recently Professor Neilan has become involved in "bio-prospecting" research - seeking potentially useful or beneficial genes occurring naturally in plants, animals and fungi. He has studied micro-organisms that live in extreme environments, such as Antarctica and hypersaline seawater at Shark Bay, in Western Australia. He is also investigating traditional medicinal compounds used by indigenous Australians, especially in the Sydney region. These two lines of research have already yielded potential new anti-cancer and antibiotic pharmaceutical drugs.

The Fenner Medal:

This medal marks the outstanding contributions to science by Professor Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE MD FAA FRS. Its purpose is to recognise outstanding research in the plant and animal sciences by scientists not over the age of 40 years.

UNSW Faculty of Science media contact: Bob Beale - phone 02 9385 5893 or mobile 0411 705 435