Invitation from Australia

This is a guest editorial contributed by Andrew Holmes, president of the Australian Academy of Science.

Australia’s Academy of Science is relatively young, celebrating this year its 61st anniversary. It recognizes excellence in science in Australia, promotes Australian science abroad, and provides independent scientific advice.

The academy was strongly influenced by the U.K.’s Royal Society, as its founders were Australia-based fellows of the Royal Society. Chemists among those foundation fellows included physical organic chemist Raymond James Wood Le Fèvre, agricultural chemist James Arthur Prescott, and physical chemist Albert Cherbury David Rivett. They were soon joined by inorganic chemist John Stuart Anderson, spectroscopist Noel Bayliss, organic chemist Arthur John Birch, chemical physicist Albert Lloyd George Rees, and surface chemist Ian Wark.

Historically the development of science and technology in Australia has been driven by the need to be self-reliant, owing to our physical isolation, and to address local natural challenges. Starting with the gold rush from the late-19th century, the mining industry has traditionally been a source of great export revenue, particularly in recent times, and the industry has benefited greatly from improved extraction of chemical elements through the froth flotation process Wark developed at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation. CSIRO is a large government research laboratory covering a broad spectrum of research that underpins both fundamental knowledge and support for industry.

Many of the greatest chemical advances in Australia have emerged from CSIRO. The insect repellent Aerogard was developed in 1963 by CSIRO chemists to make the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to Canberra more tolerable. (Australian flies are notoriously attentive to humans in the bush in summer months.) Atomic absorption spectroscopy emerged from the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics. Another chemistry-based CSIRO invention is the Australian polymer banknote that is now used in many countries around the world. Most recently the anti-influenza drug zanamivir (sold by GlaxoSmithKline as Relenza) was invented through the joint effort of biologists at CSIRO and chemists at the Victorian College of Pharmacy and Monash University.

How are we faring today? In contrast to the situation when I was an undergraduate and there were industrial research laboratories in Australia representing all the world’s major chemical companies, there has been a huge rationalization. Today, most industrial chemical and pharmaceutical research resides in small and medium enterprises. Our researchers are mainly embedded in universities and publicly funded research institutes. The Australian Government is encouraging us to think differently about industry engagement.

Meanwhile, our chemistry research is thriving. Our lead in the invention of controlled/living free-radical polymerization (and in polymer science in general) is well-recognized. We have international strengths in surface and colloid chemistry, in nanotechnology and materials for drug delivery, in organic electronic materials, in marine natural products chemistry, and in inorganic and theoretical chemistry.

However, unlike our Asian neighbors we have struggled to convert our science, especially in chemistry, into commercial outcomes. Australia ranks poorly in this regard, and a key goal for the coming decade is to find fresh ways to build the nexus between university research and industry.

This and other challenges are being considered by the Academy of Science’s National Committee for Chemistry, which is developing a decadal plan for chemistry in Australia. We also are focusing heavily on academy-led inquiry-based science education programs for our schools: Primary Connections has penetrated 75% of the primary schools in Australia, and Science by Doing is making important inroads in digital learning environments in our secondary schools.

International collaboration is vital to both our acquisition of new knowledge and dissemination of our own research. And so my final message to the readership of C&EN is an invitation to collaborate with chemists in Australia and to send your best people here to share their experiences with us. In return, we shall reciprocate.

Andrew Holmes