Royal Society of Victoria in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Community organisation

Royal Society of Victoria

Locality: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9663 5259

Address: 8 La Trobe Street 3000 Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Website: https://rsv.org.au

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25.01.2022 Incoming Transmission from June 12, 2025! Immunologist and Nobel Laureate, Professor Peter Doherty has some excellent news about the latest COVID-19 vaccine: it's "the greatest vaccine that's EVER BEEN... BETTER THAN MEASLES... a WONDERFUL outcome!" Oh, whoops though, climate change. DAMN. The latest in our Messages from the Future series for Inspiring Australia - National Networks, collecting time-travelling transmissions on how to put today's science to work for a better ou...tcome tomorrow. The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

24.01.2022 "The beginning of my term coincided with one of the most momentous scientific breakthroughs in a century: the detection of gravitational waves... As I finish my... term, the contribution of Australian scientists to that discovery has just been recognised in the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. As chair of the Prizes selection committee, this was a nice bookend for me. More importantly, it’s a reminder we are playing the long game." Dr Finkel reflected on his term as Australia’s Chief Scientist in an article in The Conversation published yesterday.

23.01.2022 Trust in expertise and science has in recent decades become a partisan issue in the US. While most Americans share the belief that science creates opportunities, and that the federal government should invest in basic science, opinions diverge primarily on party affiliation or education backgrounds on the role of science in society and confidence in the scientific community. An excellent analysis on the stakes for Australia from the US election result from the Australian Academy of Science.

22.01.2022 Dr Nisa Salim’s research focuses on novel designs, materials and scalable formulations to produce multifunctional materials inspired by nature, a promising approach to help solve human challenges. Such composite structures can perform a double duty; for example, acting as a strong, lightweight body part for a vehicle, and also as a battery to power that vehicle. Tonight we explore how these bio-inspired materials will support a range of initiatives, including the faster realisation of autonomous emergency care and sustainable e-mobility. Join us to hear from the winner of the Society’s 2020 Phillip Law Postdoctoral Prize, based at the Swinburne University of Technology.

21.01.2022 Industry 4.0 is described as a great enabler for the re-shoring of Australian manufacturing in a cost effective and globally competitive way, even for low volume production and small batch sizes. Described as the fourth industrial revolution, Professor Bronwyn Fox from the Swinburne University of Technology is confident that these new tools and processes particularly cognitive digital twins of a product, its production and performance - will enhance our sovereign manufa...cturing capabilities and, where the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaps in our vital supply chains, we will now have the capability to plug these gaps. This is where Australia has an opportunity to make the most of technology transfer from the mining sector to our manufacturing sector, accelerating the transition from idea, to design, to prototype, to production by enabling Small to Medium Enterprises to test new technologies and business models in a pre-competitive, digital environment, minimising technical and financial risk. Bronwyn's presentation was filmed and distributed with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

21.01.2022 Tonight the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science will be presented as an online public event! From 6pm tonight, tune in to the livestream to help celebrate outstanding achievements in scientific research and research-based innovation, and excellence in science teaching. Details are in the link. Inspiring Australia - National Networks Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Australia's Chief Scientist

20.01.2022 What if we could reverse climate change, increase biodiversity and feed everyone? Does that sound like a win-win-win scenario for people and the planet? Join Dr Samantha Grover as she explores the possibilities of soil carbon. From microbial processes to global policy settings, she will discuss how carbon moves from the atmosphere into soils, how land management can increase or decrease the stores of carbon in our soils and how we, as food consumers, can adjust the settings in our food systems to help achieve net zero emissions in our lifetimes.

20.01.2022 Victorian Early Career Researchers: bring your science to the people! It's time to get some public profile for your work, so come develop your skills in presenting your research to the media through participation in Fresh Science, one of Australia's longest-running science communication competitions.

18.01.2022 Congratulations to Dr Cathy Foley, appointed as Australia's Chief Scientist from December this year. An outstanding appointment; we do look forward to working with you. Details on Dr Foley's appointment are in the link provided to the Australian Academy of Science. We would like to record our gratitude to the outgoing Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel for his excellent contribution. Representing science in the political sphere is increasingly challenging and Dr Finkel proved a ...courageous standard bearer in the role. While his contribution is widely acknowledged with regard to the commercial applications of our country's scientific prowess, we also note the many times he has been called upon to defend science and scientists from those who wish to discredit their findings or character to suit a preferred world view, including in the realm of climate science. Part technologist, part science communicator, all diplomat! Thank you for your contribution, Dr Finkel. See more

15.01.2022 "Dr Sophia Frentz has a PhD in Genetics, is a councillor for the Royal Society of Victoria, and works as a Data Consultant at Eliiza. They are queer, disabled, autistic, and probably pretty exhausted. Sophia tries to be who they needed when they were 15, because chances are someone else needs that too." Congrats to our very own Sophia for being named as one of Out for Australia's "30 Under 30" winners for 2020! We're always proud of you, but today we particularly acknowledge your courageous advocacy and mentorship of young(er) LGBTQIA+ people here in Victoria. An excellent acknowledgement of an excellent human being. https://www.outforaustralia.org/30-under-30-2020

14.01.2022 Here's a replay of part 2 in our STEM and Society series. It features Professor Will Steffen from The Australian National University and Professor Brendan Wintl...e from The University of Melbourne discussing stewardship of the Earth System to conserve our natural and cultural heritage. Presented in partnership with the Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. See more

13.01.2022 Nisa is clearly an extremely high achieving ECR, has demonstrated strengths in leadership, outreach, industry partnerships, research significance, publication record there’s no weakness here I can find." The Royal Society of Victoria is delighted to congratulate Dr Nisa Salim from the Swinburne University of Technology, the 2020 recipient of the Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award for the Physical Sciences. Dr Salim will be presenting to the Society on her remarkable work, expl...oring the storage of energy in multifunctional, structural materials on 26 November - details for joining the webinar via Facebook Live are at https://www.facebook.com/events/1075379469649013. https://rsv.org.au/phil-law-2020/

12.01.2022 Our coast is a dynamic system. As the protective boundary between the land and sea it absorbs the constant energy it receives from waves and tides and in doing so creates the landforms on which people recreate and build. The forms we see on the coast today are the result of each interaction waves have with the seabed, averaged over timescales of centuries to millennia. To predict how the coast will look in a future dominated by climate change it is critical to understand the ...unique local conditions that have combined to give us the forms we see today. Tonight we're joined by Associate Professor David Kennedy (The University of Melbourne) to explore how some of Victoria’s iconic coasts have developed, from 90-mile Beach to Western Port and the 12 Apostles, and what their future may hold. There are no easy solutions, however by acknowledging the natural processes and especially sediment dynamics that shape the coast, we can plan a way forward. The 2021 Howitt Lecture is presented in partnership with the Geological Society of Australia (Victoria Division) with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

11.01.2022 Worried about the role of machine learning in our justice system? Check out "the bright but modest potential of algorithms in the courtroom" with Dr Inbar Levy, streaming now via the Parliament of Victoria Library.

10.01.2022 The history of our global civilisation is marked by racial, gender and economic divides. A product of human intelligence, Artificial Intelligence has been shown to exacerbate our human biases. Dr Muneera Bano works in the socio-technical domains of software engineering at Deakin University; she asserts it is time to re-evaluate our increasing dependence on technology and AI, and question what it means for diversity and inclusion. She explores how our decisions in the present, based on our experiences of the past, are critical for the future directions of humanity and AI. Produced by the Royal Society of Victoria for the Inspiring Victoria program. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

09.01.2022 We need different ways of funding science. Long-term funding to institutions is worth reconsidering. It can give scientists the freedom to follow threads and see where they lead, rather than having to constantly worry about where the next grant is coming from. Funding insecurity affects the culture of health and medical research, with hyper-competition for grants resulting in what Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Director, Professor Doug Hilton describes as quite a toxic element - not the kind of environment conducive to discovery science.

08.01.2022 We’re joined by Dr Lynette Bettio, Senior Climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, for a briefing on the 2020 State of the Climate Report, prepared in collaboration with CSIRO and released in November this year. This sixth, biennial report draws on the latest monitoring, science and projection information to describe variability and changes in Australia’s climate. Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long term climate change interacti...ng with underlying natural variability. These changes affect many Australians, particularly the changes associated with increases in the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather and drought. The report is a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia and includes new information about Australia’s climate of the past, present and future. The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability assessments, by government, industry and communities. Lynette will describe the changes we’ve seen and the implications for the future, informing the important decisions that will need to be made to help our country to persist, adapt and thrive in the years to come. You can access the Report at http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/ . This webinar was prepared as a part of the Inspiring Victoria program. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

07.01.2022 Human pressures on the planet as a whole the ‘Earth System’ have now become so great that scientists propose we have left the Holocene, the 11,700-year geologic epoch that has been humanity’s accommodating home, and have entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, characterised by extremely rapid changes to the climate system driven primarily by human emissions of greenhouse gases and the growing degradation of the planet’s biosphere, driven by a range of direct and i...ndirect human pressures. Where is the Anthropocene headed? The current trajectory of the Earth System is a rapid acceleration towards a much hotter climate system and a degraded, ill-functioning biosphere. Perhaps most concerning is a possible ‘fork in the road’ beyond which lies ‘Hothouse Earth’. The key element of this trajectory is a ‘tipping cascade’, in which a series of interlinked tipping points the melting of polar ice, the conversion of forest biomes to grasslands or savannas, changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation take control of the trajectory of the Earth System and move it to a much hotter, biodiversity-impoverished, but stable state. Professor Will Steffen (The Climate Council, The Australian National University) argues that avoiding this possible tipping cascade requires fundamental changes to human societies. These changes include not only advances in technologies but also more fundamental changes in societal structures and core values. Presented with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Will's full presentation is also available at https://youtu.be/HvD0TgE34HA. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

07.01.2022 Dr Nisa Salim’s research at Swinburne University of Technology focuses on novel designs, materials and scalable formulations to produce multifunctional materials inspired by nature, a promising approach to help solve human challenges. Such composite structures can perform a double duty; for example, acting as a strong, lightweight body part for a vehicle, and also as a battery to power that vehicle. Tonight we explore how these bio-inspired materials will support a range of initiatives, including the faster realisation of autonomous emergency care and sustainable e-mobility. Join us to hear from the 2020 winner of the Society’s Phillip Law Postdoctoral Prize. Produced with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

06.01.2022 Incoming Transmission from the Baw Baw Bunker, October 18, 2047! Dr Jenny Gray, CEO of Zoos Victoria, communicates we have worked out what animals think and feel using some pretty advanced technology. The first of our Messages from the Future series for Inspiring Australia - National Networks, collecting time-travelling transmissions on how to put today's science to work for a better outcome tomorrow.

02.01.2022 For many years, Melbourne, Australia has dined out on being recognised as the most liveable city in the world; and is now second to Vienna. While this global recognition is a source of great pride and an excellent marketing tool is this measure of liveable fit for purpose? Drawing on almost a decade of research, Professor Billie Giles-Corti (RMIT University) considers: What is a liveable city?... How are we measuring liveability? Are we creating liveable cities in Australia for all? If not, why not? And perhaps most importantly, why our definition of and support for liveability is important if we are concerned about creating cities that facilitate healthy and sustainable lifestyles that support both individual and planetary health. Produced with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Billie's full presentation is available at https://youtu.be/HSyH3IhGAuA. Inspiring Australia - National Networks

01.01.2022 It is because of her sustained excellence in research, innovation, and leadership that in 2020 Australia has a growing, globally networked, advanced manufacturing ecosystem in carbon fibre composites. The Royal Society of Victoria is delighted to congratulate the 2020 recipient of our prestigious Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research Professor Bronwyn Fox, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at Swinburne University of Technology.