Australian genius and Nobel laureates celebrated

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Australian genius and Nobel laureates celebrated


Australians have won more Nobel Prizes in science and medicine, in proportion to population, than any other nation. This statistic is celebrated in a new book, Australia's Nobel Laureates: Adventures in Innovation, being launched on Wednesday 19 May at the University of Technology, Sydney. Australia's Nobel Laureates is a first-ever collection of "life portraits" of 10 Australians who reached the pinnacle of achievement on the world stage during the past century - nine in science and medicine and one, Patrick White, in literature. The book is published by ETN Communications (ETNCOM), which produces the influential ABIE (Australian Business and Investment Explorer) journal. The most recent Australian laureate, Professor Peter Doherty, will speak at the launch, which is taking the form of an informal "innovation summit". Professor Doherty, with Rolf Zinkernagel, won the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how the immune system recognises virus-infected cells. UTS Director of Research and Commercialisation and a key collaborator in Australia's Nobel Laureates, Stephan Wellink, said the book offered much more than the inspirational stories of the laureates. "The Prime Minister John Howard says in his introduction to the book that one of Australia's most valuable assets is our great capacity to innovate and adapt to change," Mr Wellink said. "To reflect this, the publication also includes more than 70 profiles of innovation across a wide range of endeavours in contemporary Australia - from medical, agricultural, financial and information technology, to how to create and foster innovation in the workplace." Chairman of ETNCOM John Keeney said the wide scope of the book, from glories past to important contemporary developments, would be reflected in the structure of next Wednesday's event. "The book itself is important of course, being the first ever publication on our laureates, but as veterans in publishing, we wanted something more than the typical 'book only' event," Mr Keeney said. "With this in mind we've selected and invited a number of leaders in innovation from a variety of activity areas including finance, small company start-ups, government and academia. We wanted to create a mini summit on innovation, informally. I think some great new friendships will be made." Australia's Nobel Laureates: Adventures in Innovation profiles the achievements of William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg, Howard Walter Florey, Frank Macfarlane Burnet, John Carew Eccles, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, Bernard Katz, Patrick White, John Warcup Conforth and Peter Charles Doherty. Tuesday 11 May 2004