The Australian Academy of Science today announced the winners of some of Australia’s most prestigious science awards. This included Professor Denis Evans who was awarded the 2015 David Craig Medal for outstanding contributions to chemical research.

The awards also included three new awards celebrating the careers of eminent biologists Sir Gus Nossal and Professor Jacques Miller, and engineer Professor John Booker which recognise early- and mid-career researchers.

The winners of these new awards have undertaken pioneering research developing treatments for malaria, devising new drugs to treat obesity and making cheaper and more efficient solar cells.

Each year the Academy presents awards to recognise scientific excellence, from researchers in the early stage of their careers to those who have made life long achievements.

The Academy is also announcing the 2016 Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture which recognises outstanding research in the biological sciences and is only presented every two years.

In addition, the Academy awards a number of grants and fellowships to help support scientists’ research, scientific conferences and international travel.

The Academy President, Professor Andrew Holmes congratulated all the award winners and grant recipients.

The honorific awards will be formally presented at the Academy’s annual three day celebration of Australian Science, Science at the Shine Dome.

Professor Evans has made several outstanding contributions to classical statistical mechanics of nonequilibrium systems. He has long been credited with the derivation of Molecular Dynamics algorithms for computing transport properties of fluids and thermostats. Evans' most outstanding theory contributions concern the thermodynamics of small systems observed over short time, for which he is internationally regarded as the “Creator of the Fluctuation Theorems".