The ACT Scientist of the Year 2016 - awarded to ANU Scientist Dr Ceridwen Fraser
The annual ACT Scientist of the Year Award is a special award created by the government of Australia to recognise the achievements of an 'up and coming' scientist with significant potential to continue to achieve in their chosen field of research. The 2016 Scientist of the Year Award has been won by another esteemed faculty member of the Australian National University (ANU), it's Dr Ceridwen Fraser of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr presented Dr Fraser with the award at Lyneham Primary, where she went to school, in recognition of her work on the influence of environmental conditions, including past and future climate change, on global biodiversity.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt AC congratulated Dr Fraser on her award.
"To be recognised as the ACT Scientist of the Year is a great honour and wonderful recognition of Ceridwen's excellent contribution to the ACT, Australia and the world," Professor Schmidt said.
Dr Fraser's research has informed our understanding of past climate change in Antarctica, in particular, and associated impacts on life there. "How plants and animals have responded to climate change in the past can tell us a lot about how they might respond in the future, with the very fast climate change that we're starting to see now," she said. "I'm really motivated by the excitement of new discoveries. Sometimes they're not at all what you were expecting, so they can make you change the way you see the world and that keeps you wanting to go on and find the next big thing."
As part of the ACT Scientist of the Year award, Dr Fraser will be a science ambassador for the ACT.
The biogeographer said she was honoured by the recognition. She said: "I'm thrilled to have been chosen to represent the ACT's many excellent scientists this year, and I look forward to visiting lots of ACT schools to speak to students about my research and careers in science,". "I hope that my research will help the world to see the ACT as a dynamic research hub, and a mover and a shaker beyond politics." Dr Fraser is passionate about helping to discover the next generation of scientists.
She said "I really enjoy engaging with primary and secondary school students, who are full of enthusiasm and fantastic ideas,".
You can see this story and much more inside the official ANU website:
http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/ceridwen-fraser-named-act-scientist-of-the-year
