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Welcome to Issue 13 of Australian University Science magazine, celebrating 30 years of the Australian Council of Deans of Science! Over this time, scientific discoveries have generated new knowledge and significantly impacted our society and our environment. This issue outlines many inspiring examples of how Australian university science has contributed to these outcomes.
In contemplating these developments, I reflected on my own scientific journey. As an Australian postdoc in London in 1995, I was part of a large team of scientists studying one of the genes responsible for inherited breast cancer. This was such an exciting time as discoveries about DNA and genes, along with technologies for isolating and analysing genes, were unravelling the origins of multiple human diseases, including Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy and cancer.
In the subsequent two decades, these discoveries seeded the establishment and growth of multidisciplinary consortiums, biobanks and genetic databases, and thriving biotechnology industries in Australia and overseas. These organisations, resources and industries translated discoveries and developed critical technologies, leading to the wide availability of diagnostics that can predict the risk of genetic disease, detect infectious agents, recommend effective treatments, enable reproduction, enhance agriculture, and support forensic analysis.
Today, university science is driving remarkable achievements in health, environment, energy, communication, education and sustainability at an astonishing pace, with discovery research, technology development and education in universities continuing to be at the heart of every success story.
As we celebrate this milestone, I extend my gratitude to all contributors to this issue, especially Ian Chubb for writing the Foreword. I hope you enjoy reading the stories and I look forward to seeing you at one of our celebratory events during the year!
Written by Professor Melissa Brown, University of Queensland
President, Australian Council of Deans of Science