![RiAus building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/RiAus_building.JPG)
The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organisation with a mission to "bring science to people and people to science". It opened in October 2009.
Concept
The concept of a Royal Institution of Australia was proposed by Baroness Professor
Susan Greenfield
Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, (born 1 October 1950) is an English scientist, writer, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords (since 2001). Her research has focused on the treatment of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's dise ...
CBE, as
Thinker in Residence
Thinkers in Residence is a program in Adelaide, South Australia, designed to bring leaders in their fields to work with the South Australian community and government in developing new ideas and approaches to problem-solving, and to promote South A ...
for the South Australian Government during 2004 and 2005. Greenfield was Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain from 1998 to 2010. The South Australian Premier
Mike Rann
Michael David Rann, , (born 5 January 1953) is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and Australian am ...
was receptive of the idea and secured State, Federal and private sector funding for the building and the programs. The Royal Institution of Australia's inaugural Chairman is Peter Yates AM.
As a national hub for science communication, The Royal Institution of Australia promotes public awareness and understanding of science. The Institution highlights the importance of science in everyday life through Cosmos Magazine, th
cosmosmagazine.comwebsite, th
SCINEMA International Science Film Festival and th
RiAus Educationplatform..
The Royal Institution of Australia foundation partners were the
Government of South Australia
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...
, the Commonwealth Government and oil and gas company,
Santos. It has a paid membership program, including both corporate and individual members.
The Royal Institution of Australia is the first and only sister organisation outside of the UK of the
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
of Great Britain (RiGB).
Adelaide Stock Exchange Building
The Royal Institution of Australia is housed at The Science Exchange in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, which is a former
Stock Exchange
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...
building. Built in 1901 and designed by the architects
Hedley Allen Dunn in collaboration with Henry Fuller, this red brick building in Federation/Edwardian style with
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
influences (including a stained glass window by
Morris & Co., with three of the six panels after the designs of
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...
) is listed among the 120 nationally significant 20th-century buildings in South Australia.
Half of the building, which is open to the public on weekdays, has heritage value. The other half was gutted by two fires in the 20th century and is now office space for The Royal Institution of Australia and the
Australian Science Media Centre
The Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) is an independent, not-for-profit service for the news media, giving journalists direct access to evidence-based science and expertise.
The Centre's aim is to better inform public debate on the major ...
.
History
The establishment of The Royal Institution of Australia was amongst the recommendations Professor Greenfield made during her Adelaide residency, which included initiatives to encourage
collaboration
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
and complementary research programs across South Australian universities,
science communication
Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...
programs for children,
professional development
Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning
Informal learning is characterized "by a low degree of planning and ...
for school teachers and the establishment of the
Australian Science Media Centre
The Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) is an independent, not-for-profit service for the news media, giving journalists direct access to evidence-based science and expertise.
The Centre's aim is to better inform public debate on the major ...
. A key recommendation was the Bragg Initiative, which encouraged a relationship between
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
and the
RiGB and was taken up by the South Australian government.
In June 2008, work commenced to convert the former Adelaide Stock Exchange building, which had remained empty for many years, into The Science Exchange.
The Royal Institution of Australia was opened on 8 October 2009 by the President of the Council of RiGB, HRH
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick; born 9 October 1935) is a member of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Edward were first cousins through their fathers, King George VI, and Prince George, Duk ...
.
Bragg Initiative
The Bragg Initiative, which led to the initial development of The Royal Institution of Australia, was named for
William Henry Bragg
Sir William Henry Bragg (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was an English physicist, chemist, mathematician, and active sportsman who uniquelyThis is still a unique accomplishment, because no other parent-child combination has yet shared a Nobel ...
and
William Lawrence Bragg
Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structu ...
. This father and son team won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics for their 'services in the analysis of crystal structures by means of X rays'. The Braggs hold a unique place in Australian and international history, as the only father-and-son team to be awarded a Nobel Prize. William (Henry) Bragg was the first Professor of Physics at the University of Adelaide and his son (William) Lawrence was born and educated in South Australia. Both returned to the UK and were subsequently Directors of The Royal Institution of Great Britain. Both father and son had an enormous passion for communicating science to the broader community. The Bragg Initiative was a program within the
Department of the Premier and Cabinet, South Australian Government and was managed by Linda Cooper, Project Director.
Prof
Adrienne Clarke
Adrienne Elizabeth Clarke (née Petty; born 6 January 1938) is Professor Emeritus of Botany at the University of Melbourne, where she ran the Plant Cell Biology Research Centre from 1982–1999. She is a former chairman of the Commonwealth Scie ...
AC, Dr
Alan Finkel
Alan Simon Finkel (born 17 January 1953) is an Australian neuroscientist, inventor, researcher, entrepreneur, educator, policy advisor, and philanthropist. He was Australia’s Chief Scientist from 2016 to 2020. Prior to his appointment, his c ...
AO, Dr
Andrew Thomas AO, Prof
Barry Marshall
Barry James Marshall (born 30 September 1951) is an Australian physician, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Co-Director of the Marshall Centre at the University of Western Australia. Marsha ...
AC, Dr
Basil Hetzel
Basil Stuart Hetzel (13 June 1922 – 4 February 2017) was an Australian medical researcher who made a major contribution to combating iodine deficiency, a major cause of goitre and cretinism worldwide.
Early life and education
Hetzel was bor ...
AC (deceased), Prof
Brian Cox OBE, Prof
Brian Schmidt
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's Mo ...
AC, Prof
Carola Vinuesa
Carola Garcia de Vinuesa (born 1969) is a Spanish doctor, scientist, and professor. She is Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London, and at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canb ...
, Prof
Caroline McMillen
Isabella Caroline McMillen, (born 23 September 1954) is an Australian medical and health academic and the incumbent Chief Scientist of South Australia since October 2018. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences ...
, Emeritus Prof
Christopher Burrell AO, Prof
David Boger
David Vernon Boger FRS (born Kutztown, Pennsylvania) is an Australian chemical engineer.
In 2017, Boger was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for discoveries and fundamental research on elastic and particulate fluids and ...
, Prof
Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, S ...
AC, Prof
Fiona Stanley
Fiona Juliet Stanley (born 1 August 1946) is an Australian epidemiologist noted for her public health work, her research into child and maternal health as well as birth disorders such as cerebral palsy. Stanley is the patron of the Telethon Kid ...
AC, Prof
Fiona Wood
Fiona Melanie Wood (born 2 February 1958) is an English-born Australian plastic surgeon working in Perth, Western Australia. She is the director of the Royal Perth Hospital burns unit and the Western Australia Burns Service. In addition, Wo ...
AM, Prof
Graeme Clark AO, Prof
Ian Chubb
Ian William Chubb (born 17 October 1943) is an Australian neuroscientist and academic, who was the Chief Scientist of Australia from 23 May 2011 to 22 January 2016.
Career
Chubb has a Masters in Science, a DPhil from the University of Oxford, ...
AC, Prof
Ian Frazer
Ian Hector Frazer (born 6 January 1953) is a Scottish-born Australian immunologist, the founding CEO and Director of Research of the Translational Research Institute (Australia). Frazer and Jian Zhou developed and patented the basic technolog ...
AC, Emeritus Prof
Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe (born 3 November 1942) is an Australian academic and writer focused on environmental issues. A physics graduate, he is an Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith Univ ...
AO, Dr
J Robin Warren AC, Dr
John O’Sullivan, Prof
John Shine
John Shine (born 3 July 1946) is an Australian biochemist and molecular biologist. Shine and Lynn Dalgarno discovered the nucleotide sequence, called the Shine-Dalgarno sequence, necessary for the initiation and termination of protein synth ...
AO, Prof
Lyn Beazley
Professor Lynda (Lyn) Dent Beazley (born 1944) is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia, an ...
AO, Prof
Marcello Costa
Marcello Costa (born 9 January 1940) is an Italian-born Australian medical researcher, academic, and public health advocate.
He specializes in the structure and functions of the enteric nervous system. He taught in Turin, Melbourne, and Helsin ...
, Prof
Martin Green AM, Emeritus Prof
Max Brennan AO, Prof
Michael Archer AM, Prof
Michelle Simmons
Michelle Yvonne Simmons, (born 14 July 1967) is a Scientia Professor of Quantum Physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of New South Wales and has twice been an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and is an Australian Res ...
, Emerita Prof
Patricia Vickers-Rich
Patricia Arlene Vickers-Rich (born 11 July 1944), also known as Patricia Rich, is an Australian Professor of Palaeontology and Palaeobiology, who researches the environmental changes that have impacted Australia (including the ancient super ...
, Prof
Peter Doherty AC, Mr
Peter Gago
Peter Gago (born 25 April 1957) is a British-Australian winemaker and author. Gago has been chief winemaker at Penfolds and custodian of Penfolds Grange since 2002, the most iconic Australian wine.
Early life
Gago was born in Newcastle, Englan ...
AC, Mr
Robyn Williams
Robyn Williams (born 30 January 1944) is a British/Australian science journalist and broadcaster who has hosted ''The Science Show'' on ABC Radio National (RN) since 1975, and created ''Ockham's Razor'' in 1984.
Early life and education
W ...
AM, Prof Sir
Gustav Nossal
Sir Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal (born 4 June 1931) is an Austrian-born Australian research biologist. He is famous for his contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance.
Early life and education
Nossal's family ...
AC CBE, Prof
Suzanne Cory
Suzanne Cory (born 11 March 1942) is an Australian molecular biologist. She has worked on the genetics of the immune system and cancer and has lobbied her country to invest in science. She is married to fellow scientist Jerry Adams, also a WE ...
AC, Prof
, Prof
Terry Hughes, Prof
Zee Upton
Zee is the phonetic pronunciation of the letter Z in American English ("zed" in Commonwealth English).
Zee may also refer to:
People
*Zee (徐), a Wu Chinese surname, an equivalent of Xu
* Anthony Zee (b. 1945), Chinese-American physicist
*Chi ...
, Prof
Robin Batterham AO, Prof
Stephen Hopper
Stephen Donald Hopper AC FLS FTSE (born 18 June 1951) is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his n ...
AC, Mr
Tim Jarvis
Tim Jarvis AM (born May 1966) is a British-Australian environmental explorer, adventurer, climber, author and documentary filmmaker, with Masters qualifications in environmental science and environmental law. Due to his 2013 expedition recreatin ...
AM, Prof
John Long, Prof
Jennifer Martin, Scientia Prof
Veena Sahajwalla
Veena Sahajwalla is an inventor and Professor of Materials Science in the Faculty of Science at UNSW Australia. She is the Director of the UNSW SM@RT Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology and an Australian Research Council ...
, Assoc Prof
Paul Willis
Paul Willis (born 1945) is a British social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. Paul Willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, sociali ...
.
Director
The Inaugural Director of the Royal Institution of Australia was
Professor Gavin Brown AO, Scottish born mathematician and former Vice Chancellor of the
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
and the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
.
After the resignation of Professor Brown,
the Hon. Dr Jane Lomax-Smith AM filled in as Acting Director (2010-2011). Associate Professor Paul Willis, science communicator, paleontologist, science journalist and broadcaster was the Director from 2011 and concluded his term in July 2017. In 2017 The Royal Institution of Australia appointed Mr Bradley Abraham as the Chief Executive and Director. In addition, the Council appointed Associate Professor
Alan Duffy as its new Lead Scientist. Duffy is an astronomer and physicist working at Swinburne University of Technology. An author, Duffy is a leading expert on dark matter, dark energy, galaxy formation and cosmology.
Financial support
RiAus receives financial and in-kind support from members, corporate partners and donors.
Governance
The Royal Institution of Australia is governed by a council. As of 2020, council members are:
* Peter Yates AM, Chairman
* Professor
Lyn Beazley
Professor Lynda (Lyn) Dent Beazley (born 1944) is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia, an ...
* Dr Gregory Clark AC
* Sir
Rod Eddington
Sir Roderick Ian Eddington AO FTSE (born 2 January 1950) is an Australian businessman.
He was first appointed to the board of News Corporation in 1999, still serves on News Corp board and also serves on the board of another of Rupert Murdoch' ...
AO
* Professor
Caroline McMillen
Isabella Caroline McMillen, (born 23 September 1954) is an Australian medical and health academic and the incumbent Chief Scientist of South Australia since October 2018. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences ...
*
David Knox
* Christian Bennett
* Will Berryman
* Tony Clark
* Karen Dobson
See also
*
Royal Institution of Great Britain
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
*
William Henry Bragg
Sir William Henry Bragg (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was an English physicist, chemist, mathematician, and active sportsman who uniquelyThis is still a unique accomplishment, because no other parent-child combination has yet shared a Nobel ...
*
William Lawrence Bragg
Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structu ...
*
Baroness Susan Greenfield
*
Thinkers in Residence
*
Australian Science Media Centre
The Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) is an independent, not-for-profit service for the news media, giving journalists direct access to evidence-based science and expertise.
The Centre's aim is to better inform public debate on the major ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Institution Of Australia
Culture of Adelaide
Scientific societies based in Australia
Organisations based in Adelaide
Organisations based in Australia with royal patronage
2009 establishments in Australia
Scientific organizations established in 2009