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Australia's Nobel Prize Winners

The story behind the first scientific Nobel Prize associated with Australia points to the possibility that distance and isolation can help scientists look at problems with a fresh eye and learn useful things about their own abilities.

British-born William Henry Bragg came to the University of Adelaide as Professor of Mathematics and Physics in 1886. He had trained as a mathematician at Cambridge and had to teach himself physics as well as the craft skills to make equipment for his Australian physics students' practical classes. Because scientific apparatus was difficult to obtain in the colony of South Australia, Bragg discovered his gift for designing instruments. This underpinned his later research.

Bragg's son, William Lawrence, was born in Adelaide in 1890. Bragg returned to England in 1909. The father and son had a constructive argument about the nature of X-rays, and the younger Bragg evidently used an instrument his father invented to win an important theoretical point. They jointly received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915 for their work, which resulted in techniques used to map the atomic structure of crystals. Both Braggs were knighted, and had long and distinguished careers.

Photo Source: http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/galleria/awards/nobel/nobelmedals.html

The following are notable Nobel Prize Winners from Australia:

Lawrence and William Bragg (1915) – Nobel Prize for physics. Bragg shared the Prize with his son. It was awarded for 'their services in the analysis of crystal structure by the means of x-rays'.

Howard Florey (1945) – Nobel Prize for medicine. Florey shared the Prize with Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Flemingboth of England. The Prize was awarded 'for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases'

Macfarlane Burnett (1960) – Nobel Prize for medicine. Burnet shared the Prize with Peter Medawar from England. It was awarded 'for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance'.

John Eccles (1963) – Nobel Prize for medicine. Eccles shared the Prize with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxleyboth of England. It was awarded for 'their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane'.

John Cornforth (1975) – Nobel Prize for chemistry. The Prize was awarded for 'his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions'. Cornforth shared the Prize with Vladimir Prelog of Switzerland, who was honored 'for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions'.

Peter Doherty (1996) – Nobel Prize for medicine. Doherty shared the Prize with Rolf Zinkernagel from Switzerland. It was awarded for work they completed together in 1973, which led to 'discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defense'.

Barry Marshall and Robin Warren (2005) – received the prize in 2005 for their discovery in 1982 of the Helicobacter pylori bacterium which causes stomach ulcers and gastritis.

Elizabeth Blackburn (dual Australian/American citizen) became Australia's first female Nobel Prize winner for her work in chemistry and genetics in October 2009 sharing the prize with her US-based colleagues Carol Greider and Jack Szostak.

Source: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Australia/People/NobelPrize.asp

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