Truswell had a distinguished career with the Bureau of Mineral Resources Canberra (later Australian Geological Survey Organisation) from 1973, holding the position of Chief Research Scientist in Palynology from 1990-97. She published more than 80 scientific papers, dealing with issues of the evolution of Australian climates and vegetation, and undertook extensive research in Antarctic geology.
Physician and zoologist Clara Weekes was the first woman to earn a doctorate of science at the University of Sydney, and a long-time advocate for women’s rights.
Her book on the plants of New Zealand became a botanical classic running to seven editions over the next 60 years. Several generations of people interested in New Zealand’s native plants were to use it as a constant reference book and a number of professional botanists would credit it with stimulating their original interest.
Kathleen Todd believed passionately that the important role of any doctor is ‘sometimes to cure, often to relieve, but always to console’. This dictum came to have a very personal resonance for this gifted, warm and empathetic psychiatrist.
Suzanne Cory is one of Australia’s most distinguished molecular biologists. Her research has had a major impact in the fields of immunology and cancer.
A leading advocate for culturally sensitive mental health care, Dr. Reiko Homma True is dedicated to improving mental health treatment for the Asian-American community and other minority populations. She is a devoted mentor who has worked hard to support other Asian-American women pursuing careers in psychology.
Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark was a pathbreaking psychologist whose research helped desegregate schools in the United States. Over a three-decade career, Dr. Clark researched child development and racial prejudice in ways that not only benefitted generations of children but changed the field of psychology.
Professor Adrienne Clarke is an Australian scientist whose research contribution to the field of plant genetics, and to commercial ventures that developed from that research, is recognised nationally and abroad.
Referred to as “Her Deepness,” National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia Earle holds the record for deepest walk on the sea floor and is a world-renowned expert on marine biology. The first woman to lead the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle advocates for ocean conservation and education.
In 1982 she and and her husband formed the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society, of which she has been President for the past 30 years.