Jan Anderson Award and Lecture

The Jan Anderson Award and Lecture

Proudly sponsored by CSIRO Agriculture and Food and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture.

Applications for the Anderson Award should be lodged with the Honorary Secretary, ASPS Inc. secretary@asps.org.au

Applications for the 2024 Anderson Award are now open.

The closing date for the 2024 award is now 5th April, 2024.

Nominations will be invited for this Award every year. The background of the Award is given below, together with candidate prerequisites and procedures to follow in making a submission.

Joan (Jan) Mary Anderson FAA FRS FDhc (Umeå) was an internationally acclaimed plant biologist renowned for her discoveries on the organization of the intricate membrane structures that carry out solar energy conversion in cells of green plants. Jan’s experiments and insights changed the way we think about the light reactions of photosynthesis. Her research career spanned some 55 years, mostly at the Division of Plant Industry CSIRO Canberra (1961-97) and then in the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University.

Jan was a passionate and creative female scientist who was well ahead of her time. She was an inspiration to young researchers, for whom her enthusiasm and curiosity were infectious. Professor Jan Anderson died on 28 August 2015 after a short illness. In recognition of her life and achievements in photosynthesis research as a pioneering female scientist, this award will acknowledge talented female plant science researchers.

The Award

  1. The Award honours the memory and attainments of Jan Anderson – a pre-eminent scientist and foundation member of this Society.
  2. The Award will be made to an early or mid-career female in recognition of outstanding research conducted subsequent to their PhD. The research should be represented by published papers, including those in press. In the case of multi-author papers, the role of the candidate needs to be stated and they should have played a major role in both the design and execution of the work.
  3. The work presented for assessment shall be in any branch of plant science represented by the Society.
  4. The Award excludes work carried out under supervision while the applicant was a candidate for a research degree.
  5. The Award will normally be made annually by the Society unless there is no candidate of sufficient merit.
  6. The value of the Award will be determined by the Society. The current value is $2,000, and is sponsored by CSIRO Agriculture and Food and ASPS.
  7. The successful applicant will be invited to present their work in a plenary Anderson Lecture at the annual conference.

The Candidate

  1. A person may apply for the Award or a nomination may be made on their behalf.
  2. Candidates are not restricted as to the number of occasions on which they apply for the Anderson Award. However, previous recipients of the Anderson Award cannot reapply. Previous recipients of the Goldacre Award are ineligible to apply for the Anderson Award.
  3. At the time of applying, the candidate would not have exceeded the equivalent of 15 cumulative years of full-time employment subsequent to the year their PhD was awarded (excluding career breaks).
  4. A candidate must have carried out the research subsequent to their PhD research.
  5. The candidate should be a member of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists, with a preference given to candidates that have carried out most of their research in Australia.
  6. When two or more nominees are of equal merit, the prize shall be shared equally.
  7. Nominators must be members of the Society.
  8. There is no obligation for the society to make an award in any one given year if there are no candidates deemed of suitable quality.

Successful Candidates

  1. The successful applicant will be invited to present their work in a plenary Anderson Lecture at the annual conference.
  2. The winner(s) will be required to provide a description of their work in the next 60 days after the award is granted for our “Phytogen” newsletter. This presentation (up to 3 pages long) should be sent to the ASPS Phytogen Editor as a Word document and photos should be provided separately as “png” files. Other material, such as videos or additional URL, is also welcome.

Application Procedure

  1. Applications for the Award should be emailed to the Secretary of the Society secretary@asps.org.au by a time specified, normally at least six months before the annual meeting at which the Award is announced to enable the Awardee to present their work in an Anderson Lecture.
  2. Each application shall consist of a one-page statement describing the merits of the applicant’s work, a full CV (including the date their PhD was awarded and employment history), and copies of each of the published papers forming the basis of the application. It shall also include a summary limited to 100 words that can be used as a citation at the Award ceremony. Career breaks should be specified within the application (in terms of nature and length of the break). All of the above application materials should be submitted as a single electronic file.
  3. The Secretary of the Society will manage the applications to ensure that those assessing applications will not know whether they have originated as nominations or direct applications.
  4. The Award will be made by the Society on the recommendation of its Committee who may co-opt expert assessors for this purpose. The Secretary and President will select appropriate Australian and international assessors, whose identity will remain known only to them. In cases where more than one candidate receives a strong recommendation, the President or Secretary will decide on the Award on the basis of the advice received.

Recipient of the Jan Anderson Award

2018 Dr Eloise Foo (University of Tasmania)
2019 Dr Monika Murcha (University of Western Australia)
2020 Dr Crystals Sweetman (University)/Dr Kristine Crous  (Western Sydney University) report and Phytogen
2021 Dr Kim Johnson (La Trobe University)
2022 Dr Frances Sussmilch (University of Tasmania)
2023 Dr Caitlin Byrt (ANU)