Three Fellows and the Chief Executive of the Australian Academy of Science have been recognised in the 2025 Australia Day Honours List.
Each year, the Honours List recognises and celebrates Australians for distinguished and outstanding service.
Officer of the Order of Australia
The following Fellows were appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).
Professor Andrew Blakers AO FAA FTSE was recognised for his distinguished service to science in the field of solar cell development, and as an advocate for energy storage and renewable technologies.
Professor Blakers has made major contributions to the advancement of solar energy as the key to decarbonising the global economy. Professor Blakers is also globally prominent in the analysis of 100 per cent renewable energy systems and developed the Global Atlas of Pumped Hydro Energy Storage. An Academy Fellow since 2024, he is a joint winner of numerous awards, including the 2023 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and the 2018 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research.
Professor Keith Nugent AO FAA was recognised for his distinguished service to tertiary education, to science as a physicist, and to the advancement of optical physics.
Elected to the Academy in 2000, he is a distinguished optical physicist who has been singularly creative from the earliest age. Much of Professor Nugent's work has been devoted to problems of neutron and X-ray optics for which refractive materials are not available. His work has made contributions to X-ray holography, coherence measurement and near-field optics.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla AO FAA FTSE was recognised for her distinguished service to science as an engineer and inventor, to sustainable materials research and technology and waste management.
Professor Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and innovator who is revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of 'green materials'. As Director of the Sustainable Materials Research and Technology Centre at UNSW, she has built a world-class research hub dedicated to innovation. She was elected to the Academy in 2018.
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)
The Academy's Chief Executive Anna-Maria Arabia OAM was recognised for her service to science, particularly through organisational leadership roles.
Ms Arabia began her career as a neuroscientist and has worked nationally and globally in scientific research, policy development, politics and science advocacy.
Her leadership has led to significant reform at the science-policy interface and she has established novel mechanisms to facilitate evidence-informed decision-making in parliaments and the justice system. She has spearheaded new approaches to science communication and implemented global initiatives to make underrepresented scientists more visible.
