Spinal cord injury research professor named Australian of the Year
A PIONEERING scientist in the field of spinal cord injury, Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, honoured for a lifetime of work aimed at helping others.
BIOMEDICAL scientist Alan Mackay-Sim has been named the 2017 Australian of the Year.
The Queensland researcher, whose groundbreaking work on stem cells was crucial to the first ever successful case of restoring a quadriplegic person’s ability walk, was awarded the top honour out of eight finalists including anti-slavery activist Andrew Forrest, dementia advocate Kate Swaffer and former child soldier turned lawyer Deng Adut.
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Professor Mackay-Sim as Australian of the Year at an award ceremony in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra this evening.
In accepting the award, Prof Mackay-Sim said it was an unbelievable honour to be named Australian of the Year.
He declined to comment on whether he had been the safe choice in the wake of criticism that the awards had become too political. But he said he would be using the year to lobby for more funding into medical research and more support for the next generation of scientists.
“It’s a great thing for science, it’s a great thing for bio-medical science,” Prof Mackay-Sim said on being named Australian of the Year.
“Medical research around Australia is similar to around the world, all the way around the world budgets are going out of medical science,” he said.
“Everyone is struggling to fund all different priorities.
“But it is certainly squeezed in Australia.”
The professor, also the director of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, has championed the use of stem cells from the nose in understanding the biological bases of brain disorders and diseases such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease and Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia.
Fashion designer Paul Vasileff was named Young Australian of the Year, Sister Anne Gardiner of the Tiwi Islands off the Northern Territory was named Senior Australian of the Year, and community fundraising champion Vicki Jellie was named Australia’s Local Hero for 2017.
National Australia Day Council chairman Ben Roberts-Smith said the recipients “remind us to dream big, work hard and believe in what you’re doing”.
“Alan, Vicki, Sister Anne and Paul are Australians we can all be richly proud of and inspired by,” Mr Roberts-Smith said.
“They have all made valuable contributions - to medical science and their communities, by creating jobs and keeping heritage and culture alive, and through helping others and creating a better future.”
NRL champion turned youth mentor Alan Tongue, indigenous leader and business woman of the year Andrea Mason, refugee and trauma rehabilitation advocate Paris Aristotle and speech pathologist Rosalie Martin were the other inspiring finalists for Australian of the Year.
AUSTRALIA’S LOCAL HERO 2017
A community fundraising champion has been named Australia’s Local Hero for 2017.
Victorian woman Vicki Jellie received the award at tonight’s ceremony for her dedication to fighting for better cancer services.
After her husband Peter died of cancer in 2008, Ms Jellie fought relentlessly to make his dream to bring radiotherapy services to the South West of Victoria a reality.
Ms Jellie lobbied governments and rallied the community to raise funds and by 2014, their dream came true.
The local community had raised $5 million and the state and federal government pitched in $25 million for the new South West Regional Cancer Centre.
In accepting the award, Ms Jellie said the honour of ‘local hero’ belonged to everyone who helped bring the centre to life.
“Together we’ve proven that nothing’s impossible and have worked determinedly to ensure cancer patients in our region have been given the absolute best access to cancer treatment, send to none to anywhere in Australia,” she said.
SENIOR AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR 2017
Sister Anne Gardiner has been named the 2017 Senior Australian of the Year.
The 85-year-old was awarded the honour for a lifetime community service on the Tiwi Islands of the Northern Territory.
Sister Anne was asked to move to Bathurst Island to live among the Tiwi people as a 22-year-old member of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
In the 62 years since, she has devoted her life to enriching community, enhancing opportunity and supporting the Tiwi culture.
“As persons our identity is in who we are, not what we are,” she said, accepting the award tonight.
“I pray that all people in our wonderful country Australia regardless of language, culture, skin colour or religious belief may stand tall as proud Australians.”
In her speech, she urged policy makers to engage with the Tiwi people and other indigenous Australians so policies might recognise their culture.
Sister Anne has educated generations of children as the principal of the local primary school while also establishing community clubs, from mothers’ groups to Little Athletics. She runs regular prayer meetings, founded an op shop and established a café to raise funds to support
her much-loved community.
Sr Anne’s labour of love, the Patakajiyali museum, shares valuable Tiwi stories, language and traditional customs, while also bringing financial benefit to the people.
YOUNG AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR 2017
Fashion designer Paul Vasileff has been named the Young Australian of the Year for 2017.
The South Australian, whose couture label Paolo Sebastian is now featured on the world’s runways and worn by celebrities at the Oscars and Logies, said it was a shock to win and recognised the amazing stories of his fellow finalists.
Vasileff said he had strived to be he best he could be and make his dream come true from a very young age.
“At a time when the majority of production was moving offshore, I wanted to locally produce my product and sustain the art of couture in Australia,” he said.
“I am proud today that we are able nature and uphold these skills locally and provide Australians with jobs.”
Vasileff continues to run the label from his home town with just 13 locally hired staff.
Originally published as Spinal cord injury research professor named Australian of the Year