Professor Kathy Belov AO from The University of Sydney has been elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Chennupati Jagadish has described fellows of the Academy as: “among the nation’s most distinguished scientists”. Fellows are elected by their peers on the basis of outstanding research with obvious impact.

Kathy is a global leader in comparative genetics and has been elected to the Academy for her ground-breaking work on solving the genome of various Australian animals to aid in conservation efforts. Particularly, Kathy’s work building a genome map for Australian koalas will help identify important genetic features that are essential for koala survival. Kathy’s team are also studying marsupial milk and pouches, to identify new antimicrobial peptides and other potential drug leads for animals and humans.

The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The founding president was prominent physicist Sir Mark Oliphant. There are now 590 Fellows of the Academy.

Congratulations on this amazing achievement Kathy!