Congratulations Ron Ekers and Elaine Sadler

Prof. Ron Ekers and Prof. Elaine Sadler have today been made Officers in the Order of Australia (AO).

Elaine, our new ATNF Chief Scientist, received her award for distinguished service to science as an astrophysicist, in the field of galaxy evolution, and to gender equality. Elaine has a long-standing affiliation with the University of Sydney, and with the ATNF as a Facility user and member of the ATNF Steering Committee.

Ron's award is for distinguished service to science as a radio astronomer, to scientific education, and to astronomical and international organisations.

Ron was inaugural Director of two of the most powerful radio-astronomy facilities in the world: the ATNF and the USA's Very Large Array. He was also instrumental in setting in motion the project to build the Square Kilometre Array.

Under Ron's stewardship, ATNF science grew to achieve global recognition of its quality and impact, accolades it still receives to this day. The Facility's instruments, ATCA and Parkes, are still regularly ranked among the best in the world. Now, ASKAP has joined them and we can look forward to building on Ron's substantial legacy of an outward-looking, customer-focused culture, world-leading radio astronomy instrumentation and science.

Congratulations Ron and Elaine on your most deserved awards!

Added by Gabby Russell on 2019-01-26