Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan Awarded the 2006 Prime Minister's Prize for Science and Gives a Memorable Acceptance Speech. (October 17, 2006)

    In a ceremony last night at Parliament House ANU professor Mandyam Srinivasan received this year's Prime Minister's Science Prize of $300,000 for discoveries concerned with the working of the insect mind, and applying the newly discovered principles of navigation to revolutionary developments in robotics.

Professor Srinivasan and his colleagues have spent the past 23 years working out how bees navigate, fly, measure distances and avoid collisions.

He undertook the research as a graduate student purely because he found it interesting, and because the only person available to supervise his PhD was a specialist in the compound eyes of insects.

However, funding for his research really "took off" when the Australian and US military as well as NASA got interested.

In the past five years the US military and NASA have awarded him research contracts totalling $A4.5 million.

Professor Srinivasan says a bee's brain is "about the size of a sesame seed; it has about a million neurons. We have a million-fold more."

 But somehow bees store complex maps of their world, achieve amazing navigational tasks and even pass on information to other bees. "The big mystery is how their brain does it."

He suggests  part of the answer is it "filters out a lot of irrelevant information".

What his research has demonstrated is that bees are able to judge distances and their velocity by the speed with which their environment changes.

Professor Srinivasan's acceptance speech.

Honourable Prime Minister, Minister for Science, Mr. Farmer, and distinguished guests:

I am thrilled and humbled to receive this award, especially when I look at the list of illustrious people who have won it in the past. To me, the Prime Minister’s Science Prize represents the highest recognition of the work of an Australian scientist.

I feel especially privileged to receive this award because I have never considered my work to be a part of what you would call ‘mainstream’ science. Studying how bug eyes see the world, is hardly what you might imagine to be at the forefront of modern science. And yet this niche area of research has suddenly captured everyone’s imagination, and even caught me by surprise. The practical application of this work was something that, quite honestly, hadn’t even occurred to me: It was defence-based funding agencies from Australia and the US who tapped me on the shoulder and said: “look, you moron, we think your findings can be applied to the design of pilotless aerial vehicles: would you like some funding to explore this possibility? And so my colleagues and I began a new chapter in our research: to put small, but smart, insect-like eyes and brains into aircraft. I think this illustrates the value of curiosity-driven science: you can never predict where it will lead.

I am convinced that my work could not have been done anywhere other than in Australia. First of all, there is, or at least was, what I call the “splendid luxury of isolation”, that we have enjoyed as a continent. This isolation really encourages you think on your own -- imaginatively, and in fresh ways -- and it protects you from the perils of being brainwashed by popular ideas which may turn out to be wrong. I’m sure you will agree when you look around that in science -- as in other fields -- there is an awful lot of lemming-like activity which can be counterproductive if the leading lemming happens to choose the wrong track

Another attribute that is delightfully Australian is the larrikin spirit -- a healthy scepticism and irreverence that is one of the primary drivers of progress in science. One only has to look at last years’ Australian Nobel laureates in physiology and medicine who demonstrated -- against all prevailing wisdom -- that stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium in the gut.

My move to Australia from the United States in the late seventies was a very happy accident. Prof. Allan Snyder, one of the previous recipients of this award, encouraged me to apply for a position at the ANU. I did so on a whim, and was offered a post doctoral fellowship in the department of the famous Prof. Adrian Horridge. I am indebted to Adrian and Allan for bringing me to Australia, and for encouraging me to really “think outside the box”. I have had several mentors who have guided me through the rough seas of academia, and encouraged me to sail on. They are, to name just a few, Prof. Gary Bernard, my Doktorvater, Prof. Ruediger Wehner, my Doktor-Doktorvater, Prof. Brian Anderson, Prof. John Hearn, and Prof. Mike Land. I would also like to thank Prof. Max Whitten, Prof. Alex Zelinsky, Prof. Perry Bartlett and Prof. David Siddle for their tremendous support.

I am deeply indebted to my colleagues, collaborators, students, postdocs and research assistants, too numerous to mention here individually, but without whom I wouldn’t be standing here today. And a special thank you Dr Zhang Shaowu for his dedication to our work, and to the late Miriam Lehrer, who taught me how to train bees without getting stung!

The ANU has been my home during my entire time in Australia. I am grateful for the unbridled freedom that have I enjoyed here – especially in the early years -- to simply follow my nose, and to pursue whatever questions seemed interesting. This unique environment, together with the opportunity to interact and debate with some of the greatest scientific minds in the country, has been very special.

Next year I shall be moving to the University of Queensland, where I look forward to addressing new scientific questions at the Queensland Brain Institute. And of course, I look forward to watching Australia play India at the Gabba.

Hon. Prime Minister, I’d like to conclude by saying that I feel especially privileged to receive the Prime Minister’s award for Science. When I look back to 1978, the year when I arrived in Australia, I was facing a very uncertain future – a short-term job, a temporary visa, and a very cranky Blue Heeler next door. But on the Qantas flight in, my wife and I took an instant liking to vegemite on toast, and to all things Australian. We have never looked back since, and this award makes me feel that we have now truly “arrived” in this wonderful country.

They say that behind every man who receives an award such as this, there stands a dedicated wife and a very surprised mother-in-law! I would therefore like to finish by thanking Jaishree, my ever- supportive wife, and Mythili, my ever-sceptical mother-in-law.