Armidale Born Jillian Banfield Awarded Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science and Named a L’Oréal-UNESCO Laureate. (November 10, 2010)

Jillian Banfield was Born in Armidale, NSW, completed her bachelors and masters degrees (1978–1985) at the Australian National University and want on to receive her Ph.D  in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 1990. From  1990-2001 she was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving a MacArthur Fellowship (nicknamed the Genius Award) for 2001-2004. Since 2001 she has been Professor of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests centre around geomicrobiology, i.e. the study of how microorganisms shape, and are shaped by, their natural environments.

It was announced yesterday that Professor Banfield has been awarded the 2011 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science "for discovering the underlying principles of mineral formation and alteration by microbes, which are critical to understanding the form, composition, and distribution of minerals in the presence of living organisms."

Virtually simultaneously the L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO Laureates for 2011 were announced. Each award carries a grant of US$100,000. The North American Laureate for 2011 is Professor Banfield: "For her work on bacterial and material behaviour under extreme conditions relevant to the environment and the Earth."

She makes the point that : "In the past, many women entering science expected to not have families or gave up their careers to have them. In the span of my career, the place of women in science has expanded greatly; now, due to societal shifts and policy changes, if she desires, a woman can expect to have both a career and a family. [However,] there is still significant male dominance in many fields of science, especially the physical sciences. I think the 'cause' of women in science is to have equal opportunity to succeed, and of course this has been – and continues to be – worth fighting for. It seems clear to me from personal experience that women approach problems and handle situations differently from men. I suspect that women tend to see things more holistically and be less forceful in the ways in which they offer opinions."

Nevertheless, Professor Banfield made this observation when speaking with the ABC this morning -- pleading with the Australian Government to give its scientists more support: "I think that the universities have suffered tremendously from underfunding and defunding in Australia."

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Click here to read/listen to an interview of Professor Banfield by the ABC's Meredith Griffiths.