The Australian Mathematical Society 2013 Medallist -- Dr Craig Westerland. (October 1, 2013)

For the benefit of  Liberal MP Jamie Briggs, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, and warrior against ARC support of "frivolous" research we quote here Dr Westerlands thumbnail memoir:

My research is in algebraic topology. I am particularly interested to connections with geometry, mathematical physics and number theory. My work has focused on the homotopy theory of function, configuration, and moduli spaces. If it were possible to reduce the last 8 or 10 years to buzzwords, they would be: string topology, equivariant homotopy theory, Hochschild and cyclic homology, operads, Batalin-Vilkovisky and gravity algebras, moduli and their compactifications, prospectra, stable splittings, Brown-Gitler spectra, Hurwitz spaces, homological stability and asymptotics, braid groups, and (topological) (conformal) field theories.