Planets, plagues and the power of science: an evening with two ANU Nobel Laureates
Channel: ANU TV
Date: 2022-04-20

Professor Brian Schmidt and Professor Peter Doherty are two giants of Australian science. They are also two of Australia's most recent Nobel prizewinners.

Join them in a riveting, no holds barred conversation on the mysteries of the Universe, how the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping our society, the state of science today and how scientific research and expertise can save us all.

You will also hear from both of them about how they as individual and world-leading scientists view some of the most pressing challenges we face in the 21st century - and how science is shaping their hopes for the future.

As we celebrate 75 years of ANU, this stellar conversation forms part of The Australian National University's program of events welcoming back the wider community to our campus in 2022 - a place of dynamic, stimulating and thought-provoking ideas and activities.

Professor Schmidt won his Nobel Prize in 2011 for work at ANU that found the Universe was expanding at an accelerating rate.

Professor Doherty won his Nobel Prize in 1996 for work at ANU that found how the immune system recognises virus-infected cells.

Speaker bios

Professor Peter Doherty AC FRS shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Dr Rolf Zinkernagel, for discovering the nature of the cellular immune defence, research undertaken at the Australian National University, He was Australian of the Year in 1997 and is listed as an Australian National Treasure. Based at the University of Melbourne, Peter continues to be involved in research directed at understanding and preventing the severe consequences of influenza virus infection. Peter explores all things infection and immunity in a weekly column, Setting it Straight, exclusive to the Doherty Institute website.

Peter is a Fellow, or Foreign Associate, of the Australian, UK, US, and Russian Academies of Science, and the French, US, UK and Australian Academies of Medicine. He is also a Fellow of numerous professional societies, has been awarded more than 20 Honorary Doctorates and has published some 500 research papers and reviews. He has published six books for general readers, including the bestselling The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize.

Professor Brian P. Schmidt AC FAA FRS is one of Australia's most eminent scientists. Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, alongside many other academic awards and distinctions, Professor Schmidt spent most of his academic career as an astrophysicist at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics before becoming Vice-Chancellor.

Brian makes a significant contribution to public debate through the media, and via his membership of bodies including the Prime Minister's National Science and Technology Council.

Brian received undergraduate degrees in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Arizona in 1989, and completed his Astronomy Master's degree (1992) and PhD (1993) at Harvard University. Under his leadership, in 1998, the High-Z Supernova Search team made the startling discovery that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States Academy of Science, and the Royal Society, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.