SCAR warmly congratulates Dr Dana Bergstrom, who has won the 2021 Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science.
Dana is an ecologist with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and University of Wollongong Honorary Fellow and has championed evidence-based science in biodiversity, biosecurity and the impacts of climate change. Her research has led to significant protections for the fragile Antarctic and subantarctic ecosystems.
Dana has played major leadership roles by initiating various SCAR programmes and driving the construction of science plans. She is the instigator and member of the SCAR ANTOS Action Group (Antarctic Nearshore and Terrestrial Observing System) and National Representative in the SCAR LifeSciences Group. Dana was the chair of Aliens in Antarctica, an international project sponsored by SCAR, and has founded the SCAR programme RiSCC (Regional Sensitivity to Climate Change in Antarctic Terrestrial and Limnetic Ecosystems). She was also a member of the SCAR Special Programme Development Group “Evolution and Biodiversity in Antarctica”.
The Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science is awarded annually to an individual who has successfully integrated their science talents with the management skills necessary to nurture, inspire and mobilise their peers. Seventeen prizes were awared this years across the categories of leadership, science engagement, research and innovation and others.
Another finalist for the prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science was Antarctic plant ecophysiologist Prof. Sharon Robinson (University of Wollongong).
The awards highlighted the groundbreaking work of female scientists. Of the 16 prize categories, 10 of the winners were either female or had women on the awarded teams.
You can learn more about Dr Dana Bergstrom and her work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0UUfEX2dS8
More information on the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes is available here: https://australian.museum/get-involved/eureka-prizes/
Congratulations, Dana!