Scientist awarded for galactic impact
The Prime Minister's Prize for Science is awarded to Prof Kenneth Freeman for his work in astronomy. Video courtesy Bearcage
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Despite it being invisible, astronomer Ken Freeman managed to put dark matter on the galactic map — and in the process placed himself among international astronomy's brightest stars.
Professor Freeman's work established there is substantially more to galaxies than can be seen by the human eye. In fact, the stars, gasses and dust are just a fraction of what is out there. The bulk is invisible, dark matter.
First outlined in a paper in 1970, Professor Freeman's research was not without its critics.
Professor Ken Freeman at the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
"I don't think any of the papers of that period were received with total enthusiasm but that's kind of how it should be," he said. "It was overturning the existing paradigm and it really took most of that decade for it to happen."
Already regarded internationally as Australia's most renowned astronomer, Perth-born Professor Freeman, from Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory, was awarded the $300,000 Prime Minister's Prize for Science on Wednesday for introducing the concept of dark matter, a finding that changed the course of astronomy.
Dark matter accounts for 96 per cent of the universe, but scarcely anything is known about it. Yet dark matter really does matter: it plays a crucial role in holding the universe together given its almost magnetic powers.
"The reason we should know about dark matter is because it was so important in the formation of the universe as we know it now," Professor Freeman, 72, said. "If it wasn't for dark matter, we may well not have galaxies at all because things may not have condensed to form the Milky Way, for example."
Presented in the Great Hall in Parliament House, Canberra, Professor Freeman's award also recognises his contribution as co-founder of one of the hottest fields in astronomy: galactic archaeology.
It's a field he and colleague Joss Bland-Hawthorn had been pondering since 1988, but it wasn't until 2002 that the pair published a paper on the subject, which looks at how galaxies are constructed by analysing their chemical composition.
The idea is that chemical elements are like clues that can be placed on a timeline to mark the various stages of development of things in the universe, such as stars.
"We can look at what is happening now, but it really is focusing on the past," Professor Freeman said.
Other winners on Wednesday included Mark Shackleton from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, who received the life scientist of the year award for his work on breast cancer and melanoma. His research on melanomas suggests the tumours are intrinsically dynamic, capable of changing their behaviour over time.
"With cancer tumours, the devil really is in the detail," Dr Shackleton said.
The University of Western Australia's Eric May received the physical scientist of the year award for his work towards making liquid natural gas a cleaner resource.
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