Australia standing in Research in the World

Australia has one of the most productive and efficient science systems in the world.

• Australia is among the 153 top-performing countries in all fields. Australia is ranked #10 for citations, #9 for papers and #29 for citations per paper (According to ISI Essential Science lndicators5M ).
• The number of Australian scientific publications per million of the Australian population increased from 1149 in 2004 to 1318 in 2005. This is the highest level ever recorded in recent years.
• The citation impact index of the Australian scientific publications was 1.14 times the world average (2004 data).
• In 2002, there were almost 8 researchers for every 1000 Australian workers, placing Australia 9th in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• Over the period 1996-2001, Australia was highly productive in obtaining biotechnology patents (European Patent Office) compared to other countries, behind only Denmark and Canada.
• Australia may only have a third of one percent of world's population, but it contributes 2.5 percent of world's medical research.
• Taking advantage of the world-class research facilities, around 200 core biotechnology companies operate in Australia - more per capita than in the United States.

Australian of the year for their Contribution to the World or Science

Year	Name
2007	Tim Flannery - Climate Change Crusader, one of the worlds’s leading writer-scientist thinkers and an internationally acclaimed explorer and environmentalist.
2006	Professor Ian Frazer - has developed vaccines to prevent and to treat cervical cancer.
2005	Dr. Fiona Wood - invented a spray on skin for burns victims. Where previous techniques of skin culturing required 21 days to produce enough cells to cover major burns, Fiona has reduced that period to five days.
2003	Prof. Fiona Stanley- Australian of the Year 2003, Founding Director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, in Subiaco, Western Australia.
2000	Sir Gustav Nossal AC CBE FAA FRS - His confirmation of Burnet!s theory of antibody formation was a turning point in the medical profession's understanding of the immune system.
1998	Professor Peter Doherty, Nobel prize in Medicine for his work in Immunology Research.
1975	Sir John Cornforth AC CBE - Nobel Laureate in stereochemistry.
1963	Sir John Eccles AC, Joint Winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his pioneering work on the chemical means by which signals are transmitted by nerve cells.
1960	Sir MacFarlane Burnet and a British scientist shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discovery of the concept of acquired immunological tolerance.

Australia was the first country in the world to introduce a circulating series of polymer banknotes. These notes have, as a major security element, a distinctive transparent window, as well as a range of other printed security features. In addition to their enhanced security, in Australia the notes last four times longer than the paper notes they replaced. At the end of their life they may be recycled for use in a variety of plastic products. Many countries now use this Australian developed technology.