2022: Michele Burford

This year’s recipient of the AFSS Hilary Jolly Medal has over 35 years of research practice, which includes countless technical reports and 183 peer reviewed scientific publications – work that has been cited 5268 times with a career H index of 37. Her fundamental and applied research covers a range of topics related to cyanobacteria, algal blooms and ecosystem production. She has presented more than 12 international Keynote and Invited addresses at conferences and workshops. 

This year’s recipient has been either the led researcher or a major contributor in gaining more than $15 million in competitive research funding and more than $3.5 million in contract research. She has been actively involved in the training of higher degree research students and mentoring early career researchers – supervising or co-supervising 8 Honours students and 20 PhD students to successful completion, with 3 current PhD students and 2 Honours students.  

This year’s recipient has ensured that her research excellence has a clear pathway to impact, with a long and distinguished career of influencing the policy related to Australia’s freshwater ecosystems, including advising management options to reduce the frequency and intensity of harmful algal blooms.  

This year’s recipient completed her undergraduate degree at Murdoch University and then spent several years working with algal biotechnology companies in Western Australia and Switzerland. She joined the CSIRO Marine Research Laboratory in Queensland in 1990 and completed her PhD on nutrients in aquaculture through the University of Queensland in 2001. She then joined the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, in 2003 and in 2013 was appointed Professor and Executive Deputy Director of ARI. In 2018 she took on the newly created role of Dean (Research Infrastructure) in the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at Griffith University. 

Thanks to Twitter – I just discovered that this year’s recipient received a Highly Commended in Research Leadership Award only this week at the Griffith Uni Vice Chancellor’s Gala Awards. 

Her leadership in providing advice in the management of Australian freshwater, estuarine and coastal ecosystems and her sustained role as a supervisor and mentor of higher degree students and early career researchers are evidence of her exemplary contributions to Australian limnology and highlight her as a worthy winner of the 2022 Hilary Jolly Medal. 

I absolutely cannot believe that this legend of limnology has not been nominated previously. I am very pleased to announce Professor Michele Burford as this year’s recipient of the AFSS Hilary Jolly Medal, and I invite Michele to present the Hilary Jolly Memorial Plenary at next year’s conference in Brisbane. Congratulations Michele! 

2021: Belinda Robson

The nomination for this year’s recipient of the AFSS Hilary Jolly Medal spanned 4 pages, and I have tried hard to condense their achievements into this citation.

The recipient completed a BSc (Biological Sciences) with First Class Honours (1990) at Murdoch University on ‘The effect of salinisation on the structure and function of the macroinvertebrate communities of streams in the wandoo forest, Western Australia” and a PhD (Zoology) (1996) at the University of Tasmania on ‘Habitat complexity, spatial scale and grazing interactions in a temperate river”.

Since the recipient’s undergraduate days, they have been an outstanding scientist. They were awarded the CIG prize for the best performance in first year Biological Sciences in 1986, the Wesfarmers prize for the best performance in third year Biological Sciences in 1988 and a Murdoch University School of Biological and Environmental Sciences Honours Scholarship in 1989.

The recipient received the Vice-Chancellors Award for Excellent Contributions to Research (Early Career Researcher) in 2005 and the Australian Society for Limnology Early Career Excellence Award in 2005. In 2008, the recipient was awarded two accelerated increments (from Level C step 4 to Level C step 6) in recognition of their outstanding performance over ten years at Deakin University.

This year’s recipient has made an exceptional contribution to communicating scientific research through their editorial work with freshwater and ecological journals. The recipient’s current position as Editor-in-Chief of the international journal, Freshwater Biology, is evidence of the high international esteem accorded to their skills in scientific editing and writing. The recipient has been a regular reviewer for 14 other journals.

The recipient successfully advocated for the production of a second edition of the book- Australian Freshwater Ecology. The book represents the foremost publication on freshwater ecology in Australia.

More recently, this year’s recipient has been invited to contribute book chapters to several international publications on topics such as Invertebrates in Freshwater Wetlands: an international perspective on their ecology; Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams: Ecology and Management; and Descriptive profiles for biomes and ecosystem functional groups.

Evidence of the recipient’s excellence in teaching was demonstrated by their receipt of the Deakin University Award for Teaching Excellence in 2004. The recipient has developed a broad portfolio of undergraduate teaching with a focus on key elements to enable students to become well-informed limnological practitioners. In the recipient’s current teaching at Murdoch University, they designed and implemented a semester-long freshwater research project which third year undergraduate students. Evidence of the recipient’s excellence in research supervision is demonstrated by their supervision to completion of 16 PhD students and 29 Honours students. The recipient’s students have repeatedly won ASL/AFSS conference awards.

To date the recipient has published seven books, 16 book chapters, 61 journal articles, 12 reports and 8 invited papers. The recipient’s research metrics include: the lifetime h-index of Google Scholar = 26 and Scopus = 22 (March 2021); and the lifetime i10 index = 46, since 2016 = 29.

This year’s recipient has been very successful in obtaining funding for freshwater research from a variety of funding sources and has received over $1.6 million in competitive grant funding.

This year’s recipient was President of the Australian Society for Limnology (ASL, now AFSS) from 2013-14. During that time, the recipient updated/amended the constitution to better enable the workings of the society.

I am very pleased to announce Associate Professor Belinda Robson as this year’s recipient of the AFSS Hilary Jolly Medal, and I invite her to present the Hilary Jolly plenary at next year’s conference.

2020: Ross Thompson

The Hilary Jolly Medal is awarded in memory of Hilary Jolly and recognises excellence across any of three criteria: research excellence, in particular key publications; educationor communication excellence, including the mentoring of early career researchers, that advances and disseminates limnological knowledge in a variety of forums; and management excellence, especially the conservation and management of freshwaters.

Our awardee is recognized worldwide for their contributions to understanding food web ecology and the management of aquatic ecosystems. Over the past two decades, our awardee has published prolifically, with more than 100 papers, a dozen of which have been cited more than 100 times. Our awardee’s impact is profound, both academically and in the management of aquatic ecosystems. The awardee has been an outstanding mentor, with many students, staff and colleagues benefitting from their enthusiasm, kindness and wisdom.

The awardee is generous with their time with students and highly sought after as a supervisor. Our awardee enables and supports their staff, encouraging them to achieve to their potential and widely lauding their successes. Our awardee is a valued colleague, willing to contribute ideas, energy and hard work to achieving collaborative goals.

The combination of wide scientific experience, professional collegiality and friendly nature, and a capacity to communicate effectively has ensured that our awardee is often involved in the collaborative management of Australian water resources. Their contributions have enhanced the effectiveness of policy and management actions, especially in rivers of Murray Darling Basin and inland Australia.

Our awardee’s influential publications that have challenged aquatic food web science, years of inspired teaching and postgraduate supervision, mentoring of new generations of freshwater ecologists, and sustained involvement in effective river management are the key attributes of an exemplary contribution to Australian freshwater science, and the reason that the 2020 Hilary Jolly Medal is awarded to Professor Ross Thompson.

Congratulations Ross - I invite you to attend next year’s AFSS conference to receive your medal and to present the Hilary Jolly address at the conference.

2019: Peter Gell

This year’s recipient has a long and distinguished research career in palaeolimnologal research with 60+ papers in this field and a few more in other ecological endeavours. Hepioneered the use of diatoms in salinology to determine past salinities and hence climate change from the anaylsis of sediment cores. Over the years his use of diatoms has widened to other taxa and to flood plain lakes, estuaries and peat bogs, with similar major conclusions on past conditions in these waterbodies. His papers are usually multiauthoured with himself as the leader and published in premier journals. Besides studies on individual sites, he was written many reviews and some of these are global. Citations of his works are extensive (100+ for some, even 25+ for very recent ones).

The academic positions he has held over the years reflect this research excellence and his leading position in palaeolimnology. Since 2014 he has been Professor of Environmental Science at Federation University, Ballarat and before that various prestigious positions including an Adjunct Professor, Acting Pro-vice Chancellor for Research at Ballarat University, and research leaders at different places and times. Such honours confirm his research excellence.

A further measure of his research excellence is the amount of research funds he has attracted. The figure is $8 mill and still rising.

This year’s recipient trained in education and taught high school. This laid a foundation for inspirational education experience and leadership. Perhaps this has reached its zenith in his position at Federation University where he has mentored many outstanding students. He has been prominent in disseminating knowledge by being the editor of four books and a writing contributing chapters to many (12+) more. Also he has run symposia and conferences and attended many, many others disseminating knowledge by paper presentation (and of course ad hoc discussions) Then there are post graduate students educated --- at last count 25 PhDs, 8 Masters and 30+ Honours (though not all in limnology).

Given his works with salinising lakes and flood plain billabongs mostly in degraded environments, it is not surprising his work has lead to practical outcomes and consultations in management. This is illustrated by the many reports he had generated for environmental organisations and by also talks to similar groups, and his CV speaks of volumes with regards to his contributions.

In summary it is his extensive and outstanding research in palaeoecology that is very impressive, not forgetting his contribution to higher education. We therefore invite Professor Peter Gell, to accept the 2019 Hilary Jolly Award and present the Hilary Jolly Memorial Lecture at the society’s next annual conference.

2018: Angela Arthington

The 2018 recipient of the Australian Society for Limnology Medal was nominated for her outstanding contribution to Australian freshwater ecosystems, in the fields of research, management and education. The 2018 ASL Medal is awarded to Emeritus Professor Angela Arthington.

Angela is a leading international expert recognised for her ground-breaking research on environmental flows, fish ecology and fish conservation. She has over 40 years of research practice, more than 280 refereed publications and countless technical reports. Angela has either lead, or been a major contributor, in gaining more than $9 million in research funding for freshwater science since 1980. Angela’s international reputation as one of the founding researchers in environmental flows methodology, her leadership in the management of a broad range of Australian freshwater systems and her sustained role as a supervisor of higher degree students are evidence of her exemplary contributions to Australian limnology.

Angela founded and led the Centre for Catchment and In-Stream Research (CCISR), which has become one of the leading research institutes in Australia, the Australian Rivers Institute. Angela has been a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Biology since 1991.

Angela has a long and distinguished career of influencing the policy related to, and the management of, Australia’s freshwater ecosystems. She was a key player in the National River Health Program and a directing force in the Water Resources R&D Corporation (AWRAC), and the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation (LWRRDC). LWRRDC was a major funding agency for some of the foundation research on many Australian freshwater systems, much of this research is still underpinning management actions in river catchments. Angela has also held significant positions on the numerous advisory groups.

Angela has published widely on a range of topics, including river ecology, environmental flows and flow management, ecology and management of exotic fishes, biodiversity and conservation biology, ecotoxicology and biomonitoring of river health. She has over 280 publications, including 200+ refereed articles. Angela has an h-index of 58 and has over 19 000 citations. Two publications co-authored by Angela have over 2000 citations each and are ‘citation classics” – Dudgeon et al. (2006) and Bunn & Arthington (2002). She has an international reputation for pioneering work on ecosystem-level environmental flow methods. She has researched the ecology and impacts of exotic fishes in Australia, with emphasis on escaped aquarium fish. She has also led significant research projects into the distribution, ecology and conservation status of two vulnerable fish species in SE Queensland, contributing to the recovery plans for those species. Angela also undertook substantive research into ecotoxicology and biomonitoring of river health, contributing to the development of new methods of assessing stream health using native and exotic fish.

Angela was a member of the academic staff at Griffith University from 1976 until 2011 and has supervised 35 students at the honours, masters and postgraduate level. Many of her students have gone on to make a significant contribution to freshwater ecology in diverse ways including employment in CSIRO, Local and State Government, as private consultants, in business and in University faculty positions.

As a strong national and international leader in freshwater science for over 40 years, with major impacts on national policy and management agendas with respect to freshwater systems, Emeritus Professor Angela Arthington is a worthy recipient of the 2018 ASL Medal. We therefore invite Angela Arthington to accept this medal and to present the Hilary Jolly award address at our next annual conference in 2019.

2017: Jane Chambers

Citation coming soon.