Global environmental prize awarded to Professor Brian Walker
Professor Brian Walker, Research Fellow from the CSIRO and Honorary Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU, has received international recognition for his scientific research.
On 13 June 2018, Professor Walker received the 2018 Blue Planet Prize for outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application in solving global environmental problems.
The award recognises Professor Walker as a pioneer of resilience science in social-ecological systems.
Professor Walker's research has exerted signficant global influence. Studies on sustainability and resilience have expanded tremendously, and resilience has been introduced as a fundamental concept and developed in many fields, including environmental conservation, economics, protection, sustainable development and disaster prevention policy.
Congratulating Professor Walker on the award, Minister for Jobs and Innovation, Michaelia Cash said it is pleasing to see Australian researchers gaining the global recognition they deserve.
“Australia has elite researchers working at the cutting-edge of their respective fields. This is another example of their work being recognised,” Minister Cash said.
“Professor Walker’s work is ground-breaking and he deserves this significant accolade.”
Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham congratulated Professor Walker on his outstanding contribution to environmental science.
“We should all be incredibly proud of Professor Walker. His work on resilience science has improved our understanding of everything from environmental conservation to economics and disaster prevention,” Minister Birmingham said.
“His achievements in environmental science continue to shape the world we live in and should not be underestimated.”
A total of 1,290 nominations were received for the 2018 Prize from which 130 candidates were recommended from 34 countries. Candidates spanned the fields of enviornmental economics and policy making (28), ecology (25), and atmospheric and earth sciences (19).
Professor Walker is only the second Australian to ever receive the Blue Planet Prize in the award's 27 year history.