Three scientists from the Australian National University have been honoured with grants as part of the country's most prestigious research funding award, sharing in millions of dollars.
Professors Naomi McClure-Griffiths, Sharon Friel and Yun Liu were all awarded the esteemed Laureate Fellowships from the Australian Research Council.
The three ACT-based projects will share in $9.7 million of the more than $53 million in funding awarded to 14 research initiatives.
Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths, who was awarded $3.2 million over five years from the council, will use the grants to examine how gas and magnetism determine how galaxies are created and how they evolve.
She said it would allow researchers to learn more about some of the most pressing questions about the universe.
"The target for me is to understand our own galaxy and how the Milky Way and the stars were formed there," she said. "It was that overall fascination that drove me into the field and a constant place of discovery."
As part of her research, Professor McClure-Griffith said she would focus on magnetism, which shapes gas in galaxies, which allows them to form.
"Magnetism, alongside gravity, is one of the most influential forces in determining the evolution of galaxies, and yet one of the least understood," she said.
"What we want to understand is how much magnetism shapes the way galaxies are structured and how much it changes the way they evolve.
"The question of how galaxies evolve is one of the most fundamental questions in all of astronomy."
Images as part of the research project will come from Australia's newest telescope, the Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder in remote Western Australia.
Professor Yun Liu was awarded $3.1 million for a project to look into how crystal chemistry can be used to build new materials for industry.
"Traditional crystal chemistry can no longer meet the demands for development of new functional materials - the foundation of modern industry. This program aims to overcome this challenge," Professor Liu said.
"We hope to build new crystal chemistry that includes nanoscale-interactions and deep machine-learning to improve the predictability of material properties."
Meanwhile, Professor Sharon Friel was granted $3.4 million to examine global health inequities, particularly food, energy and climate change.
"If transformative action on climate change is not taken soon, the risks to human health, health inequities, and indeed human survival will be immense," Professor Friel said.
