Professor Lynda (Lyn) Dent Beazley AO FAA FTSE (born 1944) is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia,^[1] and the Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Professor of Science at Murdoch University.^[2] Among other awards, she has been named an Officer of the Order of Australia for her contributions to medical science^[3] a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering^[4] and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.^[5]

Education

Beazley studied zoology at the University of Oxford before completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh on the development of vision and its recovery after injury.

Career

She set up her research group as a National Health and Medical Research Council research fellow at the University of Western Australia in 1976, which she held until 1994 when she was appointed professor. Research stemming from a collaboration with Professor John Newnham led to changes in clinical practice around administration of corticosteroids to women at risk of pre-term delivery with prematurely mature fetal lungs, improving respiratory function in pre-term infants.^[6]

Beazley was Western Australia's Chief Scientist from 2006 to 2013, advising the State Government on science, innovation, and technology.^[7] Her work included setting up a nationwide hotline for laboratory technicians in schools, working for healthier waterways across the state by establishing Dolphin Watch,^[8] and she was successful in securing Western Australia as the host of the low frequency part of the telescope of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA-low) at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia.^[9] She was a Mission Leader for the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (WA) mission to Israel in 2008.^[10]

Beazley is also known as an educator and education advocate, spanning lecturing at university level, and working to encourage school child engagement in science,^[11] and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.

Beazley is a current or former board member of the Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation,^[12] the Western Australian Art Gallery Foundation, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network,^[13] and the Ear Sciences Institute of Australia. She is a patron of the Reflections Through Reality Foundation,^[14] the Western Australian Naturalists' Club,^[15] and Vice-Patron of the Western Australia Royal Society. She is a current or former Advisory Board member for Monash Vision Group for Bionic Vision,^[16] and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function.^[17] Beazley is also a member of the Technology and Industry Advisory Council of the Western Australian Government. She was a Trustee of the Western Australian Museum from 1999 to 2006. She helped establish the Brightwater Lyn Beazley Scholarship for research into acquired brain injury rehabilitation.^[18]

Recognition and awards

In 2009, a new species of sponge discovered in the Perth Canyon off Rottnest Island was named Manihinea lynbeazleyae after Beazley.^[19]

• 2009 Awarded Officer of the Order of Australia for her services to medical science^[3]
• 2009 Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering^[20]
• 2011 Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame^[21]
• 2012 Governor's Award for Giving
• 2013 Inducted into WA Science Hall of Fame^[22]
• 2015 WA Australian of the Year^[23]
• 2015 RiAus Honorary Bragg Membership^[24]
• 2014 Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International^[25]
• 2018 Honorary Doctor of Science ANU^[26]
• 2019 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science^[5]

References