Three Australians elected to the world’s oldest scientific academy

Three Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science are among 94 scientists from across the globe elected to the Royal Society in 2026.

They join many of history’s most influential scientists including Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner and Dorothy Hodgkin.

The Academy Fellows are:

• Professor Bostjan Kobe, from the University of Queensland – elected for his landmark contributions to structural biology. His research has advanced understanding of protein structures and signalling mechanisms. He has also established innovative tools including fusion proteins and microcrystal electron diffraction.
• Professor Alex McBratney AM, from the University of Sydney – elected for his pioneering contributions to soil science, environmental earth science and precision agriculture. His groundbreaking work in pedometrics and digital soil mapping has transformed global understanding of soil variation, improving agricultural efficiency, land management and environmental sustainability.
• Professor Malcolm Sambridge, from the Australian National University – elected for his fundamental contributions to understanding the Earth and its internal processes through the development of new mathematical approaches for analysing complex geophysical data. His work has reshaped the interpretation of seismic waves, landscape evolution and mineral analysis through innovative nonlinear inference methods.

Founded in the 1660s in the UK, the Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

The Academy and the Royal Society share a long and significant history. In the early 1950s, Australia-based Fellows of the Royal Society played a central role in establishing the Academy to support and champion scientific excellence in Australia.

Since then, both organisations have continued to recognise outstanding scientific achievement through the election of distinguished researchers to their Fellowships.