Fellowship awards on International Women’s Day
The Australian Research Council has named two outstanding researchers with Australian Laureate Fellowships as part of International Women’s Day 2026 ‘Balance the Scales’ campaign.
As the 2025 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow, Professor Felicity Meakins is internationally recognised for her pioneering work in Indigenous languages, linguistic diversity and language contact in northern Australia.
Her research explores how language encodes ecological, cultural and social knowledge, and how this knowledge can inform broader scientific and societal understanding.
Professor Felicity Meakins and Cassandra Algy record Gurindji children. (Image supplied)
For more than 20 years, Professor Meakins, from The University of Queensland, has worked in close partnership with First Nations communities, co-compiling dictionaries, grammars and ethnobiologies that support language maintenance and renewal.
By giving her expertise, time and commitment to community-led research, she has helped ensure that linguistic and ecological knowledge is preserved, shared and valued across generations.
Preservation of languages
Professor Meakins’ Laureate project, Amplifying Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in Western Science with Language, will explore the critical role Indigenous languages play in accessing and understanding Indigenous knowledge of Country.
The project aims to support the preservation of Indigenous languages, many of which are at risk of being lost, and to strengthen pathways for Indigenous scholars in linguistics.
One of the aims of the research is to transform our understanding of the Australian continent through genuine engagement with Indigenous languages.
Professor Anya Reading downloads icequake records from a seismic instrument adjacent to the Vanderford Glacier, East Antarctica. (Image supplied)
Awarded the 2025 Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship, Professor Anya Reading is a global leader in geophysics and Antarctic science.
Based at the University of Tasmania, her work uses advanced computational and geophysical techniques to reveal the hidden structure of the Earth including the vast, ice-covered landscapes of Antarctica.
