2017 AMSA Jubilee Award winner 

Congratulations to Professor Peter Steinberg, Director & CEO of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science on his 2017 AMSA Jubilee Award.  The award for excellence in marine research is presented to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to marine science research in Australia.

Professor Peter Steinberg is a renowned authority in the
areas of marine chemical ecology and surface colonisation (including biofilms),
as well as a leading proponent of the “macro-micro” approach to environmental
microbiology. He received his Ph.D from the University of California, Santa
Cruz and is currently a Professor in the School of Biological, Earth &
Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales as well as the
Director and CEO of the Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences. Throughout his
career he has blended traditional marine experimental ecology with natural
products chemistry. Indeed, he is widely considered as one of the founders of
marine chemical ecology. Moreover, Steinberg’s multidisciplinary approach to
understanding the colonisation of surfaces integrated marine ecology with
molecular microbiology, larval biology, biofilms and synthetic chemistry to
fundamentally change the way we think about interactions of both prokaryotes
and eukaryotes with surfaces in the sea. This work resulted in both the first
natural inhibitor of bacterial cell-cell signalling (quorum sensing) as well as
the first characterised and quantified natural chemical inducer of settlement
for a marine invertebrate. 

Most recently, over the last 10 years Professor
Steinberg has incorporated cutting-edge environmental sequencing and ‘omics
into his work, becoming a leader in integrating ecological theory and concepts
with environmental microbiology, or the “macro-micro” approach.

SIMS is delighted to have won two out of the past three annual awards.  Professor Maria Byrne of University of Sydney won in 2015.