Professor Graves, who is an Emeritus Professor at The Australian National University and a Distinguished Professor at La Trobe University, has won Australia’s top science prize for her pioneering work to unravel the mysteries of the genetics of sex. 

Professor Graves works on Australian animals, including the kangaroo and platypus, using their distant relationship to humans to discover how genes, chromosomes and regulatory systems have evolved. Her research has helped reveal how all animals, including humans, have evolved and how they function.

She said the $250,000 prize recognised, as well as 30 years of work at La Trobe, the work she did at ANU through the Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics from 2003 to 2010.

“I love science because it’s a never-ending detective story,” Professor Graves said.

• Read more in the Press release for this award.
• Read more about the Prime Minister's Prize for Science.