Australian National University academics elected fellows of the Australian Academy of Science

Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences Professor Dorrit Jacob said it was humbling to receive the great honour of joining the academy.

The geochemist began her career looking at what's happening 200 kilometres below our feet, especially how diamonds form.

Prof Jacob did her PhD at Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany before turning her attention to the surface of the planet and how clams and corals form.

One day in the gemology department, a jeweller presented some pearls with odd markings on them, sending the scientists down a rabbit hole trying to decipher how they had been formed.

"That triggered that whole field [of research] and then I got a future fellowship for this and came to Australia," Prof Jacob said.

These days she does a lot of work with Australian South Sea Pearls to discover the impacts of climate change and other factors on pearl formation.

"This is really the carbon cycle ... I look at how materials form and when they form and eventually, hopefully this will all lead to understanding more how material moves in the planet," Prof Jacob said.

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Prof Jacob was the only woman in her department in Germany and the first-ever female professor there. She moved to Australia in 2013 with the Australian Research Council future fellowship.

She joined the ANU in late 2020 from Macquarie University, becoming the first female director of Research School of Earth Science.

Women make up 17 per cent of all living Australian Academy of Science fellows. This year 41 per cent of new fellows are women while the average over the past five years is 35 per cent.

"Now I'm in, maybe I can help in making a difference," Prof Jacob said.

Australian Research Council laureate fellow Prof Barry Pogson said it was "a very nice feeling" to be recognised by the academy.

The plant biologist is interested in the chemical languages that cells within a plant use to communicate to each other about the external conditions.

This information is used to improve drought tolerance and food security. Researchers are trying to identify which wheat varieties do better with less water and then cross them together or use gene editing technologies to get the desired qualities.

"We're going to have less land in 2050 than we have today and that land is likely to be more degraded so we need to do more with less," he said.

Prof Pogson said plant biology was sometimes sidelined in science, however, some of the greatest breakthroughs have their roots in plant research.

"We all have a chip on our shoulder and think the medical guys get all the glory," he said.

Prof Pogson said science was a team discipline. Early career researchers were the hardest hit by the effects of COVID-19 and the hailstorm which smashed through the roofs of ANU's glass houses.

"Ideally what I'd love to see more of is the people in my own lab go on to their own successful careers," he said.

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