Elizabeth "Ella" Finkel AM (née Sher) is a multi-award-winning Australian science journalist, author and communicator. A former biochemist, she has been broadcast on

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

, and written for publications such as

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

Nature Medicine ''Nature Medicine'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by Nature Portfolio covering all aspects of medicine. It was established in 1995. The journal seeks to publish research papers that "demonstrate novel insight into disease pro ...

The Bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate, ...

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territo ...

and

The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...

. In 2005 Finkel co-founded the popular science magazine

COSMOS The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...

, served as Editor in Chief from 2013 to 2018 and she remains its Editor at Large. In 2016 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her science communication work and philanthropy. In 2019 Finkel was awarded a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Monash University and the Medal of the Australian Society for Medical Research. She now serves as a Vice Chancellor's Fellow at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 196 ...

and on advisory committees for La Trobe University Press, the

ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage __NOTOC__ The ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) is a research centre which focuses on the natural, historic and Indigenous heritage of Australia. Its aim is to increase understanding of the past in order to ...

(CABAH) and the

Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo is a zoo in Melbourne, Australia. It is located within Royal Park in Parkville, approximately north of the centre of Melbourne. It is the primary zoo serving Melbourne. The zoo contains more than 320 animal species from Aust ...

Education

Born in 1956 in Warsaw, Poland, Ella migrated to Melbourne in 1957. She attende
Princess Hill Primary School
in North Carlton
St Kilda Park Primary School
Caulfield Central, an
The Mac.Roberston Girls’ High School
In 1978 she completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours at Monash University, with a thesis on ‘Regulation of the mitochondrial genome’. Ella then embarked on a PhD in biochemistry at Melbourne University's Department of Medicine titled ‘Studies of the 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 receptor’. In post-doctoral research she spent one year in Professor John Baxter's laboratory at th
University of California San Francisco
(UCSF), working on the regulation of the human growth hormone gene. This was followed by four years in Professor Patrick O’Farrell's laboratory at UCSF, investigating the genes that sculpt a fruit fly egg into an embryo – work that was published in Nature.

Career

Upon returning to Melbourne, Finkel turned to freelance journalism in both radio and print media. She has been described by former editor of ''

Wilson da Silva Wilson da Silva is an Australian feature writer, science journalist, editor and documentary filmmaker who has worked in magazines, newswires, newspapers, television and online. He is a co-founder and the long-serving former editor of ''Cosmos'', ...

as "researching topics to within an inch of their lives", efforts that have been rewarded with numerous awards (see Selected awards below).

Personal life

Ella has been married to neuroscientist, entrepreneur and former Chief Scientist of Australia

Alan Finkel Alan Simon Finkel (born 17 January 1953) is an Australian neuroscientist, inventor, researcher, entrepreneur, educator, policy advisor, and philanthropist. He was Australia’s Chief Scientist from 2016 to 2020. Prior to his appointment, his c ...

since 1982. They have two sons and live in Melbourne. Through the A & E Finkel Foundation the Finkels support diverse projects centred around education, research and quality journalism.

Selected awards

1994 Michael Daley Award for best radio feature broadcast o
Ockham’s Razor
‘Nitric Oxide’ 2005: Winner Queensland Premiers literary award for Best Science Writer, for ‘Stem Cells: controversy at the frontiers of science’ 2005
Eureka Award
for promoting the public understanding of science (finalist) for ‘Stem Cells: controversy at the frontiers of science’ 2007: Winner Bell Award for best Analytical Writer 2007: Winner Bell Award for best Feature 2010: Shortlisted Queensland Premier's Literary Award for ‘The Trouble with Genes’ and ‘Black Harvest’ published in Cosmos 2011: National Press Club's Higher Education Journalist of the Year 2015: Eureka Award for Science Journalism for ‘A statin a day’, Cosmos 2016: Order of Australia (AM) 2019: Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Monash University 2019: Medal of the Australian Society for Medical Research

Selected publications

Books

Stem Cells: controversies at the frontiers of science The Genome Generation The Best Australian Science Writing 2012 (ED)

Articles

2021 ‘Countdown to iBlastoids’, The Monthly 2019 'Chasing the miracle of gene therapy', The Monthly 2018 Lines in the sand: Coming to terms with Patricia Piccinini
Cosmos magazine articlessciencemag.org articles
‘Two-tiered regulation of spatially patterned engrailed gene expression during Drosophila embryogenesis,’ Nature, 1988

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Finkel, Elizabeth Australian freelance journalists Australian biochemists Australian women chemists La Trobe University faculty Jewish Australian writers University of California, San Francisco faculty Monash University alumni University of Melbourne alumni Living people Science journalists Year of birth missing (living people) Australian women journalists Women science writers Writers from Melbourne