Lynda Dent Beazley (born 1944) is a

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

and educator based in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. She is currently an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, and the Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Professor of Science at

Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its ...

. Among other awards, she has been named an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for her contributions to medical science a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) is an independent Learned society, learned academy that helps Australians understand and use technology to solve complex problems. History The Australian Academy of Technological S ...

and

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

Education

Beazley studied zoology at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

before completing a PhD at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

on the development of vision and its recovery after injury.

Career

She set up her research group as a

National Health and Medical Research Council The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded res ...

research fellow at the University of Western Australia in 1976, which she held until 1994 when she was appointed professor. Research stemming from a collaboration with Professor John Newnham led to changes in clinical practice around administration of

corticosteroid Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones that are produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates, as well as the synthetic analogues of these hormones. Two main classes of corticosteroids, glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, are invo ...

s to women at risk of pre-term delivery with prematurely mature fetal lungs, improving respiratory function in pre-term infants. Beazley was Western Australia's Chief Scientist from 2006 to 2013, advising the State Government on science, innovation, and technology. Her work included setting up a nationwide hotline for laboratory technicians in schools, working for healthier waterways across the state by establishing Dolphin Watch, and she was successful in securing Western Australia as the host of the low frequency part of the telescope of the

Square Kilometre Array The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental organisation, intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square ...

(SKA-low) at the

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was established by CSIRO, Australia's national science centre in 2009. It lies in a designated radio quiet zone located near Boolardy Station in the Murchison Shire of ...

in Western Australia. She was a Mission Leader for the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (WA) mission to Israel in 2008. Beazley is also known as an educator and education advocate, spanning lecturing at university level, and working to encourage school child engagement in science, and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators. Beazley is a current or former board member of the

Royal Perth Hospital Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) is a 450-bed adult and teaching hospital located on the northeastern edge of the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. History The hospital traces its history back to the first colonial hospital, whi ...

Research Foundation, the Western Australian Art Gallery Foundation, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, and the Ear Sciences Institute of Australia. She is a patron of the Reflections Through Reality Foundation, the Western Australian Naturalists' Club, and Vice-Patron of the Western Australia Royal Society. She is a current or former Advisory Board member for Monash Vision Group for Bionic Vision, and the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. Beazley is also a member of the Technology and Industry Advisory Council of the Western Australian Government. She was a Trustee of the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory body, statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, WA Museum Boola Bardip, is located i ...

from 1999 to 2006. She helped establish the Brightwater Lyn Beazley Scholarship for research into acquired brain injury rehabilitation.

Recognition and awards

In 2009, a new species of

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

discovered in the Perth Canyon off

Rottnest Island Rottnest Island (), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a Islands of Perth, Western Australia, island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, ...

was named '' Manihinea lynbeazleyae'' after Beazley. * 2009 Awarded

for her services to medical science *2009 Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering * 2011 Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame * 2012 Governor's Award for Giving *2013 Inducted into WA Science Hall of Fame * 2015 WA Australian of the Year *2015

RiAus The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation based in Adelaide, South Australia, whose mission is science communication. It opened in October 2009 and is housed in the historic Stock Exchange bu ...

Honorary Bragg Membership * 2014 Paul Harris Fellow of

Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and p ...

* 2018 Honorary Doctor of Science ANU *2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beazley, Lyn 1944 births Living people Australian neuroscientists Australian women neuroscientists Officers of the Order of Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science