Lyn Beazley

Beazley studied zoology at the University of Oxford before completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh on the development of vision and its recovery after injury.

She set up her research group as a National Health and Medical Research Council 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 corticosteroids to women at risk of pre-term delivery with prematurely mature fetal lungs, improving respiratory function in pre-term infants.[6]

Beazley was Western Australia's Chief Scientist from 2006 to 2013, advising the State Government on science, innovation, and technology.[7] Her work included setting up a nationwide hotline for laboratory technicians in schools, working for healthier waterways across the state by establishing Dolphin Watch,[8] and she was successful in securing Western Australia as the host of the low frequency part of the telescope of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA-low) at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia.[9] She was a Mission Leader for the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (WA) mission to Israel in 2008.[10]

Beazley is also known as an educator and education advocate, spanning lecturing at university level, and working to encourage school child engagement in science,[11] and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.

Beazley is a current or former board member of the Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation,[12] the Western Australian Art Gallery Foundation, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network,[13] and the Ear Sciences Institute of Australia. She is a patron of the Reflections Through Reality Foundation,[14] the Western Australian Naturalists' Club,[15] 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,[16] and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function.[17] 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 from 1999 to 2006. She helped establish the Brightwater Lyn Beazley Scholarship for research into acquired brain injury rehabilitation.[18]

In 2009, a new species of sponge discovered in the Perth Canyon off Rottnest Island was named Manihinea lynbeazleyae after Beazley.[19]

• 2009 Awarded Officer of the Order of Australia for her services to medical science[3]
• 2009 Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering[20]
• 2011 Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame[21]
• 2012 Governor's Award for Giving
• 2013 Inducted into WA Science Hall of Fame[22]
• 2015 WA Australian of the Year[23]
• 2015 RiAus Honorary Bragg Membership[24]
• 2014 Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International[25]
• 2018 Honorary Doctor of Science ANU[26]
• 2019 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science[5]