SAEF scientists win 2025 Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Scientific Research
Professor Jan Strugnell, Dr Sally Lau, and Dr Nerida Wilson are amongst a team of Antarctic scientists who have won the 2025 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research.
Antarctic scientists been honoured for their research using octopus DNA to discover that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet likely collapsed in the past. The team includes, SAEF scientists Professor Jan Strugnell and Dr Sally Lau from James Cook University, and Dr Nerida Wilson from CSIRO and Western Australia Museum, alongside colleagues Professor Nick Golledge and Professor Tim Naish from the Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre.
The research team (L-R) Prof Nick Golledge, Dr Nerida Wilson, Dr Sally Lau, Prof Tim Naish and Prof Jan Strugnell. Dr Nerida Wilson accepts the Eureka Prize from presenter Emily Kelly. Credit: Getty Images Turquet’s octopus. Credit: Pete Harmsen, Commonwealth of Australia Dr Nerida Wilson and Prof Jan Strugnell on the Denman Marine Voyage earlier this year. Credit: Pete Harmsen, Commonwealth of Australia Dr Sally Lau and Prof Jan Strugnell with a Turquet’s octopus. Credit: Pete Harmsen, Commonwealth of Australia
The findings have been recognised by members of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) as the strongest evidence to date that sustained global warming above 1.5°C will result in an unstoppable collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The Eureka Prizes are Australia’s national science awards, celebrating excellence in research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science, and are presented annually by the Australia Museum. The team has won the Aspire Scholarship Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research, which recognises outstanding research that was only possible due to the integration of two or more disciplines.
The molecular biologists initiated a collaboration with a team of geologists to solve the mystery of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted during the Last Interglacial around 125,000 years ago when temperatures were 0.5-1.5°C warmer than pre-industrial times.
DNA holds a genetic history of the past and can be used to look back in time to pinpoint when different populations of animals were breeding and exchanging genetic material. By comparing the genetic history of modern octopuses with reconstructions of ice-sheet models, the team took a novel approach to solve a question that had puzzled ice-sheet modellers since the 1970s.
In a scientific paper published in Science in late 2023, the researchers found genetic connectivity between populations of octopuses living on opposite sides of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet dating back to the Last Interglacial. This genetic connectivity is only possible if the ice sheet completely collapsed, opening seaways and allowing the octopuses to travel and breed.
As molecular biologists, Professor Strugnell, Dr Lau and Dr Wilson investigate the evolution and function of marine organisms using genomic techniques, and between them, have conducted a range of studies focused on the evolution of marine invertebrates in the Southern Ocean. They all recently took part in the Australian Antarctic Program’s Denman Marine Voyage which will support further research efforts to understand the history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet through the use of genomics.
This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC); the Antarctic Science Platform; Thomas Davies Research grant (Australian Academy of Science); a David Pearse bequest, an Antarctic Science Bursary, the Antarctic Science Foundation, Australasian eResearch Organisations; CoSyst; the Academy of Finland and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) INSTANT program.
