Today the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science Endowment went live through ANU Philanthropy.

I set up this endowment with $4000, the majority of my winnings for my 2012 Colleges of Science Award for Teaching Excellence.

Its purpose is to fund, in perpetuity, five prizes for undergraduate science communication students. The first winners will be awarded the prizes this year.

The Colleges of Science generously matched my $4000 contribution, bringing the starting capital to $8000. Further donations are welcome and are tax deductible.

The prizes are all named for teaching academics from CPAS who have achieved ‘firsts’ in the department and/or discipline:

• The Sue Stocklmayer Prize in Science Communication is named for Professor Sue Stocklmayer, CPAS’s first Director and Australia’s first Professor of Science Communication. It is awarded to the student who completes a Major in Science Communication with the highest aggregate mark.

• The Rod Lamberts Prize for First Year Science Communication is named for Dr Rod Lamberts, the first person to initiate, write and teach CPAS’s first year science communication courses. The prize is awarded to the student who completes two first year sci com courses with the highest aggregate mark.

• The Will J. Grant Prize for Science Presentation is named for Dr Will Grant, who initiated the first undergraduate-organised and -presented public science communication conference, through the second year sci com course SCOM2001 Practical Skills for Communicating Science. The prize is awarded to the best live presentation delivered for final assessment in SCOM2001.

• The Lindy Orthia Prize for Science Communication Research is named – obviously – for me, as co-author and supervisor of CPAS’s first undergraduate-authored science communication journal paper. The prize is awarded to the best major report or thesis reporting on original research conducted in SCOM3003 Special Topics in Science Communication or Science Communication Honours.

• The Chris Bryant and Mike Gore Prize for Science Outreach is named for the founder of CPAS, Emeritus Professor Chris Bryant, and the founder of Questacon, Adjunct Professor Mike Gore. Professors Bryant and Gore together founded the world class science outreach endeavour the Shell Questacon Science Circus, which is at the core of the Master of Science Communication Outreach program run by CPAS. This prize is awarded to the student in any undergraduate science communication course including honours who created the best outreach-oriented assignment.