Queensland Museum Medal
First awarded in 1987, the Queensland Museum Medals are recognition of outstanding achievement in one or more fields of interest of the Museum. The Queensland Museum Medals have been awarded to some of Australia’s foremost scientists, conservationists, naturalists and community leaders.
2013 Queensland Museum Medal
The Queensland Museum Medal honours individuals who have made a major contribution in a field relevant to the Queensland Museum for excellence in community projects, partnerships and engagement, research, collections or other work carried out for the benefit of Queensland or the Queensland Museum.
To nominate an individual for the Queensland Museum Medal, provide details about the nominee using the following criteria:
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Describe the individual’s outstanding achievements and contribution to work carried out for the benefit of Queensland in fields including, but not limited to, community projects, partnerships and engagement, research and collections.
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Explain why this achievement or support is deserving of the Medal including evidence of this excellence.
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Provide the names of up to three people able to provide further information about the nominees’ achievements.
The nomination should not exceed 1,000 words.
Nominations close: Tuesday 11 June 2013.
Please send nominations via email to: anne.dalton@qm.qld.gov.au
To view the list of celebrated past Medal recipients click here (36 KB) 
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2012 Queensland Museum Medal
2012 Queensland Museum Medallist Professor Ron Quinn (centre) with Queensland Museum CEO Dr Ian Galloway and Minister for Science, IT, Innovation and the Arts Ros Bates
Queensland Museum's highest honour was awarded to Professor Ronald J. Quinn AM for his pioneering work in the field of biodiscovery - turning chemicals from natural products into potential pharmaceuticals.
Professor Quinn's work, in partnership with the Queensland Museum, has enhanced our understanding of Queensland's unique natural assets leading to potential social, economic and environmental benefits for all Australians and the global community.
Prof Quinn, the Director of the Eskitis Institute at Griffith University, has decades of experience in natural product drug discovery, synthetic and medicinal chemistry and pharmacology.
In 1993, he initiated a collaboration with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to explore natural products as potential drugs, an industry/university collaboration that is one of the largest in Australia and worth over $100 million in industry investment.
The legacy of this partnership was the creation of the Nature Bank, a unique storehouse of chemical diversity derived from nature, of which Queensland plants and marine invertebrates form the major part.
Professor Quinn has used Nature Bank for research in partnership with other pharmaceutical companies, including global giant Pfizer, and also with global organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the TB Alliance.
The Queensland Museum was a key partner with Professor Quinn in this project, a major legacy of this relationship being field work and research uncovering more than 3,000 new species of sessile marine invertebrates (animals that live on the seabed) with more than 35,000 specimens now housed in the Queensland Museum.
This work has enhanced the Museum's marine collections particularly in regard to sponges and soft corals, which next to hard corals define the major unique invertebrate biodiversity that we know as the Great Barrier Reef.
