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Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer have been named the 2024 Australians of the Year for their breakthrough world-first melanoma cure.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese awarded the Melanoma Institute Australia co-medical directors in Canberra tonight for developing an immunotherapy approach that activates the immune system and treats melanoma.
Their work has already saved the lives of thousands of residents across the country from what is considered our "national cancer".
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In a moving speech, the pair called for an end to glamourising sun tans and appealed to advertisers and social media influencers to stop using them to sell, advertise or entertain.
"Tomorrow thousands of Aussies will be soaking up the sun, working on their tans, or as we see it, brewing their melanomas," Long said.
"When it comes to tanning, we are swimming outside the flags. A tan is skin cells in trauma from overexposure to UV radiation from the sun. There is nothing healthy about a tan, nothing.
"Our bronzed Aussie culture is actually killing us."
She warned thousands of Australians would be spending January 26 "brewing melanomas" on the country's beautiful beaches and appealed to them instead to demand change.
"Imagine the outcry if smoking was still glamourised like this," Scolyer said.
"We must elevate sun safety to equal status with other life-saving safety measures like wearing a seatbelt or a helmet."
Long said sun safety needed to a national health priority.
"Our mission is zero deaths from melanoma," she said.
The pair's career of research took an extremely personal twist in the last year after Scolyer, 57, was diagnosed with incurable grade 4 brain cancer in June.
He risked shortening his lifespan with an experimental treatment based on his and Long's own work, becoming the world's first brain cancer patient to have pre-surgery combination immunotherapy.
About eight months later, he has still not seen any recurrence of his incurable brain cancer.
https://twitter.com/ProfRScolyerMIA/status/1749196809602482683
Chair of the National Australia Day Council John Foreman said the scientists represented the "very best" of the country.
"Georgina and Richard are leading work which is saving countless lives now and, thanks also to the personal commitment of Richard, will lead to an even more extraordinary impact on the health of people around the world in the future," he said.
Senior Australian of the Year
Yalmay Yunupiŋu of Yirrkala in the Northern Territory has been named the Senior Australian of the Year for her decades-long work as a teacher and linguist.
Ahead of her retirement last year, she guided teaching at Yirrkala Bilingual School.
She spent the years translating Dr Seuss books at the community library into her local Yolŋu Matha language.
She went on to develop a bilingual teaching approach with her late husband M. Yunupiŋu – of Yothu Yindi fame – and is still in constant demand for consultations, projects and her traditional healing work.
"Yalmay's long dedication to the education of the Yolŋu people, her cultural stewardship and leadership as a natural teacher continues to bring communities together," Foreman said.
Yunupiŋu's late husband was named the Australian of the Year in 1992.
Young Australian of the Year
Emma McKeon, the country's most successful Olympian, was named this year's Young Australian of the Year.
The Queenslander, 29, became the first female swimmer and the second woman in history to win seven medals in a single Olympics at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
She has also broken a host of Commonwealth Games, Olympic and world records.
"Emma shows us, with grace and humility, how commitment, hard work and passion can lead to greatness," Foreman said.
"She is a true role model for all Australians, young and old, on how to pursue your dreams."
McKeon became Australia's most decorated Olympian before her 28th birthday, making her family of swimmers proud.
Her father, uncle, brother and mother have all represented the country in the sport.
Australia's Local Hero
The co-founder of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, David Elliott has been named Australia's Local Hero for his contributions to science, paleontology and tourism.
His chance discovery of a dinosaur fossil in outback Queensland in 1999 during a routine sheep mustering sent palaeontologists to the region to investigate.
He and his wife Judy would later co-found the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in 2002 as a not-for-profit charity.
It has risen to become a popular tourist attraction and serves as a centre for the country's paleontological research and discovery.
"David, an everyday Queensland pastoralist who discovered something extraordinary, has dedicated himself to sharing Australia's dinosaur history and the importance of keeping regional Australia viable and sustainable," Foreman said.
