Professor Lyn Beazley AO – Transforming education for autistic high school students

One in thirty children are now diagnosed as autistic, an average of one in every classroom.  The Lyn Beazley Academy seeks to transform education for autistic high school students in Western Australia by establishing a specialised STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) Academy.

By unlocking the potential of these students, the Academy is already transforming individual lives, and those of their families, but will also address Australia’s acute skills shortages in STEAM fields, driving innovation and enhancing economic productivity.

After graduating from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, Lyn built an internationally renowned research team that focused on recovery from brain damage, much of her investigations undertaken at The University of Western Australia.

As Chief Scientist of Western Australia from 2006 to 2013, Lyn advised the Western Australian Government on science, innovation and technology. Currently Lyn is part of a team that has opened the Lyn Beazley Academy, especially for the education of autistic young people.

Lyn was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in 2009, was delighted and honoured to be named the WA Australian of the Year for 2015, as well as to have become a Paul Harris Fellow and to have had three species named after her.