I’d like to wish GirlsGerms readers a happy new year! Thanks for being interested in learning about some of the important and interesting things women have been doing during the past 12 months. The news line has been a little quiet over the last two months while I have been dealing with an urgent family health issue, but things are settling down now and you can look forward to new stories – and a fresh look for the website – after the new year. If you need some summer holiday reading you may find some of these features from other writers worth a look…

Melbourne cancer researcher Dr Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat has an extra $25,000 to fund her ongoing research after winning the Centenary Institute’s inaugural Lawrence Creative Prize. She was an integral member of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) team that in 2006 made the ground-breaking discovery of breast stem cells, and her subsequent research led to finding a cellular ‘link’ between female hormones and breast cancer development. Having established her own research laboratory at WEHI she has now turned that knowledge to focus on lung cancer…

Australia’s national women-focused business chamber is running an online survey to find out what women in business want and need to run a profitable business. The Australian Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) hopes to hear from many of the 700,000 women it says run their own small businesses in Australia…

Darriea Turley, Rosemary Norman-Hill and Kaylene Rawlings Hunter will be heading to New York early next year as Australia’s representatives to the next session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) – the major global policy-making organisation dedicated to gender equality and advancing and empowering women….

Australian women have advanced another step towards combat roles in the Defence Force. Defence Minister Stephen Smith recently announced all gender restrictions on females serving in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will be removed within five years, ensuring positions would then be based entirely on merit and ability. It will give women access to the remaining seven per cent of roles they are currently excluded from because of their sex – including mine disposal, navy clearance divers, air force defence guards, and army infantry and artillery combat roles…

International and NSW cricketer Lisa Sthalekar has been appointed to the General Executive of the Australian Cricketer’s Association (ACA), becoming the first woman to take a position in the association’s main governing body. As well as her long-time on-field career, she has been a member of the Women’s Executive for some time and spent the last eight years at Cricket NSW working in game development, including her current role as women’s Youth Programs Manager…

Some of Australia’s leading female technology professionals were acknowledged in the recent iAwards, the national information communication technologies (ICT) industry awards. Information security consultant Jo Stewart-Rattray was named Professional of the Year and strategic advisor Jane Treadwell received the industry’s Woman of the Year honour. Fifty-year technology veteran and women-in-IT pioneer Ann Moffatt was also inducted into the Pearcey Hall of Fame…

Fiona Simpson, an outspoken voice of NSW farmers’ campaign over mining access to agricultural land, became the first female President of the state’s Farmers’ Association in July. She took over the presidency with a winning 232 votes over incumbent Charles Armstrong’s 147 and attributed her win to the members’ appetite for organisational change…

Australia’s Samantha Stosur won her first singles grand slam tournamentat the US Tennis Open last month. Her 6-2, 6-3 win over 13-time grand slam champion Serena Williams comes six years after Stosur garnered her maiden doubles and mixed doubles grand slam titles and is a milestone for Australian women’s tennis – it is 31 years since Australia’s last woman (Evonne Goolagong Cawley) held a singles grand slam title and 38 since Margaret Court won the country’s last women’s US Open…

The Victorian Government’s health information initiative Better Health Channel has an iPhone and iPad application (app). Like its web-based namesake, the free mobile app provides comprehensive, easily understood and reliable information sourced from medical experts. Users can browse for health information, locate health services or look up important health contacts…