Astronomers studying a lonely planet drifting through space have found its mum; a star a trillion kilometres away.

Leading climate and sustainability scientist Professor Mark Howden has been appointed Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute (CCI) after serving as Interim Director for the past year.

Distinguished Professor Chennupati Jagadish has been awarded Australia's highest honour for his service to physics and engineering, leading a string of ANU academics recognised in the 2016 Australia Day Honours.

Life on other planets would likely be brief and become extinct very quickly, say astrobiologists from ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

Xiaojun Yuan, Master of Biological Sciences (Advanced) “My supervisor and I are getting very nice results from the experiments we’re doing on autotransporters, which is really exciting.

ANU scientists are part of a group that has found a way to increase the resolution of MRI scanners, while at the same time making the procedure quicker and safer for the patient.

Through Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Dr Lokuge has participated in deployments that include Afghanistan, Sudan and Uganda.