Two young engineers, Brittany Coff and Ananth (Dev) Tayal, were awarded the 2012 Menzies Engineering Scholarship at the Menzies Foundation Award Dinner on Thursday 24 November.

Brittany, a water resources engineer with Sinclair Knight Merz in Adelaide, has won a Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Engineering which will take her to Cambridge University to undertake an MPhil in Sustainable Development. Brittany is passionate about sustainability and in particular its application to water resources planning in Australia.

She holds a Bachelor of Civil and Structural Engineering from The University of Adelaide and won a University Medal in 2008. As vice-president of the South Australian chapter of Engineers Without Borders, she has a keen interest in working with indigenous communities and the education of Australian Engineers about humanitarian engineering. Brittany enjoys playing soccer and touch-football.

Dev, an electrical engineer from Perth now employed by Energy Australia in Sydney, is another Engineering scholar also off to do an MPhil in Sustainable Development at Cambridge.

He wants to explore the relationship between engineering innovation, renewable energy and sustainable development particularly with respect to the problems of climate change. Dev holds the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) and Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Investment) from The University of Western Australia.

He is president of the Energy Division of Engineers Without Borders in NSW, where he has initiated a remote assistance program for overseas renewable energy projects. He has spent three months volunteering as a renewable energy engineer in Laos.

Each year the Menzies Foundation provides scholarships for graduates to pursue studies in the allied health sciences, engineering, law, and medical research, as well as to attend Harvard University. This year nine such scholarships have been awarded.

There are more details and images online at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/menzies.

The three other 2012 Menzies scholars to receive their awards:

• Mr Matthew Pase, a tutor in psychology at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, is also an Allied Health Sciences scholar. His PhD will look at whether diet can counter the slowing of brain function with age.
• Mr Ananth Dev Tayal, an electrical engineer from Perth now employed by Energy Australia in Sydney, is another engineering scholar off to do an MPhil in Sustainable Development at Cambridge.
• Ms Jane Galvin, Senior Occupational Therapist at the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Jane's two-year Menzies Research Scholarship in the Allied Health Sciences will help her undertake a PhD on the possibility of using virtual reality for the rehabilitation of arm movements in children following traumatic brain injury.

Four other Menzies scholars this year received their awards earlier, and are already overseas. They are:

• Dr Susanna Park, from Neuroscience Research Australia, University of New South Wales, who won an NHMRC/RG Menzies Fellowship. Susanna has taken up a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London where she is working on the damaging impact of chemotherapy on nerves.
• Mr Luke Raffin, a Melbourne lawyer interested in the operation of the Children's Court, won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard University to study for a Master of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
• Ms Angela Lopes has also won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard. An aerospace engineer by training and interested in issues to do with climate change, Angela has worked as a business strategy consultant at Port Jackson Partners in Sydney. She is undertaking an MBA at the Harvard Business School.
• Ms Julia Smith, a geographer, is another Menzies Harvard scholar. She is interested in education access and international community development, and is studying for a Masters in International Education Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.