- By Kevin Gomez
Sixteen awards have been presented for outstanding contributions to Australian science and innovation for the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.
The Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicle, developed by Thales Australia for the Australian Army, took out the 2016 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia.
The prize, sponsored by the Defence Science and Technology Group, was presented to Thales’ Hawkei research and technology team led by Dr Dinesh Shanmugam.
Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky, who presented the award to the team at the awards function, said the Hawkei development is a commendable example of industry working with Defence scientists to deliver a unique capability for the Australian Defence Force.
(At the Australian Engineering Conference in Brisbane in November, Dr Alex Zelinsky will talk about “Australia’s defence engineering innovation”.)
The Hawkei vehicle features many innovative technologies in a novel design that meets the demanding requirements of Defence, especially against blast and ballistic threats. These are purpose-built vehicles designed to provide superior protection for ADF personnel while ensuring a high degree of mobility in rough terrain.
The judges concluded that science and technology had been used in creative ways to build a versatile vehicle capable of performing effectively in various roles including troop movement, command and control, electronic warfare and surveillance with high levels of protection.
They noted that new insights had been gained by the development team across a broad range of disciplines from power management and electronic systems integration to the use of composite materials.
In just over six years since graduating from his PhD, Associate Professor Sharath Sriram has built a research group of 25 staff with a budget of $8 million. He is now Deputy Director of the $30 million Micro Nano Research Facility at RMIT University, demonstrating clear vision in science leadership and research facility management.
Along the way, he and his team have developed the world’s first artificial memory cell that mimics the way the brain stores long term memory. Dr Sriram is the winner of the 2016 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science. In July this year, Dr Sriram was named one of Australia's Most Innovative Engineers by Engineers Australia's create magazine.
Professor Ewa Goldys from Macquarie University and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics and Dr Martin Gosnell from Quantitative were awarded the ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology for their development of hyperspectral imaging technology which enables the colour of cells and tissues to be used as a non-invasive medical diagnostic tool.
For taking his vision of ‘intelligent polymers’ or ‘smart plastics’ and growing it into a $25 million preeminent centre of electromaterials science – one that has created conducting biocompatible composite structures able to promote muscle and nerve cell growth, and produced new types of artificial muscles based on carbon nanotubes – Professor Gordon Wallace, from the University of Wollongong won the 2016 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science.
Here is the full list of 2016 Eureka Prize winners.
[Image: Screen shot from Thales Australia's finalist video]