Six engineers were rewarded in the Australia Day honours list with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), the second highest honour in the order.
Two academics from the University of Melbourne received AOs. Ian Johnston was rewarded for his contribution to engineering, particular in the areas of structural foundations and geothermal energy. He previously worked at Monash University, Victoria University of Technology (where he was Dean of Engineering), RMIT and Coffey Geosciences.
Professor Gary Liddle was recognised for his contribution to public transport in Victoria. He studied civil engineering at Melbourne, rose to be chief executive of VicRoads and is currently Enterprise Professor in Transport at Melbourne.
Professor Peter Gray is the founding director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland and his award was for his work in these fields. A chemical engineer who studied at the University of Sydney, Gray has previously worked as an academic at the University of California and UNSW.
UQ had another connection with Professor Max Lu, a former UQ Provost and current Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Surrey in the UK. He was recognised for service to education, his work in the fields of materials chemistry and nanotechnology, to engineering, and to Australia-China relations.
Former Cochlear CEO Christopher Roberts received an AO for his work on medical biotechnology with both Cochlear and Resmed. He is currently inaugural joint professor of the PLuS Alliance, a collaboration between UNSW, King’s College London and Arizona State University.
The University of Wollongong's Professor Gordon Wallace said he was honoured to receive an AO for his work in polymer materials and their use in biomedical applications. He is currently working on improving human performance via medical bionics, using tools and materials from intelligent polymer systems to develop biocommunications from the molecular to skeletal domains.
“It’s heartening to see that contributions to science and engineering are valued by the community we work for,” said Wallace, who is Executive Research Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Director of UOW’s Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) and Director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility – Materials Node.
“For me, my proudest moment occurs every day when I pull into the car park at IPRI on the Innovation Campus and I know I am about to embark on another day of adventure and discovery with a group of people I love working with,” he said.
“I am so proud that the culture at IPRI and ACES is such that we are driven to see fundamental discoveries and innovations through to benefit Australians.”
Another person with an engineering connection to receive an AO was Emeritus Professor John McLean, a veterinarian academic who is a Companion Member of Engineers Australia and whose citation referred to his contribution to engineering education.
[Professor Gordon Wallace was one of six engineers to receive an AO in the honours list. Photo: University of Wollongong]