Victorian telecommunications expert Professor Jean Armstrong has been awarded the Mountbatten Medal by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Professor Armstrong leads the optical/wireless research group at Monash University and received the award for "her outstanding contribution, over a sustained period, to the promotion of electronics and their application".
She is currently researching visible light positioning, which will underpin the development of an indoor version of a Global Positioning System (GPS); and short-range optical communication using imaging receivers which offer virtually unlimited wireless bandwidth.
Chair of the IET Awards and Prizes Committee, Dr Timothy Constandinou, said Professor Armstrong’s research was extremely influential and had led to many highly cited papers and commercialised patents.
“As an educator, she has been an innovative adopter of new technologies and has led major curriculum reforms at three universities,” Dr Constandinou said.
"She has worked to encourage young women and remove the barriers that she herself encountered; her research and contributions to women in engineering have led to both national and international awards.”
Armstrong is just the second woman to win the award in its 25-year history. She said it was important to see more women recognised for their outstanding contribution in the field of engineering.
“I hope that receiving this award helps to change some of the stereotypes about women in engineering," she said.
"Women have just as much potential to be top inventors and researchers as men, so it’s important that the right systems are in place to support women entering and continuing in the profession.”
When she was first appointed as a lecturer, she was the only woman at that level in a university engineering department in Australia. Recognition of her contribution includes induction into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and an Engineers Australia Engineering 2000 award.
Last year’s winner was Australia’s current Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel, meaning that not only is it two years in a row an Australian has won this international award but it's also the second year in a row for Monash University where Dr Finkel was Chancellor prior to becoming Chief Scientist this year. Another former winner was the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee in 1996.
[Professor Armstrong and colleagues at Monash University's Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering. Photo: Monash]