AsianScientist (Sep. 8, 2011) – The world-class achievements of Australia’s top scientists, science educators, and communicators have been celebrated with the announcement of the winners of 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, also known as the ‘Oscars of Australian Science.’
From sea pansy-powered drug development, to super-fast computer chips, the 22nd Annual Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are a tour de force of Australian research and innovation.
In a glittering event, the country’s brightest minds in scientific investigation gathered at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion for Australian science’s ‘night of nights.’
79 finalists from around the country competed for more than AU$240,000 in prize money. There were five new prizes, including Commercialization of Innovation and Emerging Leader in Science.
“For 22 years, the Eureka Prizes have been providing public recognition of the sometimes little-known achievements of Australia’s scientific community,” says Frank Howarth, Director of the Australian Museum.
“Already, this year’s winners are influencing the way we think and act in realms as diverse as computer science and the Melbourne Cup.”
Among the winners is Monash University’s Dr. Paul Biegler, whose work questioning the prescription of antidepressants for mild depression when cognitive behavioral therapy is an equally effective, drug-free alternative, has won the Australian Catholic University Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics.
An interdisciplinary team lead by Prof. Mark Kendall at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland has found a way to make injections less painful – which could revolutionize immunization programs in developing nations. For his invention of the Nanopatch, a stamp-sized vaccination, Prof. Kendall and his team has won the 2011 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research by an Interdisciplinary Team.
Another winning team was Dr. Philip Dinning of Flinders University and Dr. John Arkwright of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering for their fiber-optic catheter which has for the first time recorded pressures deep within the colon while the patient is fully mobile and conscious. For their creation of a new medical tool, which is opening paths for advanced treatments of socially taboo illnesses such as constipation, diarrhea, fecal incontinence, and irritable bowel syndrome, the science duo have won the 2011 Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology.
Seeing through walls may not only be a skill belonging to superheros. Prof. Bouzerdoum from the University of Wollongong is leading the way in developing through-the-wall radar imaging (TWRI) systems that can ‘see’ objects behind walls, doors and other opaque materials. For his research, which has a wide range of military, security, and search-and rescue applications, Prof. Bouzerdoum has won the 2011 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Support of Defense or National Security.
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Source: Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.
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