Professor Veena Sahajwalla, the pioneer of a new generation of ‘green’ materials and sustainable products, was one of four University of New South Wales Sydney researchers to receive 2022 Australian Museum Eureka Prize awards last night.
Professor Sahajwalla won the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science for her work in communicating the science of sustainability to broad community audiences.
Through her research and community and industry engagement, Professor Sahajwalla is shifting the mindset of the nation to see unwanted materials not as waste, but as a valuable resource.
“It’s an incredible honour to be awarded the 2022 Eureka Prize for promoting the understanding of science. It is such a privilege to be able to share with the wider community the important role science plays in our daily lives,” she said.
“Without science, we would not be able to enjoy most of the things we now take for granted. Science has become much more mainstream than ever before, and its role in seeking solutions for things like COVID-19 and our pressing waste, sustainability and climate challenges, has created a wider thirst for knowledge and optimism.
“I and the team at the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology Centre (SMaRT@UNSW) are dedicated to collaborating with the community and industry to tackle the challenges we face to help deliver better social, environmental and economic outcomes.”
Professor Sahajwalla invented polymer injection technology known as ‘green steel’ a process for using waste tyres in steel production. In 2018, the world’s first MICROfactorie, which can transform the components from e-waste items such as discarded smart phones and laptops into valuable materials for reuse was launched at SMaRT Centre.
The factory was the first of a series of MICROfactories to turn a variety of waste streams such as glass plastic and timber into commercial materials and products.
Speaking with Waste Management Review earlier this year, Professor Sahajwalla said recycling is not the end game, it’s only the beginning.
“We should be saying ‘is there a better way of doing things?’ To me, the better way has to be for the purpose of humanity,” she said.
“As I engage with many people every day, I see these issues are generating a groundswell that we should embrace to help our society collectively tackle the challenges we face, to improve our environmental, social and economic wellbeing.”
Professor Raina MacIntyre, the Kirby Institute at UNSW, won the Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and Innovation; researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, part of the group ‘NanoMslide’, including La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, won the ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology; and The Environment Recovery Project, comprising PhD candidate Casey Kirchhoff, Dr Mark Ooi, Associate Professor Will Cornwell, Professor Richard Kingsford and PhD candidate Thomas Mesaglio, won the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science.
For more information, visit: www.newsroom.unsw.edu.au
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