Victorian science prizes awarded for sustainability

The Victorian Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business, Louise Asher, has announced two winners of this year’s Victorian Prize for Science and Innovation and 12 winners of the Victorian Fellowship. Three of the award winners won for their efforts in sustainability.

Professor Ana Deletic, from Monash Water for Liveability, is the first female scientist to be awarded the $50,000 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in its 14-year history. She won the prize for her work in developing green stormwater harvesting technologies to make better use of urban water run-off for stream protection and human consumption, contributing to the creation of more liveable and cooler cities.

Her work, beginning in the 1990s, has resulted in industry partnerships across the world and new technologies being adopted in Australia, Israel, Singapore, New Zealand, the UK and France. In Melbourne alone, over 10,000 rain gardens are being constructed to protect the Yarra as a result of her work.

Research Fellow Dr Colin Scholes, from the University of Melbourne, won an $18,000 Victorian Fellowship for his work in addressing the issue of construct carbon capture plant equipment in the context of the limited space available on many industrial sites. His research into new membrane gas-solvent contactors represents a combination of two existing technologies and has the potential to solve a major headache for the power industry, as well as other potential industries such as natural gas processing.

As a result of the Fellowship, he expects to be able to tailor membrane contactors for carbon capture for Victorian energy suppliers and heavy industry. This work will be supported through the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) in Melbourne.

Another Fellowship winner was Dr William Gee, for his work towards creating a range of environmentally friendly, iron-based catalysts that can be used to generate cheaper and greener plastics.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Asher said the Victorian Government was committed to supporting science and innovation and had awarded two $50,000 Victoria Prizes this year instead of one, as well as increasing the number of $18,000 Victoria Fellowships from six to 12.

“The Coalition Government has invested $1.7 million in Victoria’s innovation researchers since 2011 and has committed to treble this investment over the next three years to $4.8 million,” Asher said.

“We firmly believe that supporting research in Victoria is vital to our state continuing to lead Australia and the world in medical and scientific research. It is important to provide opportunities for our scientists working here in Victoria’s leading research institutions, rather than seeing them leave for overseas never to return, so they can foster the next generation of Victorian scientists.”