Last night in Sydney the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes recognised excellence in the fields of research & innovation, leadership, science engagement and school science. The awards received Forty-seven entries, which were shortlisted to 16 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes in 2018.
Canberra once again demonstrating that it punches above its weight, with the ANU taking out 2 prizes, along with Canberra startup QuestaGame and CSIRO’s Data 61 each taking out an accolade.
Award Category: Research and Innovation
2018 NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Eureka Prize for Environmental Research
Winner: RE100, Australian National University
Professor Andrew Blakers, Dr Matthew Stocks and Bin Lu have challenged the barriers to renewable energy in Australia. The team discovered 22,000 sites that are suitable for cost-effective pumped hydro energy storage, raising the profile of opportunities for pumped hydro investment within the clean energy industry.
2018 University of Technology Sydney Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Science
Winner: Smart Infrastructure Team, CSIRO’s Data 61
Assessing the condition of water pipes is an expensive and disruptive process and water utilities operators typically inspect just one percent of network assets every year. The Smart Infrastructure Team has developed an analytical tool that makes intelligent predictions about failures, helping prioritise the selection of pipes for maintenance, reduce costs and minimise disruption to water supplies.
2018 Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher
Winner: Dr Mohsen Rahmani, Australian National University
Dr Mohsen Rahmani has developed a new class of nanoscale surfaces that have transformed the capabilities of today’s miniaturised consumer devices. His research has a wide range of applications including night-vision technology, adjustable lenses and ultra-sensitive biochemical detectors, and several organisations are interested in commercialising his work.
Award Category: Science Engagement
Winner: QuestaGame
By combining the forces of gaming mechanics and information economics with a unique online reward system, QuestaGame motivates users to engage with biodiversity. With over 1 million sightings and identifications, by participants in over 40 countries, this outdoor gaming app has quickly become the largest provider of expert-verified biodiversity image data in Australia.
Take a look at the full list of winners here.