Operations

Creating new manufacturing jobs by replacing glass and metal with plastic: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for New Innovators

Colin Hall

Dr Colin Hall and his colleagues have created a new manufacturing process that will allow manufacturers to replace components made from traditional materials like glass, in cars, aircraft, spacecraft, and even whitegoods—making them lighter and more efficient. [Read more…] about Creating new manufacturing jobs by replacing glass and metal with plastic: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for New Innovators

Re-engineering nature to fight for global health: 2016 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Richard Payne

Richard Payne makes peptides and proteins. He sees an interesting peptide or protein in nature, say in a blood-sucking tick. Then he uses chemistry to recreate and re-engineer the molecule to create powerful new drugs, such as anti-clotting agents needed to treat stroke. [Read more…] about Re-engineering nature to fight for global health: 2016 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Conservation that works for governments, ecosystems, and people: 2016 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Kerrie Wilson

What is the value of the services that ecosystems provide—services such as clean air, water, food, and tourism? And what are the most effective ways to protect ecosystems? Where will governments get the best return on their investment in the environment? These questions are central to the work of Associate Professor Kerrie Wilson. [Read more…] about Conservation that works for governments, ecosystems, and people: 2016 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Turning students into scientists: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Suzy Urbaniak

Geoscientist Suzy Urbaniak combined her two loves—science and education—by becoming a science teacher 30 years after finishing high school. But she couldn’t believe it when she saw how little the teaching styles had changed over the years. [Read more…] about Turning students into scientists: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Creating better science teachers: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

Gary Tilley

Gary Tilley is mentoring the next generation of science and maths teachers to improve the way these subjects are taught in the classroom. [Read more…] about Creating better science teachers: 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

Media Kit

Reptile guru Rick Shine wants to release small cane toads to protect native snakes, lizards and quolls (Sydney)
Michael Aitkin is making stock markets fair and efficient; can he do the same for the health system? (Sydney)
Colin Hall’s plastic mirrors are the beginning of a new manufacturing technology, and jobs (Adelaide)
Kerrie Wilson is providing the evidence-base for good conservation decisions by putting a value on clean air, water, food, tourism and the other benefits that forests, rivers, oceans provide (Brisbane)
Richard Payne is re-engineering peptides from ticks, bacteria, and leeches to create new drugs for stroke, TB, and malaria (Sydney)
Suzy Urbaniak’s #therealclassroom in Perth’s Kent Street school is setting up students for jobs in mining, conservation, tourism and more
Gary Tilley is turning the next generation of primary teachers on to science at Seaforth school and Macquarie Uni in Sydney

[Read more…] about Media Kit

2016 PM’s Science Prizes – video links

Links to YouTube versions which you can embed in websites, social media, etc. are now available below.

Rick Shine – Prime Minister’s Prize for Science: YouTube video

Michael Aitken – Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation: YouTube video

Colin Hall – Prize for New Innovators: YouTube video

Richard Payne – Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Life Scientist of the Year: YouTube video

Kerrie Wilson – Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year: YouTube video

Suzy Urbaniak – Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools: YouTube video

Gary Tilley – Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools: YouTube video

2016 PM’s Science Prizes – high res photos

Click on image to access/download high res version

Prime Minister’s Prize for Science: Professor Richard Shine (The University of Sydney)
Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation: Professor Michael Aitken (Capital Markets CRC)
Prize for New Innovators: Dr Colin Hall (University of South Australia)
Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year: Professor Richard Payne (The University of Sydney)
Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year: Associate Professor Kerrie Wilson (University of Queensland)
Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools: Ms Suzy Urbaniak (Kent Street Senior High School)
Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools: Mr Gary Tilley (Seaforth Public School)

Where’s wallaby? Last call for online wildlife spotters

Monday 5 September 2016

The ABC’s Wildlife Spotter project and competition closes at midnight tonight. But the project has been so successful that the wildlife spotting will continue into the future.

In just one month, 44,000 citizen scientists have classified frogs, feral cats, bettongs, bandicoots, birds, Tassie devils, dingoes, and other animals caught on camera in more than 1.6 million images as part of the ABC’s citizen science project Wildlife Spotter. This breaks the record of last year’s Galaxy Explorer project, which involved 20,000 people helping astronomers classify galaxies far, far away.

Volunteer wildlife spotters have collectively spent more than 16,000 hours assisting scientific research by identifying two million animals in the images. [Read more…] about Where’s wallaby? Last call for online wildlife spotters

Innovative Victorian kids headed for Silicon Valley

Smart stickers for greener buildings
DIY box-set to teach electronics and programming skills
And a virtual reality travel guide that lets you shop in Italy from the couch.

On Saturday the schoolkids behind these three projects pitched their ideas to industry.

And the winning team, who are marketing the DIY box sets, will head to Silicon Valley in January with all expenses paid—visiting Google and other high-tech companies.

It’s the first time Australia has run the TiE Young Entrepreneurs competition – a program designed to teach entrepreneurship and business skills to high school students through practical experience and mentoring.

The students behind these projects, aged between 12 and 17, come from: Box Hill High School; Auburn High School; Mount Waverley Secondary College; Aquinas College; Notre Dame College in Shepparton; and Weeroona College Bendigo.

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