Regina Honu is a leading light for African women in STEM. At home, she is involved in driving government policy, and globally, she has been recognised as one of the BBC’s hundred most inspirational and innovative women. In 2017 she took home emerging global leaders award from the US’s Northwestern University Roberta Buffet Institute. There are many more to name, but it is not these awards, nor the boards she sits on, of which she is most proud. That distinction falls to the Soronko Academy.
For Abdulrahman Bamerni, science is an act of resistance and defiance against the Islamic extremists who once tried to kill him.
A talented cellist at an early age, she had her sights set on the Sydney Conservatorium High School. But her mother saw that the emphasis on music translated into a reduced school curriculum, and her daughter would not be able to study her other passion: science. “She said to me, ‘Tanya, you’re too young to narrow yourself and rule out science.’ It was the biggest trauma to hit my 11-year-old self, but I’m so grateful now,” says Monro.
If you look up at any one of the three million roofs in Australia with solar panels that have been recently installed, you’re almost certainly looking at the work of Sydney-based engineer, Professor Martin Green. It’s fair to say that, without his contribution, the solar-energy industry as we know it would not exist.
A professor of chemistry at the University of Sydney, Thomas Maschmeyer co-invented a technology that turns plastic waste into oil to be used in fuel, chemicals or new plastic products in less than 20 minutes. That’s impressive, considering it takes nature millions of years to create the oil from scratch.
And even better, his invention, called the catalytic hydrothermal reactor (Cat-HTR), can process plastics that were previously considered un-recyclable.
Each year, 167 billion disposable nappies are made, used and thrown away. Such is their impact, that in countries such as Vanuatu, disposable nappies make up 30% all of their waste. Rather than letting them accumulate in landfill and our oceans, what if a soiled nappy could be fully compostable? What if the poo could become a source of fuel? What if nappies could become a source of income, rather than a household expense? Eco-nappy entrepreneurs Jason and Kim Graham-Nye are working to make that a reality.
When Vicki Chen describes her area of expertise as ‘membranes’, it might not mean much to the average person. But membranes, which can be all manner of thin, permeable barriers, could offer solutions to two key challenges that the world will need to overcome with increasing urgency: excess CO2 and dirty water.
A professor in the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland, Shazia Sadiq runs a world-class team within the university’s Data Science research group that is working to improve data quality standards and come up with ways that they can be integrated across areas such as transportation, social media and learning analytics.
Dr Alan Taylor – former professional rugby league player, bench scientist, investment banker and game-changing life science entrepreneur – is not only helping to drive developments in cancer diagnosis and treatment and imagining a galaxy in which patients can benefit from precision therapies, but also making sure that Australian scientific breakthroughs get the attention they deserve.