The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science 2020 have just been announced, and among the pool of groundbreakers are a number of familiar faces.

ANFF wishes to extend its warmest congratulations to all of those that received awards, and here we highlight those who are friends and clients of the ANFF network.

·         Emeritus Professor David Blair and Professor Peter Veitch, users of the ANFF’s WA and Optofab Nodes respectively, were awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science alongside Professor David McClelland and Professor Susan Scott, for their critical contributions to the first direct detection of gravitational waves on Earth. Click here to read more.

·         Professor Thomas Maschmeyer was awarded the 2020 Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in recognition of his work on translating fundamental research into two pioneering technologies. These are poised to transform how we address the need for more efficient commercial waste recycling, and boosting the performance of renewable energy storage. Professor Maschmeyer, a long-term friend of ANFF, was the Founding Director of the Sydney Nanoscience Hub that now houses half of ANFF’s NSW node. More here.

·         Associate Professor Xiaojing Hao, a long-term user of ANFF NSW’s site at UNSW, was awarded the 2020 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year. Her extraordinary work on novel solar cells is helping to create new avenues towards green energy. More here.

·         Associate Professor Justin Chalker was awarded the 2020 Prize for New Innovators. Justin and his colleagues worked with ANFF while inventing an environmental wonder-sponge that’s made entirely from waste materials that is now being produced in commercial quantities. Read ANFF’s case study on his research here, and more on his award here.

“Five out of ten awardees are part of the ANFF community which highlights the importance of nanofabrication to matters of national importance such as space, energy, and environmental technologies,” said Dr Ian Griffiths, ANFF CEO.

“The scale of the achievements selected by the Prime Minister is astronomical, the work these awardees are doing is making a global impact and demonstrating to the rest of the world just how potent Australia’s research sector is.”