A professor whose invention revolutionised mineral processing around the world and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits to the Australian economy is among those honoured in one of the nation's top science and engineering awards.
The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering's (ATSE) Clunies Ross Awards were presented in Perth on Wednesday night.
The University of Newcastle's Professor Kevin Galvin was congratulated for inventing the Reflux Classifier, which achieves the highest volume of minerals recovery of any comparable system worldwide and is in use in eight countries.
The invention is said to have solved a range of previously intractable problems in coal and minerals processing.
Three CSIRO researchers, Dr Ezio Rizzardo, Dr Graeme Moad and Dr San Thang, were lauded for devising technologies to make polymers and plastics which are now used across cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, paints, and electronic devices.
Ravi Ravitharan, Peter Mutton and Graham Tew from the Institute of Railway Technology at Monash University were applauded for their research on railway engineering.
And University of Western Australia professors Eugene Ivanov and Michael Tobar took a bow for inventing the world's lowest-noise oscillators.
"Their inventions have been purchased for multiple applications from fundamental research, meteorology, high-tech communications and defence," the ATSE said.
The Lifetime Achievement Award went to John Nutt for his contribution to engineering over the past 50 years. Dr Nutt helped lead and shape engineering consultancy Ove Arup and Partners, specialised in the design and analysis of high-rise buildings, and pioneered the use of computers in engineering.
He also worked on the design and analysis of the Sydney Opera House roof and headed a task force whose work resulted in the development of the first fire code.
Previous winners of the Clunies Ross Awards include Professor Ian Frazer, who invented the cervical cancer vaccine, Nobel laureate Dr Barry Marshall, who discovered the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers, and spray-on skin creator Dr Fiona Wood.
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