John Philip Award for the Promotion of Excellence in Young Scientists and Engineers
Our honour roll shares the winners of the John Philip Award for Excellence in Young Scientists since 2000 with a brief overview of their exceptional research.
2024
Lynn Nazareth
For groundbreaking research with real-world impact, pioneering the development of complex 3D ex-vivo nasal epithelium models across multiple species—a global first— enabling the creation of nasally deliverable therapies to block viral infections.
2022
Benjamin Mayne
For developing a fast, inexpensive, and non-lethal way to determine the age of individual fish from their DNA that will transforming fisheries management and improve sustainability.
2021
Alejandro Vargas Uscategui
For instrumental contributions to cold spray melt-less additive manufacturing from coatings and repair applications to sophisticated, digital methods that create solutions to real-world problems.
Ruhani Singh
For developing a technique to encapsulate vaccines using metal-organic frameworks which enables them to be stored and transported without refrigeration. The work offers an affordable and equitable solution for temperature-dependent vaccines.
2020
Bita Bayatsarmadi
Bita’s transformative innovation in flow cell design has dramatically increased the efficiency and marketability of electrochemical processes.
Adrian Murdock
Adrian’s outstanding research has scaled-up graphene films, advancing the GraphAir technology towards commercialisation as a water purification membrane.
2019
Karen Lee-Waddell
For significant contributions to the scientific commissioning of CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope, scientific leadership of its most technically challenging project, and for passionate involvement in science outreach.
Marcus Kunzmann
For outstanding contributions to our understanding of early Earth evolution and for developing new targeting concepts for sediment-hosted ore deposits.
2018
Dr Di He
For outstanding research on modelling the interactions between crops and their environment has resulted in new understanding and better strategies to predict crop yields and soil functions, reducing measurement costs, improving farm management and enhancing agricultural production.
Dr Mark Styles
Mark is considered an expert in materials characterisation and mechanical engineering. His creativity and analytical skills have proven critical in commercial, strategic and academic projects.
2016
Mr Mike Collins
For building on international collaboration activities to optimise performance of components and drive down the cost of building solar fields, ultimately bringing Concentrating Solar Thermal Energy closer to market in Australia.
Dr Berkay Ozcelik
For expertise in materials science and microbiology and combating medical device related infections, particularly against antimicrobial resistant bacteria.
Dr Anais Pagès
For working on the boundaries between organic chemistry, evolutionary biology and ore deposit geology to build new understanding of the role micro-organisms play in concentrating metals in rocks.
2015
Dr Lee Hubble
For outstanding research contributions in developing next generation nanomaterial-based sensor systems across far-reaching applications with global impact.
Dr Zhongkui Luo
For outstanding research on soil carbon and nutrient cycling, generating new process understanding and strategies to increase soil carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance agricultural production.
2014
Dr Ryan Shannon
For research excellence in radio astronomy, in particular for demonstrating that observations of pulsars can be used to detect gravitational waves and study the formation of galaxies and black holes throughout the Universe.
2013
Dr Samantha Burnham
For bringing us one step closer to a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, specifically patenting and publishing a panel of blood-based biomarkers that accurately estimates amyloid protein burden in the brain, an early indicator of the disease.
2012
Dr Michelle Colgrave
For groundbreaking research in the field of proteomics – the study of proteins using mass spectrometry – specifically, the investigation of the barley proteome focusing on hordein (gluten) quantification.
2011
Dr Bruce Webber
For exceptional research that challenges long-held ideas on how we manage invasive species in a rapidly changing climate and that has significant implications for global change adaption strategies to protect biodiversity.
2010
Dr James Petrie
For outstanding contribution to the design, construction and development of the metabolic pathway leading to the production of the critical omega-3 long chain fatty acids EPA and DHA in crop plants. These fatty acids are of great importance in human nutrition.
2009
Dr Ben Hoffmann
For research into the ecology and management of invasive ants, especially on Indigenous lands, which has resulted in internationally significant management outcomes.
2008
Dr James Tickner, CSIRO Minerals
Dr Tickner works in the field of radiation instrumentation – that is, coming up with novel ways of using radiation to solve practical measurement and imaging problems in industry. Ionising radiation (X-rays, gamma-rays and neutrons) can penetrate deep inside many materials and the unique ways in which they interact with matter can reveal a great deal of information about the objects being examined. Dr Tickner combines expertise in nuclear physics, computer modelling, experimental ability and practical experience to create new ways of solving challenging industrial problems. His particular area of expertise is ‘on-line’ instrumentation – that is, systems that operate out of the laboratory in real-world applications. The diverse range of areas in which he has worked includes humanitarian demining, elemental analysis of bulk materials, on-stream mineralogical analysis, trace element detection and X-ray, gamma-ray and neutron-based security imaging. He leads a team of students, postdoctoral fellows, research scientists and engineers that takes ideas from conception through to commercial, installed systems.
2007
Dr David Newth, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Dr David Newrth has made significant advances in massive agent based modelling and its applications to Australian response to infectious disease outbreaks, bio-terrorism, climate change and national security.Since joining the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science, David has applied the tools and methodologies of complex systems science to to great effect in finding novel solutions to tough problems.
2006
Dr Tim Muster, CSIRO Manufacturing and Materials Technology
Dr Muster will be traveling to two destinations in the USA to gain experience in the use of micro-multielectrode analysis.
Dr Glenn Wilson, CSIRO Exploration & Mining
Dr Wilson will be collaborating with Professor Alan Jones of the Geophysics Section in the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin lnstitute of Advanced Studies (DIAS), Ireland to gain practical experience in the processing and interpretation of 3D MT data from the world-leading MT group based at the DIAS.
2005
Ryan McAllister, Sustainable Ecosystems
Ryan will be visiting CIRAD and CEMAGRAF in Montpellier, world leaders in integrating human behaviour into models of complex systems with links between society and the environment.
2004
Joy Dempsey, Livestock Industries
To visit Santa Fe Institute Mexico to attend summer school on behaviour of complex networks that mediate biological interactions; and visit the University of Missouri USA to learn techniques in a reproductive facility; and to present a paper at the American Society of Animal Science/American Dairy Science Association in the USA
Jo-Anne Rasmussen, Molecular Science
To visit Austria, Netherlands and America to investigate techniques for biocatalysis, CLEA technology for biotransformations and further develop her skills in combinatorial approaches to producing biocatalysts through mutagenesis.
2003
Evelyn Krull, Land and Water
Soil carbon and vegetation change in Australia’s grazed woodlands.
Andrew Groth (Part support)
Aerospace grade composite materials and fabrication techniques.
Michael Bange (Part support)
Alternative farming systems, application of crop simulation modelling processes and temperate effects on cotton production.
2000
Jawahar Patil, Marine Research
Genetic (transgenic) method to prevent establishment of aquatic feral populations and controlling existing pests.