Nation’s top awards to CSIRO scientists

For his achievements in astronomy and wireless technologies, CSIRO’s Dr John O’Sullivan was recognised with the nation’s pre-eminent science award – the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.

Dr Amanda Barnard was awarded the 2009 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for major contributions to the field of nanoscience.

In welcoming the awards CSIRO’s Chief Executive, Dr Megan Clark, said Dr O’Sullivan led a multidisciplinary CSIRO team which developed and patented the technology at the heart of most modern high-speed wireless communications systems. 

“Dr O’Sullivan has made many extraordinary contributions to Australian and international science across the fields of radioastronomy and wireless technology,” Dr Clark said. “He was instrumental in the design of the Australia Telescope and pioneered the approach that led a CSIRO team to solving the multipath problem that was crucial to the development of fast wireless networks.

“This technology is now in close to one billion wireless devices around the world.

“Dr O’Sullivan’s leadership and scientific brilliance continue to contribute to the nation through his development of an innovative radio camera for the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. John’s work has significant relevance to the future international project to build the $3bn Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope.”

Dr Clark said Dr Barnard’s research focuses on how nanoparticles interact with the environment and how environmental changes may affect their stability. The work involves predicting the structure, shape and stability of man-made nanoparticles (particles which are millionths of a metre in size) to understand how they interact with different environments such as natural ecosystems.

“Her unique approach has been used all over the world to predict how these tiny pieces of matter respond to changes around them, and how we can use these changes to make designer materials for specific applications,” Dr Clark said.

“I congratulate all the winners and take this opportunity to especially thank Dr O’Sullivan and Dr Barnard for their enormous contributions to CSIRO and Australia.”