2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners

Skeptical Science

Skeptical Science explains climate science and rebuts denier misinformation in plain English, using web, social media and innovative phone apps, to reach hundreds of thousands of readers and provide material adopted by scientists, politicians, organisations and climate communicators.

Dr Wojciech Gutowski, CSIRO

Dr Gutowski’s surface engineering and coating technologies have been used globally by automotive and aerospace manufacturers and producers of green energy. This technology has benefited the Australian industry alone by more than 100 million dollars.

The Devils’ Advocates, University of Tasmania, Griffith University, University of Sydney, Menzies Research Institute Tasmania and Save the Tasmanian Devil Program at Mt Pleasant Laboratories

Researchers from diverse disciplines have collaborated to investigate an unusual wildlife disease and its management. This research provides fundamental information needed to conserve the Tasmanian devil, which is threatened with extinction from a contagious cancer.

The Nanopatch Vaccination Team, University of Queensland

Combining engineering, biology and medicine, The Nanopatch Vaccination Team has invented an original way of delivering vaccines. The Nanopatch is a needle-free vaccine delivery device set to replace the needle and syringe.

Cowman Team, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Malaria is one of the planet’s deadliest diseases. By understanding the myriad of ways malaria parasites enter red blood cells has allowed the Cowman Team to progress in developing a vaccine against malaria. This is a much needed tool for eradication of this parasite.

Associate Professor David Moss, University of Sydney

Incorporating light onto silicon computer chips will be critical to overcome many energy and bandwidth bottlenecks for on-chip and chip to chip communications. Associate Professor Moss’ work reports the first integrated multiple wavelength laser source compatible with silicon integrated circuits (CMOS) and will play a key role in enabling silicon photonic chips.

Professor Manfred Lenzen, Dr Christopher Dey and Dr Joy Murray, University of Sydney

The Integrated Sustainability Analysis group has adapted an economic theory to estimate the impacts of our actions by using mathematics, large scale data handling, high performance computing and integrated science. The model calculates all supply chain interactions in economies, from local to global scale, and simultaneously links them to greenhouse gas emissions and other important indicators such as land, energy and water use.

Dr John Arkwright, CSIRO, and Dr Philip Dinning, Flinders University

Using a fusion of fibre optic technology and clinical expertise, Dr Arkwright and Dr Dinning have developed a pressure sensing catheter that provides intricate detail of muscular contractions from deep within the human colon. These devices are providing new hope in the search for therapies for socially taboo diseases such as constipation and incontinence.

Professor Murray Esler and Associate Professor Markus Schlaich, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute

Hypertension is responsible for more than 7 million deaths per year worldwide. Despite the availability of often effective drugs, blood pressure cannot be controlled in 25% of affected patients. Through their pivotal studies on the sympathetic nervous system, Professor Esler and Associate Professor Schlaich have pioneered a device-based method which is effective in drug-resistant patients and has the potential to cure hypertension.

Dr Angela Moles, UNSW

Dr Moles creates datasets to quantify global patterns in plant form and function and the environmental factors that shape plant ecological strategy. She has shown that plant defences against animals are not stronger in the tropics therefore improving our understanding of global patterns in the way plants and animals interact.

Professor Abdesselam Bouzerdoum, University of Wollongong

Professor Bouzerdoum is developing radar imaging technology that can see objects behind walls and other opaque materials. The research has a wide range of applications which will benefit many organisations including the military, law enforcement, security and counter terrorism agencies.

Dr Paul Biegler, Monash University

Psychotherapy is as effective as medication in most grades of depression, yet antidepressants dominate treatment. Dr Biegler argues psychotherapy promotes self knowledge and autonomy, thus acquiring a moral value that transcends its clinical effect. He concludes the underuse of psychotherapy to be an ethical indictment of contemporary depression management.

Dr Andrea Morello and Professor Andrew Dzurak, UNSW

The spin of an electron is an ideal building block for a quantum computer. The biggest challenge in harnessing this enormous computing power is the ability to ‘read the output’ from such a microscopic object. Dr Morello and Professor Dzurak have just realised this ambition, reading an electron spin bound to a single atom.

Professor Paul McGreevy's Lab, University of Sydney

Estimates from the Australian racing industry’s own data suggest that racehorses suffer more than a million whippings annually. While the industry seeks to justify whip use by claiming it enhances performance and safety, Professor McGreevy’s team’s data demonstrate that whipping tired horses in the name of sport is difficult to defend.

Professor R. Quentin Grafton, Dr Hoang Long Chu and Professor Tom Kompas, Australian National University, and Dr Michael Stewardson, University of Melbourne

This research develops the world’s first dynamic and stochastic water model to economically optimise water allocations between extractions and environmental flows in real time. The model is calibrated to the Murray River of Australia, but can be adapted to other catchments where there is adequate information on the hydrology and ecology.

Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research

Keeping Australia’s ageing population healthy is one of our nation’s greatest challenges. Associate Professor Pfleger’s work is focused on developing better therapeutic drugs with fewer side effects for a range of medical conditions like prostate disorders and complications associated with diabetes that are becoming an enormous burden for the Australian community.

Professor Ben Eggleton, University of Sydney

Professor Eggleton is an international pioneer in photonics and optical physics, with an outstanding record of multidisciplinary research leadership in Australia and the US. He has demonstrated the ability to develop and lead breakthrough science and technology, and translate discoveries into commercial realities. He is Director of CUDOS, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Photonics with over 130 researchers from seven Australian Universities.

Professor Jian-xin Zhao, University of Queensland

How does climate change and human settlement impact the Great Barrier Reef? When did the giant kangaroos and wombats last roam the Australian continent? How do you distinguish ancient porcelain from modern fakes? Professor Zhao teaches his mentees how geochemistry and geochronology can unravel the past for a better understanding of the future.

Mark Willacy, Mavourneen Dineen, Jun Matsuzono, Garth Thomas, Yumiko Asada and Yayoi Eguchi, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Catch presents an investigation of how two young Japanese activists, the “Tokyo Two”, took on the entrenched and powerful Japanese scientific whaling industry. They faced a possible 10 year gaol sentence because of the corruption they exposed.

Broadcast on Foreign Correspondent, ABC TV, 8 June 2010

Professor Rick Shine, University of Sydney

Professor Shine is one of Australia’s foremost researchers in ecology and evolution, and is one of this country’s most widely heard science communicators. His websites, media appearances and magazine articles have replaced myths with fact, and transformed the public debate about cane toads.

Dr Jonica Newby and Lile Judickas, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This journalistic investigation features an Australian first national study. Funny, fascinating and deeply moving, it delivers a timely new understanding of a subject we all experience but few think deeply about – Fatherhood.

Broadcast on Catalyst, ABC TV, 1 July and 9 September 2010

Jason Edwards

Receding Glacial Cap with Cryoalgae – A storm front rises over a rugged and weathered glacial cap stained by blue and pink Cryoalgae, as it recedes due to global warming. This region of the Antarctic Peninsula has undergone one of the highest temperature increases in the world over the past 50 years.

Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, Griffith University

A Brisbane brain scientist using nasal cells transplanted into the spinal cord to repair the damage that paralyses more than 250 Australians every year.

Anita Trenwith, Salisbury High School, SA

Anita Trenwith’s students have the opportunity to realise how much fun science can be regardless of their individual literacy levels, learning difficulties, socio economic status or prior knowledge. Focussing on Special Education, Anita has developed science courses that are accessible to all students with surprising results.

Anastasia K., Croydon Public School, NSW

The Life Cycle of a Stick Insect - Stick insects have an amazing lifecycle. This film describes the environments within which they live, the different stages of development from egg through to adult and the moulting process where a nymph is transformed into an adult.

Brandon G., Casino Christian School, NSW

The Sensational Snake - Presented actively and enthusiastically, this documentary highlights the amazing adaptations that snakes possess that enable them to hunt with such stealth and efficiency. Snakes have much to be admired for.