Meet the Experts – Eureka Stories

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are the country’s most comprehensive national science awards, honouring excellence across the areas of research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science.

In this on demand virtual excursion, students joined the conversation with three Eureka Prize winners who discussed their work in science and science communication, shared their career journeys and celebrated their Eureka moments.

Dr Sophie Calabretto

Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG)

Dr Sophie Calabretto is an applied mathematician, fluid mechanist, and science writer. She currently works as a Defence scientist with the Department of Defence having transitioned from academia as part of the Defence NAVIGATE program. Dr Calabretto is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University, and Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Leicester. She also hosts ‘The Science Briefing’, a podcast about the science of everything, produced by LiSTNR and The Royal Institution of Australia. She’s been recognised for her excellent work as a science communicator, being awarded one of the ABC's 'Top 5 Under 40' researchers in 2017, and a finalist in the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science in 2019 and 2020.

Learn more.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla

Director of the Sustainable Materials Research & Technology Centre, UNSW

Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla is the director of the SMaRT Centre (Sustainable Materials Research & Technology at the University of NSW). She is well known for her contributions in building a waste-free economy, innovating microfactories and inventing ‘green steel’, an alternative to using coal in the steel production industry. For many years Veena was a judge on the ABC TV show The New Inventors and more recently she was featured in the ABC’s Australian Story.

Veena received the 2022 Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. Learn more.

Professor Sumeet Walia

RMIT

Professor Sumeet Walia is an innovator, research leader and serial inventor passionate about using technology as a vehicle to make people’s lives better.

Sumeet received the 2022 Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science. Learn more.

Dr Jackson Ryan

Science Editor, CNET

Jackson Ryan is the science editor at CNET.com and a multi-award-losing journalist. In a previous life he worked in the lab, studying the cells in our bones, but now he wants to write the best science stories you've ever read. He owns an extensive collection of bad Christmas sweaters and tweets way too much.

Jackson received the 2022 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism. Learn more.