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Monash 50th Anniversary Research Awards

The Monash 50th Anniversary Research awards were presented on Monday 18 August 2008 at Government House in Melbourne. The 50th Anniversary Research Awards recognise outstanding research achievement. The awards acknowledge and celebrate Monash researchers who have had significant success and impact in a broad range of areas over the past 50 years. Three well deserving recipients in the field of engineering were:

• Emeritus Professor Ian Polmear AO, Foundation Professor of Materials Engineering for his pioneering work in light metal alloys that has led to commercial innovations, including the development of an ultrahigh strength aluminium alloy used in the space shuttle program in the USA.
• Emeritus Professor Owen Potter, Foundation Professor of Chemical Engineering, for his path-breaking work in fluidised reactors and drying which continues to make an impact on the development of technology to reduce emissions from brown coal.
• Late Emeritus Professor Douglas Lampard, Foundation Professor of Electrical Engineering, for his seminal contributions to the field of biomedical engineering which led to significant developments in anaesthesia with widespread clinical and commercial application.

The inaugural Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Innovation and Collaboration in Research with Industry recognises research excellence. Highlights in the Faculty of Engineering were:

• The Best Research and Development Collaboration award went to Greg Crew and his team members Graham Tew, Beng Oh, Darrien Welsby, and Dr Dingyang Zheng. The team has significantly enhanced the maintenance of haulage operations at BHP Billiton Iron Ore through the development and installation of three permanently instrumented ore cars.
• The award for Best Collaboration Involving a Co-operative Research Centre went to Associate Professor Chris Davies, Dr Trevor Abbott, Dr Colleen Bettles, Dr Mark Easton, Dr Su-Ming Zhu and Dr Jian-Feng Nie. Over the past eight years this team has played a critical role in the development of four high-performance lightweight magnesium alloys, two of which have been patent-protected.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Postgraduate Supervision is to demonstrate not only commitment to teaching or research student supervision, but, also innovative and exciting approaches that serve as a model for how research and education can be brought together. Two of our outstanding academics received a Special Commendation – Professor Xiao-Ling Zhao and Professor Kerry Hourigan.

The Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal is awarded to the doctoral candidate judged to have presented the best thesis of the year. The 2007 recipient for the Faculty of Engineering was Dr Himal Suraweera.