Winner Martin Green with colelague Stuart Wenham.
SYDNEY: An Australian researcher who led the development of the world's highest efficiency silicon solar cells has been named the inaugural Scientist of the Year by the state of New South Wales.
Martin Green, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, won the award for his group's contributions to photovoltaic technologies, including the development of high-gain silicon solar cells - boosting performance by over 50 per cent - and the commercialisation of several other cell technologies.
His team hold a number of world records for solar cell performance. He also co-invented the 'second generation' silicon-on-glass solar cells, which are cheaper to manufacture, and is working on 'third-generation' thin film solar cells that could achieve major increases in energy efficiency.
The NSW Scientist of the Year Awards, held for the first time in 2008, recognise the Australian state’s leading researchers for work that generates economic, health, environmental or technological benefits for New South Wales, the country's most populous state.
They were handed out by Tony Stewart, the new NSW Minister for Science and Medical Research at in Government House, a romantic Gothic revival building used for state functions and located in Sydney's Botanical Gardens near the Sydney Opera House.
Winners in other categories were:
Engineering Sciences: Veena Sahajwalla, who has invented an environmentally-friendly technology for the recycling of waste plastics in Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking and demonstrated on a commercial scale that coke and coal used in the production of steel can be replaced by plastics used in shopping bags and bottles.
Computer Sciences: Chris Nicol, who established the first Asia-Pacific Bell Labs research facility in Sydney; with his team, he invented new circuit techniques that have been widely adopted and deployed in mobile phones and mobile network infrastructure around the world.
Chemistry: Gordon Wallace, who established what is claimed as the world's first intelligent polymer research laboratory in the state, is considered a pioneer in nanobionics which bridges nanotechnology and human biology, and has successfully used electrical stimulation to enhance growth from nerve cells, offering great potential for repairing damaged hearing and spinal cords.
Plant and Animal Sciences: Peter Kirkland, whose expert and rapid response to the 2007 equine influenza outbreak in New South Wales helped eradicate the disease in record time, limiting its potentially devastating impact on Australia's multi-billion dollar horse industry.
Biomedical Sciences: Philip Hogg, who has invented a class of cancer drugs that starve tumours of their blood supply by inactivating the cells that make the blood vessels in tumours.
Physics and Astronomy: Benjamin Eggleton, considered an international leader in optical physics and photonics. His research work with colleagues includes efforts to vastly increase the speed of the Internet by developing a photonic chip that uses light rather than electronic signals, replacing the need for routers that slow data transmission.
Mathematical Sciences: Matthew Wand, whose research has focused on the development of statistical methods to assist public health and medical researchers, and has been a pioneer in the use of 'smoothing techniques' to statistically account for random variations in data.
Leadership in Secondary Science Teaching: Mark Butler, whose programs have led to a 50% increase in the number of students in the regional New South Wales city of Gosford to take senior science over the past decade.
i had a thought about clean energy.
i had a thought about clean energy. you can use a line up of magnifying lenses to heat a low melting point metal. this in turn will have a metal pipe in the molten metal of a higher mealting point with water running thru it. this will turn the water to stream. the steam will flow thru the pipe passing thru turbines at a high rate of speed replicating a hydro dam. after the water passes thru the turbines it will meet up into a cooling process only to go back to the molten metal and repeat the cycle again. i know this would work on a huge scale producing a lot of electricity. this is also a clean method as well as it can be put into various areas of the world that are not very populated with a minimum crew to maintain the system.
Posted by: james young | September 15, 2008 at 07:49 PM
solar thermal
This is already being done in a simpler,cheaper way.
No Patent
Whoops! Assuming you haven't done so already, there goes any chance you had of patenting the system...