Tasmanian STEM Innovation of the Year award

Congratulations to the inspiring winners of this year’s Tasmanian STEM Excellence Awards.

The third annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) awards celebrate and recognise leaders and their achievements across these core fields of study and research.

Not only is today a chance to recognise the contribution these leaders make to the community, it also inspires others by showcasing the innovative achievements being made right here in Tasmania.

This year’s winners include:

• Professor Sergey Shabala from the University of Tasmania, who has been awarded the 2018 Premier’s Tasmanian STEM Researcher of the Year prize for his internationally recognised expertise in minimising the impact of major stresses on crop and fibre production such as drought, salinity or flooding.
• Dr Dawn Aitken from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research achieved the Tasmanian Young STEM Researcher of the Year for her work on Osteoarthritis, and Dr Margo Adler for outstanding community science engagement through the Beaker Street initiative.
• Tameika Munday, of Burnie Primary School, and Nel Smit, of Huonville High School, received the Tasmanian STEM Primary Teacher of the Year and Secondary Teacher of the Year awards respectively, for inspiring our next generation of scientists.
• The Minister’s STEM Innovation of the Year Award was awarded to the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies ARC Research Hub for the Commercial Development of Rock Lobster Culture Systems. These scientists are the only group in the world to have developed a technology that will allow the world’s first, commercial-scale lobster hatchery to be established in Tasmania.

Tasmania prides itself as a notable centre of scientific excellence and as a hub of innovation flowing from the critical mass of flexible, capable scientists and the ‘can do’ community spirit for which we are recognised globally.

The 2018 Tasmanian STEM Awards reflect the quality and capability of our science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals, communicators and educators – particularly their deep connection with the community and its future.

The Tasmanian STEM Awards are jointly supported by the Tasmanian Government, Inspiring Australia and the University of Tasmania.

For more information on the Tasmanian STEM Awards or winners contact Sarah Bayne at the University of Tasmania on 0419 472 539 or at Sarah.Bayne@utas.edu.au