Media Release
August 23 2007
Backgrounder - UniSA SA Science Award winners
Laureate Professor John Ralston
Under Prof Ralston’s leadership, the Ian Wark Research Institute has
built an outstanding reputation in Australia and internationally for
high quality and high impact research. Prof Ralston has attracted more
than $100 million in research funding since 1984 with colleagues
elsewhere in Australia and around the world.
Prof Ralston and his team of researchers at The Wark™ have developed a flotation mode, which is applied to increase the recovery and ore grade quality of minerals. The model has been acknowledged as one of the most significant advances in mineral processing in decades, allowing potential increases in mineral recovery by about two to five per cent. This can equate to millions of dollars, depending on the size of the plant and value of the mineral recovered.
In 2006 Prof Ralston received the Premier’s Science Excellence Award for Research Leadership, the Chemeca Medal for Outstanding Service and Contribution to Chemical Engineering, the Australian Mining’s inaugural Most Outstanding Contribution to Mining Award. He was recently nominated by the SA Premier for the 2007 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science.
Prof Ralston's Science award speech (Windows Media Player WMV 2.6Mb) transcript
Professor Chris Daniels
Since joining UniSA this year, Prof Daniels has established an urban
ecology stream in the Masters of Sustainable Environments program at the
School of Natural and Built Environments, to be offered in 2008.
During the past year he developed a state-wide network of urban ecologists, which now has more than 150 active members from more than 40 organisations around the state.
Prof Daniels is the co-author of a book on the historical analysis of Adelaide as a natural ecosystem, Adelaide Nature of a City, which was awarded the Whiteley Medal for the Best Book Publication in Zoology. In addition to editing the book, Prof Daniels wrote several chapters including the key volume on Adelaide ecology.
He also created and was appointed inaugural Director of the organisation BioCity: Centre for Urban Habitats, which aims to promote the rich diversity of flora and fauna of Adelaide’s urban areas and enhance the environment. As part of the project, Prof Daniels developed the BioCity website as a major environmental resource, using many forms of interactive media including radio and online movies, as well as fact sheets, articles, a photo library and many other forms of information designed to appeal to a wide audience.
Prof Daniels Science award speech (Windows Media Player WMV 2.7Mb) transcript
Professor Jerzy Filar
Prof Filar was instrumental in founding UniSA’s Centre for Industrial
and Applied Mathematics in 1994, which has gained national and
international recognition as a centre of excellence in mathematical
research.
He co-founded and is editor-in-chief of Environmental Modelling and
Assessment, a multi-disciplinary international journal that showcases
best-practice environmental modelling from authors worldwide.
Last year Prof Filar was awarded an Australian Research Council
Professorial Fellowship for 2006-2010 to continue his novel line of
investigations aimed at finding a solution for the famous Hamiltonian
cycle problem. The latter belongs to a collection of problems for which
there is no known polynomial algorithm.
Prof Filar's Science award speech
(Windows Media Player WMV 2.5Mb)
transcript