Engineering honour
by Kelly Stone
UniSA Professor Alex Grant has won an award for his wireless communications work from Engineers Australia, who believe his work will have long-term benefits to society.
The Director of UniSA’s Institute for Telecommunications Research, Prof Grant said he was honoured to receive the IREE (Institution of Radio and Electronic Engineers) Neville Thiele Award 2008.
"It is a deep honour to be recognised in this way, by Australia’s peak body for engineering," he said.
The IREE Neville Thiele Award is named in honour of Neville Thiele OAM, an outstanding Australian electronics engineer and world-renowned expert on audio engineering standards and the design of loudspeakers. The award also recognises the Institution of Radio and Electronic Engineers (IREE) which represented the profession of radio and electronic engineering in Australia until the Information, Technology and Electronics Engineering College was formed in 2001. The Neville Thiele Award is the College’s most prestigious award.
The judging panel said Prof Grant’s work closely emulated that of Neville Thiele in achieving a "highly impressive blend of theoretical and practical design development".
"The panel agrees that Professor Grant’s work will have long-term benefits to society, not only in wireless communications but for other communication technologies that have the electromagnetic spectrum as the fundamental element in their operation," the panel said.
As South Australian Ambassador for the Tall Poppy Campaign, Prof Grant is actively promoting science and technology careers to school students and their teachers. Through both this program, and the South Australia Great Speakers in Schools program, Prof Grant has visited many high schools and primary schools to give presentations about the role of mathematics in information technology, and the pathways to careers in this area.