Two researchers from the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne have won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for their work in reinventing polymer science.
Professors Ezio Rizzardo and David Solomon won the $300,000 prise for devising a means of custom building plastics and other polymers for plastic solar cells, drug delivery, paints, adhesives, lubricants and everything in between.
Their techniques are reportedly already employed in the laboratories and factories of DuPont, L’Oréal, IBM, 3M, Dulux and more than 60 other companies.
Their work has been cited more than 12,000 times in the scientific literature and is integral to more than 500 patents.
“The impact of this outstanding body of work cannot be overstated,” says Professor Craig Hawker, director of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“It is rewriting the book on polymer synthesis, dramatically impacting many diverse and important areas of academic and industrial research. Their creativity reaches out far beyond the stellar science. I see no limits to what can come from this work and am very proud to be able to say that it is home-grown Australian science through and through.”