Overview
- Distinguished Prof Lidia Morawska of Queensland University of Technology won the $250,000 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for pioneering work on air quality and public health.
- Her 2020 push to recognise airborne transmission of Covid-19 helped prompt updates to guidance by the World Health Organization and other authorities.
- Morawska is now focusing on ultrafine particles, tiny pollutants believed to penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and not yet widely regulated.
- Prof Michael Wear, a Malgana custodian from Gutharraguda (Shark Bay), received the inaugural $250,000 prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems for his Tidal Moon marine-restoration enterprise.
- Tidal Moon has trained 12 Indigenous divers and plans to restore 20 hectares of seagrass next year, while other honorees included Prof Yao Zheng for producing clean hydrogen from seawater and Dr Vikram Sharma for quantum-enabled cybersecurity.