NSSN Ambassador wins Leadership in Innovation award at the 2020 NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering

NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) Ambassador at UNSW Professor Ewa Goldys has won the award for Leadership in Innovation in NSW at this year’s NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering. The Awards ceremony, which can be viewed on demand, took place on 27 October 2020 at Government House in Sydney.

The Awards recognise excellence in science and engineering, and reward leading researchers and educators for cutting-edge work that has generated economic, environmental, health, social or technological benefits for New South Wales.

Professor Ewa Goldys is a world leader in the development and application of advanced fluorescence techniques to biomedicine, nanotechnology and advanced materials. 

Professor Goldys pioneered the development of a unique technology – hyperspectral imaging for non-invasive medical diagnostics – using cutting-edge fluorescence techniques. 

This breakthrough uses colour analysis of cells that could one day allow scientists to detect and decode cell health without needing to take samples from the body using invasive procedures. 

“This simple idea of looking for patterns and regularities in cell colours has opened opportunities on an unprecedented scale for biological discoveries and novel inventions,” Professor Goldys says.

“It will yield novel, user-friendly cell diagnostics which can be performed wherever needed – using only cell snapshots and big data apps.” 

NSSN Ambassador at UNSW Professor Ewa Goldys wins Leadership in Innovation award at the 2020 NSW Premier’s Prizes.

This big data driven technique is capable of recognising cancer margins, diabetic complications, neurodegenerative motor neurone disease and fertilisation potential in reproductive medicine.

Professor Goldys says she’s incredibly honoured to receive the NSW Premier’s award for Leadership in Innovation.

“Innovation is something I am passionate about, and I love to share this passion with others. I’d like to thank UNSW, the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering and the ARC Centre for Nanoscale Biophotonics for supporting my work to bring molecular diagnostics out of high-tech facilities and into the field to benefit end-users.”

Professor Edward C. Holmes FAA FRSN FRS from the University of Sydney has become the 2020 NSW Scientist of the Year. Professor Holmes is a global leader in research on the emergence, evolution and spread of viruses. 

Most recently, Professor Holmes has been involved in key research that demonstrated the virus SARS-CoV-2 was the causative agent of COVID-19. He was the first person to publicly release the genome sequence of the virus in early January 2020, enabling diagnostic tests to be rapidly developed.

Other 2020 Category Winners from across NSSN member universities include: 

• Distinguished Professor Sue O’Reilly AM FAA FMSA FGSAu FRSN DHC from Macquarie University awarded for Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry or Physics.

• Professor Ian J. Wright FAA from Macquarie University awarded for Excellence in Biological Sciences (Ecological, environmental, agricultural and organismal).

• Professor Merlin Crossley from UNSW Sydney awarded for Excellence in Medical Biological Sciences (cell and molecular, medical, veterinary and genetics).

• Dr Rachael Gallagher from Macquarie University awarded the NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (Biological Sciences).

• Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina from UNSW awarded the NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (Physical Sciences).

A consortium of eight leading universities in NSW and the ACT, the NSSN brings together expertise in academia, industry and government to position NSW and Australia as a global leader in smart sensing innovation.

To learn more about NSSN Ambassador at UNSW Professor Ewa Goldys, please click here.

To learn more about the 2020 NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering and this year’s winners, please click here.

To live-stream the 2020 NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering Award Ceremony [6 pm - 27 October 2020], please click here.

To learn more about NSSN, please click here.