Big prize for 'small science' physicist

May 7, 2009

Dr Amanda Barnard. Image credit - Amanda Barnard

CSIRO scientist, Dr Amanda Barnard, has been awarded the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) 2009 Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics.

The award acknowledges Dr Barnard as a world leader on 'nanomorphology' - the study of the structures, shapes and crystal structures of materials at the nanoscale.

Since graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University in 2001 - and earning a PhD in 2003 - Dr Barnard has held Postdoctoral Fellow positions at several distinguished research institutions including: the Center for Nanoscale Materials in Argonne, Illinois; Queen's College, Oxford, UK; and The University of Melbourne as a Future Generation Fellow.

She is currently an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellow and leader of CSIRO's Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory, which is part of CSIRO Future Manufacturing National Research Flagship's Nanosafety research theme.

"Dr Barnard has made a number of important contributions to the field of nanoscience," says CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering Research Program Leader, Dr Cathy Foley.

"In particular she has undertaken ground-breaking research into how nanoparticles interact with the environment and how environmental changes may affect their stability.

"This work has earned her invitations to write an article for Nature Materials and a chapter on predicting the risks and hazards associated with nanomaterials for a book on nanotechnology due for publication later this year."

The award of the IUPAP Prize follows Dr Barnard receiving numerous Australian and international awards including; the 2008 L'Oreal UNESCO award for "Women in Science" and the 2009 J G Russell Award from the Australian Academy of Science.

Dr Barnard will be presented with the IUPAP Prize in mid-December this year at the 2009 Conference on Computational Physics in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

IUPAP is an international non-government organisation devoted to the advancement of physics worldwide. Its aim is to help in the application of physics towards solving problems of concern to humanity.

Source: CSIRO Australia