High-powered research wins state award

A Geelong researcher has won Victoria’s highest scientific honour for her “groundbreaking” work in batteries.
Waurn Ponds professor Maria Forsyth last week thanked her supporters after receiving the 2017 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in physical sciences.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed and honoured to receive this award, and I’m very proud of my team of collaborators,” she said.
“I have a fantastic team of young researchers, and the work we’ve been doing here in Victoria is leading the world in the lithium metal space.”
Prof Forsyth, who is director of Deakin’s battery research hub at Waurn Ponds earned a $50,000 prize for her research.
Her decades of research enabled the next generation of safer and higher energy density battery technologies, according to her citation.
In the late 1990s she discovered the ion conductive properties of organic ionic plastic crystals in collaboration with Monash University’s Professor Doug MacFarlane.
Deakin deputy vice-chancellor Peter Hodgson congratulated Prof Forsyth on her achievements
“It is a tremendous accolade for Professor Forsyth and acknowledges her pioneering work in developing advanced electrolyte materials for electrochemical devices,” Prof Hodgson said.
“It also reflects her many spectacular achievements as a research leader and mentor of influence and vision, and her position as an outstanding role model for women in science.”
Fellow Deakin scientist Ludovic Dumee received an $18,000 Victorian Fellowship and an Australian French Association for Science and Technology award of $3500.
Dr Dumee specialises in materials to prevent water pollution from industrial waste effluents generated in the textile, food and metallurgy industries.
He will spend three months in France developing his skills in 2D nanomaterials design and control by Atomic Layer Deposition – an emerging technique to generate ultra-thin separation materials.