A former Dapto Primary School student has been honoured in the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.
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The University of Wollongong Honorary Professor Kurt Lambeck AO received the $250,000 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for his work “Revealing the breathing planet, sea levels and precise navigation’.
The emeritus professor, described by a colleague as “Australia’s pre-eminent earth scientist in the fields of geodesy and geophysics, and a towering figure internationally”, was one of only seven recipients honoured in Canberra on Wednesday.
Prof Lambeck, who now works at the Australian National University in Canberra, has received more than 30 international awards and distinctions and served as president of the Australian Academy of Science from 2006 to 2010.
The former Wollongong High School student’s latest award is for “transforming our understanding of our living planet”.
Prof Lambeck’s work has revealed how our planet changes shape—every second, every day, and over millennia. These changes influence sea levels, the movement of continents, and the orbits of satellites.
His original work in the 1960s enabled accurate planning of space missions. It led him to use the deformation of continents during the ice ages to study changes deep in the mantle of the planet. It also led to a better understanding of the impact of sea level changes on human civilization in the past, present and future.
Today’s highly accurate GPS-based systems build on his work and enable precision agriculture, new ways to explore for minerals, and the remarkable navigation tools we all use in our smartphones.
“The Earth is remarkable,” Prof Lambeck said. “It has this wonderful record of its history going back to almost its very beginning.
“Almost everywhere you look, you learn something new about what's been going on in our planet. It's a constant journey of discovery.”
This journey has seen Prof Lambeck guide the development of a comprehensive geodetic monitoring system called the AuScope network.
Established with the support of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), the network consists of about 100 GPS stations, radio telescopes, and laser tracking systems, and enables us to track our location with subcentimetre accuracy across the country.
“Today we can see the breathing of the Australian continent on a daily basis,” he said.
“We can watch the land rise and fall with the tides and observe the straining of the old continent as it collides with Southeast Asia.
“We can detect subtle variations in gravity that could indicate not only deep mineral deposits but also changes in groundwater through time.”
Meantime, the $250,000 Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation went to the Finisar team from Sydney.
Adjunct Research Fellow Lee Berger, Townsville, James Cook University/University of Melbourne won the $50,000 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.
Associate Professor Jack Clegg from the University of Queensland won the $50,000 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year.
Other Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science recipients in 2018 included Dr Geoff Rogers of Wintermute Biomedical in Melbourne, Brett Crawford from Warrigal Road State School in Brisbane and Dr Scott Sleap of Cessnock High School.