The 56-year-old has won many awards. Starting with the Eureka Prize way back in 2005, there have been business awards and innovation awards galore, even the Indian Government’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman prize for eminent overseas Indians.
Prof. Veena Sahajwalla, scientist, inventor, science communicator, and flag-bearer of women in STEM, has just won her latest accolade – NSW Australian of the Year 2022.
The 56-year-old has won many awards. Starting with the Eureka Prize way back in 2005, there have been business awards and innovation awards galore, even the Indian Government’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman prize for eminent overseas Indians.
Her latest award is a hurrah for science, for overseas-trained scientists in this country, for women in STEM, and for research and application in the science of recycling.
Born in Mumbai, Prof. Sahajwalla arrived in Australia in the mid-1990s. with a degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), where she was the only girl studying metallurgy.
However, that did not faze her one bit. Her interest in engineering took her to Canada and the US for further studies. It was here that she met, her husband, fellow-scientist Rama Mahapatra. They moved to Australia where careers in the CSIRO and UNSW awaited them.
Prof. Sahajwalla is best known for her research and application in sustainability, particularly in transforming waste products into steel.
Her work of converting plastics, tyres and discarded fabric to produce steel and building material has won her acclaim in the scientific world as well as in the broader community.
‘Green steel’, ‘green ceramics’ and the ‘microfactories’ that produce these green materials, are now becoming commonly used terminology thanks to her pioneering work.
It is very certain that in the near future they look set to become more commonplace in the coming years as the world moves towards an increasingly sustainable lifestyle.
Today Prof. Sahajwalla is Professor of Materials Science and the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology at UNSW.
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