An expert in optoelectronic engineering was the Australian nominee for the 2017 international ASPIRE Prize.
Professor Dayong Jin, from the University of Technology Sydney, was one of 16 international nominees in the running for the prestigious US$25,000 Asia–Pacific region science prize. The winner of the overall prize, Dr Yanwu Zhu of China, was announced recently in Vietnam.
The annual award recognises young scientists from APEC economies who have demonstrated a commitment to both excellence in scientific research and working closely with scientists from other APEC member economies. The 2017 ASPIRE theme was new material technologies, reflecting the importance of research into developing new and advanced materials in driving scientific innovation.
Each member economy was invited to nominate one scientist under the age of 40 to be considered for this year's prize.
Professor Jin, a world-leader in his field, was nominated for his work in producing the world’s brightest nanocrystals, called Super Dots. The low-cost, high-contrast, super-resolution microscopy technology is being utilised for personalised precision nanomedicine and super-capacity data storage. The Super Dots can also be made into an ‘invisible ink’ to protect pharmaceuticals, medical courier supplies, passports, banknotes and more.
Professor Jin also recently received the Academy’s 2017 John Booker Medal for his Super Dots research, at Science at the Shine Dome.
Dr Mohsen Rahmani from the Australian National University and Associate Professor Sharath Sriram from RMIT University were also recognised by the Academy as Australian finalists for this year’s prize.
Dr Rahmani’s recent work has led to the development of novel semiconductor nano-crystals that can be fabricated on any glass surface to allow human eyes to see in the dark.
Associate Professor Sriram’s breakthrough work in nanoscale electronic memory technology mimics the way the human brain handles information. This allows the storage of multiple information states in a single memory cell, promising exceptional memory density and speeds on the scale of petabytes on a pinhead.
The APEC economies are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
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