News Archive

The Prime Minister of Australia, The Hon Julia Gillard and Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Senator The Hon Chris Evans, presented the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science on 31 October 2012 in the Great Hall of Parliament House. Winthrop Professor Eric May, deputy director of the Centre for Energy, has been awarded the “The Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year”.

The Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, which comprises a silver medallion and lapel pin, and a cash component of $50000, is awarded for an outstanding achievement in science that advances, or has the potential to advance, human welfare or benefits society. The objectives of this prize are to recognise and reward outstanding early-career research and to demonstrate to the public, and to school students and science undergraduates in particular, that outstanding early-career achievement in science is not only possible but can be of world-class importance.

W/Prof. Eric May holds the Chevron Chair in Gas Process Engineering at the University of Western Australia. Western Australian LNG is powering the economic transformation of Asia and W/Prof. Eric May is using his analytical understanding of the behaviour of gases and liquids to find ways of producing the LNG more efficiently and safely. As well as using the most accurate measurements of the thermodynamic properties of fluids to increase the efficiency of extraction and processing, he is also investigating ways of capturing waste carbon dioxide from the process and injecting it back into the gas reservoirs underground.

Winthrop Professor Dongke Zhang FTSE, the Director of the UWA Centre for Energy, says “we at the Centre for Energy congratulate Eric for this remarkable achievement and share the joy of the success. This award reaffirms the UWA Centre for Energy’s position as an Australia’s international leading research facility in energy R&D”.

Media references

Ms Yii Leng Chan (+61 8) 6488 7602