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A graduate of the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering within UWA’s Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, James McCarthy-Price has won The People’s Choice award at the prestigious Western Australian Young Achiever Awards.

Open to all finalists, the People’s Choice award is an exceptional achievement that recognises an individual who is voted for by the public as their favourite finalist.

James was nominated as a Finalist in the Scott Print Environment and Sustainability Award, for demonstrating environmental leadership and making a contribution to sustainability in Western Australia.

“James is a Wave Energy Engineer and an avid environmentalist. He organised ‘Entrepreneering’, an educational career pathway event for 200 high achieving students and successfully campaigned for UWA to introduce a renewable energy subject,” said Dr Scott Draper, James’ former UWA lecturer.

“It is fantastic to see a UWA graduate recognised at this level, and these awards highlight and reinforce that education provides a strong platform for future success.”

James has researched and discovered a method to decrease the lifetime cost of wave energy converters by 1%, a substantial outcome for wave energy companies. His goal is to harness the energy stored in waves and produce the world’s first cost-effective wave energy converter.

This award will showcase James’ incredible achievements and will encourage and inspire many young engineers and students.

James completed the Master of Professional Engineering in Environmental Engineering at UWA, investigating renewable wave energy cost reduction through optimisation of device foundations and cost benefit of active survival modes, in his thesis project.

Media references

Lauren Humfrey (UWA Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics) (+61 8) 6488 2260