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A geotechnical engineer whose work is used to assess the stability of all major pipelines being designed to tap Australia's offshore gas resources is the overall winner of the WA Young Tall Poppy Science Awards.

Australian Research Council Future Fellow Professor David White, from The University of Western Australia's Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, is a geotechnical engineer who is pioneering a new field of research into the behaviour of shallow seabed sediments.

He was one of six researchers from UWA and its affiliate - the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research - who were among eight winners in the WA Young Tall Poppy Science Awards presented at Curtin University last night.

The other five UWA winners are:

• ARC Research Fellow Associate Professor Ben Corry , who is developing a new kind of material that could be used to make desalination of seawater much cheaper.

• ARC Future Fellow and Group Leader Dr Aleksandra Filipovska who is researching programs that control energy production in the human body to help the development of therapeutics for a broad range of mitochondrial diseases with symptoms that include poor growth, loss of muscle coordination, visual problems and heart, liver and kidney disease.

• Australian Rotary Health Postdoctoral Research Fellow Monique Robinson who has found a link between the number of stressful events experienced during pregnancy and increased risk of behavioural problems in children.

• ARC Future Fellow Research Associate Professor Keith Stubbs, whose research in developing tools to study the role carbohydrates play in nature, will be useful in development of therapeutic treatments and prevention of diseases.

• NHMRC Career Development Fellow Associate Professor Andrew Whitehouse who is working towards in utero detection of autism and intervention that starts at birth.

UWA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, said the work of the University's young scientists would make positive differences in the lives of many people.  "They exemplify the University's mission to be of service to the community," he said.

He described Professor White's work as of international calibre.  "Our University is able to attract some of the world's best researchers and this has substantial benefits for our State."

Professor White left a lectureship at Cambridge University in England to become one of UWA's youngest professors.  He has more than 10 years' research experience in soil mechanics for foundations and pipelines, primarily for offshore use.

He has led experimental and numerical studies of geotechnical mechanisms to understand the behaviour of piles, foundations, pipelines and submarine slides and devised simple design methods that are now widely used in engineering practice.

His research has appeared in more than 150 publications in the past 10 years and his papers have been awarded the Bishop Medal, the Telford Premium, the RM Quigley Honourable Mention and the BGA Prize (twice).  He won last year's Australian Academy of Science Anton Hale Award for distinguished science research.

Professor White is active in engineering practice and consults widely on foundation and pipeline design for offshore industries through the Perth-based company Advanced Geomechanics.

Media references

Professor David White (UWA Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems)  (+61 8)  6488 3086
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783