UTS claims double Eureka

Collaboration was the key to success for two UTS research leaders who were recognised last night with Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, billed as the country's most comprehensive national science awards.

Professor Dacheng Tao of the Faculty of Engineering and IT, and Professor Dayong Jin of the Faculty of Science were both awarded for collaborative research, their work resulting in technologies with significant and diverse applications including health, data management, security and sports science.

“The Eureka Prizes are one of Australia’s most prestigious science awards, and for UTS researchers to receive not one, but two of the awards is an extraordinary achievement,” said UTS Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Glenn Wightwick.

Professor Tao was awarded the Scopus Eureka Prize for Excellence in International Scientific Collaboration.

Executive Director and CEO of the Australian Museum, Kim McKay AO, said Professor Tao’s work, “has improved scientific research across a significant number of scientific fields… from driverless car technology to sports science to cartoon development.”

Professor Tao said he was “thrilled” by the announcement. “To be frank, I didn’t expect to get this award, because when the finalists were announced I found out that I was competing with two teams, and one team included 200 people!”

Professor Tao collaborates with an international network of biomedical researchers, security and intelligence authorities, law enforcement, smart-card operators, software developers and facial-recognition specialists to develop subspace learning models that meaningfully reduce the complexity of captured data.

“I don’t think this award belongs to me only,” said Professor Tao. “It also belongs to my colleagues, my centre, my faculty, the university, a lot of collaborators, and my students. Because we all together can make beautiful work.”

Professor Jin was awarded the University of New South Wales Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research – along with Professor Tanya Monro, University of South Australia and Professor Bradley Walsh, Minomic International Ltd and Macquarie University – for creation and use of nanocrystals that can illuminate hidden diseased cells in a living body.  

Read the full story in the UTS Newsroom.