Young Tall Poppy Science Award winners - NSW & ACT 2006

Dr Douglas Aberdeen, National ICT Australia (NICTA), whose research is the field of ‘machine learning'; methods of allowing computers to ‘learn' from experience and then improve their performance by being rewarded for doing well. His work enables machines to learn to do complex tasks like controlling robots, traffic lights and helicopters. He has received awards for early work on ‘Hawkeye' systems for cricket and ‘Bunyip', the world's cheapest super computer.

Dr Alaina Ammit, University of Sydney, is a researcher on airway smooth muscle in inflammation and airway remodelling. Her work has implications for combating asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In Australia asthma affects one in four children and one in ten adults. Alaina's research is conducted on a cellular level and is essential to the development of good drugs with minimal side effects to treat these conditions.

Dr James Curran, University of Sydney, builds systems for computers to understand, store and manipulate human languages.  Some of the applications for this research are search engines in which you can type a question and get an accurate answer (instead of a list of links that may or may not be what you were looking for) and more accurate language translation software. Dr Curran's work enables computers to understand the syntactic or grammatical structures of languages (not just identify words) in order to perform these new functions.

Dr Nathan Daczko, Macquarie University, whose research ranges from studies in deep crystal processes in areas undergoing mountain building to processes operating at active oceanic spreading margins. He is particularly interested in active plate boundary zones in tectonically active regions including Fiordland, New Zealand, Macquarie Island and Papua New Guinea.

Dr Louisa Degenhardt, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre UNSW, whose research on trends in illicit drug use identified the Australian heroin shortage and the increasing use in methamphetamine and ecstasy. She has developed the ‘Party Drug Initiative', a national project documenting the patterns of use and harms associated with this new drug use. This work has been internationally lauded and Louisa has been invited to present research findings to UN agencies, international and national government advisory bodies and the Australian Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy.

Dr Kirstie Fryirs, Macquarie University, is an environmental scientist and a recognised leader in rivers research. Kirstie has developed a framework for assessing river condition and recovery potential which has been used as a river management tool across many areas of Australia. The River Styles Framework was trademarked in 1999. Kirstie's outreach activities focus on communication of field-based research to river practitioners and the community.

Dr Andrew Harris, University of Sydney, whose research is in sustainable hydrogen, phytomining (sustainable mining using plants to recover metals) and large-scale manufacture of carbon nanotubes, one of the materials of the future. His research has the capacity to revolutionise the energy industry and provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Dr Andrew Hopkins, University of Sydney, studies galaxy evolution: the role of star formation in galaxies and how galaxy morphologies arise and evolve. Investigating the connections between nearby galaxies, and distant galaxies can help us understand more about how galaxies work and how our own Milky Way fits into this grand scheme. His particular interest is cosmic star formation history and measurement. More

In 2009 Dr Hopkins moved to the Anglo-Australian Observatory.

Dr Ulrike Mathesius, Australian National University, is a plant scientist interested in the chemical communication between plant roots and soil microbes especially bacteria that convert nitrogen in the air to plant fertiliser. Her research has implications for the improvement of pasture plant performance through the targeted use of soil microbes for improving plant growth.

She is interested in talking to school students about plant interactions with bacteria and how they relate to the food we eat and the stability of plant ecosystems.

Dr Adam Micolich, University of new South Wales, works in the area of semiconductor nanoelectronics, focusing on how the quantum mechanical nature of electrons affects the way that electronic devices operate when they are incredibly small. Semiconductor microelectronics underpin our modern information technologies, from computers and playstations to mobile phones and internet. Adam has been involved in a number of impressive discoveries including fractal conductance fluctuations and a new hybrid organic-inorganic superconductor. More

Dr Geraldine O'Neill, The Children's Hospital Westmead, has made a most significant contribution to cancer cell research. When cancer spreads it becomes harder for doctors to treat and often becomes more resistant to the therapies, like chemotherapy, that we use to treat them. Geraldine's research uses cutting edge cell biology techniques to work out how the cancers spread and why they become resistant to the therapy.

Geraldine promotes medical research to the community through the media, public outreach events and as convenor of the Career Seminars of the ASMR.

Dr Leigh Sheppard, University of New South Wales, researches and develops sustainable energy solutions. He looks specifically at solar-hydrogen, a form of energy which is generated in a sustainable manner by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. Leigh has worked specifically on developing environmentally sustainable semiconductors used in the conversion of water into hydrogen and oxygen. Solar hydrogen is widely recognised as the fuel of the future, especially in countries like Australia where we have an abundance of sunlight. More

Leigh and his team moved to the University of Western Sydney in 2008 to further his research.

Dr Stuart Tangye, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, researches the human immune system identifying defects that may be responsible for the development of numerous diseases and finding strategies to improve people's immune systems and reduce the effects of auto-immune diseases. Findings from the research will reveal strategies by which the human immune response can be increased or decreased, such that individuals with immuno-deficiencies will have improved ability to fight infection, while patients with auto-immune diseases will have reduced inflammation and tissue destruction.

Dr David Tscharke, Australian National University, whose research interest is in the immune system and in particular, how the immune system recognises viruses and vaccines. A better understanding of how the immune system works is needed for the development of future vaccines. He is a natural communicator who has had great success in teaching, as well as establishing a new viral immunology research laboratory.

Dr Stephen Wroe, University of New South Wales, whose research focuses on evolution and ecology of Australian animals - with implications for improving conservation. His current interests lie in marsupial evolution and marsupial biogeography and mammalian biomechanics. His work on bio mechanics of mammalian skulls has particularly excited him as the techniques being developed are readily transferable to important areas of biomedical research.