Matthew Flinders Medal awarded to leading surface scientist

The Australian Academy of Science has announced Professor Barry Ninham AO FAA as the recipient of the 2017 Matthew Flinders Award and Lecture, said to be one of Australia’s most prestigious honours for work in the physical sciences.

Professor Ninham is described by the academy as the world’s leading researcher in colloid and surface science — an interdisciplinary science where the physical, chemical and biological sciences meet. Among pioneering contributions to the natural sciences, his best known work is in the self-assembly of biological molecules and in the theory of molecular forces.

Professor Ninham and his team have developed technologies for desalination and to clean recycled water of bacteria, viruses, drugs and other impurities, such as arsenic and nuclear waste. Compared to current technologies, these methods are said to be much simpler and substantially cheaper. The colleagues have also formed RENEWater — a venture that is currently working with UNSW and industry to take the technology to the third world, disaster zones and anywhere clean water is difficult to obtain.

The academy’s president, Professor Andrew Holmes, said Professor Ninham has “achieved so much in his field, it is hard to measure his impact”.

“Over his career, he has published hundreds of research papers which have profoundly influenced the way scientists approach work in their field,” he said.

“Professor Ninham also founded the Department of Applied Mathematics at the Australian National University in 1970, bringing theoreticians and experimentalists together for the first time in Australia,” Professor Holmes continued. He said the department is one of the most prestigious in the country, having produced more than 100 professors in its esteemed history.

The Matthew Flinders Medal is presented every two years to Australia’s most influential and inspiring scientists working in the physical sciences. Professor Ninham will receive the award at Science at the Shine Dome 2017, where he will deliver a lecture to leaders in the Australian scientific community.