Australian neuroscientist wins UK accolade

The 2008 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics has been won by Prof Mandyam Srinivasan, head of Visual Neuroscience at the Queensland Brain Institute.

The Rank Prize Funds is a British-based organisation that rewards outstanding scientists in the fields of animal and human nutrition, crop husbandry and optoelectronics.

"It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise," said Srinivasan.

By studying the behaviour of insects, Srinivasan and his team demonstrated that many relatively simple nervous systems display a rich behavioural repertoire. The research seeks to clarify principles of flight navigation and explore the limits of the "cognitive' capacities of small brains.

Srinivasan and his colleagues are focusing on using their research to provide solutions to problems in machine vision and artificial intelligence. They are designing biologically inspired algorithms for "seeing' machines and the development of autonomously navigating robots.

The professor came to Australia from the University of Zurich in 1985 to research honeybee vision. He led a 20-strong team at the Australian National University before moving to the University of Queensland in 2007.

Srinivasan was previously recognised for his research in October 2006, when he was awarded the Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science.