2003 Eureka winners

This year's Eureka prizes were awarded last night in their usual black and red finery at a dinner function at Fox studios in Sydney.

The prizes, valued at $210,000, were presented to 21 winners recognising their achievements in areas ranging from ethics, science journalism and science research, to engineering, interdisciplinary research and biodiversity.

Prof Levon Khachigian, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) picked up the UNSW Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, adding another award to his tally which includes the recent 2003 Gottshalk medal for medical research. Khachigian's winning work involves the development of a novel class of drugs aimed at reducing artherosclerosis, combating cancer and treating blindness in the elderly.

The Royal Societies of Australia Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Scientific Research went to the Brain Dynamics Team, a collaboration of researchers from the University of Sydney, Westmead Hospital and the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria. By combining physics, physiology, mathematics, medicine, psychology and computing, this group has generated a model of how the brain generates electrical activity.

This research a has yielded a non-invasive brain analysis tool that provides insights into the workings of the human brain.