Engineers Australia video and story on SMaRT and Veena

Engineers Australia's digital publication Create has produced a video and story on some of the 'waste to product' technologies developed at the UNSW SMaRT Centre.

The video and story feature Veena with respect to her recent naming as the 2022 NSW Australian of the Year by the Australia Day Council on behalf of the governments of Australia.

Below is the video and this link goes to the full story, from which further below is an excerpt.

Growing up in densely populated Mumbai inspired Engineers Australia Honorary Fellow and Chartered engineer Veena Sahajwalla HonFIEAust CPEng to see the potential in what looked, to anyone else, like rubbish. Now, her pioneering research into waste has earned her the title of the 2022 New South Wales Australian of the Year.

Scientia Professor Sahajwalla, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate, is known for spearheading the high temperature transformation of waste to produce a new generation of ‘green’ materials.

She is the founder and Director of SMaRT@UNSW, the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, and head of the new ARC Microrecycling Research Hub.

This is a five-year research and development program that aims to transform Australia’s waste and resource recovery industry by equipping it with advanced manufacturing capability. 

Despite her many achievements, Sahajwalla said she couldn’t believe she was nominated for the award, let alone be given the title.

“This means so much to me and is a reflection on the wonderful people I’ve had around me,” she said.

Sahajwalla said promoting STEM and greater sustainability continues to be extremely important to her.

“As I engage with many people every day, I see these issues are generating a community and industry groundswell that we should embrace,” she said. 

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