Published on the 16th June 2023 by ANSTO Staff
Staff from across the organisation were recognised by their peers at the inaugural 2022 ANSTO awards for outstanding work, innovation, excellence and commitment to the ANSTO values.
There was a strong showing from the science community at ANSTO and the teams who work at the OPAL multi-purpose reactor in multiple categories
George Collins award for Innovation: Dr Inna Karatchevtseva
Dr Inna Karatchevtseva was arecognised for her considerable contribution to defence science and nuclear materials that has brought her professional acclaim.
In 2020, she was recognised as a national leader in her field of ceramic engineering in what is generally a male-dominated profession. She received this award because she had the highest number of citations from papers published in the prior five years in the 20 top journals in her field.
Inna has already received two national awards from DMTC. In 2018, she received the Excellence Capability Improvement Award for “significant improvement in technical capability in the area of materials and/or manufacturing technology”.
In 2019, she was recognised for her contribution to the partnership with Thales Australia to develop an Australian supply chain for critical components of submarine sonar transducer equipment.
In work that started about a decade ago, Inna took up the challenge to grow a specific kind of single crystal for transducers in sonar detection systems.
The Defence community recognised the potential of this material and continued to fund this research with the aim to develop an Australian sovereign capability in this area.
Using perseverance, attention to detail and a large volume of work, she accomplished the task.
Today the technology is mature enough to be transferred to a defence supplier for industrial implementation, and Inna is working with the THALES team to achieve this.
She is also involved in numerous research activities in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle group at ANSTO including structural studies on materials for Generation IV Reactor Systems.
The late George Collins was Director of Materials and finally Chief of Research at ANSTO. he promoted the commercialisation of researchand the growth of advanced connections between the research community and Australian Industry.
Finalists: Brendan Mills and Dr Paul Pellegrini
Excellence in Research: Dr Karina Meredith
Dr Karina Meredith is a world expert in using a variety of chemical and isotopic tracers in water to investigate water resource sustainability in a variety of natural environments in Australia and globally.
She is an authority in the use of tritium, radiocarbon and chlorine-36 as independent tools to assess water resource sustainability.
Outcomes of her research have provided a scientific understanding of crucial water resources in many parts of Australia, including the Darling River system, aquifers in Western Australia and NSW and other areas. Her collaborative work is helping with predictions of how environmental change will impact water resource availability in Australia.
She leads ANSTO’s contribution to Australia’s $36M project to Secure Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF) 2020-2027.
Among her peers, Karina’s research excellence and productivity is captured by her academic output and the number of citations of key publications
She has designed, led, and delivered Australian water and climate research projects for the Australian Research Council, industry and international agencies.
At ANSTO, Karina is passionate about developing the next generation of environmental scientists through mentoring and guiding Postdoctoral Research Fellows and PhD students.
She is also a inspired supporter of gender equity and was a key member of the leadership team for the SAGE Athena Swan Bronze medal awarded to ANSTO.
Karina is a Principal research scientist who currently leads a large multidisciplinary and diverse team of environmental scientists at ANSTO.
Finalists: Dr Mitra Safavi-Naeini Dr Tom Cresswell
Early to Mid-Career: Dr Liza McDonough
Dr Liza McDonough has contributed to multiple projects in the Environment Theme in 2022, with innovative outcomes.
She led a paper published in May 2022 in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta showing for the first time ever that peaks in ash-derived metals in cave stalagmites could be used in conjunction with stalagmite growth layers to identify the timing of past fire events using a stalagmite from south west Western Australia. This work utilised ANSTO’s laser-ablation ICPMS and Synchrotron facilities to contribute to a project led by Pauline Treble titled “Reconstructing Australia’s fire history from cave stalagmites”. This was the first paper to show that stalagmites can be used as archives of fire and shows changes in fire intensity relating to the cessation of indigenous cultural burning after European arrival.
She has also been working on novel research identifying the sources and degradation pathway of groundwater dissolved organic matter. She led a paper published in Nature Communications in April 2022 which proposes a new transformation pathway for dissolved organic matter in aquifers and highlights its importance for inclusion in global carbon budgets, for which groundwater is overlooked. This paper is in the top 97th percentile of tracked articles of a similar age in journals and was reported by 12 new outlets and was co-authored by Karina Meredith and other national and international colleagues.
In 2022 she was also contributing to ANSTO’s work on the ARC special research initiative “Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future” (SAEF) and led a review paper submitted to Earth Science Reviews in December 2022, which is now being used to guide the future Antarctic and sub-Antarctic Lake water studies that are being conducted by ANSTO as part of the SAEF project.
Finalists: Erwin Dizon, Alison Lethang
Partnerships and Collaborations with Impact Award: Groundwater Team
The Groundwater Team Dr Dioni Cendón, Dr Cath Hughes, Dr Karina Meredith, Dr Jagoda Crawford, Dr Liza McDonogh, Stuart Hankin and Chris Dimovski won this award for their NSW state-wide groundwater investigation work.
This project has enabled ANSTO to partner with federal and state government agencies that are directly managing Australia’s precious groundwater resources.
The Groundwater Team has secured almost $600,000 of revenue for ANSTO with work that fits within the Environment Research Themes Strategic Goals aiming to characterise how groundwater resources are changing due to climate across NSW catchments. This work also aligns with ANSTO's strategic goals.
Further funding was also secured in January 2022 from the National Water Grid Fund for a project that aims to “Improve understanding of groundwater sustainability and renewability using isotope hydrochemistry”.
ANSTO is working in partnership with the NSW state government’s Department of Planning and Environment (DPE). The funding supports the development and delivery of nationally important water infrastructure projects that support primary industries and promote growth and sustainability.
ANSTO is contributing to the project with expert interpretation services that utilise a commercial groundwater isotope dataset measured by ANSTO and paid for by DPE. The project was secured because of the capabilities and strength of the team and the great relationships they have with federal and state government water management authorities.
Finalists: Margin Clear Project Team, Aerosol Sampling Program Team, Legal Team
Oustanding Contribution
Anthony Karantonis (right)
Distribution Supervisor
ANSTO Enterprise Services
Outstanding Outreach - Engagement
Dr Helen Maynard Casely (centre)
Senior Instrument Scientist
Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering
Outstanding Internal Collaboration
Isotope Tracing in Natural Systems Elemental Laboratories
Brett Rowling (left), Henri Wong (centre)and Chris Vardenega
Outstanding Achievement Individual or Team
OPAL Utilisation - ProductionTeam
Sopheara Aing, Jason Attard, Peter Baarendse, Gary Feeney, Rasmi Freihat, George Grillis,
Barry Kelly, Kurt Martiensen, Neil McClelland, Annice Mitrevski, Steven Murray, Mark Northcott,
Matthew Phillips, Kalpesh Purohit, Gerard Quinn, Allan Ravese, Allan Ring, Naumka Sijanoska, Graeme Stallenberg, Sujam Thapa, Gordana Tolevski, Adam D Walsh, Rodney woods, Jeffery Yallop
Safe, Secure, Sustainable Award
OPAL Deuterium Replacement System Team
Lucy Griffith, Chris Humphrey, Fabian Rossi and Askok Sah
Diversity and Inclusion Outstanding Contribution
Reconciliation Working Mob
Susan Bogle, Dale Codling, Laura Dascolias, Brett Rowling, Karen Wolfe
Leadership Excellence - Individual
Felicity Dougherty
General Counsel
Inspiring Women's Award
Carmen Naylor
Human Health Monitoring Leader
CEO Award for Sustained Contribution
Roslyn Hatton
Deputy Chief Financial Officer
Distinguished Contribution Award
Steve McIntosh
Former Senior Manager for Government and International Affairs
