Five UNSW researchers – including Exoplanetary Science at UNSW's Chris Tinney - have been recognised for excellence across three categories in this year’s New South Wales Scientist of the Year awards, announced in a ceremony at Government House last night.

“All of this year’s category winners are among our State’s leading lights in areas such as environmental sciences, biomedicine, plant and animal research, engineering and ICT, emerging research and teaching,” said the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Professor Mary O’Kane. “Each winner is making a crucial contribution to the future of NSW.”

The award for Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Physics was jointly given to:

    Professor Chris Tinney – is a Professorial Fellow and astronomer in the School of Physics and heads the Exoplanetary Science at UNSW group, within the Australian Centre for Astrobiology.

The award for Excellence in Biological Sciences (Plant, Agriculture and Environment) was also a tie, between:

    Dr Angela Moles – is an Associate Professor in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES). She heads the Big Ecology Lab

    Associate Professor Emma Johnston is a marine scientist in BEES and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. She studies human disturbance of marine communities.

The award for Excellence in Engineering and Information and Communications Technologies:

    Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, of the Faculty of Engineering, is a team leader at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology.

The overall winner of the NSW Scientist of the Year was University of Newcastle Laureate Professor John Aitken, a reproductive biology researcher whose world-leading work could provide revolutionary new chemically based contraceptives that also protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

The Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional Infrastructure and Services, Mr  Andrew Stoner, said the NSW Government recognised the importance of innovation and research in creating smarter, more productive industries that drove economic growth and generated jobs for the State.