UNSW Leaders in Science

Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla
Associate Dean Strategic Industry Relations), Faculty of Science
Director, Centre of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT@UNSW)

Building E8, Room 116
Phone: +61 2 9385 4426 - Fax: +61 2 9385 4292 - Email: veena@unsw.edu.au

Career profilePublicationsResearchSupervision & teachingFunding

Career profile

Tertiary and postgraduate education

• PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, US (1992)
• MASc, Metals and Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada (1988)
• BTech, Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India (1986)

Appointments

• Director, Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, UNSW (since 2008)
• Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations), Faculty of Science, UNSW (since 2007)
• Professor (since 2004); Associate Professor (2001–04); Senior Lecturer (1996–2001); Lecturer (1994–96), UNSW
• Research Scientist, Materials and Process Engineering, CSIRO, Melbourne (1992–94)
• Research Engineer, Department of Metals and Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia (1988–89)

Memberships of Learned Academies

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (2007), the premier national institution for the advancement of engineering and technology, for ‘achievements as an exceptional, innovative engineer with an established record of successful conversions of research to high-value products’.
• Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia (since 2005)

Honours, Awards and Prizes

• The 2008 New South Wales Scientist of the Year Award in the category of Engineering Science.
• The 2006 Environmental Technology Award, for best paper and presentation (‘Waste plastics – a resource for EAF steelmaking’), the Association of Iron & Steel Technology (AIST – US), the premier international professional society in iron and steel.
• The 2006 Charles Briggs Award, for the best paper in electric steelmaking (‘Influence of carbonaceous materials on slag foaming behaviour during EAF steelmaking’), AIST.
• The 2005 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, for innovations in recycling waste plastics in steelmaking), Australian Museum.
• The 2004 Fresh Innovators Award, for innovations in recycling waste plastics in steelmaking, supported by the National Innovation Awareness Strategy, an Australian Government initiative.
• The 2003 Josef Kapitan Award, for the best ironmaking paper (‘Novel equations to establish influence of char structure on reactivity during PCI in a blast furnace’, Iron & Steel Society (ISS – US).
• The 2003 Frank McKune Award, for the best paper on steelmaking practice, author under 40 years of age (‘Interfacial phenomena during interactions of graphite-alumina refractories with liquid steel’), ISS. This was the first time that the Award had been won by a single person in two successive years.
• The 2002 Frank McKune Award for the best paper on steelmaking practice, author under 40 years of age) – ISS (‘Kinetic study of in-situ SiO2 reduction in carbon-bearing refractories’).
• The 2000 John Chipman Award for excellence and originality in a publication on the production and processing of iron and steel. Best paper selected from the previous two years of papers in American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) refereed journals and conference proceedings.
• Young Leader of the Iron and Steel Society Foundation, 1999–2000, the only academic among 15 chosen internationally.
• Engineering Excellence Award (Category – Engineering R&D Training and Processes) from the Institution of Engineers Australia – Sydney Division, for new environmentally compatible iron/steel making technologies (1998).
• The Distinguished Achievement Award (graduate, materials science and engineering), 1992, The University of Michigan.
• The 1991 International Graduate Student Award, the Society for the Advancement of Material & Process Engineering, US.

Keynote/Invited Addresses - Highlights

• Plenary address, International Symposium on Sustainable Materials, Malaysia, June 2007
• The Harricks Address, the Institution of Engineers, Australia, Sydney, August 2006
• ‘Recycling materials’, the Visionary Address, to the Latin American Iron and Steel Institute, Mexico, May 2006
• Keynote address at the World Scrap Metal Congress, Shanghai, December 2005
• Invited sole presenter, four-day course Iron/steelmaking, Instituto Argentino De Siderurgia, San Nicolas, Argentina, July 2005
• Invited speaker, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, May 2005
• Invited speaker, International Conference on Process Development in Iron and Steelmaking, Luleå, Sweden, June 2004
• Keynote speaker, International Ferro-Alloys Congress, Capetown, February 2004

Collaborative Research with Industry

• OneSteel Australia, on the recycling of plastics and rubber tyres in EAF steelmaking
• Rio Tinto Aluminium, on the recycling of plastics as an auxiliary carbon resource in aluminium processing
• Bluescope Steel, on novel refractories for continuous steel casting processes, and refractory/slag-steel interactions.
• Anglo, on the PCI combustion mechanisms and the high-temperature behaviour of cokes.
• Shinagawa Refractories Australasia, on the development of advanced refractories to enhance corrosion resistance, improving refractory life and efficiency of metal production

• LKAB (Sweden), on reduction mechanisms of iron ore in blast furnace ironmaking processes
• MEFOS (Sweden), on carbon reactions in blast furnace ironmaking
• US Steel, on pulverised coal injection in blast furnace ironmaking
• POSCO (Korea), on novel ironmaking technologies; reactions of iron ore and coal
• Techint (now Tenova, Italy), on the recycling of slags

Other Evidence of Professional Leadership

• Member, Board of Review, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B (since 2004)
• Member, Advisory Board, The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan International (since 2007)
• Both are highly ranked international journals.

• Co-chair, International Conference, Sustainable Developments in Metals Processing, July 2005, Melbourne, an international symposium attracting international speakers
• Co-chair, 1st International Symposium on Sustainable Ironmaking, March 2006, Sydney
• Member, Organising Committee for Sustainable Materials in the Built Environment, Melbourne, February 2007
• Member, International Advisory Board (representing Australia) at Scanmet III, Luleå, Sweden, June 2008;
• Co-chair, 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Ironmaking, September 2008, Sydney

• As the Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations) for the Faculty of Science, I developed the Industry Research Forums and Industry Partnerships Scholarships for the Faculty. I have been closely involved in negotiations to attract industry partners for two Linkage projects in the Faculty of Science (one of which has already committed for the November 2008 round).
• Over the past five years, I have secured an annual average of six new industry-funded undergraduate scholarships from CSIRO, ANSTO, BHP Billiton, CCI Pope, Cochlear, Hanson Construction, OneSteel, Pilkinton, Rio Tinto, TipFast, Xstrata, and Weir Minerals. These scholarships have been taken up by talented students in the Schools of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science and Engineering.
• Served on numerous committees at university/faculty/school levels at UNSW, including the Academic Board, the University Committee for Promotion to Professor and A/Professor, the Faculty Higher Degree Committee, and the School’s Research Management Committee.

Media coverage

International and Australian media coverage of my research into recycling waste plastics in steelmaking since 2004, in The Financial Times, UK (2004), The Australian Financial Review (2006), the Higher Education Supplement of The Australian (2005); The Weekend Australian (2006 and 2007), ABC Radio National’s The Science Show (2004); Sydney Magazine (2005); ABC-TV’s Catalyst (2004, 2005 and 2008), and ABC-TV News (2005 and 2007), Ten’s Scope (2008)

Professional outreach

• Guest speaker, Engineering Awards Night, Engineers Australia, Sydney, September 2007
• Graduation speaker, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, December 2006
• Organisation of the workshop Sustainable materials in the new century as a part of the Scientia Program for Gifted Students, organised by GERRIC, UNSW, since 2005
• One of the judges on ABC-TV’s, The New Inventors (since April 2005)