Veena Sahajwalla
Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials’ at the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre, where she is Founding Director. Professor Veena is the inventor of an eco-friendly process for using recycled tyres in steel production and has launched MICROfactories for e-waste, plastics and Green Ceramics. Professor Veena is the director of the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for ‘microrecycling’, a leading national research centre that works in collaboration with industry to ensure new recycling science is translated into real world environmental and economic benefits. In 2021, Professor Veena was named the 2022 NSW Australian of the Year and won the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. In 2023, Professor Veena was awarded the Engineering Australia Chemical College Chemical Engineer Achievement Award and the Good Design 2023 Women in Design Award.