Today Sara Lloyd, a young Australian scientist whose work benefits the management of urban water resources, has won the Young Water Scientist of the Year Award.

The award, worth $2500 this year, is given annually by the CRC Water Forum, an alliance of the five water-focused Australian cooperative research centres.

Ms Lloyd’s studies promote water sensitive urban design — a recent development for managing urban stormwater and rainwater runoff that should cost the community around 25% less than conventional treatments. Her work is supported by the CRC for Catchment Hydrology.

“The CRC Water Forum runs the award to highlight the excellence of postgraduate students associated with the Australian cooperative research centres program and our five CRCs in particular,” said Professor Gary Jones, Chief Executive of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology.

“I congratulate this year’s winner and all those who have contested the award this year,” he said.

Five finalists have competed for the award, which was presented at the 7th International Riversymposium this afternoon. All five have spoken about their work during conference sessions at the symposium.

David Moore (CRC for Water Quality and Treatment, and the University of Queensland) has findings that support management options for controlling blue-green algae in waterbodies.

Para K. Parameshwaran (CRC for Waste Management and Pollution Control, and University of New South Wales) has described his work to optimize micro-filtration for safe recycling of wastewater.

Ross Johnston (CRC for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management, and James Cook University) has new information about the distribution of fish in estuaries that should guide sustainable development in estuarine areas.

Dale McNeil’s studies (CRC for Freshwater Ecology, and La Trobe University) on fish communities in temporary billabongs will guide managers of environmental flows, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin.

“It’s interesting that all four judges say they’ve learnt something new from these finalists,” said Professor Ian Rae of the University of Melbourne, Chair of the judging panel.

“We had an extremely hard task deciding between them. They are all doing excellent science that is extremely applicable, and they all communicate well,” he said.

The panel also comprised Dr Andy Steven of Queensland EPA, Susanne Cooper of SKM in Brisbane, and Vicki Keliher of Griffith University. Peter Martin of the CRC for Australian Weed Management, was a judge at an earlier stage of the award.


For interview:
Professor Ian Rae (03 8344 7775; idrae@unimelb.edu.au)
Sara Lloyd (0401 314 119),
Professor Gary Jones (0408 411 033)
Dale McNeil (02 6853 9031 bh); David Moore (07 3274 9060 bh); Ross Johnston (0409 725 562), Para Parameshwaran (0402 960 312).


Further details: Ann Milligan, CRCFE (0419 243 773)