Cheers! To outstanding science at the 2016 CSIRO Awards

By Jesse Hawley

With over 5,000 employees managing hundreds of research projects that stretch from deep earth imaging to atmospheric modelling, from tracing the mechanics of viral infection up to preventing country-wide breakouts of foot and mouth, it’s easy to see our hands are always full.

It’s just as well then that we put down our work for a moment to give ourselves a well-earned pat on the back with the CSIRO Awards!

The CSIRO Awards, now in its 31st year, highlights teams and individuals whose research specially benefit Australian industry, society, and environment. There are a series of awards, rewarding commercially incisive science, positive impact science, and more. The crowning achievement though is the Chairman’s Medal. Here are three of the twelve winning teams:

CSIRO Entrepreneurship Award: BuildingIQ

BuildingIQ were the winners of the 2016 Entrepreneurship Award for taking research opportunities and turning them into commercial successes. BuildingIQ is a smart air-conditioning system that reduces unnecessary costs, benefitting the environment in the process.

The CSIRO Medal for Impact from Science: WIRADA

The Medal for Impact from Science went to WIRADA — the Water Information Research and Development Alliance — for quantifying our country’s water resources, in collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology, to better understand, manage, and conserve our water use.

The Chairman’s Medal: Kebari BarleyTM

This year’s Chairman’s Medal goes to the team behind Kebari BarleyTM for the development of the world’s only gluten-free barley. Kebari BarleyTM has gone on to be used by Radeberger, a German brewer to make the world’s first gluten-free barley-based beer.

You can find out more about all of our amazing award winners here.