This award was made possible from the generous bequest to the Society from the estate of the late Dr Phillip Garth Law AC.  The award is for excellence in scientific research by an early career researcher in the physical sciences.

The 2014 winner Dr Madhu Bhaskaran will present her research in a lecture titled: Squeezing crystals and making waves: Paving the way to self-powered electronics

Imagine a world where your smartphone can recharge itself while you talk, where portable devices are transparent and unbreakable, where your laptop can top itself up as you type, ‘more power to the word’.
While society calls for sustainable energy production, it is increasingly calling for technology solutions that promise smarter and more efficient devices. The key challenges are easy to understand but just a little harder to achieve, so far. One set of solutions seems to lie in achieving energy generation by putting the pressure on crystals, using mechanical energy to harness unique high-speed electron transport in single atomic layers of semiconductors, and creating techniques to bring varied materials together to realise functional and flexible devices. This presentation will focus on the materials and microtechnology approaches that are helping to make our dreams come true.