Scholarship winners announced for Science meets Parliament 2021

Science & Technology Australia (STA) has announced the recipients of its annual Science meets Parliament STEM scholarships.

Science meets Parliament, organised annually by STA, is one of Australia’s leading science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) conferences, bringing together experts from various industries and government departments to debate the the future of Australian industries, including oil and gas. 

The 2021 event, held virtually from 2 March to 1 April, includes the award of eight STEM-focused scholarships across four separate categories. These categories include the Indigenous, STEM Pride, Regional, and Technology awards, recognising exceptional STEM practitioners in various fields.

The Indigenous scholarship is open to people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage; the STEM Pride scholarship recognises the contribution of people from the LGBTQI+ community; the regional award is for STEM workers who work in rural or regional parts of Australia more than 150km from a major city; and the technology sponsorship recognises IT and engineering professionals.

Each recipient comes from an academic or industrial STEM background and belongs to an STA member organisation. 

APPEA sister initiative Brighter was a proud sponsor of two of this year’s scholarship categories, regional and technology.

The recipients of the technology scholarship (STA organisation in parenthesis) included: 

• Dr Andreea Molnar, Senior Lecturer, Swinburne University of Technology (National Tertiary Education Union) 
• Mrs Candice Lam, Principal Consultant & Manager, Engineering New Worlds (Women in STEMM Australia) 
• Dr Vijay Rajagopal, Senior Lecturer, The University of Melbourne (Australian Society for Biophysics) 

The recipients of the regional scholarship included: 

• Mr Jake Clark, PhD Candidate, University of Southern Queensland (Astronomical Society of Australia)  
• Dr Amy Moss, Poultry Scientist, University of New England (Women in STEMM Australia) 
• Associate Professor Wendy Quayle, Deakin University (Soil Science Australia) 

The complete list of recipients can be found via the STA website here.