Prof Tanya Monro
Born: 1973
Professor Tanya Monro was educated at The University of Sydney, where she was awarded the Bragg Gold Medal and an Eleanor Sophia Wood Travelling Fellowship. She is the inaugural chair of Photonics and director of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics within the School of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Adelaide. She is also director of the University’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing. The institute brings together research in optical fibres, lasers, luminescence, chemistry, proteomics and virology to develop new technologies focusing on some of the big problems in health, the environment, industrial processes and defence.
Professor Monro has created a new class of optical fibres with innovative potential applications. The fibres, containing air holes and made from soft glass, are broadening the role of optical fibres from communications to areas such as diagnostics – detecting trace quantities of chemicals or biomolecules – and a variety of medical and defence applications.
Professor Monro’s research aims to develop a new platform for exploring interactions between light and matter that will enable investigations into proteins and fundamental cell biology. Her work has been supported by state and federal governments, as well as the Defence Science & Technology Organisation.
Professor Monro is a member of the South Australian Premier’s Science & Research Council, a founding steering member of the Royal Institution of Australia, and member of the 2008 community consultation panel for the Defence White Paper.
Career highlights
1998: Bragg Gold Medal for the best physics PhD in Australia
2000: Royal Society University Research Fellowship, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton
2006: Cosmos Magazine Bright Spark award for Australia’s Top 10 Scientific Minds under 45
2007: Rising Star Award (South Australia’s ‘Top 50′ across all fields under the age of 35)
2007-2008: Australian Institute of Physics’ Women in Physics Lecturer
2008: The Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
2008: Prime Minister’s Science Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
2008: Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship
2008: Founding member of the Advisory Committee for the Royal Institution, Australia
2009: Top Emerging Leader in Science, Weekend Australian Magazine’s Next 100 Emerging Leaders series
2010: South Australian of the Year (“Scientist of the Year”) – (joint winner with Professor Angel Lopez)
2010: Australian of the Year (South Australia)
2010: Telstra Business Women of the Year (Community & Government Category)
More by and about Tanya Monro
Science in Public, 2008 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/prime-ministers-prize/tanya-monro
Profile at University of Adelaide Centre of Expertise in Photonics, www.chemphys.adelaide.edu.au/photonics/people/
Australian Multimedia for Physics Students, ‘Becoming a Physicist: Dr Tanya Monro’ (video), www.hscphysics.edu.au/resource/BecomingAPhysicist.flv
References
www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news34021.html
www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/prime-ministers-prize/tanya-monro
www.politicalowl.com/People/MNO/monrotanya.htm
