In summary

  • Professor Alan Duffy has been named Academic of the Year at the inaugural Australian Space Awards
  • The awards recognise leading individuals and businesses driving the development of Australia’s space economy

Swinburne University of Technology’s most recognisable space communicator, Professor Alan Duffy, has been named Academic of the Year at the inaugural Australian Space Awards.

The awards are an initiative of Space Connect, a marketplace and information platform for the space economy.

Professor Duffy is Project Lead of SpaceTech Applications at Swinburne's Data Science Research Institute, finding novel uses for astrophysical knowledge in aiding business and society on Earth. He is also a regular media commentator on astronomy and space.

Professor Duffy says he was surprised and honoured to receive the award, which was announced at an online event, based in Sydney.

“Space is a multidisciplinary domain so my individual award is actually a team award in practice - and one that recognises my extraordinary colleagues at Swinburne who have worked so hard to make our collective efforts deserving of this recognition,” Professor Duffy says.

“From engineering for space to applying the latest artificial intelligence to improve our observation of Earth to detect bushfires more quickly and reliably, my Swinburne colleagues’ work is truly out of this world.”

Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Bronwyn Fox says: “This award is a wonderful recognition of Alan’s leadership, passion and incredible talent.”

Australian Space Awards

The Australian Space Awards recognise leading individuals and businesses driving the development of Australia’s space economy, from major listed organisations and corporates servicing Australia’s space economy to SMEs, start-ups, academic institutions and associations.

The awards are open to all businesses operating in Australia supporting the space industry, including telecommunications, satellite, energy, mining and transport sectors as well as the defence, agriculture, disaster and water management industries.

The awards celebrate the best of the best in Australia’s space industry and recognise the outstanding contribution of professionals and businesses working within the industry across 22 categories.

Space Connect

The Australian Space Awards is an initiative of Space Connect. Part of Momentum Media’s suite of brands, Space Connect is the first dedicated market intelligence, media and information platform for Australia’s space community, whose aim is to help drive the growth of our domestic industry as well as project Australia’s space capabilities globally.

The platform serves as the authoritative marketplace to connect ideas, research and innovation with opportunities for space commercialisation.

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