SA Scientist of the Year 2018: Geologist Professor Richard Hillis
GEOLOGIST and explorer Professor Richard Hillis is South Australia’s Scientist of the Year, winning of the coveted prize at the Science Excellence Awards.
GEOLOGIST and explorer Professor Richard Hillis is South Australia’s Scientist of the Year, winner of the top prize at Friday night’s Science Excellence Awards.
The former chief executive of the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre said the award was “wonderful recognition” for his team’s efforts to bring about a “step change in technology” with potentially global significance.
He developed a safer, cheaper, more environmentally friendly drill rig that could be worth millions to the mineral exploration industry. So far it has been tested at two SA locations and licensed to global mining equipment, services and technology giant IMDEX.
Professor Hillis adapted the coiled tubing drill rig concept from the petroleum industry to minerals exploration, creating the “RoXplorer”.
“The advantages of it are, because you’re not screwing pipe together, its much quicker,” he said. “Where getting a drill rig out of a hole would have taken 12 hours, it takes half an hour. It’s also much safer because you don’t have to handle all these pieces of pipe. It’s really a completely different way of drilling.”
The Scotsman joined the University of Adelaide in 1992 and held positions including Mawson Professor of Geology and Head of the Australian School of Petroleum before accepting the role at the DET CRC.
Seeing the drill rig work in field trials near Port Augusta and Horsham was a great thrill.
“Being an explorer is intrinsically exciting,” he said. “Not an explorer for a new country, but for petroleum or minerals, it’s very exciting.”
At the SA Science Excellence Awards gala dinner at the Adelaide Convention Centre, Minister for Industry and Skills David Pisoni said Professor Hillis had made an “enormous contribution” to his field and his work at the CRC led to the commercialisation of technologies with projected future licensing income of around $3 million per year.
“This rig will drill low-cost bores and produce a suite of real-time geological data at a drilling cost of $50 per metre, around one sixth of the typical cost,” he said.
“The value of potential new discoveries to the sector using technologies developed by the DET CRC is estimated at US$200 million in extra value each year to Australia.”
Minister Pisoni said the awards recognised “the enormous and often understated contribution that scientists make to South Australia”.
FULL LIST OF AWARD WINNERS:
South Australian Scientist of the Year: Professor Richard Hillis, former Chief Executive Officer, Deep Exploration Technologies CRC
Tall Poppy of the Year (Young SA Scientist of the Year): Dr Benjamin Sparkes, Lecturer in Photonics, The University of Adelaide
Excellence in Research Collaboration sponsored by UniSA: The Aboriginal Heritage Project — local members of the Aboriginal community, SA Museum, The University of Adelaide, University of New South Wales
STEM Professional: Professor Zbigniew Michalewicz, Chief Scientist and Co-founder of Complexica.
STEM Educator of the Year, Tertiary Teaching sponsored by Finders University: Dr Justin Chalker Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University
STEM Educator of the Year, School Teaching sponsored by Department for Education: Ms Sue O’Malley, Head of Digital Technologies, Robotics and Multimedia, Trinity College Senior
PhD Research Excellence sponsored by University of Adelaide: Dr Katharina Richter, The University of Adelaide
Unsung Hero of SA Science Communication: Dr Liz Reed, Vertebrate Palaeontologist, The University of Adelaide
Unsung Hero of SA Science: Ms Jan Bell, Australian Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Ecology, The University of Adelaide