About our guest speaker 

Professor Veena Sahajwalla,

Director of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology at UNSW Australia​

Director of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology at UNSW Australia, is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials.’ 

In 2018, Veena launched the world's first e-waste micro factory and in 2019 she launched her plastics micro factory, a recycling technology breakthrough. She is producing a new generation of green materials and products made entirely, or primarily, from waste. Veena also heads the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for ‘green manufacturing’, a leading national research centre that works in collaboration with industry to ensure new recycling science is translated into real world environmental and economic benefits.

In 2019 she was appointed inaugural Director of the Circular Economy Innovation Network by the NSW Government through its Office of Chief Scientist and Engineer. In 2020, Professor Veena won, and was made Director of, two new research and industrial transformation Hubs: the ARC Microrecycling Hub, and the NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub. Both of these national, collaborative hubs involve leading research institutions and industry stakeholders from across Australia.

Professor Veena is also the recipient of the 2011 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award conferred on her by the Government of India for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Science’.

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