"In conversation" podcast with SMaRT Director

Listen to UNSW SMaRT Centre Director, Prof Veena celebrate being 2022 NSW Australian of the Year in this podcast by awards sponsor Australia Post.

She talks about her personal life, the need for innovative waste management and recycling, sustainability issues and various UNSW SMaRT Centre recycling and manufacturing technologies.

Listen to the podcast

Details from Australia Post:

The Australian of the Year Award recognises Australians who have made significant contributions and created positive change.

For over 212 years, Australia Post has been at the heart of Australian communities, connecting them with each other and the world. Beyond parcels, letters and services we're also connecting people through stories of hope, resilience and community service. We’re thrilled to recognise the incredible Australian of the Year Award state and territory recipients who make such a profound contribution to their communities and the nation.

We’re proud to support these awards and to share these inspiring stories with you and we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate the state and territory award recipients. In this Australian of the year series, we had the opportunity to be in conversation with each of the state and territory award recipients.

In this episode of Ready to Retail, we continue our ‘In Conversation’ series with all the recipients of the Australian of the Year state and territory awards. We have the pleasure of speaking with Veena Sahajwalla in this episode, winner of the 2022 New South Wales, Australian of the Year.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla, is one of Australia’s best-known scientists and internationally recognised for her pioneering work in revolutionising recycling science. As part of our 2022 Australian of the Year series, Veena talks about drawing inspiration from Mumbai’s bazaars, her five-year goal and her biggest triumph.

Veena lights up when she talks about growing up in Mumbai, India. One of her most cherished memories is trawling the bazaars with her mother and soaking up the spirit of creative entrepreneurship that thrives there.

Veena’s father was a civil engineer and her regular visits to his construction sites sparked the keen interest in materials science. This led to a master’s degree and PhD in engineering, furthermore, being tapped on the shoulder by Australia’s national science and research agency, CSIRO.

If you’d like to know more about Veena’s pioneering studies, we encourage you to check out the series on auspost.com.au or you can head to australianoftheyear.org.au

Australia Post is category sponsor of the Australian of the Year Award and We’re proud to partner with the National Australia Day Council and showcase the inspiring stories of remarkable everyday Australians.