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UNSW SMaRT Centre Director Professor Veena will deliver an address to National Press Club on 21 October 2025.
The address will be live streamed via ABC iView.
Veena will speak on the topic of “The Hidden Value in Our Rubbish: Communities, the Environment, and the Science of Remanufacturing”, talking about her vision for a sustainable future using waste as a resource via innovative technologies like SMaRT's very own MICROfactorieTM Technologies.
Event website and registration
Event hosts say:
Blurb:
Australia’s universities are home to some of the world’s most practical solutions to pressing global challenges. Professor Veena Sahajwalla, pioneering inventor, engineer and 2022 NSW Australian of the Year, is leading a revolution in green manufacturing and sustainable materials. In this address, she will explore how we can better connect public research to industry, policy and community—transforming campus breakthroughs into commercial solutions that change the world.
Bio:
2022 NSW Australian of the Year, Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and inventor leading a revolution in green manufacturing and sustainable materials.
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 microfactorie and in 2019 she launched her plastics microfactorie, a recycling technology breakthrough.
As the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, she is producing a new generation of green materials and products made entirely, or primarily, from waste.
Veena is facilitating the roll out of safe, cost-effective ‘waste to value’ solutions via her unique microfactory model.
In future, these small-scale microfactories will enable regions to produce many of the products, materials and resources they need locally, using resources largely derived from waste including mattresses, clothing, and old printers (e-waste).
This new approach could overturn today’s centralised, globalised model of industry, as agile technologies make manufacturing more local, flexible and socially beneficial.
About the club:
Our regular National Press Club addresses attract global decision-makers and influencers; driving the Australian debate forward. A suite of function rooms mean we can cater for corporate functions and weddings of any size, scale and theme. The thinking person’s social venue, we also offer a range of entertainment and dining options to members and their guests.
The National Press Club is a vigorous champion of media freedom and a home away from home for journalists, decision-makers and influencers alike.
We are proud to be Australia’s most recognised forum for discussion and debate. Nestled right in the heart of Canberra’s parliamentary triangle, the National Press Club is ideally located close to Parliament House, the federal parliamentary press gallery, embassies and public service departments.
As a profession, journalism comes with its own risk and can be a solitary endeavour. The National Press Club is a place where the media’s work is celebrated, professional networks developed and the freedom to do that work, fiercely protected. We recognise the efforts and achievements of our members, who are making journalistic contributions that will change the course of history.