Former Cochlear CEO receives Engineers Australia award

Dr Christopher Roberts, former CEO of Cochlear, has been named the Professional Engineer of the Year at Engineers Australia’s 2015 NSW Showcase event held on Friday, 6 November.

During Christopher’s leadership of Cochlear, over 170,000 people have been given the gift of hearing through their bionic ear’s world-class design, which is durable, comfortable and provides an unrivalled listening experience, said Engineers Australia Sydney Division General Manager Greg Ewing. Christopher has prioritised research and development at Cochlear, investing hundreds of millions of dollars and developing a network of over 100 research partners worldwide, noted Ewing.

“Sydney is fortunate to be home to numerous engineers at the top of their game. 2015 saw an exceptional pool of entrants, with the winners demonstrating the breadth of the engineering profession, through their work in biomedical, defence, sustainability and humanitarian engineering,” said Ewing.

“Christine Chen was named Sydney’s Young Professional of the Year. Christine works in the Specialty Engineering Group at Thales Australia on projects such as the Hawkei armoured vehicles, to protect Australian soldiers and the general public from electromagnetic interference and radiation. Christine promotes the defence industry to the next generation of engineers through her work as chair of Young Engineers Australia (Sydney Division) and deputy chair of the Australian Society for Defence Engineering NSW.

“Arup took home the most prestigious award of the night, the NSW Bradfield Award, named after engineer and planner JJC Bradfield, whose most notable work was the design and supervision of the construction of a transport system for Sydney, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“The judging panel was impressed by Arup’s commitment to innovation, particularly through their international research and education organisation Arup University. Arup is a driver of positive change for the state of NSW and is striving to lead the engineering profession. It was the outstanding entry in this year’s Bradfield Awards.

“Sydney’s Student Engineer of the Year went to Heather Malli in recognition of her thesis, which assessed carbon sequestration technology to generate an ecologically and economically sustainable carbon neutral mine. The judges applauded her demonstration of the commercial aspects of the project as well as addressing relevant sustainability issues.

“Sydney’s Entrepreneur of the Year was awarded to David Hind, who started Barefoot Power in 2006.

Barefoot Power provides electricity generators to remote or disadvantaged communities that would not otherwise be able to access electricity, greatly improving the standard of living. David himself is an outstanding engineer and business leader.

“These recipients have already made a sizeable contribution both to Sydney and to broader Australia; I can’t wait to see what they will put their minds to next,” Ewing said.