Two researchers, Dr Mitchell Gibbs and Associate Professor Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, have received the 2025 Australian Academy of Science's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientist Award.
The award recognises research by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD students and early- and mid-career scientists in the physical and biological sciences, and supports interdisciplinary and sociocultural research.
This year's award will support outstanding projects in habitat restoration and sustainable engineering.
Global collaborations between First Nations people for habitat restoration
Dr Mitchell Gibbs, University of Sydney
Despite the growing awareness of the value of incorporating Traditional knowledges and perspectives into habitat restoration and management, uptake and application of these practices has been slow, according to University of Sydney researcher and Dunghutti man through kinship, Dr Mitchell Gibbs.
Dr Gibbs is a geoscientist who draws on Traditional knowledge and practices to support the restoration of marine ecosystems in collaboration with First Nations communities and owner groups.
Sydney's Botany Bay, known as Gamay to local First Nations people, once supported an abundance of oysters. These oyster reefs played an important role in the area's marine ecology and as a sustainable food source for Gamay people, but were exploited to near extinction during the early days of European settlement.
Speaking to Indigenous Elders and knowledge holders, Dr Gibbs was able to learn traditional management practices passed down through oral and lived histories while sharing his own ecological research and insights. He worked closely with Indigenous groups and organisations to develop a community-driven approach to shellfish restoration and put it into action with the Gamay Rangers and the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council.
"Bringing Indigenous communities to the forefront of restoration will then make sure that those communities are getting that recognition and acknowledgement for that knowledge and for the amount of knowledge that is held within communities." Dr Gibbs said.
First Nations' habitat restoration programs such as these are being done across the globe and Dr Gibbs' current project aims to bring together international expertise and establish cross-continental collaboration between Indigenous restoration communities.
"The project that we're doing, especially with the Gamay Rangers, is bringing people from the United States and hopefully people from New Zealand as well, to come to Australia and talk about the restoration projects that they've done.
"We'll start talking about the importance of Indigenous restoration, which will bring just so much more life, I hope, to what restoration should be through an Indigenous sense," Dr Gibbs said.
Utilising Traditional knowledges to improve sustainability of concrete
Associate Professor Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, Monash University
Caring for Country was a major motivation for the path Associate Professor Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch took in civil engineering.
"There are many different aspects in civil engineering that you can look at. For me, looking at sustainability, it's a different way that I can care for Country myself. It's taking out waste streams, its minimising CO2 outputs, it's efforts to clean up different litter waste that's on Country … every little step makes a difference."
Associate Professor Kilmartin-Lynch is a Yowong-Illam-Balluk and Natturak Balluk man, belonging to the Taungurung people in Victoria's North-East Kulin Nations.
His research aims to reduce the ecological footprint of cement and concrete construction by identifying materials that are incorporated or substituted to increase sustainability without compromising strength.
His team was able to process used coffee grounds, an abundant waste material, into a charcoal-like substance called biochar, which, when added to concrete in place of sand, resulted in a material that was 30 per cent stronger. The increased strength also reduces the amount of cement necessary.
Associate Professor Kilmartin-Lynch says it's great to be able to increase concrete strength while reducing the amount of sand used in the process.
"We're limiting the CO2 from sand mining. We're limiting natural resources that need to be mined … If we can stop that from happening even on a smaller scale or even if it's ten per cent or fifteen per cent, each little step makes a long way in terms of reducing the CO2 emissions."
His next project aims to integrate Indigenous engineering knowledge and practices into concrete production. It will explore whether native plant resins, traditionally used to attach spearheads and repair canoes, could be incorporated into concrete to increase durability or repair cracking in existing structures.
He hopes that applying the resin along with Indigenous engineering insight to modern engineering problems will help showcase the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Indigenous peoples in a way that encourages incorporating diverse perspectives into modern practices.
2026 awards and funding opportunities now open
Applications for the Academy's 2026 funding opportunities are now open and close 1 June 2025, while nominations for honorific awards close 1 May. See more about the Academy's 2026 awards and funding opportunities.
