26 October 2018
World-leading analytical chemist and Director of UniSA’s Future Industries Institute, Professor Emily Hilder has been made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
A pioneer of disruptive approaches to chromatography, microsampling, blood analysis, explosives detection and biopharmaceutical analysis, Prof Hilder’s technological advances have been adopted commercially around the globe, including for the determination of contaminants in heparin, used by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Prof Hilder has worked closely with industry and end-users throughout her career including SMEs and large multinational companies such as Trajan Scientific and Medical, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Agilent Technologies and Pfizer.
She was the inaugural Director of the ARC Training Centre for Portable Analytical Separation Technologies (ASTech) and is currently Deputy Director of the ARC Research Hub for Integrated Device for End-user Analysis at Low-levels (IDEAL).
These initiatives focus on fostering collaborative research, bringing university researchers and industry together to share their skills and expertise to solve problems and develop new products, processes and services that will transform Australian industries and train the next generation of industry-ready research scientists.
She also leads the Future Industries Accelerator (FIA), a $7.5 million investment from the Government of South Australia that supports industry, especially SMEs to engage with researchers across UniSA.
Through access to research infrastructure, support for R&D projects and a mobility program for staff secondments, FIA has supported over 100 companies across over 85 projects, creating at least 40 jobs in South Australia since 2016.
Prof Hilder says she is delighted with the acknowledgement from the Academy and the opportunity to play a leadership role nationally in promoting excellence in engineering and technology.
“As Director of UniSA’s Future Industries Institute I am privileged on a daily basis to be working with teams of highly talented researchers, all committed to making a difference by carrying out their research in partnerships that advance solutions-focussed research for industry and the community,” she says.
Prof Hilder joins 24 other experts from around Australia as new Fellows of the Academy – they will be welcomed at its Annual meeting in Melbourne on November 23.
Media contact: or Michèle Nardelli mobile 0418 823 673 email michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
