Convocation celebrates with UWA PhD graduate Arman Siahvashi being named as one of Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers, and finalist for two categories in the WA Innovator of the Year 2019. Arman is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Engineering.
Now in its fourth year, the Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers listing, by Engineers Australia, seeks to recognise engineering innovation and raise the profile of the profession by showcasing the important role engineers play in solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. Also, since it began in 2006, the WA Innovator of the Year has recognised and supported entrepreneurs and creative minds across the State. Arman is one of four finalists in this year’s Woodside Oil & Gas Platinum Award and Business News “Great for State” Platinum Award.
Arman’s novel CryoSolid apparatus, visually measures the freezing temperatures of hydrocarbons at cryogenic temperatures with very high accuracies not possible previously. This is crucial in detecting the thermodynamic freeze-out of the hydrocarbons responsible for costly Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant shutdowns.
The high value of Australia’s LNG exports means that any such stoppage is significant, potentially to the cost of $70 million per missing one LNG cargo. This makes Arman’s unique approach even more valuable to Western Australia. Arman’s research helps the world move towards energy production while helping the climate change through significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This apparatus also attracted attention from scientists at NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California due to its capability to measure hydrocarbon solubilities at very low cryogenic temperatures relevant to the studies on Saturn and its moons.
“This is very exciting for me as these are my first achievements as a postdoctoral fellow at UWA after I finished my PhD earlier this year,” remarked Arman.
Arman was also recognised in 2018 as the winner of the Convocation Alex Cohen Postgraduate Research Travel Award which enabled him to visit NASA and JPL and present his research in one of the world’s best conferences on thermodynamics.
The winners for the WA Innovator of the Year Award 2019 will be announced on Wednesday 6 November.