Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Government House
Her Excellency the Honourable Margrate Beazley AC KC

Thank you, Hugh.

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura 

In greeting you this evening in the language of the Gadigal, the Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to First Nations peoples whose knowledge of this land has enriched - and continues to enrich our understanding of the universe. 

• The Honourable Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, representing the Premier of NSW
• The Honourable Emily Suvaal MLC, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Small Business
• Professor Durrant-Whyte, NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer
• Distinguished Guests, all

It is always an honour to welcome NSW scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians and STEM teachers to Government House for these awards, this year ‘topping out’ - to use an engineering term - what has been a year of stellar science and science-related achievements and events NSW. To mention just three:

• The 76th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in late September saw over 7000 delegates from more than 90 countries, represented in Sydney – and 120 attending the Welcome Reception here at Government House, including Australia’s still only female astronaut and first Australian astronaut to be qualified under the Australian flag. The Congress was a significant milestone for NSW’s space sector, elevating local innovation on the global stage and inspiring the next generation of scientists within the space industry. 
• Construction continues apace on the new RNA Research and Manufacturing facility at Macquarie Park, due to be opened in 2026, which has benefitted from unprecedented collaboration between all 14 members of the NSW Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. An Australian-first, supporting breakthroughs in medicine, in healthcare, biotechnology and in agricultural biosecurity, it will enable a wide range of new and existing RNA therapeutics to be developed and produced under the one roof, while building on the momentum for research and development that we all know was foundational to the rapid development of COVID vaccines.  
• Then there was the recent Royal Society of NSW and Learned Academies one day Forum, hosted here at Government House, which brought together scientists, lawyers, health leaders, academics, sociologists and administrators from a range of disciplines to explore critical inter-related aspects of our era and landscape of AI-powered digital and quantum transformation. 

Underpinning the success of each of these events and milestones has been collaboration and communication, underpinned by the increasing base of STEM initiatives and partnerships, promoted and supported by the Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer, to encourage and equip our next generation. I also thank the diligent, inspirational teachers who each day enter the classroom or the science laboratory knowing how important it is to ignite the fire of the next generation of scientists, IT experts, engineers and mathematicians. 

This brings me to the importance of these Awards.  

A recent article by 2024 Australian of the Year, Professor Georgina Long, called for recognition of the ‘third space’: “the gap between what we know and what we desperately need to know … the uncomfortable, uncertain territory where evidence does not yet exist.”[1]  

Referring to the advances in technology that have supercharged your work as scientists, Professor Long reminded us: technology will accelerate.  But machines will never replace the ‘moral imagination’ that makes you [the scientists and doctors] human.

The medical advances, the technologies, the innovations and the breakthroughs we now take for granted began from someone asking: “What if?” and then “Why Not?”. 

That is what you do every day – you push the boundaries and make the seemingly impossible possible.  I thank each of our category award-winners this evening, as I thank the Premier and the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer for their continuing recognition of the excellence, the explorations – and the questions - that these Prizes represent.  

Congratulations.