Professor Gernot Heiser, University of NSW, NICTA and Open Kernel Labs
Winner: Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences Category

Professor Heiser built and leads one of the world's foremost computer operating systems research groups. His group has built a number of operating systems, including the L4 microkernel which forms the core technology of his startup company Open Kernel Labs, where he serves as Chief Technology Officer. The globally-operating company, headquartered in the US with all research and development done in Sydney, has to date shipped its microkernel operating system in more than 300 million mobile phones.

Gernot joined NICTA as the leader of the Embedded Operating Systems Group at the time of NICTA's creation in late 2002. Prior to this, he has been a member of the academic staff at UNSW since 1991, from 2002 as Professor of Operating Systems; since January 2009 he is the inaugural the John Lions Chair of Operating Systems.

The aim of his present research is the construction of embedded systems that are truly secure, safe and reliable. A significant step in this direction was recently achieved by his group with a mathematical proof of the functional correctness of their latest operating-system kernel. Among others, this proof provides a guarantee that the system will never “crash”, or be subverted by malware. The market for this technology is estimated to be in the billions of dollars.

Previously, Gernot also pioneered, together with members of UNSW's Photovoltaics Special Research Centre, the use of advanced modelling techniques to improve the understanding of the internal operations of silicon solar cells, which contributed to increased solar-cell efficiencies.