Science

Bragg Prize

Bragg Prize 2022 Winner

Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing

The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing was established in 2012 to recognise excellence in Australian science writing. Each year, an annual prize of $7,000 is awarded to the best short non-fiction science piece aimed at a general audience. Two runners up are awarded $1,500 each. 

The UNSW Bragg Student Prize for Science Writing is a joint initiative of UNSW Press, UNSW Science and Refraction Media. Its aim is to encourage and celebrate young science writers, researchers and leaders, with prize vouchers of $500 and $250 for the winner and two runners-up.

The prize is named in honour of Australia’s first Nobel Laureates, father and son team William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg.

The prizes are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. An associated anthology, The Best Australian Science Writing (NewSouth Publishing) collects the best of the year’s science writing.

  • 2023 Winner & Runners Up

    2022 Winner & Runners Up

    • Lauren Fuge (Winner) - Time travel and tipping points
    • Olivia Willis (Runner Up) - Spillover in suburbia
    • Helen Sullivan (Runner Up) - A Syrian seed bank's fight to survive

    2021 Winner & Runners Up

    • Ceridwen Dovey (Winner) - Everlasting free-fall
    • Jo Chandler (Runner Up) -  The COVID-climate collision
    • Jackson Ryan (Runner Up) - To the Dragon Palace and back

    2020 Winner & Runners Up

    • Ceridwen Dovey (Winner) - True Grit
    • Konrad Marshall (Runner Up) -  Jeepers creepers
    • Ricky French (Runner Up) - Case of the missing frogs

    2019 Winner & Runners Up

    • Melissa Fyfe (Winner) - Getting cliterate
    • Cameron Muir (Runner Up) -  Ghost species and shadow places
    • Jackson Ryan (Runner Up) - How CRISPR could save six billion chickens from the meat grinder

    2018 Winner & Runners Up

    • Dr Andrew Leigh MP (Winner) - From bloodletting to placebo surgery
    • Jo Chandler (Runner Up) -  Amid fear and guns, polio finds a refuge
    • Margaret Wertheim (Runner Up) - Radical Dimensions

    2017 Winner & Runners Up

    • Dr Alice Gorman (Winner) - Trace fossils: the silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium 
    • Jo Chandler (Runner Up) - Grave Barrier Reef
    • Elmo Keep (Runner Up) - The Pyramid at the end of the world

    2016 Winner & Runners Up

    • Ashley Hay (Winner) - The Forest at the Edge of Time
    • Susan Double (Runner Up) - Beautiful contrivances
    • Fiona McMillan (Runner Up) - Lucy’s lullaby: Song for the ages

    2015 Winner & Runners Up

    • Christine Kenneally (Winner) - The past may not make you feel any better
    • Idan Ben-Barak (Runner Up) - Why aren't we dead yet?
    • Trent Dalton  (Runner Up) - Beating the odds

    2014 Winner & Runners Up

    • Jo Chandler (Winner) - TB and me: A medical souvenir
    • Frank Bowden(Runner Up) - Eleven grams of trouble
    • Peter Meredith(Runner Up) - Weathering the storm

    2013 Winner & Runners Up

    • Professor Fred Watson(Winner) - Here come the ubernerds: Planets, Pluto and Prague
    • Professor Chris Turney(Runner Up) - Martyrs to Gondwanaland: The cost of scientific exploration 
    • Gina Perry(Runner Up) - Beyond the shock machine

    2012 Winner & Runners Up

    • Jo Chandler (Winner) -  Storm front
    • Ashley Hay (Runner Up) - The Aussie Mozzie Posse
    • Peter McAllister (Runner Up) - for The Evolution of the Inadequate Modern Male

  • 2023 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Elsie Paton, Year 9 Kambala School, NSW (Winner) - Two paths to AI: The choice of humanity
    • Daniel Kim, Year 10 The Scots College, NSW (Runner Up) - The science of AI
    • Zavier Argent, Year 8 Leeming Senior High School, WA (Runner Up) - AI in Sports Science

    20232 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Oliva Campbell, Year 9 Presbyterian Ladies' Collge, VIC (Winner) - Viral science
    • Kaya Kimla, Year 7 Kirrawee High School, NSW (Runner Up) - The two-way science
    • Jasmin Wu, Year 10 St George Girls High School, NSW (Runner Up) - On certainty

    2021 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Emilia Danne, Year 8 St John Bosco College, NSW (Winner) - The dark side of blue light
    • Stephanie Chew, Year 8 Presbyterian Ladies' College, NSW (Runner Up) - How does the violin saw its tooth?
    • Elora Guirguis, Year 10 Mater Dei Catholic College, NSW (Runner Up) - Ultrasound, seeing with sound

    2020 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Elena Canty, Year 9 Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School, VIC (Winner) - Cultured Meat The future of food?
    • Philippe Mouawad, Year 7 Georges River Grammar School, NSW (Runner Up) - Little cells, big possibilities
    • Jeremy Simonetto, Year 8 St Patrick’s College, NSW (Runner Up) - iPS Cells – the stem of the future

    2019 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Arwyn Stone, Year 9 Abbotsleigh, NSW (Winner) - Not-so-smart technology: The science (or lack there of) behind period and fertility trackers
    • William Flintoft, Year 10 Melbourne Grammar School, VIC (Runner Up) - errare humanum est
    • Phoebe Adam, Year 8 Presbyterian Ladies College Croydon, NSW (Runner Up) - Driverless Cars: Not So Smart Technology

    2018 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Preethika Mathan, Year 7 Santa Sabina College (Winner) -  I-Care
    • Coco Dwyer and Ruby Mumford, Year 10 Star of the Sea College (Runner Up) - Technology is not only all around us, it’s inside us
    • Sienna Ters, Year 8 Santa Sabina College (Runner Up) - Celebrating 40 years of MRI technology, and why we need it more than ever

    2017 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Sam Jones, Year 7 Kedron State High School (Winner) -  It’s what’s on the inside that counts
    • Ebony Wallin, Year 9 Dalyellup College (Runner Up) -  The very hungry caterpillars
    • Carol Ge, Year 9 Radford College (Runner Up) -  The fate of the Great Barrier Reef

    2016 Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Marissa Petrakis, Year 10 Meriden School (Winner) - From here to the stars: discovering supernovae
    • Gemma Macauley-Black, Year 8 Frensham (Runner Up) - Can you hear me?
    • Chelsy Teng, Year 9 James Ruse Agricultural High School (Runner Up) - An innovative instrument: the scanning tunnelling microscope

    2015 Inaugural Student Winner & Runners Up

    • Jessica Kitchen - (Winner) - A pendulum conundrum
    • Holly Reid (Runner Up) - Lighting up the universe: what a flame test reveals
    • Priya Soni (Runner Up) - X-rays - superpowers brought to life