Dr Helena Wang awarded 2026 Selby Research Award
Dr Helena Wang, a Senior Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, has received a 2026 Selby Research Award from the Selby Scientific Foundation.
The Selby Research Awards are presented annually to support outstanding academics in establishing and advancing their research careers. Dr Wang, an ARC DECRA Fellow and leader of the Renewable Resource & Sustainability (R2S) Group, received the award for her project, “Sustainable Regeneration Technologies for Next-Generation Battery Materials.”
Dr Wang’s research aims to develop low-energy regeneration technologies that can directly recover and restore valuable battery materials while preserving their structure and performance. This approach has the potential to enable higher-value reuse of battery materials while reducing waste, energy consumption and associated carbon emissions.
The research contributes to the development of a more circular battery economy and could help strengthen Australia’s capabilities in critical minerals, battery recycling and clean-energy technologies.
As part of the award, she received $23,000 in funding to advance her research.
“I am very grateful to the Selby Scientific Foundation for this recognition and support. The award will help us advance sustainable battery regeneration technologies and explore new approaches to retaining the value of materials already embedded in end-of-life batteries,” Dr Wang said.
The award will support the next stage of her research into sustainable regeneration technologies and the development of collaborations aimed at translating these approaches towards practical battery recycling applications.