International award for smart pill researcher

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International award for smart pill researcher

One of RMIT University’s top researchers has earned a prestigious international award for his work on the gas-sensing "smart pill".

Distinguished Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, Director of the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors in the School of Engineering, has received the 2017 Sensor Council Technical Achievement Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The ingestible capsules have the potential to revolutionise the prevention and diagnosis of gut disorders and diseases.

"The smart pill is a project we have been working on for many years. It has taken a team of researchers to help get it to this stage. I am so grateful to them and also to the Institute for this award," Kalantar-zadeh said. "This is a real and unexpected honour."

"We have reached a very exciting phase and I hope we can make a difference in the health of so many people with an easy diagnosis tool," Kalantar-zadeh said.

Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh with his Smart Pill team Kyle Berean and Nam Ha.

One in five people will suffer from a gastrointestinal disorder in their lifetime with an estimated 30 per cent of patients left undiagnosed. Bowel cancer is in the top three leading causes of deaths in Australia, especially in those aged over 65.

RMIT is one of the leading universities in the world researching the development of ingestible sensors.

The award citation honours "a person with outstanding technical contributions within the scope of the IEEE Sensors Council, as documented by publications and patents. It is based on the general quality and originally of contributions and for ‘introducing the important new field of ingestible sensors’ and promoting the new concept of ‘physisorptive’ sensors".

Distinguished Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh.

Kalantar-zadeh is internationally recognised for his research into nanotechnology-enabled sensors, especially bio and gas sensors. His innovative research portfolio includes leading investigations into products as diverse as a paint that produces fuel from water vapour and the development of gas pollutant sensors based on physical adsorption of gases (or so-called physisorption).

Kalantar-zadeh also earned the 2017 Academic Sharp Brain, Royal Australian Chemical Institute and the Alan Finkel awards. He has co-authored over 350 highly cited books and scientific papers.

Story: Jane Kenrick

Science and technology

27 September 2017