Dr Simon McIlroy, a researcher at Aalborg University in Denmark, was recently awarded the 2016 La Trobe University Distinguished Alumni Young Achiever award for his research into the microbiology of wastewater treatment systems.

“Every city in the world produces thousands of litres of nutrient-rich waste every day and that needs to be treated for environmental and health reasons,” Dr McIlroy said.

Dr McIlroy has made several important discoveries, including the first genome sequences from several organisms important to wastewater treatment and the very first physiological information from a previously uncharacterised bacterial phylum.

He has published more than 30 research articles in international peer reviewed journals, including 16 published from his time as a PhD student, and contributed to several scholarly book chapters.

He attributes much of his achievement to his lecturers at La Trobe University, especially his PhD supervisor, Professor Robert Seviour, with whom he remains in contact.

“He taught me a lot about what it is to be a research scientist,” he said.

“I was always provided with a challenge in that it didn’t matter what I had done or what I knew, I could always do more and always learn more.”

The alumni award is not the first time Dr McIlroy has been acknowledged for his work.

In 2015 he received the Sapere Aude Research Talent Award from the Danish Research Council and received $100,000 for his research.

The accolade was presented by the Danish Minister for Research and Innovation at a ceremony attended by Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. 

“The idea of that award is to retain talented scientists in Denmark,” Dr McIlroy said. 

“I felt honoured to receive that award, especially from a country that wasn’t my own.”

Dr McIlroy’s mother Helen said she was “so proud that he is making such a difference in the world, and in his field”.

Mrs McIlroy said her son, who went to school at Spring Gully Primary School, Golden Square Secondary College and Bendigo Senior Secondary College, had worked hard for his success.

“It’s been great just to see what he’s achieved,” she said.

Dr McIlroy’s time at La Trobe left a lasting mark on not only his professional life, but his personal life too – it was during his time at university that Dr McIlroy met his wife Bianca, who also moved to Denmark.