Associate Professor Monica Oliphant AO is a remarkable pioneer and global champion for renewable energy.
Monica spent eighteen years with the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) during which her research enabled grid connected solar power systems and wind energy in South Australia.
She has mentored and provided guidance to hundreds of students and practitioners, and generously shares her insight freely from her former position as President of the International Solar Energy Society.
Monica has received countless awards, including the Ecogen 2011 Award for the Most Outstanding Contribution to the Clean Energy Industry, and the World Renewable Energy Network Pioneer Award. In 2015 she was bestowed an Office of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the renewable energy sector.
She was awarded Senior South Australian of the Year in 2016 for her lifelong commitment to improving all people's access, particularly those of lower socio-economic status, to environmentally and economically sustainable energy.
If an embrace of renewable energy becomes an enduring gift from our state to the world, much of the credit must go to Monica and her remarkably effective advocacy.