Study mapping ‘superhighways’ travelled by First Australians wins prestigious international award

Australian Research Council for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

Research that identified likely “superhighways” used in the earliest peopling of Australia some 65,000 years ago has been recognised for its innovative use of high-performance computing to model ancient pathways across the continent.

The HPC Innovation Excellence Awards are judged and awarded by the HPC User Forum and Hyperion Research to recognise high-impact and innovative work supported by the use of high-performance computing (HPC).

It is the first time an archaeological-centred study has earned the award.

“I’m thrilled our paper has won this award,” said project leader CABAH Associate Investigator Dr Stefani Crabtree from Utah State University and the Santa Fe Institute.

“Last year’s winners included those fighting gerrymandering and COVID-19. This year, our work, the largest ever reconstruction of a network of human migration paths into a new landscape and the first to apply rigorous computational analysis at the continental scale, is being recognised for its potential to transform our understanding of the world,” Dr Crabtree said.

/Public Release.