Zeiss PhotoFusion X team at Adelaide's Tonsley district wins 2024 South Australia science innovator gong
Dr Scott Clafton (second from left) led the Zeiss PhotoFusion X team, based at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide's southern suburbs, that took out the South Australia innovator of the year award for its cutting-edge technology that enabled sunglasses with photochromic lenses to adapt quickly to changing light conditions. Other team members were Simon Holtmann, Andrew Lanyon, Dr Fang Chen and Nicole Kitchin.
An Adelaide research and development team who disrupted the photochromic lens market with their self-tinting glasses were winners at the 2024 South Australia Science Excellence and Innovation Awards.
Zeiss PhotoFusion X team, based at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide's southern suburbs, took out the innovator of the year award for their cutting-edge technology that enabled sunglasses with photochromic lenses to adapt quickly to changing light conditions, improving vision and and eye health for consumers. The ZEISS PhotoFusion X team was offering market-leading speeds for tint transition without risking clarity or UV (ultra violet) protection. This included darkening in response to bright light when outdoors, and fading back to clear when returning indoors, without compromising indoor clarity or sunglass level activation.
ZEISS PhotoFusion X team was led by Dr Scott Clafton. He said that working on mature technology like photochromic lenses is "quite tricky. There's been a lot of people who have come before and had a lot of good ideas, so you have to be creative and think differently about how you develop the product to differentiate yourself from the competition."
Clafton was an Adelaide University bachelor of science graduate in chemistry with honours (2004-2008). He completed a philosophy doctorate (2010-2014) on the thesis: “Photophysics and photochemistry of conjugated polymer nanoparticles” with supervisor Dr Tak W. Kee. This work concerned the energy and charge transfer behaviour of conjugated polymer nanoparticles using femtosecond laser spectroscopy and the implications for organic photovoltaics.
In 2024, Clafton became engineering team leader for the Chtyson Corporation, also at Tonsley Innovation District, working on improvements in safety, reliability and performance for Chrysos’ PhotonAssay™ technology. Also for four months 2024, Clafton was a senior project officer with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission negotiating on high-priority recalls for consumer goods in the consumer product safety division.