Between them, they bring significant experience in science and technology, innovation, investment and leadership, both across Australia and globally.
As Ambassadors, Pia and Parwinder will promote the program across Western Australia as a vehicle to grow greater STEM skills in the next generations of innovators.
Our students are tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges, from clean water to landmine detection. Parwinder and Pia know what it takes to turn a big idea into real impact, and we’re thrilled to have them helping the next generation of WA innovators do the same.
WAITTA exists to grow a future-ready workforce for Western Australia, and that work starts in the classroom. Parwinder and Pia each represent a different part of WA’s innovation story, from world-leading science and public policy to investment and governance. Bringing them into the Game Changer Awards connects our youngest innovators with the leaders shaping the state they’ll one day work in, and we’re proud to have them on board.
Dr Kaur began her career in agriculture in India before moving to Perth to complete her PhD at the University of Western Australia. As an Associate Professor at UWA, she spent more than a decade leading genomics and biodiversity research to help conserve threatened species. She also founded DNA Zoo Australia.
She is alumna of Superstars of STEM and was inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame in 2023. She was elected to the WA Legislative Council in 2025, and this year Dr Kaur became the first sitting woman MP in Australia to be elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE).
My journey into science started in agriculture fields in Punjab and led me to genomics research here in WA, working to protect species we could lose forever. I never could have mapped that path at ten years old. The Game Changer Awards gives students the chance to follow their curiosity and see where it leads.
Watching students take a global challenge like clean water or biodiversity loss and build a real solution is exactly what WA needs more of. Science is at its best when it’s curious, collaborative and grounded in community. That’s what the Game Changer Awards celebrates, and I’m proud to champion it.”
Pia has been instrumental in helping build WA’s STEM innovation ecosystem. She is General Partner of Fund WA, a Perth venture capital fund, and chairs the East Metropolitan Health Service and the Centre of Decommissioning Australia. She is a past Chair of Women in Technology WA. In 2023 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to technology, innovation and women in STEM.
I spend my days backing WA founders, and every one of them started with a problem they couldn’t stop thinking about. I see that same instinct in Game Changer students, from Year 3 up. When girls and young people from every background get to solve real problems early, they start to see themselves in STEM, and that changes who leads WA’s tech sector in the future. I’m delighted to be part of it.
The Game Changer Awards invites students in Years 3 to 10 to design STEM solutions to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. With Dr Kaur and Pia on board, students will learn from people who have turned big ideas into real impact for WA.
Pre-registration for 2027 is now open via the Game Changer Awards School Portal (login to access).