Professor Steven Prawer is Australia’s foremost authority on the physics of diamond and related materials. His work has brought Australia to the forefront in their study and the development of applications. In particular, he has been pivotal in elucidating the fundamental nature of the interaction of energetic ion beams with these materials and has pioneered the production of a new generation of nano-scale quantum devices based on diamond. His dynamic group is one of the largest and best equipped in the world devoted to quantum diamond research. It attracts top international researchers and invitations to collaborate from all over the world. His recent results are finding application in single photon sources for quantum cryptography for secure communications and in diamond-based devices for quantum computers.