News

From time to time, School of Chemistry staff and students will make the news! Below are excerpts from, and links to, recent news stories and articles about the School of Chemistry, from print and electronic media.

Charles Young awarded Doctorate of Science

Congratulations to A/Prof. Charles Young, who has been awarded a Doctor of Science degree by The University of Melbourne. The degree recognises Charles' many original contributions to the coordination, organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry of the transition metals. His research has spanned the periodic table (Ti, V, Nb, Mo, W, Ru, Rh, Cu, Hg, O, N, P and S) and has yielded important new materials and reactions, as well as crucial insights into catalytic and biomimetic systems. The principal focus of Charles' current research is the biological chemistry of molybdenum and tungsten. Charles has published close to 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals, books, encyclopaedia and reference works.

For further information visit the Young Group research page.

Congratulations to Dr Alison Funston who has been awarded a full time fellowship for 18 months

Congratulations to Dr Alison Funston who has been awarded a full time fellowship for 18 months.

This fellowship was awarded by the The Career Interruptions Fellowship Committee who met on Wednesday 7 May to consider 21 meritorious applications to the program.

Well done to Alison who was one of two applicants who received this award.

Congratulations to the Chemistry award winners in 2007

Congratulations to the Chemistry award winners in 2007, some of which were acknowledged at the recent Faculty of Science Dean's Awards, which were held on 21st May, 2008.

The School of Chemistry is very proud of the achievements of our students and staff and we wish them continued success in their studies and research.

2007 Award Winners

Free radicals in air trigger respiratory diseases

School of Chemistry PhD student and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology member Ms Duanne Sigmund and her supervisor Dr Uta Wille have been in the news recently with regard to their suggestion of a link between pollution and asthma.

As well as being interviewed on Australian radio one of 18 articles published throughout the world on this research can be viewed here.

Teaching Development Grant for School of Chemistry

Congratulations to A/Prof Peter Tregloan, Professor Richard O'Hair, Dr Spencer Williams and Dr Brendan Abrahams who have been awarded funding of $20,000 for their project "Demonstrator Resource Modules: Improving the Chemistry Laboratory Learning Experience". This funding is being provided by the Office of the Provost at the University through the Teaching and Learning Initiatives Fund.

The overall goal of this project is to enhance the learning experience of students in laboratory practical sessions in the School of Chemistry. This will be achieved through development of resources and to enhance the quality of our Demonstrators at first and second year levels. Multimedia "Demonstrator Resource Modules" (DRM's) will be developed for each second year lab that we will deploy to support the educational experience of our students.

Each Demonstrator Resource Module will consist of two components:

• A Demonstrator Training Tutorial, designed to assist our demonstrators in their preparation for each of the practical exercises;
• A Demonstrator Presentation Pack, which will provide demonstrators with web based materials including videos, and animations that can be used to introduce the experiment to the student group.

Rizzacasa group work on the cover of Tetrahedron

Congratulations to the Rizzacasa group whose recent work is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Tetrahedron. See here for more details. This is a special issue featuring natural products synthesis.

Grimwade Prize for White and Martin

Congratulations to A/Professor Jonathan White and A/Prof. Roger Martin who have been jointly awarded the Grimwade Prize in Industrial Chemistry for 2007. The Prize will be formally presented at the Dean's Awards Ceremony to be held on 21 May 2008.

Drug Development Grant for Williams Group

Congratulations to Dr Spencer Williams, who along with Prof Owen Woodman from the School of Medical Sciences at RMIT University, have been awarded a one year NH&MRC Development Grant to support an ongoing drug development program with the Melbourne-based biotechnology company NeuProtect Ltd.

"There is a clear unmet medical need for drugs that reduce the extent of heart muscle damage occurring as a result of myocardial infarction (heart attack). Our novel flavonols have been shown to reduce the volume of heart muscle affected by a heart attack. This project will seek to identify the metabolites from their administration and to characterize their biological action. This will inform future toxicology and animal studies, and will cast light on mechanism of action of these promising agents for the treatment of heart attack."

For further information please visit here.

IUPAC appointment for Professor Ken Ghiggino

Congratulations to Professor Ken Ghiggino who has become an IUPAC Fellow recognizing service to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry particularly through his participation on the Sub-Committee on Photochemistry over the past 10 years.

Chemistry @ Melbourne 1960-2000 - the book on sale

Chemistry @ Melbourne 1960-2000 is the story of four decades in the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne and is written by Dr Valda McRae.

Details on how to purchase a copy of this book can be acccessed from here.

Molybdoenzyme C-H Activation a Highlight

Hot on the heels of its publication in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society, the paper "Electronic Structure Description of the cis-MoOS Unit in Models for Molybdenum Hydroxylases" by Assoc. Prof. Young and his collaborators (see news item below) has been featured in Highlights of Australasian Chemistry (Chem. Aust., March 2008). The paper describes new frontiers in C-H activation, specifically the orbital control of substrate C-H activation by molybdenum hydroxylase enzymes and synthetic models.

The original J. Am. Chem. Soc. paper can be accessed here.

Rachel Caruso will present her research at the Australian Frontiers of Science Symposium

Rachel Caruso will be presenting her research at the Australian Frontiers of Science Symposium on 21 and 22 February at the Shine Dome in Canberra. The aim of the symposium, organized by the Australian Acedemy of Science, is to bring together the very best among Australia’s younger scientists to discuss emerging technologies, new opportunities and exciting cutting-edge advances in their disciplines. A draft program is available at www.science.org.au/events/frontiers2008.

Young Group Article in J. Am. Chem. Soc.

Congratulations to Assoc. Prof. Charles Young, his students and US and Canadian collaborators, for their article entitled “Electronic Structure Description of the cis-MoOS Unit in Models for Molybdenum Hydroxylases” published recently in J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2008, 130, 55-65). The work describes advanced spectroscopic and theoretical studies of the [Mo(=O)(=S)] centre present in molybdenum hydroxylase enzymes. These enzymes are responsible for a wide range of biological processes in humans, animals, plants and microorganisms. Information about the electronic structure of the Mo active site is key to understanding the mechanism and electronic contro of substrate C-H activation, a key step in substrate turnover.

The paper can be accessed here.

For further information visit the Young Group research page.

Dalton Transactions cover for Boskovic group

The front cover of the first issue of Dalton Transactions for 2008 features work from PhD student Kerwyn Alley, a member of the research group headed by Dr Colette Boskovic.

This article concerns the synthesis and magnetochemical characterisation of a new class of mixed 3d-4f polynuclear complexes and resulted from research undertaken by Kerwyn during his Honours year.

The article, entitled "A new family of octanuclear Cu₄Ln₄ (Ln = Gd, Tb and Dy) spin clusters" can be accessed from http://www.rsc.org.ezproxy.lib.unimelb.edu.au/publishing/journals/DT/article.asp?doi=b710755b

Link to front cover is here.

Chemistry Building Redevelopment

The School of Chemistry is undergoing extensive building works, which involves staged development of modern teaching and research laboratories and flexible learning spaces for the chemical sciences. The drawings below are for Stage 1 – new integrated 1st year teaching laboratories, chemistry library, learning and resource centre. The first year teaching laboratories will be in use by Semester 1 and the learning resources area following on later in 2008. Redevelopment of the second year laboratories is scheduled to start at the end of Semester 2, 2008.

Click here to download [PDF]

Royal Australian Chemical Institute's 2007 Cornforth Medal for Dr Thomas Munro

Congratulations to Dr Thomas Munro who has been awarded the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's 2007 Cornforth Medal for his thesis 'The Chemistry of Salvia Divinorium'. The Cornforth Medal is awarded annually for the most outstanding PhD thesis submitted in a branch of chemistry, chemical science or chemical technology. Thomas is currently a Research Fellow with Harvard Medical School, investigating new treatments for psychiatric illnesses at McLean Hospital. Congratulations to Thomas and to Associate Professor Mark Rizzacasa, who supervised the thesis.

Prestigious award for Professor Frank Larkins

Congratulations to Professor Frank Larkins who was recently awarded the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences, N N Semenov Medal in Chemical Sciences, for 2007. This award is described as the highest award of A. M. Prokhorov Academy of Engineering Sciences (AES), Russia. Prof. Larkins is Deputy Vice Chancellor (International) at the University of Melbourne and a Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry.

Further details about Professor Larkins and his numerous achievements can be viewed here.

Grant Success

Congratulations to all members of the School for helping us achieve success in the latest round of ARC Discovery grants (a total of $3.3 M as lead Chief Investigators). In particular, congratulations to lead CI's Assoc. Prof. Muthupandian Ashokkumar, Assoc. Prof. Evan Bieske, Dr Colette Boskovic, Dr Rachel Caruso, Dr Paul Donnelly, Prof. Ken Ghiggino, Assoc. Prof. Mark Rizzacasa, Professor Tony Wedd, Dr Spencer Williams, Dr Wallace Wong and APD Fellows Evan Moore and Keith Stubbs.

Congratulations also to Assoc. Prof. Jonathon White, who was a successful co-recipient of a substantial NHMRC grant, and Dr John Gehman, who received a research grant from Alzheimer's Australia.

Dr John Gehman and Dr Tich-Lam Nguyen were also recipients of Early Career Researcher Grants for funding in 2008.

Top Postings for Young Graduates

We congratulate four of Assoc. Prof. Young’s recent Ph.D. graduates who have secured post-doctoral appointments with eminent scientists in the USA and Germany. This month, Dr. Christian Doonan (grad 2004) will take up a position with leading supramolecular chemist Prof. Omar Yaghi at the University of California Los Angeles. Earlier in the year Dr. Michael Malarek (grad 2004) joined the group of Prof. Robert Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology. Prof. Grubbs shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of metathesis methods in organic chemistry. Most recently, Mr. Stephen Sproules (2007) joined the group of Prof. Karl Wieghardt, who heads the Max Planck Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry, Mülheim. Dr. Lyndal Hill (grad 2004) is continuing a productive post-doctoral appointment in the group of Prof. Bill Tolman, Distinguished McKnight University and L.I. Smith Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. These prestigious appointments demonstrate the excellence of postgraduate research training in the School of Chemistry and the highlight the international competitiveness of our graduates.

Bright Sparks Award for Rachel Caruso

The School of Chemsitry congratulates Dr Rachel Caruso who has been awarded a 2007 Cosmos Bright Sparks Award in recognition of her outstanding work. She is included by the Cosmos Science magazine in its list of Top 10 Young Scientists.

Chemistry Gets Solar Simulator

The School of Chemistry has just been awarded University funding for a Solar Simulator. This equipment will be used to quantify the solar energy conversion efficiency of 4th generation solar cells being developed within the School of Chemistry by the Holmes, Ghiggino and Mulvaney research groups. This award comes on top of a recent grant for $6m awarded to the Holmes group and collaborators at Monash and CSIRO for conducting polymer based solar cells.

Stephen Best et al publish in The Journal of the American Chemical Society

Congratulations to Dr Stephen Best et al for their article entitled "Modeling [Fe-Fe] Hydrogenase: Evidence for Bridging Carbonyl and Distal Iron Coordination Vacancy in an Electrocatalytically Competent Proton Reduction by an Iron Thiolate Assembly That Operates through Fe(0)-Fe(II) Levels" which was recently published in J. Am. Chem. Soc., volume 129.

To access this article please visit here.

Article of Associate Professor Spas Kolev ranked as the hottest in Talanta

Congratulations to Associate Professor Spas Kolev and colleagues. Their paper entitled "Separation of cobalt(II) from nickel(II) by solid-phase extraction into Aliquat 336 chloride immobilized in poly(vinyl chloride)", publised earlier this year in Talanta (Elsevier), has been the most downloaded paper for the period April - June.

The article, detailed below can be accessed at here.

Talanta, Volume 71, Issue 1, 1 January 2007, Pages 419-423
Blitz-Raith, A.H.; Paimin, R.; Cattrall, R.W.; Kolev, S.D.

Prestigious journal publication for Rizzacasa Group

The School of Chemistry congratulates Mark Rizzacasa and members of his group who have recently published an article entitled "Total Synthesis of (-)-Episilvestrol and (-)-Silvestrol" which appears in Angewandte Chemie Early Edition.

For further information on this interesting finding please visit here.

To access the journal please visit article visit here.

Dr Valda McRae published “Down memory lane: the sixties in the Chemistry School, University of Melbourne” in Chemistry in Australia

“Down memory lane: the sixties in the Chemistry School, University of Melbourne” is an article written by our resident Chemistry historian, Dr Valda McRae, and published in the August edition of Chemistry in Australia.

This article gives the reader a foretaste of the content of her current project “Chemistry at Melbourne 1960 – 2000,” a book on the history of the Chemistry School which will be published later this year.

Melbourne Research a Highlight of International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry

Staff and students from the School of Chemistry were active participants at the 13th International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry, held in Vienna from 15-20th July. Staff delegates included Prof. Tony Wedd (a member of the conference’s International Organizing Committee), Assoc. Prof. Charles Young and Drs. Stephen Best and Paul Donnelly. New results in the areas of Cu/Zn transport (Wedd), Mo/Cu carbon monoxide dehydrogenase chemistry (Young), FeFe hydrogenase chemistry (Best) and Cu-based Alzheimer’s drugs (Donnelly) were presented. Past and present Ph.D. students Karrera Djoko, Melissa Koay (2006), Stephen Sproules (2007) and Mathais Zimmermann attended and presented oral or poster presentations on their research. Melissa and Stephen are currently research scientists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Bioinorganic Chemistry in Mülheim, Germany. The conference was attended by over 900 scientists from over 55 countries; the University of Melbourne contingent was the strongest from any Australian University.

Prior to attending the conference Karrera performed experiments to measure dioxygen uptake by copper oxidases at the MPI for Bioinorganic Chemistry while Mathias gained training in the cell free expression of proteins at the MPI for Biophysics (Frankfurt). En route to Vienna, A/Prof. Young attended the Gordon Research Conference on Molybdenum and Tungsten Enzymes in New London, New Hampshire, USA, from 1-6 July. He was elected co-chair of the conference to be held in 2011.

Whats happening in the Mulvaney Group?

Jacek Jasieniak has demonstrated how to make tunable quantum dot lasers by embedding the particles into zirconia waveguides. The spectacular results have just appeared in Advanced Functional Materials 17, 1654-1662 (2007). The article entitled "Luminescence and Amplified Stimulated Emission in CdSe-ZnS-Nanocrystal-doped TiO₂ and ZrO₂ Waveguides", can be accessed here.

Edin Nuhiji has detected femtomole amounts of unlabelled DNA for the first time using a novel optical technique: whispering gallery modes in dye-labelled silica microspheres. The concept and initial results have just been published in Small 8, 1408-1414 (2007). The following link will take you to the article, "Single Particle Whispering Gallery Mode based Ultrasensitive Biosensor for Unlabelled Oligonucleotide Target Detection", can be accessed here.

The recent special edition of Aust J Chem, volume 60, No7 had a number of contributions from the Mulvaney group. Paul Mulvaney was the guest editor, Joel van Embden had a feature article "Review of the Synthetic Chemistry Involved in the Production of Core/Shell Semiconductor Nanocrystals" which can be viewed at here, and his research inspired the image on the front cover:

Click here to download

Congratulations to Dr Paul Donnelly who received the 2007 Selby Research Award

Congratulations to Dr Paul Donnelly, who recently received the 2007 Selby Research Award. This award is provided by the Selby Scientific Foundation to support an early career researcher in chemistry and related disciplines. The award is valued at $13,500 and Dr Donnelly intends to use the funds to further his research into metal based drugs. For more details about this research please visit his homepage.

Article of Paul Donnelly and Anthony Wedd appeared in RACI magazine

An article entitled "Alzheimer's disease and the chemistry of copper" written by Paul Donnelly and Anthony Wedd recently appeared in the RACI magazine, Chemistry in Australia. The article can be viewed here.

PhD students Sara Kyne and Kristine Tan gave their posters and oral presentatiions at the Gordon Conference

Congratulations to PhD students Sara Kyne and Kristine Tan who recently attended the Gordon Conference on Radicals and Radical Ions in Chemistry and Biology in New Hampshire, USA. Both students presented posters at the conference and were then selected to give their posters as oral presentatiions as well. This is a great achievement at such a prestigious conference and both students should be proud of their performance.

Honours student Ben Cao published with Professor Richard O'Hair and Dr Tom Waters in the top chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie

Congratulations to current Honours student Ben Cao who has had work published with Professor Richard O'Hair and Dr Tom Waters in the top chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.

The paper entitled "Sixty Years after Wittig: Gas Phase Synthesis of Lithium Trimethylammonium Methylide, [(CH₃)₃NCH₂Li]⁺" is the result of research undertaken by Ben in 2006 as a 610-399 research student of Prof O'Hair and Dr Waters.

The article can be accessed here.

Public Lecture: Scientists and Public Responsibility - Professor Purnendu K Dasgupta, University of Texas

The Science Faculty and the School of Chemistry hosted a public lecture on 8 August by Miegunyah Fellow, Professor Purnendu K Dasgupta, Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Arlington, USA. The details can be found here.

New Learning Lab for the School of Chemistry

The following article was recently published in The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 3 16 - 30 April 2007.

"The Chemistry Bytes" project grant successful

Congratulations to Professor Richard O’Hair, Associate Professor Peter Tregloan and Dr Brendan Abrahams who were recently awarded funding of $40,000 for their innovative project "The Chemistry Bytes".

The aim of this project is to develop a library of "micro-resources" - short animation and video clips - that will be used widely and flexibly by staff and students in large lecture, laboratory and other classes.

Three libraries of Chemistry Bytes will be developed - the Animation Bytes, the Laboratory Bytes and the Safety Bytes. Since many of the laboratory procedures and safety practices are common to all year levels, the development of the laboratory and safety libraries will benefit the laboratory curriculum for the entire BSc Chemistry Major.

The Animation Bytes Library can be used by any chemistry lecturer to enhance the delivery and effectiveness of their lectures. Many of the Bytes will be able to draw on the ~80 animations developed as part of the various ChemCAL Online projects; other animations have also been identified.

The Laboratory Bytes Library will be accessed by students prior to and during laboratory classes. The Laboratory Bytes will be available in the lab and ideally at the bench as students are undertaking lab tasks. They may also be used in prelab, tutorial or in lecture contexts.

The Safety Bytes will be accessed by students prior to and during laboratory classes. Practices that need regular reinforcement to develop safe and routine professional behaviour are: laboratory attire; handling corrosive liquids (acids, bases etc); handling flammable solvents; handling highly reactive species (alkali metals, hydrides, nBuLi, Grigard reagents, etc.); fumehood and glovebox techniques; vacuum line techniques; correct waste disposal practice; broken glass.

ARC Linkage International Award for Craig Hutton

Congratulations to Craig Huton who has just been awarded, joint with Matt Perugini from Biochemistry, an ARC Linkage International Award to support a multi-disciplinary research program with our collaborators in New Zealand.

"With antibiotic resistance on the rise, there is an urgent need to develop new antibiotics with novel modes of action. This project aims to generate new drug candidates that target dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DHDPS) - the first enzyme in the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall - using a triple-pronged approach. This novel approach will allow for the development of new drugs to treat a range of pathogenic bacteria, including 'Golden Staph'."

2006 David Syme Research Prize for Associate Professor Mark Rizzacasa

The School of Chemistry congratulates Associate Professor Mark Rizzacasa, who was recently announced as joint recipient of the David Syme Research Prize for 2006.

This prize is awarded for original research work in the fields of biology, chemistry, geology or physics. The prize consists of a bronze medallion and cash award which will be presented by the Dean of Science at the Dean's Award Ceremony on May 16.

The Rizzacasa group is currently undertaking research in organic synthesis of biological active natural products including anti-cholesterol, anti-tumour and anti-fungal molecules. It is hoped that their research will result in the synthesis of compounds for use in the treatment of various diseases.

Craig Gourlay receives Stranks Award for best student presentation at Inorganic Chemistry 2007

Congratulations to Craig Gourlay who received a Stranks Award for best student presentation at the recent Conference of the Inorganic Division of the RACI and the Inorganic and Organometallic Specialist Group of the NZIC (Inorganic Chemistry 2007) in Hobart. Craig's talk, entitled "Structural Models for the CO Dehydrogenase Active Site," described the synthesis of new Mo-S-Cu complexes and their interrogation by a variety of structural and advanced spectroscopic techniques. His talk concluded with a discussion of the biological and mechanistic implications of his results. Craig is a Ph.D. student with A/Prof Charles Young's Group.

Professor Carl Schiesser again in the news with publication in the Australian R & D Review and The Age

Professor Carl Schiesser is again in the news with recent articles published in the February edition of the Australian R & D Review and in The Age, Monday February 5th 2007. The R& D article can be accessed here and The Age article can be accessed here.

Inorganic Chemistry cover for Best group

The front cover of the recently published volume 46(2) of Inorganic Chemistry features the work of Dr Stephen Best's research group in determining the structure of unstable electrogenerated species using a combination of experimental and computational techniques. The quality graphic representation owes much to the involvement of past School of Chemistry staff member, Jo Dalvean.

The article entitled “Assignment of Molecular Structures to the Electrochemical Reduction Products of Diiron Compounds Related to [Fe-Fe] Hydrogenase: A Combined Experimental and Density Functional Theory Study”, Stacey J. Borg, Jesse W. Tye, Michael B. Hall, and Stephen P. Best, Inorg. Chem.; 2007; 46(2) pp 384 – 394 can be accessed here.

Congratulations to Professor Frances Separovic who was recently elected to the Council of the Biophysical Society (USA) for 2007 - 2009

Congratulations to Professor Frances Separovic who was recently elected to the Council of the Biophysical Society (USA) for 2007 - 2009. Seven Society members were elected to Council for a three year term to promote biophysics as a discipline. The Biophysical Society, with over 7500 members, publishes the Biophysical journal and organizes an annual conference with approx. 5000 participants.

Another Tall Poppy from the School of Chemistry

Congratulations to Dr Rachel Caruso, an Australian Research Fellow working in the School of Chemistry, for winning the prestigious Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award. The Tall Poppy Campaign was created by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science in 1998 to recognise and celebrate Australian scientific and intellectual excellence. The Young Tall Poppy award identifies and acknowledges outstanding young Australian researchers. Rachel is the second recipient from the School of Chemistry to receive this prestigious award with outstanding PhD student Gavin Reid who is now an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, receiving the award in 2002.

More information is available here.

Victoria Fellowship for PhD student Hadi Lioe

Chemistry PhD student Hadi Lioe was presented with the prestigious Victoria Fellowship and the AFAS/FEAST-France Fellowship at the Victoria Prize ceremony, at Government House on 18th October.

As winner of the Victoria Fellowship Hadi will receive up to $18,000 funding to assist him to undertake a study mission to investigate the working fundamentals of different types of ion mobility mass spectrometers, which will further advance science and technology in Victoria. This will also help to broaden Hadi’s experience and assist him to develop networks and international contacts. Hadi’s award was presented to him In addition to the Victoria Fellowship Hadi was also awarded a $5,000 AFAS FEAST-France Fellowship as a supplement to their Victoria Fellowship. This award, from the Australian French Association for Science and Technology (AFAS) and the Embassy of France, aims to facilitate science and technology to mutually benefit Victoria and France.

This additional award will see Hadi visit France as part of his study mission.

Associate Professor Michelle Gee has been elected to The Council of the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists (IACIS)

Associate Professor Michelle Gee has been elected to The Council of the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists (IACIS). IACIS is the pre-eminent organisation for scientists working in the areas of surface science and nanoscience.

Young Group discovers new class of mixed-valence complex

A new class of highly-oxidised, sulfur-rich, mixed-valence vanadium(IV/V) complex has been discovered by the Young Group. The complexes, prepared and characterised by Drs Michelle Taylor and David Evans, contain vanadium centres possessing eight-coordinate, S8-donor coordination spheres generated through coordination of dithiocarbamate and (bridging) disulfido ligands (graphic). Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy revealed that the complexes exhibit Class III mixed-valence behaviour, where the unpaired electron is delocalised over both vanadium centres, resulting in striking 15-line EPR spectra in solution. All previously known V(IV/V) complexes feature hard, terminal oxo ligands rather than soft sulfur-donor ligands and typically contain [V2O2(?-O)] core units. The new complexes are unique in featuring soft-donor S-ligation in a highly-oxidised, completely delocalised d1 (V–V bonded SOMO) system. The paper describing the discovery (Chemical Communications, 2006, 4245–4246) can be located here.

ARC Success for School of Chemistry Researchers

School of Chemistry researchers have once again been very successful with Discovery Grants recently announced by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Drs Muthupandian Ashokkumar, Paul Donnelly, Craig Hutton and Spencer Williams; Associate Professors Mark Rizzacasa and Jonathan White; and Professor Andrew Holmes were all successful Chief Investigators on new ARC project grants. Dr Jingli Xie (Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship) and Dr Glenn Burley (Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship) will be joining the School of Chemistry in the coming months after being awarded ARC Fellowships. Staff of the School were also successful in applications for ARC LIEF Grants that will provide state-of-the-art EPR, X-Ray and microscopy facilities for chemistry researchers.

Feature Article in Chemical Communications for Carl Schiesser

"Taming the Free Radical Shrew - Learning to Control Homolytic Reactions at Higher Heteroatoms", Chemical Communications, 2006, Issue 39, 4055 - 4065

This Feature Article highlights progress made in the understanding and application of free radical reactions at main group higher heteroatoms and demonstrates how this knowledge can be used to construct interesting higher heterocycles, many of which exhibit biological activity, through the use of intramolecular homolytic substitution chemistry.

The article can be accessed here.

PhD student Stephen Sproules at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory

With the Australian Synchrotron Project nearing completion, PhD student Stephen Sproules (a member of the Young Group ) has made another visit to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory to run S, Mo and Cu X-ray absorption spectroscopy. While there Stephen presented two posters on his work at the 13th International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XASF13). X-Ray absorption spectroscopy is helping Stephen to fully define the bonding within metallodithiolene, Mo=S and Mo-S-Cu units important in pterin-containing molybdenum enzymes. His trip, the 3rd to SSRL in 6 months, was funded by the Australian Research Council, the University of Saskatchewan (in collaboration with Prof G. N. George, Canada Research Chair in XAS ) and the organisers of XASF13. Stephen's research, at the cutting ed ge of Synchrotron Science, was advanced by experimentation and disseminated via lively presentations and interactions at the XAS conference.

Student Prize for Mulvaney group member – Ann Gooding

Ann Gooding was awarded a student poster prize for her poster entitled "Charge Injection into 2D Nanocrystal Arrays" at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology held in Brisbane on the 3rd - 7th of July 2006 (ICONN 06).

Ann's poster outlined her research into the electrochemical charging of self-assembled monolayers of CdSe nanoparticles on a gold surface. The prize was awarded at the conference dinner. Ann is currently undertaking her PhD at The University of Melbourne in the group of Paul Mulvaney.

PFPC publication in Science

Dynamic Forces Between Two Deformable Oil Droplets in Water, a collaboration between members of the School of Chemistry, Particulate Fluids Processing Center, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, was a recent article featured in Science.

Emulsions consist of two immiscible liquids that are mixed together, and often the droplets of one component are stabilized by the addition of a surfactant. For small-sized droplets, internal pressure stabilizes the droplets and interactions between droplets are not significant. At large sizes, deformation and hydrodynamic forces dominate, and these forces can be measured by a number of techniques. Ray Dagastine, Rogerio Manica, Steven Carnie, Derek Chan, Geoffrey Stevens and Franz Grieser (Science 313, 210-213 (2006) have developed a method to study droplets of intermediate size. Deformation, hydrodynamic drainage, and interaction forces all contribute to the overall behavior of droplet-droplet interactions, and thus current models of emulsion behavior may not be suitable.

The article can be accessed here.

School of Chemistry researchers provide sweet insight into pathogenic organism

Leishmania are sandfly transmitted parasites that cause a spectrum of potentially lethal diseases in more than 12 million people worldwide. This microorganism holds an unusual sweet surprise - a novel carbohydrate reserve material that has been implicated in its ability to cause disease. Inhibition of its biosynthesis should provide new anti-leishmanial therapies. Together research teams of the School of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology based at the Bio21 Institute, have reported work aimed at understanding the major biochemical steps in the biosynthesis of mannan, and have shown that the biosynthesis is initiated on an unusual cyclic phosphate carbohydrate primer. This work was published in the prestigious international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (Sernee, F. M., Ralton, J. E., Dinev, Z., Khairallah, G. N., O'Hair, R. A. J., Williams, S. J. and McConville, M. J., “Biosynthesis of Leishmania mannan is primed by a novel mannose-cyclic phosphate”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2006, 103, 9458-9463).

This work was also presented as a “Highlight of Australian Chemistry” in the RACI magazine Chemistry in Australia the RACI magazine Chemistry in Australia (p32, Vol 73, 2006).

Further details can be obtained here.

Dr Spencer Williams reports to the Prime Minister's Science Engineering and Innovation Council

Dr Spencer Williams recently reported to the Prime Minister's Science Engineering and Innovation Council. The Council is the Australian Government's principal source of independent advice on issues in science, engineering and innovation and relevant aspects of education and training. Dr Williams joined two other early career researchers to present to the Council their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges encountered when establishing a career in science research.

Further details can be obtained here.

Professor Ken Ghiggino, Masson Professor and Head of School receives 2006 Eric Kneen Award

Ken Ghiggino, Mark Goldsmith, Peter Rogers, Nuno Cabral and Felicity Roddick were awarded the 2006 Eric Kneen Memorial Award. This award is presented to the author or authors of the best paper in the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists in the previous calendar year. The award will be presented at the 2006 annual meeting in La Quinta, California. The article entitled "Riboflavin in Triplet Quenchers Inhibit Lightstruck Flavor Formation in Beer". This paper can be accessed here.

Journal of Materials Chemistry cover for Caruso Research

Research from the Caruso Group, headed by Dr Rachel Caruso, has been highlighted on the cover of the May issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry. The article shows porous structures of two metal oxides formed using a templating technique. The article can be accessed here.

Congratulations to PhD students Hadi Lioe and Jack Jasieniak

Congratulations to PhD students Hadi Lioe and Jack Jasieniak who were chosen to attend the meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau (Germany) later this month.

Both students will travel to Germany for the meeting which this year will focus around Nobel Laureates in Chemistry. The audience for the lectures, round table discussions on interdisciplinary topics and special discussions, will be 500 students and young scientists who have been recruited worldwide from outstanding students and scientists in the field of Chemistry.

This is an exceptional opportunity that we look forward to sharing with them on their return.

Dr Stephen Best awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Dr Stephen Best attended the Dean’s Awards Ceremony on 16th May where he was presented with the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
This prestigious award is presented in recognition of ongoing, outstanding performance in educational activities within the Faculty of Science and the wider community.
Stephen has been a member of the School of Chemistry for the past 12 years and during that time has contributed in many areas, in particular to the development of the Inorganic Chemistry laboratory programs.

His area of expertise is Spectroelectrochemistry with research interests in Fe-S Clusters, Nitrogenase, Hydrogenase and Ni-Co Clusters.

For further information visit the Best Group research page.
http://www.chemistry.unimelb.edu.au/staff/spbest/research/

Assoc. Prof. Charles Young’s research featured in the “Highlights of Australasian Chemistry”

Research carried out in the laboratory of Assoc. Prof. Charles Young has been featured in the “Highlights of Australasian Chemistry” feature of May’s Chemistry in Australia, the magazine of the Royal Australian Chemical Society. Young’s research involves early transition metal coordination and organometallic chemistry relevant to artificial and biological catalysis. A principal focus of current work in the synthetic modelling of molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) enzymes. These enzymes are crucial to all life on Earth and over the years Young’s group has developed some of the best available synthetic models. Their latest model systems are described in two papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The papers can be accessed at here and here

For further information visit the Young Group research page.
http://www.chemistry.unimelb.edu.au/staff/cgyoung/research/

Prof. Richard O’Hair has “Feature Review” in Chemical Communications

Prof. Richard O’Hair has had a recent 'Feature Review' published in the Chemical Communications highlighting Prof. O'Hair's recent research.
To access this article click here

Additional information is available from the O’Hair Group research page.
http://www.chemistry.unimelb.edu.au/people/ohair.php

Wedd group article in Journal of American Chemical Society

Other News

See also the UniNews website search results for 'chemistry'.