Faculty of Science School of Chemistry

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.

Chemistry cultural collection article in Chemistry in Australia

An article entitled "Our Chemical cultural heritage - The University of Melbourne Chemistry Collection" by Petronella Nel has been published in the November edition of Chemistry in Australia.

The article is available here for download.

Spas Kolev awarded Lloyd Smythe Medal

Congratulations to Assoc. Prof. Spas Kolev who was recently awarded RACI, Analytical Chemistry Division, Lloyd Smythe Medal for 2009.

The Lloyd Smythe Medal is awarded for excellence in pure or applied scientific work in analytical science in Australia, or for service to Analytical Chemistry during the previous fifteen years.

Young Tall Poppy Award for Alison Funston

Congratulations to Dr Alison Funston who at a recent cocktail event in Melbourne on 17th September was announced as one of the recipients of a 2009 Young Tall Poppy Science Award.

The prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science Awards aim to recognise the achievements of Australia's outstanding young scientific researchers and communicators.

ARC Future Fellows for the School of Chemistry

The School of Chemistry congratulates Dr Rachel Caruso and Dr John Gehman who were announced yesterday as recipients of ARC Future Fellowships.

Dr Caruso was awarded funding of $788,000 over a 4 year period which will enable her and her research group to undertake a project entitled "Engineered materials for future energy technologies".

Dr Gehman will receive $686,400 over a 4 year period for his project Maximizing solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) with maximum entropy.

New carbohydrates textbook co-authored by Spencer Williams

A book entitled "Carbohydrates: The essential molecules of life" has been recently published by Elsevier. This book was co-authored by Spencer Williams with his former PhD supervisor Bob Stick. The book represents a significantly extended version of the award-winning first edition (Carbohydrates: The sweet molecules of life). It has already exceeded the sales record for the first edition.

Essentials gives the reader the basics of carbohydrate chemistry, a sense of its history, methods for their synthesis, and an understanding of the importance of carbohydrates and their conjugates in the world of glycobiology.

The book has received strongly positive reviews in the Australian Journal of Chemistry (Aust. J. Chem. 2009, 62, 600-601) and Chemistry in Australia (Chem. Aust., 2009, 76(7), 32-33).

Knowledge Transfer Project Grant for Mick Moylan

Congratulations to Chemistry Outreach Fellow, Mick Moylan who has recently been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Project Grant to work with Distance Education Centre Victoria to develop multimedia tools to help year 12 students learn about spectroscopy and chromatography.

This project will follow on from the "Lab in a Box" kits of chemistry equipment developed for use in remote-area classrooms through a 2008 Knowledge Transfer grant.

Year 12 students who attend the on-campus programs should also find these resources to be particularly useful.

Chancellor's Prize for Jack Jasienak

The School of Chemistry is delighted to announce the award of the 2008 Chancellor's Prize to Dr Jacek (Jack) Jasieniak.

Jack commenced is his PhD in 2004 under the supervision of Professor Paul Mulvaney. During that time he was the recipient of the School of Chemistry Excellence Award and was also chosen to attend a meeting of the Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany.

Jack is currently working on quantum dot based solar sells and printed electronics at CSIRO where he is employed as a research scientist.

Jack is the second member of the Mulvaney group in the past 2 years to be awarded the prestigious Chancellor's Prize. Daniel Gomez Alviarez was the recipient of the 2007 prize.

Congratulations Jack.


Andrew Holmes appointed Laureate Professor

Congratulations to Professor Andrew Holmes who has been appointed a prestigious Laureate Professor to the University of Melbourne. The appointment recognises Andrew's distinguished career in science and outstanding contributions to research and leadership.

Research Grant successes

Congratulations to A/Prof Muthupandian Ashokkumar who has received an ARC Linkage grant (with A/Prof Kentish, Dr Zisu and Dairy Innovation Australia Ltd) of $365,000 over 4 years for the project "Ultrasonics as a New Platform Technology in Dairy Processing".

A/Prof Geoff Scollary, A/Prof Trevor Smith and Prof Ken Ghiggino for their successful application to the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC) for funding of $119,000 to support the project "Wine bottle colour and oxidative spoilage".

AOM for Honorary staff member, Associate Professor Peter McTigue

Congratulations to our Honorary Staff member, Associate Professor Peter McTigue upon receiving an Order of Australia award (AOM) that was announced on the Queen's Birthday yesterday.

This award was given in recognition of Peter's extraordinary and unparalleled contributions to secondary and tertiary Chemistry education for a period of over 40 years.

Peter has worked tirelessly to promote the subject and to ensure that its teaching is of the highest standard. His dedication acts as a role model to those who follow.

Dean's Awards - School of Chemistry

The School of Chemistry congratulates the following staff and students who were recognised at the Dean's Awards on 20th May, 2009.

Dean's Award for Jennifer Scott

The School of Chemistry congratuates our Labotatory Manager, Jennifer Scott who has been announced the recipient of the 2009 Dean's Award in Environment, Health and Safety.

This is very deserved recognition of Jennifer's outstanding contributions to EH&S in the School of Chemistry, and the University more widely, over such a sustained period.

Jennifer will be presented with her award at the Dean's Award ceremony on 20 May.

Women as successful scientists and mentors

Dr Uta Wille, School of Chemistry group leader, is in the spotlight for the latest Science Matters issue. Uta's group is part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology.

In a feature profile by Dr Renee Smart, Uta talks about her triumphs and difficulties pursuing a science career in Germany, her career goals, women in science and her role as a mentor. Read more about the Wille group.

An article profiling Professor Frances Separovic has also been published recently and can be accessed at http://www.science.unimelb.edu.au/matters/separovic-biophysicist.

Brendan Abrahams recipient of a "Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching"

The School congratulates Associate Professor Brendan Abrahams who is the recipient of the "Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching" this year in the category of "Large Class Teaching".

This is a fine acknowledgement of Brendan's excellent contributions in the continuing evolution of our first year Chemistry subjects and particularly his leadership and innovation while he was Director of First Year Studies. Brendan will be presented this award at the Dean's Award Ceremony on 20th May.

Congratulations to Frances Separovic who has been profiled in the latest issue of Biophysical newsletter

Congratulations to Frances Separovic who has been profiled in the latest issue of Biophysical newsletter.

The article can be viewed here.

Congratulations to Richard Robson

A perspective article written by Professor Richard Robson entitled "Design and its limitations in the construction of bi- and poly-nuclear coordination complexes and coordination polymers (aka MOFs): a personal view" has been listed as one of the most influential recent articles published in Dalton Transactions and listed as one of the the most highly accessed articles from the journal during 2008.

The news can be accessed here, and the article here.

More JACS articles for School of Chemistry

The School has recently had another two articles published in the high quality, high impact Journal of the American Chemical Society.

We congratulate Peter Kaiser, Jonathan White and Craig Hutton for their article Enantioselective Preparation of a Stable Boronate Complex Stereogenic Only at Boron published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 16450-16451. This article can be accessed from here.

We also congratulate Mark Rizzacasa and members his group for their article Total Synthesis of the Potent Anticancer Aglaia Metabolites (−)-Silvestrol and (−)-Episilvestrol and the Active Analogue (−)-4′-Desmethoxyepisilvestrol published in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (4), pp 1607-1616. This article can be accessed from here.

Chemistry PhD students to attend Nobel Laureates Meeting

The School of Chemistry congratulates PhD students, Adam Brotchie and Asimo Karnezis who have been selected as young researchers to attend the 59th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau.

Approximately 20 Nobel Laureates and 500 young researchers from around the world will meet at Lindau over the period 28th June to 3rd July for the 59th Meeting of Nobel Laureates.

The 2009 Lindau Meeting will be dedicated to chemistry.

We look forward to their return so that they can share their experience with us.

Paul Mulvaney elected to AAS

Congratulations to Professor Paul Mulvaney who has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science for his work on nanoscience and plasmonics: surface plasmon spectroscopy enabling the optical detection of electrons in metal nanostructures.

Election to the Australian Academy of Science represents one of the highest honours for individual contributions to science that a scientist may be awarded.

Details can be found here.

Chemistry Past, Present and Future

An article by Katherine Smith has been published in The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 4, No. 3 9 - 25 March 2009. The article is about the Chemistry museum and can be accessed from here.

JACS Article for Wedd Group

Dr Zhiguang Xiao and PhD student Lee Xin Chong from Wedd group, in collaboration with Drs Mark Hinds (WEHI) and Megan Maher (Centenary Institute, University of Sydney), have published an article in J. Am. Chem. Soc. documenting an unprecedented binding cooperativity of a copper resistance protein CopK from bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34. Binding of Cu(I) increased the affinity for Cu(II) by six orders of magnitude. CopK is a member of 19 proteins encoded by a cop cluster of 19 genes which response to copper and confer high copper resistance to the bacterium. An understanding of this behaviour will illuminate mammalian copper metabolism where copper transport proteins have now been implicated as critical components in tuberculosis, cancer cell proliferation and fungal virulence.

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

Professor Frances Separovic appointed as the Editorial Advisory Board of Accounts of Chemical Research

Congratulations to Professor Frances Separovic who has recently been appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board of the prestigious ACS journal, Accounts of Chemical Research. Frances will fly to Salt Lake City this weekend to participate in her first meeting as a board member.

Continued funding for ARC Centre of Excellence

Congratulations to members of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology who have been recently notified that the ARC has approved an extension of funding until the end of 2013 with a further $9.8 million provided. Members of the School are also participants in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science which also received an extension of funding until 2013.

Details of the press release can be accessed here.

Full details of the Centre and the work they are undertaking can be accessed from their website.

Donnelly article in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

Research into new ways to treat Alzheimer's disease using metal complexes has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Paul Donnelly and researchers from the Department of Pathology (Kevin Barnham and Tony White) are investigating the use of metal complexes to treat Alzheimer's disease. Their studies have shown that metal complexes prepared in the Donnelly group decrease the build up of harmful proteins in the brains of animal models of
Alzheimer's disease.

Chem Comm. cover for Tich-Lam Nguyen from the Mulvaney Group

Dr Tich-Lam Nguyen of the Chemistry School's Nanoscience Laboratory describes a new use for semiconductor quantum dots in a paper just published in the RSC journal "Chemical Communications" and featured on the cover of Chem Comm.

IR uponverters can convert invisible infra-red radiation into visible light; however the range of colours is quite small. Using quantum dots as "downconverters", Dr Nguyen showed that any visible colour can be created by overcoating an upconverter material with a few monolayers of highly uminescent quantum dots.

Such materials have potential uses in night time warning signs, emergency signs, for infra red nightvision technology as well as in document "securitization".

The journal can be accessed from here, and the cover from here.

 

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