Research funding
The School of Chemistry receives research funding and grants from a variety of sources, including the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and other Government and Industry bodies. We also have a wide range of sponsors who offer prizes and scholarships and collaborate on research and infrastructure projects.
Research Funding for 2008
2008 was another outstanding year for the School of Chemistry. New projects commencing in 2008, include:
| Assoc. Prof. M Ashokkumar & Prof F Grieser | Composite nanomaterials for environmental remediation and fuel cell applications |
| Assoc. Prof. E Bieske | Understanding and controlling ion neutral interactions |
| Dr C Boskovic | New approaches to bistable spin clusters |
| Dr C Boskovic & Prof. F Separovic | Enhanced NMR Research, Analysis and Characterisation Facility |
| Dr RA Caruso | Synthesis of functionalised metal oxide beads with hierarchical pores for radionuclide and metal sequestration |
| Dr EG Moore | Novel Lanthanide Complexes and Polymeric Luminescent Chelates for Biomedical Imaging and Bioassay |
| Prof MA Rizzacasa | Synthesis of Myxobacteria Metabolites and Analogues |
| Prof AG Wedd & Dr PS Donnelly | Molecular Probes for BioMetals |
| Prof AG Wedd & Dr PS Donnelly | Investigating protein/protein interactions |
| Dr SJ Williams | Understanding the cardioprotective effects of flavonolds |
| Dr WW Wong | Novel organic materials for efficient lowcost solar cells |
| Prof RA O'Hair et al. | Mass spectrometry facility for the quantitation and analysis of post-translationally modified peptides |
Research Funding for 2007
Funding in excess of $2.9 million has been awarded to chemistry staff and their collaborators in 2007, as detailed below:
| Dr SWilliams | Mannose Metabolism in Pathogenic Microorganisms |
| Prof. MA Rizzacasa | Biomimetic and Methodology Based Total Synthesis of Bioactive Natural Products |
| Dr PS Donnelly | Copper Radiopharmaceuticals for Molecular Imaging of Alzheimer's Disease |
| Assoc. Prof. JM White | Structures and Properties of beta-R3M (M = Si, Ge, Sn)- and beta-Chalcogenyl-substituted Carbenium Ions |
| Dr J Xie | Novel Photo-Catalysts for Water Oxidation: Linking Nature to New Technologies |
| Assoc. Prof. C Young and Dr S Best | A National Biomedical Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and Molecular Imaging Centre |
Chemistry staff were also participants in the following successful collaborative research grants
| Assoc. Prof. M. Ashokkumar | Surfactant Effects in Sonoprocessing |
| Dr C Hutton | Dissociation of a Tetrameric Enzyme with Interface-Targeted Peptides |
| Prof. A Holmes | Identifying Mitogenic Signalling Proteins with Phosphatidyl Inositol Lipids |
Research Funding for 2006
The School had another very successful year in research funding.
Staff who received external grants for funding of research commencing in 2006 included:
Dr. M Ashokkumar - Ultrasonic processing of dairy ingredients to control protein aggregation and promote heat stability
Dr. D Bird - An investigation into the absorption of nanoparticles through skin via time-resolved scanning near-field fluroescence microscopy
Dr. RA Caruso - Nanostructured materials as both separations media and transmutation hosts for minor actinides in advanced fuel cycle reprocessing solutions
Dr. RA Caruso - Chemical and morphological engineering of semi-conductor electrodes for high efficiency solar cells
Dr. RA Caruso - The incorporation of gold nanoparticles in porous titanium dioxide materials for photocatalytic applications
Dr. C Hutton - Synthesis of the celogentin family of anti-tumour cyclic peptides
Dr. S Kolev - Extraction of uranium and thorium using novel polymer inclusion membranes
Assoc. Prof. P Mulvaney - Energy conversion and signal transduction in nanomechanical systems
Prof. C Schiesser - Centre for free radical chemistry and biotechnology
Prof. F Separovic - Membrane interactions and neurotoxicity of Amyloid Abeta peptides from Alzheimer's disease
Prof. F Separovic - Membrane protein structure and interaction facility
Prof. F Separovic - Structure and activity of host-defence peptides from australian anurans: anticancer agents, neuropetides and NNOS inhibitors
Dr. T Smith - Towards Nano-Assembled Light Emitting Polymer Films
Assoc. Prof. J White - Evaluation of new radioprotectors
Assoc. Prof. J White - Structures and properties of beta-silyl and beta-chalcogenyl-substituted carbenium ions
Funding for 2005
The School has had a very successful year so far, receiving $5.6 million in new funding from the ARC - being the highest for any department at the University of Melbourne and the highest for any Chemistry department in Australia.
Staff who received ARC Discovery Grants for funding commencing in 2005 were:
Dr. E Bieske - Towards a microscopic understanding of anion solvation
Dr. C Boskovic - Polynuclear metal complexes as molecular nanomagnets
Assoc. Prof. ML Gee - Probing membrane rafts using surface-selective multi-dimensional microscopy
Prof. F Grieser, Dr M Ashokkumar - Control of acoustic cavitation in complex fluids
Dr. SD Kolev - New Extraction Membranes and Beads for Use in Industrial Separation
Assoc. Prof. P Mulvaney - Nanotribology - The chemical rolling resistance of single nanocrystals
Dr. RA O'Hair - Gas Phase Studies to Catalyze a Better Understanding of Metal Reactivity
Assoc. Prof. MA Rizzacasa - Chemical Synthesis of Bioactive Metabolites and Analogues from Marine Sources and Myxobacteria
Prof. R Robson, Dr. B Abrahams - Contributions to the foundations upon which true crystal engineering of functional solids will be based
Prof. AG Wedd - Molecular characterisation of metal transport proteins
Dr. U Wille - Atmospheric Free-Radicals: Exploring the Role of Nitrate Radicals in the Oxidative Damage of Bio-Surfaces
Assoc. Prof. CG Young - Bioinorganic chemistry of molybdenum
The Victorian Institute for Chemical
Sciences (VICS) also provided $4 million in research equipment
and infrastructure support for 29 new collaborative projects at the
Chemistry Schools at the University
of Melbourne, Monash
University and RMIT.
Results for the School will be posted as they are available.
Funding highlights for 2004
For new grants awarded in 2004 - being for work commencing in 2004 - the School received a total of $3,270,067 in research funding.
Staff who received funding were:
Dr. M Ashokkumar - Radical chemistry during the ultrasonic treatment and extraction of food materials
Dr. E Bieske - Advanced materials laser characterisation facility. Spectroscopy of single quantum dots
Dr. P Donnelly - New copper and rhenium radiopharmaceuticals
Prof. A Holmes - Organic optoelectronic materials: next generation semiconductors
Prof. F Separovic - Small molecule NMR facility for accelerated drug discovery
Assoc. Prof. P Mulvaney - The Nanocrystal Network
Assoc. Prof. M Rizzacasa - Total synthesis of novel metabolites from microorganisms
Dr. T Smith - Application of luminescent polymers to textiles
Prof. A Wedd - Polyoxometalate clusters: catalytic chemistry in solution and condensed states
Dr. U Wille - Exploring the frontiers of free-radical chemistry: self-terminating radical reactions
Dr. S Williams - Chemical tools for the study of mycobacterial glycolipid biosynthesis; Mechanisms and function of bacterial sulfatases; Understanding and exploiting bacterial sulfatases