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Federation Fellowships Funding outcome 2001
Professor Robert Clark
Professor Max Coltheart
Professor Michael Dopita
Professor Huw Price
Professor Lenore Manderson
Professor Martin Green
Professor Graham Goodwin
Professor Mandavarn Srinivasan
Professor Keith Nugent
Professor Yiu-wing Mai
Professor Gottfried Otting
Dr Frank Caruso
Professor John Braithwaite
Dr Benjamin Eggleton
Research Project:
Fault-tolerant operation and scale-up of a silicon quantum computer beyond
laboratory prototypes.
Current Institution:
University of New South Wales
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of New South Wales
Professor Clark’s early career, commencing at age 16, involved 10 years service as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy (1969-79), during which time he undertook his BSc degree at the Royal Australian Naval College, Jervis Bay and UNSW. At RANC he was awarded the E.E. Mayo Prize for top academic performance and the Navigation Prize following deployment in HMAS Anzac. He served in eight RAN ships and completed an Operations and Weapons course with the Royal Navy, UK. He also held the position of RAN Ships Diving Officer and was promoted to Lieutenant.
On resigning from the RAN he completed a PhD in Physics at UNSW and the Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford. After a postdoctoral research position at the Clarendon Laboratory he was appointed University Lecturer in Physics at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Praelector in Physics at the Queen's College, Oxford in 1984. He headed a research group at the Clarendon Laboratory investigating quantum effects in advanced semiconductor systems. He returned to Australia in 1991 to take up the position of Professor of Experimental Physics at UNSW, where he established the National Magnet Laboratory and Semiconductor Nanofabrication Facility. He was appointed Director of the ARC Special Research Centre for Quantum Computer Technology in 2000. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Solid State Communications since 1993 and the Australian representative for nanotechnology with the International Union of Vacuum Science since 1995. Since 1998 he has been a consultant to the US Department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Whilst at Oxford
his research was chosen for highlight by the United Kingdom’s
SERC in its report to Parliament. He was conferred UK Mott Lecturer at the
European Physical Society Meeting in 1991 for his research in condensed matter
physics. In 1994 he was elected Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana
University, USA for his research achievements carried out in Australia. In
1998 was awarded the Walter Boas Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics.
Most recently he was honoured with the title Scientia Professor at UNSW and
was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Assessors in considering his work said:
“Professor Clark has established two of the country’s most advanced
research laboratories, the National Magnet Laboratory and Semiconductor Nanofabrication
Facility, both central to the new Australian Research Council SRC for Quantum
Computer Technology of which he is Director. Research highlights include some
of the first experimental investigations of fractional electronic charge in
the fractional quantum Hall regime and the elucidation of the critical role
played by electron spin (cited by R.B. Laughlin in his Nobel Prize review).
Important experiments also include the optical detection of the quantum Hall
effect and electron solid (Wigner crystal) and most recently the investigation
of quantum effects in semiconductor nanostructures.”
Research Program:
Professor Clark has been at the forefront of the development of quantum computing.
His research centre and his research teams are developing ways to fabricate
and test the critical working elements of a quantum processor which, when fully
developed, will store information and outperform conventional silicon-based
computers. This new phase of the research is seeking to produce useable devices
by combining novel quantum prototypes with conventional processors on silicon
chip and thus establish a blueprint for a practical quantum computer device
to be assembled.
It has the focused objective of constructing a revolutionary solid state quantum computer (SSQC) in the silicon material system. Development of a SSQC, operating at the atomic level of matter, will establish a pre-eminent position for Australia in the information age and bring with it enormous benefits to the national economy. The scientific spin-off from this project is expected to be substantial, as the experimental implementation of a SSQC requires technological advances at the forefront of physics research worldwide.
The Centre for Quantum Computer Technology's mission is the construction of a prototype few-qubit (a qubit is the basic unit of information of a quantum information system ) silicon quantum processor to demonstrate the feasibility of this breakthrough technology for massively parallel computation. With this Federation Fellowship, Professor Clark will launch a new strategic research program within the Centre to address the key issue of interfacing laboratory quantum devices with conventional silicon microelectronics. The Hybrid Quantum - Conventional Processor will provide control and readout of individual buried atom quantum bits, to run logic operations with quantum error correction. This program will require a deep understanding of issues in quantum physics to develop fault tolerant coherent control of qubit arrays for real applications.
The attempt to be the first in the world to demonstrate the feasibility of a scalable, solid state quantum computer through a working few-qubit prototype is at the forefront of world science today and through Professor Clark's work, Australia is a significant player.
Research Project:
Language, belief formation and visual cognition; cognitive and neuropsychological
investigations
Current Institution:
Macquarie University
Federation Fellowship Institution:
Macquarie University
Professor Max Coltheart was born in 1939 and educated at the University of Sydney where he completed his PhD in 1968. He was awarded a Doctorate of Science by the Macquarie University in 2001 in the field of Cognitive Neuropsychology. He was elected to the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1988 and to the Academy of Science in 2001. He is one of only two scientists who are Fellows of both academies. In recognition of his outstanding performance in winning research funding Professor Coltheart was given an ARC Special Investigator award 1998- 2000. In 1999, Professor Coltheart applied for and was awarded a Special Research Centre in the field of Cognitive Science and Neuropsychology.
Of his work assessors have commented:
“In my view, Coltheart is the most outstanding Australian psychologist
today. His international reputation is unparalleled. It would be unimaginable
to find someone working in the field of cognitive neuropsychology today who
wasn’t familiar with Coltheart’s contribution. Today the model
that Coltheart and his colleagues have developed is a “household name”,
and is the focus of many papers.”
“Professor Coltheart has an outstanding record, indeed one might say an astonishing record, of sustained and original research in the psychological aspects of language and reading. He has been a pioneering and dominant figure in articulating the fractionation of dyslexia into identifiable syndromes. His monumental influence on cognitive neuropsychology and the psychology of reading places him at the forefront of the world’s scholars in Australia and overseas. He is one of Australia’s ‘tallest poppies’.
Professor
Coltheart was one of the founding figures in the development of the discipline
of cognitive neuropsychology, co-authoring the most significant volumes which
launched the discipline and founded the leading journal Cognitive Neuropsychology
in 1984.
Research Program
Professor Coltheart, a world-leading cognitive neuropsychologist,
will direct a programme of research and research training in cognitive science
and cognitive neuropsychology at Macquarie University, with extensive international
collaborative links with researchers in the USA, Canada, France, Italy, Spain,
Germany & New
Zealand. This programme of research and research training will initially focus
on:
(a) how people understand and produce language, and how these capabilities
can break down after brain damage;
(b) the relationship between visual memory and reading; and
(c) the nature of the persistent delusions seen in certain mental disorders,
and what causes these delusions.
Significant breakthroughs have already been made in understanding aphasia (impairment of speech due to a problem in the central nervous system) and dyslexia and this project will contribute to the further development of this analysis. The same approach can now make breakthroughs in identifying the cognitive and neuropsychological basis for particular delusions and lead to new ways of dealing with some classes of mental health problems.
His research, on reading, and the development of the model of the mental processes by which people learn to read aloud has been the most influential in its field. It has already been extensively applied to the diagnosis and treatment of children’s reading difficulties. The importance of this breakthrough cannot be underestimated.
Coltheart’s research program seeks to establish the cognitive basis of schizophrenia and some classes of delusions. Using a research method which considers the existence of delusional states and the corresponding forms of brain damage, Coltheart is able to provide a new way forward for the consideration of mental health issues. If it can be shown that delusions are of a neuropsychological rather than psychiatric origin, this has substantial implications for approaches to the treatment of these conditions with significant social benefits.
Research Project:
The Epoch of Galaxy Formation
Current Institution:
Australian National University
Federation Fellowship Institution:
Australian National University
Professor Dopita was born in 1946 at Kraslice in Czechoslovakia. He was educated at Oxford. and Manchester universities. In 1974 he was selected by the Royal Astronomical Society as the UK Young Astronomer to attend the opening of the Anglo-Australian Telescope. He subsequently became a Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He has an abiding interest in space missions and has worked on the STARLAB, ENDEAVOUR and LYMAN projects and the Hubble Space Telescope. He currently sits on a NASA Scientific Oversight Committee which is developing a new camera for the Hubble Telescope.
In 1983 he was awarded the April Pawsey Medal of the Australian Academy of Sciences for outstanding research in the Natural Sciences by a researcher younger than 36 years. In 1996 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in recognition of his work with the Hubble space telescope.
Professor Dopita has published some 200 papers and has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of interstellar shock waves, the environment of black holes and our understanding of star formation in galaxies. His work has been widely recognised overseas, and is very highly cited in the scientific community. This year he received the Institute of Scientific Information's "Australian Citation Laureate" given in recognition of 13 of his high-impact papers published between 1980 and 1999.
Research Program:
Professor Dopita proposes to study the nature of the epoch of galaxy formation
as it poses fundamental questions for modern astrophysics. He wants to understand
the physics of cosmic dust, star formation, chemical evolution, and the interaction
of the black holes with their nascent galaxies. With large telescope and new
space observatories, direct observation of this epoch is now possible.
The proposed research ensures Australian leadership in the theoretical modeling of interstellar plasmas at the epoch of galaxy formation. It will develop innovative pan-spectral diagnostics, and apply these to observations to determine fundamental parameters of collapsing galaxies and their massive Black Holes.
This proposal will maintain Australia’s access to the most important devices for exploring the furthest reaches of space, and enhance Australia’s reputation as a major force in global astrophysics.
Research Project:
Closing the Future - New Foundations for the Physics of Possibility
Current Institution:
University of Edinburgh
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of Sydney
A highly distinguished philosopher of science, Professor Huw Price was recently appointed to the Chair of Logics and Metaphysics at University of Edinburgh. This prestigious appointment in one of the world’s outstanding philosophy schools represented a great loss for Australia. However, the Federation Fellowship will now enable Professor Price to remain at the University of Sydney and draw colleagues of international standing to Australia to work with him.
Widely known as ‘the philosopher who took on Stephen Hawking’, Professor Price’s contribution to the Philosophy of Physics reaches broad audiences as well as philosophers and physicists. His ground-breaking 1989 article in Nature criticising Hawking’s views on time was discussed in the editorial of Scientific America, and is supported by leading physicists. His 1996 book Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time is a seminal work. The Astronomer Royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, described it as offering ‘an original slant on some profound issues, where our understanding has advanced little since the time of St Augustine’ (The Times, 25.7.96).
Astronomer Professor J. Barrow, writing in Nature, says Price ‘has done physicists a great service in laying out clearly and critically the nature of the various time-asymmetry problems of physics’. Nobel Laureate Professor I. Prigogine recognises Time’s Arrow as a ‘significant contribution’. Such is his contribution to Physics that Professor Price spent 1999 as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Theoretical Physics in Groningen, The Netherlands, collaborating with physicists on projects on the foundations of physics.
Price is certainly exploring significant and highly conceptual issues, and taking unconventional pathways in thought. He is also completely at ease in communicating his ideas to broad audiences, building on his conviction that Australians are very keen to know about philosophy and physics. (He has been publishing on the Internet since 1995.) Beautifully and accessibly written, Time’s Arrow reached New Scientist’s best-seller list in 1997 and has been discussed widely in New Scientist and Scientific America.
With the support of the Federation Fellowship, Professor Price will establish an international centre of excellence in the philosophy of physics at the University of Sydney. The promise of regular collaboration with colleagues-such an essential aspect of philosophic research-attracted him to Edinburgh. The Federation Fellowship enables him to bring to Australia the world’s top scholars and most talented postdoctoral researchers as visiting fellows. This Fellowship, building Australian research capability in an area of existing strength, will profoundly influence the conversation between philosophy and physics. Huw Price is right to say that this is a conversation that Australians and people around the world will find fascinating.
Research Program:
The distinction between a fixed and an open future is deeply embedded in human
thought, and also central to some of the most profound puzzles in contemporary
physics. On the one hand, the physics of time-asymmetry suggests that the open
future is a product of our human perspective on time, rather than a fundamental
feature of the world. On the other hand, conceptual categories tied to an open
future turn out to play a crucial role in fundamental physics, especially in
quantum mechanics. By unmasking this dilemma and revealing the human origins
of our fundamental concepts of possibility in time, this project will enhance
our understanding of one of the most basic features of our experience of the
world. In doing so, it will lay foundations for a new treatment of time and
possibility in fundamental physics, and throw important new light on the mysteries
of the quantum world.
Intuitively, we perceive a basic asymmetry between past and future. The past seems fixed and unchangeable, but the future seems open, a realm of mere possibilities. But Professor Price argues that this intuitive asymmetry is a product of the human experience of time and reality rather than a feature of reality itself. The underlying laws of physics, he argues, seem indifferent between past and future. Under some circumstances, effects could coherently precede their causes. This argument is particularly significant in relation to quantum physics.
In his Federation Fellowship programme, Professor Price seeks to show that a pragmatist approach is crucial to understanding the role of time and possibility in contemporary physics and to develop a properly time-symmetric view of quantum theory. Price brings together two unorthodox and controversial approaches; one, a pragmatic, human-centred approach to the philosophy of possibility; the other, a radical time-symmetric approach to the understanding of quantum physics.
The impact of Professor Price’s work will be felt in both philosophy and physics. The project’s conclusions will address central issues in contemporary philosophy, providing a new argument for pragmatism. Further, the project promises to lay new foundations for genuinely time-symmetric physics and illuminate the issue of interpretation of quantum physics. Price may solve one of the deepest puzzles of modern physics to reveal what quantum mechanics is really telling us about the physical world.
Research Project:
Self, the social body and wellbeing.
Current Institution:
University of Melbourne
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of Melbourne
Professor Lenore Manderson is Australia’s senior medical anthropologist. She has played n exemplary leadership role in public health, as a researcher and teacher and as a leader in health and program delivery. She is currently Director of the Key Centre for Women's Health in Society in the Department of Public Health at the University of Melbourne.
Working in the field of applied anthropology, Professor Manderson’s research spans a broad spectrum of public and women’s health. Her research combines theoretical and empirical research, and spans anthropology, history, sociology and public health. She has made major contributions in the study of cultural aspects of cancer control and palliative care, breast and cervical cancer screening. Her recent research is on the experiences of people who have undergone major surgery following severe trauma, renal problems, diabetes, and cancer. Professor Manderson’s research is directed towards improving Australia’s capacity to deliver health services to our culturally and ethnically diverse community. Her work on breast and cervical screening, diagnosis and treatment has resulted in major changes in Queensland’s health services for Indigenous women. She has developed protocols for assessing the mental health needs of non-English speaking communities, and she has written manuals and protocols for applied research on a wide spectrum of health issues including malaria, hygiene and sanitation, food safety, family planning and adolescent health.
As an outstanding scholar, Professor Manderson is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK), the Australian Anthropological Society and the Society for Applied Anthropology (USA). She has taken up visiting appointments to Oxford University in the Department of Biological Anthropology and The Welcome Unit for the History of Medicine, and to the New School for Social Research in New York.
As a leading practitioner in applied research and public health, she holds an honorary appointment as Research Consultant to Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Her Australian public health research is placed within an international and comparative context. Professor Manderson has undertaken research within a number of countries in the Asia Pacific region. Her international contribution to public health is evidenced by her membership of the World Health Organisation Steering Committee for Tropical Disease Research (WHO/TDR), numerous international committees, editorial boards and consultancies on research and policy in health and wellbeing.
Research Program:
Professor Manderson’s project explores the concept of well-being and
the resilience with which people adapt to major medical challenges. Her research
examines how individuals perceive themselves and how these perceptions are
re-shaped by experiences of serious illness and trauma. Research will concentrate
on stroke and renal disease in Australia amongst indigenous and non-indigenous
communities. Given that the ways in which people reconcile to illness and disability
varies with culture, the analysis here will be reinforced by comparative studies
of responses to these disease in different settings.
Biomedical and technological advances have reduced the impact of ageing and ill health amongst Australians, but many people suffer from chronic illness or major injuries from which they recover only partially. People whose lives are disrupted and whose bodies remain scarred find themselves re-adjusting their sense of self and re-thinking how they wish to be seen by others. In turn, such profound changes in body image affects the individual’s ability to adjust to major surgery and bodily change. Many of the factors affecting adjustment to chronic disease and disability are social, relating to family and community.
Investigation of resilience and social networks will enhance Australia’s capacity to maintain health in different communities, including those who have been most vulnerable. By studying the ways in which resilience in the face of serious illness and injury is strengthened, Professor Manderson’s study will promote innovative ways of understanding the response to disease and disability. As a result, the social costs of illness and disability could be minimised and community support networks strengthened. The emphasis on different patterns of resilience and their relationship to culture and social networks has the potential to change significantly the way in which health care is delivered even to the most disadvantaged communities.
Professor Manderson’s work draws together international collaborating teams of colleagues and research students. She is a major instigator of a project of the Academy of Social Sciences, funded for 2003 by the ARC, on ‘Rethinking Wellbeing’. Through the Federation Fellowship, she will play a major role in building Australian research capability in the area broadly designated as ‘wellbeing’ and more specifically in research on resilience and recovery from serious illness and trauma.
Research Project:
Silicon Photonics and Third Generation Photovoltaics
Current Institution:
University of New South Wales
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of New South Wales
Professor Martin Green is currently a Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales and Director of the ARC Special Research Centre for Third-Generation Photovoltaics. He is also Research Director of Sydney-based Pacific Solar Pty. Ltd., a company established specifically to commercialise the university's polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cell technology.
Born in Brisbane and educated at the University of Queensland and then McMaster University, Canada, his teams’ contributions to photovoltaics are well known internationally, and include the improvement of silicon solar cell performance by over 50% over the past 15 years. Major international awards include the IEEE William R. Cherry Award in 1990, the 1995 IEEE J.J. Ebers Award and the 1999 Australia Prize, shared with his colleague and former student, Stuart Wenham, for "outstanding achievements in energy science and technology".
Professor Green is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is the author of four books on solar cells, several book chapters, and numerous reports and papers in international refereed journals in the area of semiconductor properties, microelectronics and solar cells.
Research Program:
Previous work by Professor Green has led to fundamental advances in the understanding
of how light is transformed into electricity in silicon solar cells, and in
improvements in the efficiency of these transformations. These insights can
equally be applied to the reverse process – the transformation of electricity
into light. Existing opto-electronic light-emitting devices mostly use semiconductors
other than silicon. However, silicon remains the workhorse of the microelectronics
revolution.
This project will launch a major new initiative addressing one of the key challenges facing microelectronics; the incorporation of optical functions into high density silicon integrated circuits. Additionally, it will accelerate the development of a "third" generation of photovoltaic solar cells using similar techniques. This third generation thin-film technology would be capable of fundamentally higher energy conversion efficiency than earlier generations, at low cost.
In both cases, the targeted outcome over the period of the Federation Fellowship is to develop solar energy technology to the stage where it can be commercially evaluated, in a way likely to maximise benefits for Australia.
Research Project:
Ill-conditioned and constrained inverse problems in Signal Processing, Telecommunications
and Control.
Current Institution:
University of Newcastle
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of Newcastle
Professor Graham Goodwin completed his undergraduate Honours degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of New South Wales in 1966, and was awarded his PhD at that university in 1970. From 1974, he has been based at the University of Newcastle, where he is currently Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the ARC Special Research Centre for Integrated Dynamics and Control. He has held visiting positions at Harvard University, the University of Houston, Imperial College (London), Technion (Israel), the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), Louvain La-Neuve (Belgium), and Universidad Tecnica Federico (Chile).
He is an Associate Editor for six International Journals, and is an Honorary Fellow - Institution of Engineers (Aust), a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (USA), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology Sciences & Engineering, and a Member of the International Statistical Institute. He has received numerous prizes and awards for his work, including the 1979 Edgeworth David Medal (Royal Society of NSW), the 1980 Outstanding Paper Award (IEEE Control Systems Society), the 1987 Best Control Engineering Text Book (International Federation of Automatic Control), and the 1991 M.A. Sargent Medal (Institution of Engineers, Australia). He has a total of 400 publications, including eight books; 16 Chapters in books; 124 Journal Papers; 150 Conference Papers, including 12 Plenary and Keynote presentations, and 110 Technical Reports.
Research Program:
Australia faces unique challenges. It has a small population base and is located
far from international markets. Thus Australia must do things smarter and more
cost effectively. In this context, data communications, process automation,
control engineering and signal processing are key enabling technologies. Professor
Goodwin’s research focuses on ensuring Australia’s contribution
to these core technologies is maintained at a level which are second to none.
Professor Goodwin’s project will carry out fundamental research on methods for understanding and solving inverse problems in signal processing, telecommunications and control. It also aims to translate these fundamental results into practical outcomes of importance to Australian industry. Signal processing, telecommunications and control are core technologies for all modern societies. Professor Goodwin’s research aims to generate new methods for designing and understanding key algorithms in these areas. Particular emphasis will be placed on difficult problems involving ill-conditioned inverses or those having hard constraints that must be satisfied.
His work will provide a unique focus for research in signals, systems and control. He will draw to the University of Newcastle other high-quality colleagues and students to work with him to achieve globally significant results both of a fundamental nature and of direct relevance to industry.
Research Project:
Honeybee vision and navigation, and applications to robotics
Current Institution:
Australian National University
Federation Fellowship Institution:
Australian National University
Professor Srinivasan received his formal tertiary training in electrical engineering at Bangalore University and the Indian Institute of Science where he was the top graduate in electrical engineering in 1970. He then completed M.Phil. and PhD degrees in the Department of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University before joining the Australian National University as a Fellow in 1985. His work at ANU has led to a series of important discoveries on the visual recognition and navigation systems of the honey bee, work that has provided clues as to the way neural processes may function in humans.
Professor Srinivasan has published more than 150 research papers in the field of visual processing, many of the articles appearing in high profile journals such as Nature, Science and the Proceedings of the Academy of Science US. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in recognition of his remarkable contributions to science. The ABC Science Show has featured Professor Srinivasan's work several times, and the popular science magazine New Scientist recently published a full-length article describing the work in his laboratory.
In 1999, 2000 and 2001 he was invited to teach courses in computational neuroscience at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, USA. He is on the editorial boards of three international journals. In 1995 he and his colleagues received the CEA Technologies Prize for the invention of a panoramic video imaging system, judged as the most promising innovation of that year. This valuable intellectual property is now protected by patents in Australia, the United States and Europe. His work receives substantial funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Research Program:
Anyone observing a honeybee find its way home effortlessly after collecting
nectar would know that these insects are excellent navigators, despite their
diminutive brains and relatively simple nervous systems. Professor Srinivasan’s
work has led to a number of significant discoveries concerned with the way
that visual information is processed and transferred to the brain. He has determined
how flying insects discriminate between flowers of different heights in a meadow,
how they navigate around obstacles, how they perceive moving images in three
dimensions, and how they control their landing speed on flat surfaces much
as a pilot controls the approach and landing speed of a plane at an airport.
Although Professor Srinivasan’s major aim is to understand the mechanisms underlying Honeybee navigation, his research has much wider significance. He aims to apply his findings to the development of novel, biologically inspired, navigation systems for aircraft. His findings should also illuminate important principles of animal navigation, and in the human context, his research will assist our understanding of how the human eye processes signals and transmits images to the brain. His research should also advance Australia's technology in the area of robotic control of unmanned aerial vehicles, work which has important applications in national defence and security.
Research Project:
Developments in Optical Sciences
Current Institution:
University of Melbourne
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of Melbourne
Professor Nugent was born in 1959 and educated at the University of Adelaide and the Australian National University. Professor Nugent's interests are in x-ray and visible optics and he has published over 90 refereed papers in these areas. Professor Nugent was awarded an R&D100 award for one of the 100 most important inventions of 1988, the 1989 Pawsey Medal from the Australian Academy of Science and the 1991 Edgeworth-David Medal from the Royal Society of NSW for his contributions to Science. In 1997 he was awarded the Boas Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics, its highest award. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2000. Professor Nugent is currently the Head of the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Nugent has embraced the need to commercialise the intellectual property
arising from his research. He has been awarded six patents and has been involved
with two start-up companies. One of these, Iatia, was recently awarded a $1.8
million R&D Start Grant to develop Quantitative Phase Imaging based on
Professor Nugent’s pathbreaking research.
Research Program
Professor Nugent leads a highly motivated and successful group of young investigators doing internationally-leading work on complete recovery of phase information. This work is able to provide new approaches to fundamental research problems at the basis of quantum mechanics, as well as leading to important new applications in biomedical and industrial imaging. The proposed work has already led to one start-up company and it is expected that commercial development will continue.
The program will lead to an involvement in an international space project, enhance synchrotron-based research in Australia and lead to new developments in microfabrication technologies. Professor Nugent will continue his work on all the cutting-edge research areas of optics and photon-based science. He will also do significant work on the development of a new style x-ray telescope based on ‘lobster eye optics’ which will allow for the launch of a low-weight satellite capable of (a) capturing very faint signals and (b) focusing the x-rays and observing the whole sky. This will position Australia as a significant player in contributing instruments to astronomical observations and will strengthen Australia’s scientific collaboration with the USA and the UK. The research project will also be important for the development of x-ray microscopy through the use of the synchrotron and this has implications for both fundamental and applied research, with the scope for significant industrial applications.
Research Project:
Deformation and Fracture Studies on Polymer Nano-Composites
Current Institution:
University of Hong Kong
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of Sydney
Professor Yiu-wing Mai received his primary, secondary and tertiary education in Hong Kong. He is a distinguished researcher working on the mechanical behaviours of advanced engineering materials, especially the linkage between mechanical properties, microstructures and processing. He received the 1981 RILEM Award and Robert L'Hermite Medal for distinguished research on the fracture-mechanical behaviour of engineering materials and structures.
In 2000 he was honoured with the AFG Achievement Award, the highest award given by the Australian Fracture Group, Inc., for outstanding contributions to fracture research. He was elected in 1992 to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and in 2001 to the Australian Academy of Science. In 1999 he received two higher doctorates, a DEng from the University of Sydney and a DSc from the University of Hong Kong, for substantial original contributions in his fields of research.
His published papers are at the top of their field, with over 1300 citations by other researchers in the last decade.
Research Program:
Most people are familiar with composite materials (such as fibreglass) where
reinforcing fibers or particles are embedded in a polymer matrix to produce
a light, durable material with a wide range of applications. In nano-composite
materials, the ‘reinforcing’ particles are at much finer (nanometer)
scale, so that a much larger proportion of the atoms are at or near the particle
surfaces and able to intimately bond with the matrix material. This results
in materials with unique, superior and valuable properties.
Polymer nano-composites are a new class of engineering materials consisting of nanometer scale inorganic particles or fillers dispersed in an organic polymer matrix. Compared to conventional filled polymers with micron-sized particles, they have superior specific strength and stiffness, good fire retardant and barrier properties. As such, they have found many potential applications in the automotive and packaging industries. However, one major limitation of some of these nano-composites is that they have low fracture toughness, and are too brittle to be used in many applications.
This project aims to study the origin of brittleness and improve the toughness of these materials. The anticipated outcomes are: (a) new methods of toughening, and (b) design tools to inform the choices (or trade-offs) between ease of processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties of these nano-composites.
Polymers filled with nano-sized particles are ideal candidates for automotive applications because they have excellent stiffness and strength, high heat distortion temperature, and good scratch resistance. The packaging industry will also find polymer nano-composite thin films extremely valuable due to their superb barrier properties.
Professor Gottfried Otting (German national)
Research Project:
New Methods for Structural Biology in Solution
Current Institution:
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
Federation Fellowship Institution:
Australian National University
Professor Gottfied Otting received his formal education in physical chemistry at the University of Freiberg, Germany, and developed his interest in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich, receiving his PhD in 1987 and the Institute’s prestigious Silver Medal for the best PhD thesis. In 1992 he moved to the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Karolinska Institute at Stockholm where he is currently a full professor.
He is a world leader in the application of the most recent methods in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to problems associated with the structures and functions of large biological molecules, especially proteins, enzymes and nucleic acids. He has applied his creativity not only to solving the structures of these large molecules but also to the development of new magnetic resonance techniques and to the refinement of existing ones. He has also developed new high contrast magnetic imaging techniques of importance in medical magnetic imaging procedures. His contributions have been widely recognised. He received the Latis Prize of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1992, the Anniversary Prize of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies in 1993, and the Wallmarkska Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1996. He is in demand as a plenary lecturer and has presented lectures at major conferences in USA, UK, Austria, France, Japan, Italy and Germany. He has had close links with Australia, being a visiting scientist at the University of Sydney in 1997 and visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University in 2001.
The award of a Federation Fellowship to Professor Otting will allow Australia
to stay at the forefront of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and the development
of new techniques that will extend methodologies and applications to new areas.
Research Program
Evolution has provided living organisms with a fascinating array of biomolecules from the very small to the very large - all of them performing very specific tasks with extremely high efficiency. An understanding of the size, shape and atomic structure of these molecules forms the basis of drug design and discovery, and modern developments in biotechnology.
Imagine a microscope that can enlarge images more than a million times those seen by the naked eye so that the shape and structure of individual molecules is revealed in elegant detail. Nuclear magnetic resonance techniques provide such enormous magnifications and allow scientists to determine the structure of biomolecules and to explore the determinants of biomolecular specificity that form the basis of enzyme action, the immune response, and a wide spectrum of biomolecular associations.
Professor Otting’s research in magnetic resonance specroscopy has led to the resolution of a number of important protein structures, including very large structures that result from the interaction of proteins with nucleic acids. In addition, his studies have led to a clearer understanding of the way that water molecules interact with proteins and nucleic acids to keep them in solution. He has received particular recognition for the improvements and innovative techniques he has introduced to the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. These improvements have increased the speed and accuracy of structural determinations and have extended the use of the technique into the time domain as well as the space domain. At the Australian National University, Professor Otting will develop novel ways of isotopically labelling proteins in a selective manner so that the structure of parts of extremely large proteins can be revealed in atomic detail. New experimental designs and new procedures for the analysis of data will be introduced. This exciting area of structural biology forms the basis of new drug discovery strategies and biotechnology developments. Professor Otting’s tenure as a Federation Fellow will enable Australia to remain at the cutting edge of magnetic resonance technology. Of particular value will be the know-how and experience that Professor Otting will be able to pass on to scientists and students in the magnetic resonance community in Australia.
Research Project:
Nanoengineered Colloids and thin films through self-assembly with
potential applications in Bioscience and Nanotechnology.
Current Institution:
Max Plank Institute, Germany
Fellowship Institution:
University of Melbourne
Professor Frank Caruso completed his Honours degree in Physical Chemistry at the University of Melbourne in 1989, and was awarded his PhD at that university in 1994. From 1994 to 1996, he held a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the CSIRO Division of Chemicals and Polymers in Melbourne.
In 1997, he became an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, in Berlin, Germany, and is currently leader of an independent research group at that prestigious institute. In 1998 he was awarded a Max Planck Institute award for research excellence, and in 1999 received an award and funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology acknowledging excellent research. In 2000, he was awarded the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Rennie Memorial medal for the most significant contribution to a branch of chemical science, and in 2001 he received the Royal Society of Chemistry – Royal Australian Chemical Institute Exchange Medal in recognition of scientific excellence. At 33 years of age, he leads an international and multidisciplinary team of 14 researchers and collaborates with groups in the UK, USA, Israel and Hong Kong. His published work is widely recognised, and is listed in the ‘Top Ten’ list of most cited chemistry papers in the period 1999 – 2001.
Research Program:
Nanotechnology has placed ever-increasing demands on materials synthesis and
performance. To meet these needs, effective strategies to construct tailored
nanomaterials reliably and predictably are required. A special and attractive
class of building blocks, from which to create ordered and complex materials
with unique properties, are colloid particles.
Dr Caruso’s research program will focus on the preparation, characterisation and application of novel, small (nanometer size) particles, as well as thin (micrometer thick) films derived from such particles. These new and advanced materials will be prepared by using a recently developed, highly versatile and straightforward technology to coat particles in solution.
The strategy to be used entails the step-by-step construction of well-defined layers of different composition on particles and flat surfaces, thereby allowing unprecedented control over the material properties and function. This will provide new avenues for the application of nanoscale materials in biotechnology and nanotechnology.
Research Project:
Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation
Current Institution:
New York University
Federation Fellowship Institution:
Australian National University
Professor John Braithwaite ranks amongst the top criminologists in the world. He was singled out in a Cambridge University study in 1999 as the most cited scholar in international criminology journals (excluding US journals) and won the Sellin-Glueck Award for Lifetime Contributions to Criminology.
Based in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Professor Braithwaite has been courted recently by the John F. Kennedy School of Governance of Harvard University. He is currently on a one-year appointment in the Law School at New York University, one of the top Law Schools in the United States.
On the basis of his work on white collar crime and corporate crime from the 1970s, Professor Braithwaite was awarded the Cressey Award of the Society of Certified Fraud Examiners in 1988, and the Society named a building in his honour at its training centre in Austin, Texas. He is the author of many books which examine regulation in sectors as diverse as health, education, taxation and mining. He co-authored (Peter Drahos) the book Global Business Regulation (2000) which recently was awarded the Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize in the United Kingdom.
Braithwaite’s ground-breaking work on ‘responsive regulation’, developed with a number of eminent collaborating scholars, has made a major impact on the thinking of most of the world’s major regulatory agencies. This impact is evident in use of Braithwaite’s own words in the title of the Canadian Treasury’s White Paper, Responsive Regulation for Canada. The idea of ‘responsive regulation’ has been applied effectively to health regulation. It has shaped the thinking of the highly influential group of health policy scholars at Harvard Medical School in framing a remedy for the US health care crisis. Braithwaite’s work with Ian Ayers and Peter Grabosky has been a central influence in the World Health Organisation’s pharmaceuticals strategy, Effective Drug Regulation: What Can Countries Do? (1999).
Complementing Braithwaite’s research and policy work on responsive regulation
is his on-going work on ‘restorative justice’, which is the foundation
of experimental justice programs in all Australian jurisdictions and almost
every OECD country. Again, his outstanding contribution is recognised in many
international awards. Crime, Shame and Reintegration (1989) was the first book
to be win the American Society of Criminology’s Hindelang Award and Braithwaite
won the book award of the Study of Social Problems (US).
Research Program
The Federation Fellowship will enable Professor Braithwaite to integrate his significant arguments about restorative justice with those on responsive regulation. This combination of restorative and responsive approaches can provide new and creative insights into all areas of the legal system, not just criminal or regulatory law/administration. It also means reforming criminological theory through the application of regulatory theory and applying restorative justice arguments to business regulation, as well as tax, contract and all areas of law. This research programme has the potential to provide for significant social innovation on the basis of a substantial reworking of the law reform agenda.
The Federation Fellowship will ensure that the benefits of Professor Braithwaite’s research and contributions to public policy, regulation and law across a wide field of inquiry, including white collar and corporate crime, will be retained for Australia.
Research Project:
Engineered optical fibre device structures for next generation telecommunication
systems
Current Institution:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, USA
Federation Fellowship Institution:
University of Sydney
Dr Benjamin Eggleton is a young researcher who, at the age of 31, has already
achieved outstanding advances in his field. He completed his undergraduate
Honours degree in Science at the University of Sydney in 1992, and was awarded
his PhD in Physics at that university in 1996. He then took up a postdoctoral
fellow position in the USA at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, and in the five
years since then he has advanced to become the Head of Optical Fiber Component
Research at that world-renowned laboratory. Dr Eggleton is now responsible
for all forward-looking research activities that support Lucent Technologies
business in optical fiber devices. Dr Eggleton is acknowledged by his peers
to be one of the few truly original researchers in the rapidly growing area
of optical fiber devices. He has contributed to both theory and experiment
in the field, undertaking both basic and applied research. In 1998 he was the
recipient of the prestigious Adolph Lomb medal from the Optical Society of
America – an award open to worldwide competition
for people under the age of 30, and he remains the only Australian to have
received this award. He has published 65 papers in refereed journals, and has
filed 25 patents in the areas of optical physics and telecommunications. His
work is seen in over 700 citations in refereed papers by other researchers
since 1994.
Research Program:
Bandwidth and cost are the driving forces of the telecommunications revolution.
Modern optical telecommunication systems depend critically on optical fiber
devices which transform and carry information efficiently at very high rates
over long distances. The technologies that ride upon these cheap, high-capacity
transmission systems are limited only by the availability of bandwidth. The
next generation of optical telecommunication networks promises greatly increased
bandwidth, but requires novel optical components for transmission, amplification,
multiplexing and detection that are superior to current devices, and which
cannot be obtained by incremental improvement. Current technologies mix optical
and electronic devices in ways that are complex, expensive, and reaching their
feasible limits in terms of bandwidth. This project will identify novel all-optical
device architectures and implement these in practical devices.
The outstanding expertise and leadership brought by Dr Eggleton to this area of research will ensure that Australia remains at the cutting edge of photonics research, one of the most dynamic and exciting areas in science and engineering, and the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry.
