The Future of Research

Dr Stapleton

The University of Queensland has outstanding research students engaged in exploration both exciting and diverse.

Recognising the importance of setting the foundations for ongoing research achievement, The University of Queensland is proactive in its support for the next generation of scientists.

This support is reaping clear dividends for both the researchers and the University, with research higher degree students now constituting more than 10 percent of the total number of students.

UQ ranks in the top three in Australia in numbers of PhD student completions and nationally competitive scholarship awards (APA and IPRS).

The number of PhDs awarded rose from 224 in 1995 to 377 in 2002 and continues to grow.

Among ways in which research studies are enhanced is by helping students gain access to the best resources in the world through the Graduate School Research Travel Awards (GSRTA).

The awards provide funding for national or international research travel that accelerates thesis completion.

The GSRTAs have enabled more than 350 UQ research higher degree students access to equipment, expertise, or archives not necessarily available at the University.

Their destinations have included the BibliothÀque Nationale (Paris), the Los Alamos National Laboratory (New Mexico), the Institute for Popular Culture Studies (Manchester), Ford Research Laboratories (Michigan), the John F Kennedy Library (Boston), Mt Sinai Hospital (Toronto), the Waikato Stable Isotope Unit, and the British Film Institute.

Professor Alan Lawson, Director of the UQ Graduate School and Dean of Postgraduate Students, said the GSRTAs made "a tangible difference in the quality of academic life of postgraduate students".

Students are not the only beneficiaries of funding support during research studies.

UQ staff enrolled in a PhD program are able to take advantage of the Short Fellowship program, aimed at helping them complete their dissertation.

The fellowship provides for release from teaching duties for academics to complete their PhD or other substantial progress.

Initially aimed at women, the program was expanded in 2002 to include all staff and since 1994 has helped 30 people towards submitting their PhDs.

The breadth of research being carried out by higher degree students covers the entire range of disciplines available at The University.

One example is the work of young researcher Dr Bronwin Stapleton, from UQ's School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences.

Her PhD on marine sponges and sea slugs might provide an ecologically friendly answer to preventing the growth of barnacles and other organisms on boat hulls and pylons.

Dr Stapleton extracted the chemical compounds from sponges and sea slugs collected by members of her research group, which is led by Associate Professor Mary Garson of the Department of Chemistry.

As well as advancing understanding of the marine environment her research could lead to the development of new non-toxic antifouling technologies.

Damage caused by barnacles and marine organisms such as sea squirts is estimated to cost marine industries around $3.5 billion a year.

Using an assay developed by Associate Professor Bernard Degnan of the Department of Zoology, Dr Stapleton tested many of the compounds on the larvae of sea squirts to determine the potential of the compounds to hinder the growth of such organisms.

"Some of the compounds tested in the study either killed or inhibited the larvae and therefore are potentially useful as ecologically friendly agents," she said.

Her results also provide information about the chemical defence mechanisms of the creatures that produce the chemicals.

"The highly populated environment of a coral reef has many competitive pressures for space, light and nutrients and therefore the survival of marine organisms depends on their ability to defend themselves from predators and competitors," Dr Stapleton said.

"Since sponges lack the behavioural defences of mobile animals it's believed the toxic chemicals they produce may act as a kind of chemical warfare to rivals.

"Chemicals from natural sources such as the ones isolated during this research also have the potential to lead to new treatments for diseases such as cancer and malaria."

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