Strength of many fellows

From left: Professor Possingham, Professor White, Professor Vidal and Professor Turner

A growing number of highly respected international scientists are taking advantage of the world-class facilities and expertise at UQ to further their research through prestigious Australian Research Council Federation Fellowships

A world leader in organic semi-conductor research is returning to Australia to continue his highly innovative work.

Dr Paul Burn, from the University of Oxford, joins UQ after receiving a 2006 Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship.

Federation Fellows are considered international leaders in their fields. This highly prestigious fellowship program is aimed at attracting some of the world’s best research talent back to Australia, as well as offering opportunities for top Australian researchers to continue their work here.

Dr Burn said the Fellowship presented an exciting opportunity to develop a world-class facility and research centre for Organic Semiconductor Research at UQ.

“Organic semi-conducting materials have the potential to revolutionise technologies that can have a substantial impact on our society, including flat panel displays, solar cells, and plastic electronics,” Dr Burn said.

One of the first goals of the centre will be to develop new dendritic materials (tree-like macromolecules) that have properties complementing existing organic and inorganic semiconducting materials.

“The key to developing dendritic macromolecules for new technologies is understanding the effect that structure has on the physical and electronic properties of the materials,” he said.  “We will be developing new dendrimers for flat panel displays based on organic light-emitting diodes as well as plastic electronics or organic field effect transistors.”

Dr Burn is one of six new Fellows at UQ, bringing the total number of Federation Fellows at the University to 18. The six were among Australia’s 25 Federation Fellows announced in 2006.

The Fellowships are funded under the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program and each Fellow will receive an indexed salary of approximately $250,000 per year for five years.

Professor Graeme Turner, Director of UQ’s Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, has played a foundation role in the field of Australian cultural studies.

His program of research as a Federation Fellow will investigate the role of television in an era increasingly dominated by new media formats such as the Internet.

Through an international comparative study of the role of contemporary media, Professor Turner will push the boundaries of the field.

“Given the traditional importance of television in forming and informing people, my research will ask whether new media forms such as online journalism may take its place,” Professor Turner said.

Professor Andrew White, from UQ’s School of Physical Sciences, has built an international reputation in quantum physics.  His characterisation of a quantum logic gate, the fundamental building block of a quantum computer, has set the world standard.

“The key technological advances of the 21st Century will be due to quantum technologies,” Professor White said.  “This research will launch a major new initiative to develop optical quantum technology that integrates many photons to form powerful
quantum devices.”

Professor David Fairlie, from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, is a world leader in medicinal and biological chemistry and is undertaking pioneering work in protein surface mimicry.

“Proteins are the key components that define life, ageing, disease and death, but their use in medicine, science, and industry is extremely limited by their complexity, chemical instability, and high costs,” Professor Fairlie said.  “This work will develop new chemical technology for creating simpler, smaller, cheaper, more stable and more bioavailable molecules that can execute selected functions of proteins.

“This approach could present new ways of monitoring, preventing and treating infection and diseases of the aged in the form of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics.”

Professor Hugh Possingham, Director of UQ’s Ecology Centre, is researching mathematical ecology and conservation biology.

“Our work is already being partially funded by the world’s biggest conservation non-government organisations to enable them to make better decisions about investing conservation dollars,” Professor Possingham said. (See story "Capital conservation")

Professor Guifre Vidal, from UQ’s School of Physical Sciences, is investigating the interface of quantum information science, quantum many-body physics and computational physics.

His research aims to develop theoretical and computational tools for the study and engineering of quantum systems.

“This is critical in underpinning basic research efforts in condensed matter physics, quantum optics and quantum field theory, and in applied research in quantum information processing, nanotechnology and superconductors,” Professor Vidal said.

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