Seven researchers and two research supervisors from across The University of Queensland were honoured at an excellence awards ceremony this evening.
The University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Awards and the Awards for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision are presented annually, as a highlight of UQ’s Research Week.
The researchers collectively will receive more than $620,000 to allow them to further their research endeavours.
UQ’s acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Anton Middelberg, welcomed Australia’s chief scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, as guest speaker at the awards ceremony at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards – now in their 16th year – recognise demonstrated excellence and the promise of future success in research for UQ’s early to mid-career researchers.
The winners are:
Dr Jack Clegg, from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, who receives $99,483 for his project, Metal-organic materials for enantiomeric discrimination and chiral separation. This research aims to develop chemical separation and purification techniques to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in the pharmaceutical industries. Making these industrial processes more efficient will reduce the cost of medicines, and reduce the environmental damage from making them. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Clegg's research:
Dr Qiao Liu, from the TC Beirne School of Law, who receives $50,816 for his project, Comparative Studies of Australian and Chinese Private Law: Finding Solutions to Common Commercial Problems. This research will aid mutual understanding and economic competitiveness, assist Australian and Chinese businesses to work together and provide Australian courts and government agencies with information critical for their decision-making, in the light of the increasing global focus on the rising power and emerging market of China. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Liu’s research:
Dr Stefanie Becker, from the School of Psychology, who receives $99,565 for her project, Do feature relationships play a role for conscious visual perception and awareness? This research will enhance understanding of human visual perception and could lead to better road signs and safer roads. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Becker’s research:
Dr Alessandro Fedrizzi, from the School of Mathematics and Physics, who receives $84,339 for his project, Is the moon there when nobody looks? Experimentally probing the reality of the quantum wave function. This research aims to refute a major interpretation of the quantum state in an experiment that uses quantum states of photons – light particles – encoded in arbitrarily high dimensions. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Fedrizzi’s research:
Dr Liang Zhou, from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, who receives $99,761 for his project, An integrated solution to transition metal oxide-based high-capacity anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. This research aims to increase the amount of power that can be stored in batteries that run devices such as mobile phones, cameras and laptop computers. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Zhou’s research:
Dr Enzo Porrello, from the School of Biomedical Sciences, who receives $90,431 for his project Uncovering the role of genomic "dark matter" in heart development and regeneration. This research aims to better understand how and why mammals lose their ability to regenerate heart tissue after birth, and may lead to much better treatments when adult heart muscle is damaged through heart attack. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Porrello’s research:
Dr Irina Vetter, from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, who receives $99,717 for her project, Identifying new pain targets in peripheral sensory neurons. The findings from this project will provide significant insight into the neuropharmacology of pain, and are xpected to provide new treatment approaches at a molecular level. Watch a one-minute video on Dr Vetter’s research:
Two higher degree supervisors received UQ Awards for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision. They were Dr Simon Perry, from the School of Music and Professor Tapan Saha, from the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering.
A commendation was presented to Associate Professor Jennifer Fleming, from occupational therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Watch a two-minute video on research supervision at UQ:
Media: Fiona Cameron, UQ Communications, +61 7 3346 7086, communications@uq.edu.au
