Research

CHANGING [ THE WORLD ]

Research 2010 – 2011

@UNSW







CONTENTS

CHANGING [ THE PLANET ] 04 – 05 CHANGING [ TECHNOLOGY ] 26 – 27

The solar story so far 06 Quantum leap 28

The solar solution 07 Just browsing 29

Alternative approaches 08 Look who’s talking 30

Cleaning up 09 Good produce 31

The heat is on 10–11 Concrete proposals 32

Flow of ideas 12–13 Robots to the rescue 33

Damage control 34

CHANGING [ HEALTHCARE ] 14 –15 With flying colours 35



Building strength 16

CHANGING [ SOCIETY ] 36–37

Unlocking secrets of the mind 17

Stalking a killer 18 The rights stuff 38

Conquering cancer 19 Future proofing Australia 39

Eye on the prize 20 A world of difference 40

Future vision 21 Healing power 41

Hi-tech health 22– 23 Risky business 42

Medical marvels 24– 25 Secret lives of men 43





ENGAGING WITH [ RESEARCH ] 44– 45



Industrial strength 46

New research hubs 47

Leading the field 48– 49

Making a difference 50

Credits 51









www.research.unsw.edu.au 03

From leading the world in developing clean solar

energy to finding the cause of one of Australia’s

longest droughts, UNSW research is finding

answers to pressing environmental problems.





Solar power

Emissions trading

The crux of the drought

Coastal erosion

Making drinking water safe

Saving marine life

Waterbird warriors









04 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

CHAPTER ONE:



CHANGING [ THE PLANET ]









www.research.unsw.edu.au 05

The solar story so far

For 35 years, UNSW has been a major force in photovoltaics research.









1975 1992 2000

• Solar Photovoltaic Group’s first cell • First large system using licensed • World’s first undergraduate program

UNSW technology built in Berne, in Photovoltaic Engineering starts*

Switzerland • Third Generation Photovoltaics Centre

commences









1985 1994 2002

• World’s first 20% efficient silicon • 24% efficient silicon solar cell* • Centre of Excellence in Advanced

solar cell* Silicon PV and Photonics established

• Buried contact cell sales under license

to UNSW exceed $300m









1989 1995 2006

• World’s first 20% silicon cell used for • “Spin-off” Pacific Solar commences • Collaboration with Suntech Power

space* (confirmed by NASA on • Buried contact cell most successfully leads to announcement of commercial

high-altitude aircraft) commercialised in last 15 years production of jointly developed technology

for improved top contact design

• Stuart Wenham awarded World

Technology Award for Energy

• Collaboration agreement signed with

CEEG Solar, Nanjing, China





1990 1998 2008

• 23% efficient silicon cell • Pacific Solar announces pilot-line • School wins IAG Eureka Prize for

• Swiss solar car “Spirit of Biel” wins start-up (thin-film cells) Innovative Solutions to Climate Change

World Solar Challenge using UNSW • BP Solar announces 20 megawatt, • PhD student Nicole Kuepper wins British

solar cell technology $57m plant in Sydney (buried Council Eureka Prize for Young Leaders

contact cells) in Environmental Issues and Climate

• Martin Green wins international IEEE

Change & People’s Choice Eureka Award

William R. Cherry Award for advancing • BP announced Amoco merger

photovoltaic energy technology eventually leading to construction • Martin Green honoured as New

of this facility in Tres Cantos, Spain South Wales Scientist of the Year

• World record 25% conversion efficiency

for silicon PERL cell





1991 1999 2009

• Group’s first thin-film silicon cell • Aurora 101 solar car wins World Solar • Stuart Wenham wins IEEE William

• BP Solar releases “Saturn” module Challenge with UNSW cells R. Cherry Award

under licence using UNSW technology • Australia Prize to Martin Green and • Australian Solar Institute established

(highest efficiency commercial Stuart Wenham for solar work • Agreement with Roth & Rau to

module at 14.3%) establish pilot production line at UNSW









* indicates world best





06 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

The solar solution

UNSW’s world-leading solar cell research is proving that clean energy

is a force to be reckoned with.





Solar electric power is the fastest-growing UNSW is a founding member of the The array, to be installed this year, will

energy market in the world, with demand Australian Solar Institute and will have comprise 2000 high-efficiency Pluto

increasing at a rate of 40 percent or more unrivalled research capacity through the solar photovoltaic panels and will supply

annually for an energy source recognised soon-to-be-constructed Solar Industrial up to 70 percent of the STC’s power

as one of the most promising technologies Research Facility – the only industrial- requirements, cutting its carbon emissions

for a clean, sustainable energy future. grade silicon solar cell pilot line in the by about 555 tonnes a year – the

country. In 2012 UNSW will open its equivalent of taking 158 cars off the road.

UNSW is a world leader in solar cell

$125 million Tyree Energy Technologies

technology, with a substantial portfolio of Dr Shi and his wife, Vivienne, made an

Building, further enhancing the

patented technologies, commercialisation extraordinary $2 million donation from

University’s research capabilities.

agreements and international awards their family charitable foundation to

to its name (see timeline, page 6). Its In commercial terms, deals have been create the solar array, which will be part

research program is structured to address brokered for the team’s breakthrough of the STC’s broader Greening the Wharf

near, medium- and long-term needs. buried contact and semiconductor sustainability project.

technologies with some of the world’s

Grid parity – matching the cost of fossil- The Pluto cell used in the panels is a

largest solar cell manufacturers, including

fuelled electricity – remains the greatest low-cost implementation of UNSW’s

Chinese giant, Suntech Power, which

challenge for photovoltaic power and the world-record-holding 25 percent efficiency

was founded by UNSW alumnus

team at the University’s ARC Photovoltaics PERL solar cell technology. Jointly

Dr Zhengrong Shi.

Centre of Excellence is focused on developed by Suntech and UNSW’s School

pairing cutting-edge technology with The links between UNSW and Suntech of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy

market reality. Under the leadership of are having an impact at the heart of Engineering, the technology’s use at the

internationally recognised solar innovators, Sydney’s emerging harbourside arts STC is its first major installation in Australia.

Scientia Professors Stuart Wenham and precinct. An agreement has been

Martin Green, the Centre is a world leader made to install Australia’s largest-capacity

in low-cost, first-generation silicon solar rooftop solar panel array at the Sydney THE OPPORTUNITY

cell technology. Theatre Company’s (STC) historic Walsh PhD and post-doctoral research

Bay building. opportunities are available, as are

industry and government partnerships.

Photo Grant Turner, Mediakoo









The power to change ... Scientia Professors Martin Green (left) and Stuart Wenham





www.research.unsw.edu.au 07

Photo Kate Geraghty, Fairfaxphotos.com

Bright future ... Nicole Kuepper develops cheap solar cells in the lab









Alternative approaches

Innovation is the key to powering the future.







UNSW Photovoltaics PhD student “I want to stay in this field and see it Dr Hawkes is researching how to

Nicole Kuepper captured the collective become a world energy resource,” optimise ethanol as a future fuel.

imagination when she took out the 2008 she says.

“Alternative fuels are going to be a

People’s Choice Eureka Award for her

Dr Evatt Hawkes, also of the School of huge growth area. Biofuels hold much

work developing a cheap way to make

Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy promise but we need to reduce the cost,

solar cells in developing countries.

Engineering, is looking at developing environmental impact and the competition

Cheap solar cells created using simple more-sustainable fuels and engines for with food. We really need to work this

components – aluminium spray, inkjet transport. problem from all angles – that includes

printing, nail polish remover and low- more productive crops, better ways of

With more than 90 percent of the world’s

temperature pizza ovens – could deliver converting the crop into fuel and better

transport reliant on combustion engines,

clean energy to thousands of poor ways of burning the fuel in engines,”

researchers are looking to find ways to

communities with no access to grid he says.

drastically reduce fuel consumption,

power. It’s research that demonstrates

pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

how inspired engineering could deliver

rapid results in the real world. Dr Hawkes has developed computational THE OPPORTUNITY

tools which are leading to a better PhD and post-doctoral research

Current solar cell production methods

understanding of the fundamental physics opportunities are available, as are

are expensive and require high-tech

and chemistry behind combustion. This industry and government partnerships.

equipment, putting them out of reach

aids the development of new, sustainable

for most people in poorer nations.

fuels and engine designs.

“We’re working to simplify how the

“In a low carbon energy environment and

cells are manufactured so they can be

with increasing dependence on imported

produced in developing countries,”

oil, you have really got to think about

Kuepper says.

what you are going to do in transportation

“We’re up to the really exciting stage of fuels,” he says.

creating prototypes.”

“I think there is some opportunity to

Kuepper, who is studying at UNSW’s electrify urban vehicles but there are

School of Photovoltaic and Renewable some areas where electrification just can’t

Energy Engineering is passionate about work, such as aircraft and heavy trucking.

the potential of solar power. It’s in these areas that liquid fuels will

remain vital.”









08 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Shutterstock









Polluter pays ... coal-fired power plants would be part of any emissions trading scheme









Cleaning up

UNSW researchers are testing the proposed carbon trading

scheme, to make sure it comes up to scratch.





The idea behind emissions trading Using environmental and experimental “International reporting and assurance

schemes is simple enough; if it costs to economics, market design, statistics and standards are essential to establish

pollute, then cleaner energy and greener econometrics, they are investigating the confidence in carbon trading systems

industries, transport and lifestyles should impact of the penalty design and permit and the ‘carbon prices’ they generate as

flourish. allocation procedures on performance of well as ensuring schemes achieve their

the market. They’ll also gain some insight environmental aims,” he says.

But such environmental levers are

into human decision making; why one

“designer markets”; their effectiveness, or Professor Simnett – who is working with

business might choose to pay to continue

otherwise, depends entirely on a complex ASB’s Dr Wendy Green, CPA Australia and

polluting, while another will invest early in

set of rules, policies and regulations. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in

reducing its carbon footprint.

Australia – is co-chair of the International

Environmental economist, Dr Regina

“These are purely designer markets, so Auditing and Assurance Standards Board

Betz, from UNSW’s Australian School

we need to understand how to achieve (IAASB) task force that is developing a

of Business (ASB) is at the forefront of

emissions reductions efficiently and at the global assurance standard.

research on design models for emissions

lowest cost,” says Dr Betz.

trading schemes. This research has On the other side of the equation,

potential to inform policy formulation and The ASB team also used “prediction environmental problems are also offering

implementation of schemes currently markets” to forecast possible outcomes of economic opportunities.

under consideration by sovereign the crucial Copenhagen Climate Change

UNSW’s low emissions building products

governments. For example, the Australian Conference; a tool which may prove useful

made from the fly ash by-product of

Federal Government plans to issue about in other negotiation settings.

coal-fired power stations, for example,

400 million carbon permits – or tradable

At the same time, ASB researchers are clean up a serious pollutant while reducing

“permits to pollute” – in the first year of

also working on the development of global the carbon footprint of the construction

the scheme. Around 75 per cent of these

carbon assurance standards for the new, industry – saving money for businesses

would be auctioned. Other governments

green bottom line. required to hold permits under carbon

are to consider similar schemes. The

trading schemes.

penalty of not having enough permits is With more than 40 reporting schemes

set at a fixed price in the first years and worldwide and various assurance

will be linked to the auction price later on. requirements, there’s great uncertainty,

says Professor Roger Simnett, head of the THE OPPORTUNITY

Together with her PhD student Phillia Postgraduate research opportunities

ASB’s School of Accounting.

Restiani, Dr Betz has conducted “mock”

and collaborations exist across a range

auctions and market simulations in a

new Experimental Research Laboratory. of initiatives.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 09

Photo Brad Morris

The heat

is on

As the climate change

debate warms up, UNSW

research is unravelling the

complex interplay between

emissions from the land,

sea and air.









Rising concentrations of greenhouse Working with other researchers, the There, it not only reduces seawater pH

gases are the focus of much global team detailed for the first time how a but also reduces carbonate mineral

attention in efforts to come to grips with phenomenon known as the Indian Ocean saturation, which plays an important role

climate change and its effect on our lives Dipole – a variable and irregular cycle in calcification for many marine organisms

and environment. But often neglected of warming and cooling of ocean water and thus for the marine food chain.

in the discussions is the impact on the – dictates whether moisture-bearing winds

Their study predicts the Southern Ocean

world’s oceans. are carried across the southern half of

will acidify much earlier than previously

Australia.

Shedding some new light on the problem thought, causing the shells of sea

is UNSW’s Climate Change Research The landmark study explained the creatures to dissolve. That point will be

Centre (CCRC). Led by joint directors record-breaking drought in south-eastern reached when atmospheric carbon

Professor Matthew England and Professor Australia and solved the mystery of why dioxide levels pass 450 parts per million,

Andy Pitman, the CCRC is playing an a string of La Niña events in the Pacific which is predicted to occur within 30 years

increasingly influential role internationally. Ocean – which usually bring rain – has at most.

It was recently involved in a global liaison failed to break it. To make matters worse,

“Ocean acidification is a direct

project between elite climate researchers this period has coincided with a trend

consequence of increasing atmospheric

in the lead-up to the UN climate change towards higher average air temperatures

carbon dioxide concentrations,” notes

talks in Copenhagen, updating the science over the land, which may be linked to

Dr McNeil.

that underpinned the 2007 consensus human-induced climate change.

report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel When climate change experts talk about

In another recent study, the CCRC’s

on Climate Change. a “tipping point” they are usually referring

Dr Ben McNeil and colleagues found

to an atmospheric point of no return; that

Researchers at the CCRC also recently climate change is taking its toll on our

moment when emissions-driven global

revealed that the causes of south-eastern marine life. Of the 30 billion tonnes

warming irreversibly alters life on Earth.

Australia’s longest, most severe and of carbon dioxide emitted into the

damaging droughts originate far away atmosphere through fossil-fuel burning, But, there’s another related “tipping point”

in the Indian Ocean. about one-third is absorbed by the ocean. at which life may change forever.









10 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Rider on the storm ... Dr Mitchell Harley from the Water Research Lab surveys coastal erosion









For nations like Australia, with its people Whether rising sea levels and more rise, ranging from abandoning the town

and infrastructure concentrated along frequent storms – like those which to building huge sea defences. The study

the coastal fringe, the rising sea levels dramatically shifted Sydney’s sands in is part of a major new WRL research

and extreme weather events of climate 2009 – will disrupt this equilibrium is project into optimum climate change

change pose some vital questions. crucial to the future shape of our adaptation strategies for coastal Australia.

Is there a point at which the coastline will shoreline boundaries.

Professor Cox also leads the new

begin to erode and change dramatically

At the same time, a collaboration with federally funded Australian Climate

on a scale never seen before? If so, what

the NSW Government and the surfing Change Adaptation Research Network

do planners and policy makers need to

community is deploying networks of for Settlements and Infrastructure.

know to make informed decisions about

cameras, usually used by surfers to

when to reinforce coastal communities

check out waves online, for long-term

or when to retreat inland?

monitoring of changes to hundreds of THE OPPORTUNITY

Several projects, led by Associate Australian beaches. A comprehensive range of postgraduate

Professor Ian Turner of UNSW’s

A third major program focuses on opportunities exist across these fields

Water Research Laboratory (WRL),

forecasting out to 2100, using all of research.

are contributing to the urgent need for

possible inputs to calculate risk.

forecasting on vulnerable stretches of

coastline. A recent federal parliamentary “The best evidence suggests sea levels

committee identified up to $150 billion are rising in the upper range of what was

worth of Australian coastal property predicted; we need to know how fast

currently at risk. and how much coastlines are going to

change,” says Professor Turner.

Working internationally and locally,

UNSW researchers are investigating WRL’s Associate Professor Ron Cox

an apparent, but little understood, has recently completed a pilot study in

mathematical equilibrium, which seems Tasmania assessing “adaptation” options

to have long kept coastlines largely for one coastal community as sea levels

intact – bringing sand back on to

beaches eroded by big seas.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 11

Photo Patrick Cummins

Flow

of ideas

The world’s most abundant

resource is being carefully

scrutinised to ensure not

a drop is wasted.









Fifty years ago, when UNSW’s Water Beyond coastal safety, the sea surface This breakthrough launched the

Research Laboratory (WRL) opened its also holds the answers to the urgent Connected Waters Initiative (CWI); a

doors, water experts were thinking about global questions of how energy, heat quantitative analysis of ground and

two main issues: huge dams to insure and gas are exchanged between the surface waters to enable sustainable

against drought, and hydroelectric and atmosphere and the oceans. management of major irrigation areas.

thermal power stations to provide energy.

“Determining the rate at which the The future of Australia’s vital wetlands,

Virtually everything Australians then

oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide is as feeder rivers decline, is also

knew about water was based on

important for climate change predictions, under scrutiny.

overseas research.

because it directly affects the severity

Professor Richard Kingsford, at the School

Today, water research encompasses of what is happening in the atmosphere,”

of Biological, Earth and Environmental

issues ranging from environmental Dr Peirson says.

Sciences, has played a major role in

protection of wetlands, climate change,

His team is collaborating with US investigating the nation’s ailing river

drought cycles and alternative water

investigators in studying how waves, from systems and the devastation wrought on

sources. But underpinning these research

the tiniest ripples to the ocean giants, bird life and other native species.

efforts is the essential understanding

disrupt the sea surface and how that

of Australia’s unique hydrology built up Now Professor Kingsford is leading the

disruption affects the exchange of CO2

at the WRL over half a century. Some largest-yet survey of the country’s vital

and the heat that drives tropical storms.

4,000 technical and research reports and wetlands conducting aerial studies across

2,000 major industrial projects have been Inland, where drought is challenging the continent to track the abundance and

completed since the laboratory opened. farming practices, UNSW researchers led diversity of waterbirds to determine the

by Professor Ian Acworth have developed a ecosystem’s health.

Research at the WRL, led by director Dr Bill

3D-imaging method to track the movement

Peirson, also now has a global perspective. “Wetlands with large numbers of waterbirds

of water as it soaks into the ground.

For example Dr Peirson and his team are are in a healthy condition,” he says.

advancing our understanding of dangerous Using electrical tomography, the method Australians need no reminding that

sea conditions and coastal inundation, detects over-watering by measuring fresh water is not only a finite resource,

including the formation of “rogue waves” whether water is running off into the but is in increasing demand as the

which can sweep rock fishermen into the subterranean aquifers way below the root nation’s population grows. So there’s

ocean, even when the sea appears calm. zone; offering irrigators an opportunity to an increasing focus on ensuring water

use less of a dwindling resource. supplies from dams and rivers are free

from contamination and on recycling

wastewater for re-use.







12 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

In the deep ... Professor Brett Neilan’s work has been used by the World Health Organization









In dams and rivers, different strains and in drinking water supplies, and these “High-grade recycled water is used in

species of blue-green algae or bacteria patented tests are now the standard industrial applications and in household

may be potentially deadly with drastic means of assessing environmental health. dual reticulation systems but there are

implications for water supply. potential risks associated with under-

“The research had its origins in the early

performance or failure of treatment

A team led by Federation Fellow Professor 1990s and problems in Queensland,

processes,” Dr Khan says.

Brett Neilan in the School of Biotechnology New South Wales and South Australia

and Biomolecular Sciences, is trailblazing with massive proliferations of blue-green Existing water monitoring systems

sophisticated new ways to determine algae,” says Professor Neilan. may not pick up incidents of treatment

which bacteria or algae are harmful. failure quickly enough, but fluorescence

NewSouth Innovations has licensed

spectroscopy has proven effective as a

The research group at UNSW is Neilan’s technology to a company that

highly sensitive, easily utilised and high-

considered to be one of the world leaders will produce a diagnostic kit pinpointing

speed method of testing for dissolved

in the genetics of cyanobacteria, or the genes that cause potent toxins in blue-

organic compounds.

blue-green algae. Proving the point, in green algae and provide an early-warning

2009 Neilan won a record third Eureka testing system that differentiates harmful By detecting the chemicals coming

prize for his work in the area, plus a and non-harmful species. through the treatment system the new

NSW Scientist of the Year award. method gives a fast, clear indication of

Further down the water chain, UNSW

how effective the treatment has been.

Professor Neilan helped uncover all four researchers are taking an innovative

biochemical pathways responsible for the approach to ensuring water treatment

production of potent bacterial and algal systems are working.

toxins that contaminate our water supplies THE OPPORTUNITY

A team at the UNSW Water Research PhD and post-doctoral research

and accumulate in seafood.

Centre, including Dr Stuart Khan, Dr Rita opportunities are available, as well as

In a measure of the significance and Henderson and Professor Richard Stuetz,

industry and government partnerships.

impact of his research, many international is developing new water monitoring tools

groups, including the World Health that use fluorescence spectroscopy

Organization, have already adopted to provide immediate analysis of the

Neilan’s techniques for the rapid and effectiveness of water treatments such

accurate detection of blue-green algae as reverse osmosis and disinfection.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 13

From new approaches to tackling cancer,

to restoring sight among the vision impaired,

UNSW research will benefit countless lives.







Fighting HIV/AIDS

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Developing a smart drug

Changing cancer treatment

Restoring sight

Bionic eye

Surgery without stitches

No-wait blood tests

Stopping scars









14 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

CHAPTER TWO:



CHANGING [ HEALTHCARE ]









www.research.unsw.edu.au 15

Photo Nic Bothma, Corbis

Left alone ... a South African child at an orphanage which cares for many children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS









Building strength

HIV-infected people in developing countries stand

to benefit from groundbreaking work at UNSW.





With more than 30 million people infected the two-year, 700-patient trial is dubbed NCHECR has also won a $9.1 million

with HIV and no vaccine or cure in sight, ENCORE (Evaluation of Novel Concepts NHMRC grant for a program to control

global efforts to combat the epidemic are in Optimisation of Antiretroviral Efficacy). STIs among young people, Indigenous

focusing on antiretroviral therapies that It will be carried out by a research network Australians and gay men, and

can keep patients alive and reduce the risk in Australia, the Americas, Europe and $17.7 million for a vaccine development

of new infections. Asia, with results to be published by program for HIV and hepatitis C, led by

mid-2013. Professor Cooper.

By 2015 nine million people in developing

countries will have access to the “Our goal is to ensure that everyone who The groundbreaking initiative’s eight other

expensive drugs, up from three million needs treatment for HIV is able to access chief investigators include colleagues from

currently. it,” Professor Cooper says. ”And if that Royal Perth Hospital and the universities

can be done for less cost, then that’s a of Adelaide and Melbourne, Andrew Lloyd

The success of the rollout is putting

great result.” (UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences)

enormous pressure on the ability

and three NCHECR program heads,

to manufacture and pay for the drugs. The Gates’ donation is the latest in a

Professors Emery, Tony Kelleher and

But what if the existing drugs could be string of funding successes for NCHECR,

Greg Dore.

made to go further? Could dosing levels reflecting the international standing

be tweaked without compromising the of the Centre led by Professor Cooper, Professor Dore’s research has found that

drugs’ effectiveness? If so, millions more a world-renowned HIV clinician and up to 70 percent of hepatitis C patients

of the world’s HIV-affected people could clinical investigator. could be cured – and many serious liver

be treated for little or no extra cost. conditions prevented – if patients sought

A past president of the International AIDS

early treatment with standard combination

A UNSW team led by Professors David Society, Professor Cooper is leading the

drug therapy.

Cooper and Sean Emery, at the National push to transform NCHECR into a national

Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical institute for infectious diseases.

Research (NCHECR), has begun trials to Supported by $40 million from the NSW THE OPPORTUNITY

see if the daily dose of one antiretroviral and Federal governments, the new Research opportunities exist in

drug – efavirenz – can be reduced to institute will bring together 300 of the mathematical modelling, vaccine work

400 mg from the current 600 mg without nation’s top scientists investigating viral

compromising effectiveness. and Indigenous health.

hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and other sexually

Funded by a grant of more than $18 million transmitted infections (STIs).

from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,









16 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Patrick Cummins









Finding the links ... Dr Melissa Green with Scientia Professor Philip Mitchell









Unlocking secrets of the mind

New research suggests many similarities between

schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.





Evidence suggests schizophrenia and neuroimaging, cognitive testing and Schizophrenia Epidemiology and

bipolar disorder can be inherited, but how physiological measurements to identify Population Health. The Chair is a joint

do you identify those most at risk? What shared genetic susceptibility, which may project with the Schizophrenia Research

are the subtle first signs of onset? And manifest in common cognitive and frontal Institute, with funding of $2.125 million

who will show resilience? brain dysfunctions. from NSW Health.

To help find answers researchers from Results from the study, being conducted Professor Carr is comparing records

Brain Sciences UNSW are driving two in collaboration with the Schizophrenia from health and education departments

landmark international studies to pinpoint Research Institute, the Black Dog Institute, to uncover new risk factors. Potential

risk factors and provide the information the Prince of Wales Medical Research relationships between pregnancy

for early identification and treatment. Institute and Leiden University in The complications, school performance and

Netherlands, are already indicating that behavioural problems could point to later

“There is still no way of identifying

schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are development of schizophrenia or other

someone in the very early stages of

more similar than previously thought. mental health problems.

bipolar or schizophrenia, or someone who

is most at risk,” says Scientia Professor “Already some medications are commonly The appointment cements UNSW’s

Philip Mitchell, the head of the School prescribed for the two disorders, to reputation as a world leader in the field

of Psychiatry and one of the country’s treat overt psychotic symptoms. With and complements the work of Cyndi

leading brain science experts. more information, new drugs could be Shannon Weickert as Macquarie Bank

developed to improve the enduring Group Chair of Schizophrenia Research.

“Current identification practices are

cognitive deficits as well,” she says.

extremely poor. It’s like only diagnosing

people with heart disease when they A second landmark study to identify those

THE OPPORTUNITY

present with a heart attack,” he says. most at risk from bipolar disorder is being

led by Professor Mitchell and the Black A PhD Scholarship in imaging genetics

To fill the gap, Dr Melissa Green, an ARC is available, as are PhD opportunities in

Dog Institute. The study – the largest of

Future Fellow, has brought together bipolar research.

its type, with partners in four US-based

sufferers of schizophrenia and bipolar

research institutions – will recruit 500

disorder to determine similarities and

young Australians who have at least one

distinctions between these diseases’

relative with the illness.

genetic causes and manifestations.

Also boosting schizophrenia research is

Dr Green and her team will integrate

the appointment of Professor Vaughan

data from genetics, functional

Carr to Australia’s first Chair in









www.research.unsw.edu.au 17

Photo Patrick Cummins

A broad scope ... Professor Levon Khachigian has invented a drug with many applications









Stalking a killer

The secrets of Australia’s biggest killer – cardiovascular disease –

are being pieced together by UNSW researchers.





Imagine the possibility for disease Pre-clinical studies have already shown “That the heart has any regenerative

prevention if we could develop a smart Dz13 can dramatically reduce heart capacity at all is an enormous surprise,

drug to act like a friendly assassin in the muscle damage after a heart attack and that even mature heart muscle

body, neutralising the master regulator and may lead to significantly improved cells can divide flies in the face of

genes that play a role in some of our patient outcomes. dogma that has been around for many,

most common diseases. many years,” says Professor Graham,

The drug also reduces incidental cell

who is based at the Victor Chang Cardiac

A smart drug which does just that – Dz13 and tissue death in procedures such

Research Institute.

– is ready to be trialled on humans. as balloon angioplasty and stent

placements, and may have a role in Graham’s work gives much hope to the

Developed by Professor Levon

improving the effectiveness of coronary many thousands of people worldwide

Khachigian, an Australia Fellow and

artery bypass grafts. who suffer a heart attack.

Director of the UNSW Centre for

Vascular Research, the breakthrough Significantly, the heart’s pumping action

has global implications for the treatment is protected by the drug, improving the

of diseases ranging from age-related patient’s chances of a full recovery. THE OPPORTUNITY

macular degeneration, diabetes-induced Research and PhD opportunities are

“While this drug doesn’t prevent the heart available in the Centre for Vascular

blindness, arthritis, certain cancers and

attack, it does reduce the damaging Research while the Victor Chang Cardiac

even cardiovascular disease.

effects of the blockage on the heart Research Institute offers research,

Starting this year Khachigian will use once it’s happened,” Khachigian says. PhD, BSc (Hons) MSc and post-doctoral

Dz13 to “switch off” a master disease- opportunities.

Until recently, the human heart was

regulating gene in skin cancer patients.

thought to have little or no ability to

Once it’s found to be safe and well

repair itself by regenerating new tissue.

tolerated, human trials will begin for

other conditions. Recent studies from UNSW Professor

Bob Graham’s laboratory (in collaboration

“The drug is like a ‘nano-assassin’

with colleagues in the US) have shown

that gets into cells under the cover of

that even mature heart muscle cells

darkness, then seeks out and destroys

can be coaxed into dividing and thus,

its molecular target,” says Khachigian.

regenerating heart tissue.









18 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Patrick Cummins









Putting people first ... Professors Robyn Ward and Philip Hogg









Conquering cancer

New treatments developed at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre

are revolutionising the fight against the disease.





Cancer breakthroughs make headlines, Professor Hogg’s colleague, Professor “The new drug to be trialled in Australia

but if they don’t lead to new treatments Robyn Ward – winner of the same prize is about 20 times more effective than

and cures they’re little consolation to the in 2007 – is charged with getting Lowy’s the original and in animal trials at least,

more than 110,000 Australians diagnosed basic science into the clinic. it’s also better tolerated,” says Professor

each year with the disease. Hogg. If the results are replicated in

Diagnostic tests for childhood leukaemia,

humans, the world could have a new

Ensuring discoveries in the lab make a developed by CCIA, are already in use,

class of therapy consisting of the two

difference at the bedside is the aim of while Professor Ward’s own research

new drugs targeting a number of cancers.

UNSW’s newly built $100 million-plus into the interplay between genetic and

Lowy Cancer Research Centre and its epigenetic codes has identified an “It will be very exciting to take a drug

inaugural director Professor Philip Hogg. additional mechanism by which people developed at UNSW, and put it into human

inherit cancer predisposition – essential trials at the only site in the state that has

Professor Hogg is overseeing the

information if screening is to be targeted an FDA-approved phase-one facility,”

relocation of more than 400 medical

and cost-effective. Professor Ward says. “That’s an important

scientists from the Faculty of Medicine

part about Lowy. It’s located next to the big

and the Children’s Cancer Institute In 2010, Professor Ward will also guide

hospitals and you can take the discovery

Australia (CCIA) to the facility, which landmark human trials of a second-

from Lowy and test it next door.”

brings together adult and childhood generation cancer-fighting drug developed

cancer research for the first time. by Professor Hogg. The trial, funded Professor Hogg agrees: “You can count

by the Cancer Institute of NSW, will be on one hand the number of home-grown

Combining the two makes the Centre

conducted at the Prince of Wales Hospital. drugs that have actually made it into the

somewhat unique, Professor Hogg says,

clinic. To have two of them – well, that’s

but it’s the focus on getting oncology The drug’s precursor is already showing

unique. It’s real translational medicine.”

breakthroughs to the people who need promising results in treating ovarian

them – the patients – that really sets cancer in trials in the UK. The anti-

it apart. mitochondrial compound “starves”

tumours to death by cutting off their THE OPPORTUNITY

“Good translational research – that’s Postgraduate research opportunities

blood supply. While those trials could

what we are probably better at than are available in the causes of cancer

find funding only overseas, Professor

almost anyone else,” says Professor and application of new drug treatments.

Hogg credits the Lowy Centre with

Hogg, who was named 2009 NSW

bringing the second phase home. This encompasses basic research into

Cancer Researcher of the Year.

epigenetic changes that underpin the

development of colorectal cancer and

brain tumours.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 19

Photo Grant Turner, Mediakoo

Seeing the light ... Doctors Stephanie Watson and Nick Di Girolamo









Eye on the prize

In a world-first breakthrough, stem cells cultured on a simple contact

lens are restoring sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease.





Contact lenses have transformed vision Stem cells have also been used by UNSW He says the research, backed by the

for millions of people, but now the researchers to re-grow muscles in mice. Oncology Children’s Foundation, has also

technology is being used to restore The discovery last year opened up a world recently turned up another positive result;

the sight of sufferers of blinding of possibilities in treating human diseases that muscle stems cells do not lose their

corneal disease. by regenerating whole tissues. ability to regenerate as they age, meaning

a parent or grandparent could be a

Dr Nick Di Girolamo and Dr Stephanie While Professor Peter Gunning, Professor

suitable donor for a sick child.

Watson, from UNSW’s Centre for Infection Edna Hardeman and Dr Antonio Lee are

and Inflammation Research, have focusing on muscles, and muscle-wasting While human trials are at least three

developed a non-invasive technique that diseases such as myopathy and muscular to five years away the results move

uses contact lenses to deliver stem cells dystrophy, their breakthrough technique regenerative treatment into the realm

to the cornea. has potential applications for all tissue- of real-world possibility.

based illnesses, affecting areas such as

Stem cells are harvested from a patient’s

the brain, liver and pancreas.

own eye, cultured on a simple contact lens

and placed on to the cornea, allowing the The researchers from UNSW’s School of THE OPPORTUNITY

stem cells to “re-colonise” the damaged Medical Science managed to dramatically PhD and post-doctoral research

eye surface. strengthen the ability of donor muscle opportunities are available.

stem cells to regenerate damaged tissue

The novel technique is a significant

by adapting a technique being trialled

breakthrough for a range of painful and

in bone marrow transplantation. A gene

debilitating conditions, which have been

is introduced into the donor stem cells

notoriously difficult to treat.

making them resistant to chemotherapy,

Doctors Di Girolamo and Watson have which is then used to clean out the

trialled the technique on two patients damaged cells and allow the new stem

with corneal damage and one suffering cells to take hold.

from a genetic eye condition. In all three

“Until now the new, healthy cells had

patients, sight was significantly improved

no advantage over existing damaged

within weeks.

cells and were getting out-competed,”

The simplicity of the procedure means it says Professor Gunning.

is ideal for developing countries without

access to sophisticated medical facilities.









20 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Illustration Mehau Kulyk, Science, Corbis









A great leap forward ... creating a bionic eye to help the vision impaired









Future vision

Research is about to deliver a bionic eye, one of several

breakthroughs set to improve the lives of the vision impaired.





A grand vision is nearing completion. tolerance, of a “bionic eye”, and new The greatest challenge is creating the

Professor Nigel Lovell and Associate ways to introduce multiple electrodes software to achieve the smooth integration

Professor Gregg Suaning have developed into the retina. of different navigational technologies, says

a viable vision prosthesis, and a UNSW- spatial systems engineer, Dr Binghao Li.

This will allow an external micro-camera

prototype “eye” could be ready for human

and micro-processor mounted on glasses “We don’t expect to entirely replace a cane,

implantation as early as 2012.

to transmit a signal to an electronic but we aim to provide the vision impaired

The researchers from the Australian Vision circuit and electrode array connected with a great deal of rich, new navigational

Prosthesis Group are developing a 98- to the retina – offering realistic hope to information,” says Associate Professor

channel device that has the potential to sufferers of common eye conditions Andrew Dempster, who leads UNSW’s

create relatively detailed, patterned vision such as macular degeneration and research into new navigation technologies.

using signals fed through the retina, at retinitis pigmentosa.

Both projects illustrate the range of

the back of the eye.

The vision impaired can also expect applications of new technologies and

UNSW’s “bionic eye” team is a lead to benefit from emerging navigational highlight UNSW’s research strengths.

member of the Bionic Vision Australia technologies. UNSW hosts both Australia’s largest

(BVA) consortium that brings together biomedical engineering school and

Researchers from UNSW’s School of

Australia’s best biomedical engineering, Australia’s largest group investigating

Surveying and Spatial Information and

clinical and surgical researchers. satellite navigation and location

the School of Computer Science and

technologies.

The strength of the BVA consortium, Engineering are combining the best

plus the Federal Government’s recent available positioning systems – such as

$50 million commitment to fund relevant Assisted GPS, WiFi, Radio Frequency

research, offers Australia the best possible Identification and Inertial Navigation THE OPPORTUNITY

chance of building a world-leading bionic System – to generate an unprecedented PhD and post-doctoral opportunities

eye, to follow the world-first Australian “picture” to assist the vision impaired to are expanding in the growing bionic eye

“bionic ear”, or cochlear implant, navigate through daily life. research team. In location technologies,

according to Associate Professor Suaning. several PhD scholarships are on offer.

The aim is to produce a low-cost,

While other researchers worldwide are off-the-shelf unit, similar to an iPhone,

pursuing the same goal, the UNSW project enabling the user to move seamlessly

has two unique characteristics; the use of from GPS outside, for example, to other

existing, safe materials to achieve greatly technologies inside to detect the locations

enhanced bio-compatibility, or human of doors, stairways and other features.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 21

Photo Mike Gal

Hi-tech

health

Surgery without stitches

and no-wait blood tests

are transforming our most

common medical procedures.









The days of waiting – sometimes – known as Ripple-Down Rules (RDR) – to optimise healthcare in emergencies,

nervously – for the results of a blood test has dramatically simplified the way such as natural disasters.

are numbered. knowledge-based systems are managed.

Professor Ray says health professionals

Professor Justin Gooding, from UNSW’s Professor Paul Compton, the head of on the ground could text doctors outside

School of Chemistry, has developed the School of Computer Science and the area to seek advice.

hand-held devices that will make blood Engineering, devised the approach as a

“Often phone lines are congested in a

tests faster and more efficient. This will way of building and changing computer

disaster,” explains Professor Ray. “Texting

ensure effective follow-up can be arranged systems while they are already in use.

would allow for some response. While

without delay.

“RDR doesn’t specify a particular it would not be a full diagnosis, it would

The kits can even be used by non- technology,” he says. “Rather it’s the basic allow vital information to be passed on.”

specialist staff with huge savings idea that you can very simply add a rule to

If the phone infrastructure is destroyed,

– estimated at up to 20 percent – for a system without corrupting the existing

satellite phones could be used.

the health budget. knowledge in the system.”

Trials in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami

The technology – which won Professor Professor Compton is a founder of

proved so successful the World Health

Gooding the 2009 UNSW Eureka Prize for spin-off company, Pacific Knowledge

Organization has sponsored the next

Scientific Research – also includes sensors Systems, which provides the technology

stage of the study – assessing e-health in

that minimise side effects from drugs and for pathology. At least five other

India, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

assist with pesticide detection in drinking companies worldwide have technology

water. based on RDR. Some surgical practices have changed

little over time. Ancient Egyptian healers

“Ultimately the research will enable the A 2010 ARC Discovery Grant will look at

used animal sinew to stitch up wounds

development of diagnostic devices to RDR systems that can anticipate when a

and although more sophisticated materials

detect bioactive compounds, and predict system cannot deal with a problem.

are used today – from natural silk to

how people will respond to them,”

Also utilising technology for healthcare synthetic dissolving thread – sutures

says Professor Gooding. “This means

is Associate Professor Pradeep Ray and remain the standard method for surgical

customising dosage and types of drugs

a team from the Asia–Pacific Ubiquitous closure.

for individual patients, minimising side

Healthcare Research Centre.

effects, and again saving costs.” Yet sutures can lead to infection, so

They have been looking at electronic alternatives such as surgical glues and

Other revolutionary technology developed

health (e-health) systems in developing adhesives are capturing an increasing

at UNSW is already in use in about a third

countries and the use of mobile phones share of the US$5 billion global market

of Australian pathology labs. The system

for such products.



22 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Faster, better ... Professor Justin Gooding’s work is changing the face of pathology









In response to design criteria established rats and has achieved results suggesting The team is also investigating the

by surgeons, a team led by Associate that it actually promotes healthy cell wound-healing abilities of chitosan, used

Professor John Foster of the UNSW Bio/ division and possibly even differentiation on the battlefield by US and Australian

Polymer Research Group (BRG), in in some adult stem cells. forces in haemostatic bandages.

the School of Biotechnology and

Thanks to a Fulbright Senior Scholarship, While platelets attach to chitosan

Biomolecular Sciences, is investigating

Professor Foster will spend four months bandages, researchers are trying

potential applications of the world’s first

of 2010 working in the US with leaders to understand what facilitates that

thin-film surgical adhesive that uses a

in the field of regenerative medicine, attachment.

unique combination of laser technology

exploring the potential of SurgiLux® in

and biomaterials.

this powerful new medical field.

Known as SurgiLux®, it is a natural, THE OPPORTUNITY

Meanwhile, Professor John Whitelock

environmentally friendly, strong, flexible Licensing opportunities for SurgiLux®

and his team at the UNSW Graduate

film that is compatible with living tissue are available to industry. Research

School of Biomedical Engineering have

and is based on the US Food and Drug

been working with the global medical opportunities are available in all the

Administration-approved chitosan, a

products company HemCon to create the schools mentioned. Scholarships are

biomaterial derived from crustacean

building blocks of a new generation of on offer at the Asia–Pacific Ubiquitous

shells. The film is simply placed over a

medical technologies. Healthcare Research Centre.

wound or surgical incision and activated

with a conventional infrared clinical laser Based on natural materials that promote

to effect closure. It is so unique, the blood flow, this research promises to have

Federal Government has awarded a an impact from operating theatres

grant to help its development for delicate to theatres of war.

brain surgery.

They are investigating using chitosan

UNSW scientists are now working in to create synthetic vascular grafts and,

collaboration with colleagues elsewhere ultimately, artificial blood vessels to help

to explore the potential for new biomedical in the fight against heart disease.

materials and devices that may be more

suitable not only for closing wounds but “Our work is aimed at understanding how

to effect other surgical joins and seals. blood cells interact with chitosan . . . to

enable us to develop a blood vessel in

SurgiLux® has also been successfully the laboratory.”

applied in vivo to repair sciatic nerves in





www.research.unsw.edu.au 23

Photo Patrick Cummins

Medical

marvels

Today’s new breed of

drugs use nano-technology

to deliver dosages to the right

place at the right time.









Developing better drugs is the Nearly all cases of the disease are caused “At the core of our work is our desire to

pharmaceutical industry’s holy grail. But by infection with the human papillomavirus understand how self-assembly works – the

better drugs have little therapeutic value (HPV), which is typically transmitted very mechanism nature uses to build life –

unless they can be delivered to the right through sexual contact. Injectable and if we can grasp its power we should be

place in the right quantity at the right time. vaccines – such as Gardasil and Cervarix able to tackle some of the key medicinal and

– guard against high-risk strains of HPV. environmental challenges in our society.”

The industry’s new focus has become

the targeted delivery of smart therapeutic The availability of an orally delivered Dr Thordarson’s work is part of a growing

agents. vaccine would address significant trend in chemistry and biomedical

barriers to injectable vaccines, including sciences to work with nature by mimicking

Professor Neil Foster and colleagues at

their expense, requirements for repeated biological systems perfected by evolution

UNSW’s Supercritical Fluids Group are

doses and sterile conditions, and over millions of years.

pioneering the application of supercritical

patient fear and pain, which lead to

fluid technology to increase the solubility Professor Rose Amal is developing

poor patient compliance and

and bioavailability of several drugs. magnetic gold nanoparticles that could

compromised therapeutic effects.

help deliver anti-cancer compounds to

Their focus has been the development

The key challenge of this research is to tumours in the body.

of inhalable insulin. If it proves

encapsulate the vaccine so that it can

successful it could take the needle out The nanoparticles are clusters of iron oxide

safely pass through the body and be

of the management of type 1 and type 2 molecules sealed in gold. The presence

released to a target site in the body.

diabetes. of magnetic iron could allow potential

Accurate delivery of drugs is critical. Dr Pall therapeutic particles to be manipulated

For a child with type 1 diabetes this

Thordarson is an expert in the development inside the body while gold’s inert property

would prevent them having to endure

of smart self-assembling materials aimed provides an ideal surface for carrying drugs

more than 20,000 insulin injections by the

at more precisely delivering anti-cancer or biological monitoring agents.

age of 15 years.

drugs to cells in the body and limiting their

Professor Amal heads UNSW’s Particles

The Group’s research also underpins plans unpleasant side effects. If successful, this

and Catalysis Research Group in the School

by UNSW, the University of Queensland method could improve the survival rate and

of Chemical Sciences and Engineering.

and Australian biotech company Prima quality of life of chemotherapy patients.

The Group is also investigating the use of

BioMed Ltd to develop an oral vaccine for

“We are only starting to understand how needle-shaped magnetic nanoparticles for

the prevention of cervical cancer.

these materials interact with living cells gene therapy applications.

Such a vaccine could reduce the incidence but this understanding will be essential for

of cervical cancer, which claims more than their use in medicine,” says Dr Thordarson

253,000 lives globally each year. of UNSW’s School of Chemistry.





24 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Stopping scars ... Professor Laura Poole-Warren









Other groups at UNSW are looking the Lowy Cancer Research Centre and Centre for Polymers, is reducing the

towards gene silencing, which would Professor Heather Maynard at UCLA, are fibrotic scarring that occurs around

effectively knock out diseases entirely. designing organic polymers which bond surgical mesh used to prevent or repair

with a component of siRNA to create hernias.

By targeting disease-causing genes and

synthetic polymer-gene nanoparticles.

preventing them from being expressed When meshes are placed into the

The goal is to create nanoparticles robust

in the body, gene silencing using siRNA abdomen, extensive scar tissue can form,

and stable enough to survive the body’s

(short interfering Ribonucleic Acid) has causing the mesh to stiffen, buckle and

defences and deliver gene-based drugs

the potential to eliminate serious diseases rub on underlying organs. A common

to the site of disease.

such as cancer, AIDS and hepatitis. complication is more scar tissue forming

“These molecules have huge potential,” onto the bowel and causing dangerous

Dr Volga Bulmus of the School of

says Dr Bulmus. adhesions.

Biotechnology and Biomolecular

Sciences, and Professor Tom Davis of “Using siRNAs we can silence any “We are interested in ways to modulate

the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular disease you can think of which is fibrosis around a material without

Design, are developing siRNA-based drug related to genes and with polymers changing the material, and that involves

delivery systems which could take gene we tailor them to overcome the various some form of surface modification,”

silencing from the lab to the hospital ward. challenges involved.” Professor Poole-Warren says. “The siRNA

approach is a very flexible approach:

siRNA are molecular strands of chemical Gene silencing can also help the body

you can produce a platform technology

information, which interfere with or halt the heal itself. Professor Laura Poole-Warren

which is able to deliver a wide range of

expression of a gene in the body. While of the Graduate School of Biomedical

applications.”

RNA interference is a natural process Engineering is leading research focused

in living cells, scientists can tailor a on reducing damaging scarring around

component of siRNA to interfere with the sites of surgery.

a chosen target gene, meaning siRNA THE OPPORTUNITY

By coating medical implants with siRNA PhD scholarships are available through

could be used as a magic bullet to stop

that interrupts the expression of genes ARC Discovery funding held by

diseases in the first place.

associated with scarring, the formation Professor Davis and Dr Bulmus. PhD and

But a magic bullet still needs a powerful of scar tissue can be minimised.

post-doctoral opportunities are available

and accurate gun. Dr Bulmus and

One application of the research, being in other areas.

Professor Davis, as part of a project with

conducted with the Cooperative Research

Associate Professor Maria Kavallaris from









www.research.unsw.edu.au 25

UNSW technology researchers are building the

next generation of super computers and speeding

up the way we mine online information.







Quantum computing

Computer search technology

Self-guided farm machinery

Strengthening buildings

Robots

Satellite image technology

Next generation of flight









26 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

CHAPTER THREE:



CHANGING [ TECHNOLOGY ]









www.research.unsw.edu.au 27

Photo Michelle Young, Lantern Studio

Need for speed ... Dr Andrea Morello (left) and Professor Andrew Dzurak









Quantum leap

A UNSW team working on the world’s largest program in

silicon-based quantum computing is starting to reap results.





A single quantum computer could, for Silicon is not the only base material The first commercialised quantum

some tasks, be more powerful than all used in quantum research, but it offers technology has already emerged in the

the computers in the world today running the advantage of being widely used and area of secure communications. Quantum

together in parallel. understood in the computer industry. cryptography offers failsafe security and

is attracting great interest for military and

It’s not simply speed and power that Professor Andrew Dzurak is the NSW

corporate financial applications.

gives quantum computing the edge – it Node Manager for the Centre for Quantum

also offers vast advances in security over Computer Technology (CQCT) and NSW The CQCT is the world’s largest

standard technology. Node Director of the Australian National combined effort in silicon-based quantum

Fabrication Facility at UNSW. He and computing and works closely with Sandia

It uses the behaviour of subatomic

Dr Andrea Morello, Manager of the National Laboratories in the US and a

particles – electrons and photons – to

Quantum Measurement and Control number of other international centres. Its

store and process data. The fundamental

Chip Program, have recently achieved research is funded by the ARC, the NSW

structure in quantum computer technology

breakthrough results relating to the Government, the US National Security

is the quantum bit or qubit. One type of

measurement of qubits. Agency and the US Army Research Office.

qubit, being studied at UNSW, uses the

“spin” of electrons associated with a “The key requirement for our silicon

single atom in the same way that silicon quantum bits is we need to control

chip transistors use zeroes and ones to and measure the spin of an electron THE OPPORTUNITY

represent data. associated with a single phosphorus PhD and post-doctoral positions are

atom. We have been able to perform an available for research in silicon-based

Quantum computing’s power comes quantum computing, involving state-

important experiment making contact

from the fact that electrons can have of-the-art nanofabrication, and low-

with those single atoms for the first time,”

a spin equivalent to a zero or one but,

Professor Dzurak says. temperature and high-frequency

when coupled together, can deliver an

exponential increase in their ability to While a quantum computer that can measurement facilities.

represent data. outperform conventional computers is

more than a decade away, Professor

At UNSW, researchers have made

Dzurak says important breakthroughs

important advances in creating and using

are already being made, which will

qubits based on a single phosphorus

deliver “first-mover” advantage in related

atom embedded in silicon.

nanotechnology fields as well as lay the

groundwork for large-scale computing.









28 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Patrick Cummins









Out of the blue ... Professor David Taubman with his image compression software, Kakadu









Just browsing

Searching the web has become much easier thanks

to technology developed at UNSW.





Do a Google search today and you will “It’s good publicity for the school and it matched to the user’s interests and the

be using a search engine tool, known as demonstrates our students are ready for quality of the network connection, rather

Orion, developed by Ori Allon during his the real world,” he says. than leaving the user at the mercy of the

PhD candidature at UNSW’s School of way a web page was designed.

In the field of image compression,

Computer Science and Engineering.

Professor David Taubman, head of the Professor Taubman says Kakadu is

The program makes web searching easier Telecommunications Research Group licensed to thousands of non-commercial

by offering related terms to enhance a at UNSW’s Faculty of Engineering, users and among the 210 commercial

user’s search and by displaying expanded stands out. licensees are some of the biggest names

text extracts in results, removing the need in the industry including Google, Disney

A key contributor to the JPEG2000

to click through to web pages. and Warner Bros.

international standard for image

Google was so impressed by Allon’s work compression, Professor Taubman and “It is very satisfying to see your work

that in 2006 it bought the rights to Orion US colleague, Professor Michael Marcellin, go into something very real,” says

and hired its creator. wrote what is considered the definitive Professor Taubman, adding he has no

textbook on the new standard. intention of stopping there.

Allon says he was surprised by the job

offer, but confident in his technology. To help demonstrate the more interesting “The great thing is that Kakadu is also

features of JPEG2000, Professor a vehicle for getting other ideas we are

“For the most part, the concept is close

Taubman, as an afterthought, wrote working on out there.”

to what I developed during my PhD.

a program to include with the book.

The primary difference is the complexity

of the algorithm required for it to scale to That compression software, known as

serving millions of queries a day,” he says. Kakadu, permits the rapid transfer of THE OPPORTUNITY

massive image and video files, and has Postgraduate coursework and research

Allon credits his success in part to his programs are available to suit a range of

become a hit in its own right. Kakadu lets

former supervisor, Dr Eric Martin, and backgrounds.

users view an image or video at reduced

Head of School, Professor Paul Compton,

quality, or with an arbitrary region of

and says UNSW “definitely prepared me

interest, while downloading only a tiny

well for the commercial world”.

fraction of the file.

Dr Martin says it is rewarding to see

In this way the interactive multimedia

Orion integrated into Google’s main

browsing experience is simultaneously

search page.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 29

Photo Grant Turner, Mediakoo

Perfecting pixels ... Associate Professors François Ladouceur and Martina Stenzel









Look who’s talking

Everyday communication, from reading the newspaper

to answering the phone, is about to change.





Electronic newspapers you can roll “Because the self-organising ability of “Until now, one particular method

up and carry as easily as the printed the polymer eliminates the need for the of speech characterisation for voice

version; cereal boxes displaying animated expensive lithographic processing used identification has dominated the field since

pictures; smart phones that can identify in silicon-based displays, the process also the 1990s and has been the mainstay of

and ignore spam callers – such are the promises significant reductions in costs,” commercial systems,” says Dr Epps.

latest applications for communications Associate Professor Ladouceur says.

“By adding our technique to the

technology.

“We’ve improved the technology and are conventional method we can show a fairly

Associate Professor François Ladouceur, now working on new ways of controlling significant improvement.”

Head of the Photonics and Optical the pixels themselves.”

With voice identification increasingly

Communications Group and Associate

While this team is focusing on the being used in security, forensic, defence

Professor Martina Stenzel, from the

printed word, for Dr Julien Epps it’s all and commercial operations, the pursuit

School of Chemical Sciences and

in the voice. Dr Epps, from the Speech of greater accuracy is all-important.

Engineering, are developing a new

Processing Research Lab, is part of a The breakthrough is already garnering

generation of electronic paper or

team of world leaders in the field of voice international interest. The development

“e-paper” that is cheap, flexible and

identification software. may even be the saviour of householders

perhaps even disposable.

battling spam callers.

The signal processing group, including

“This new breed of electronic display

Professor Eliathamby Ambikairajah, “With the advent of VoIP telephony, one

will be so flexible you can wrap it around

Dr Mohaddeseh Nosratighods and PhD way of fending off spam telephone calls

things,” Associate Professor Ladouceur

student Tharmarajah Thiruvaran, was will be to use speaker identification to

says. “The winning technology is not yet

part of a consortium that ranked first in work out who is speaking before you let

available, but there is a whole industry out

an international evaluation run by the them through.”

there waiting for the breakthrough.”

US National Institute of Standards and

The team are hoping their approach of Technology in 2008.

utilising photonics and self-assembling THE OPPORTUNITY

The UNSW group has continued

polymer nanotechnology will give them Postgraduate research work in speaker

breaking new ground and publishing

the edge. The work has attracted the recognition, forensic voice comparison,

work challenging the main method for

interest of UK company Plastic Logic

characterising speech. The team has emotion recognition from speech and new

which is a leader in the field of non-silicon,

developed a piece of software – VolP communications technologies.

plastic-based electronics.

– that analyses digital speech waves and

gives greater identification accuracy.









30 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Grant Turner, Mediakoo









On track ... Dr Ray Eaton (left) and Associate Professor Jay Katupitiya









Good produce

Position is everything in the disparate worlds

of nanomaterials and agriculture.





Associate Professor Jay Katupitiya is meantime the team is developing a robotic 50 nanometres wide (a few-thousandths

hoping the hardest decision farmers will planter fitted with sensors that can correct the width of a human hair) and up to

soon have to make is which book to read errors introduced by the tractor to deposit several micrometres long.

while the crops are being sown. seeds at predetermined sites.

His work will involve national and

As one of the research leaders behind “If you control the planting and do that international collaborations with two of

the development of self-guiding tractors accurately, then the follow-up operations the world’s leading nanomaterials groups,

and robotic weeders and seeders, become easy,” says Associate Professor headed by ARC Laureate Fellow Professor

Professor Katupitiya believes autonomous Katupitiya. Chennupati Jagadish at ANU and

agriculture can take the tedium out of Professor Lars Samuelson at Sweden’s

“It becomes all about position. You are

farming while delivering greater efficiency Lund University.

not interested in what you are going to kill

and productivity.

when weeding, you are interested in “The materials aspects of nanowires

The work of Professor Katupitiya and killing anything that is in the wrong place.” are now becoming developed enough

colleagues, at the School of Mechanical to start exploring their potential for new

Position is also everything in the field

and Manufacturing Engineering along with electronic devices. My interest is in

of nanotechnology. UNSW researcher

Dr Ray Eaton, from the School of Electrical looking at possible uses of these wires

Associate Professor Adam Micolich is

Engineering and Telecommunications, for spintronics – devices where the

about to delve into the field of nanowire

is being funded by the Australian electron’s spin rather than its charge is

research as part of an ARC Future

agricultural industry. And industry has used for computing applications,” says

Fellowship. Professor Micolich, part of

shown a keen interest in protecting the Associate Professor Micolich.

the Quantum Electronic Devices Group

intellectual property already generated

within the School of Physics, is taking “The idea is that this takes what we’ve

by this research.

the group’s leading-edge work of the recently done at UNSW on developing

The big-ticket item is a self-guided tractor past five to 10 years in nanoelectronics whole quantum wires ... and transferring

that uses GPS and Inertial Navigation to see if it can be transferred across to that knowledge to new materials.”

System data for navigation and computer semiconductor nanowires.

software that steers and accelerates

In contrast to most nanoelectronic

the vehicle. THE OPPORTUNITY

devices, which are made by etching away

The pinpoint accuracy needed to achieve at a large semiconductor chip, nanowires Postgraduate research in the School

automated farming in Australia’s rough are self-assembled structures just of Physics, leading to a PhD or MPhil.

terrain is still to be mastered. In the Postgraduate research in autonomous

agriculture.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 31

Photo Grant Turner, Mediakoo

Ahead of the curve ... Professor Mark Bradford









Concrete proposals

UNSW engineers are strengthening structures and manipulating

precious metals to solve some of the built environment’s biggest problems.





From the great domes of Europe to the In Australia, new dome construction, silver, platinum and metal oxides and in

bridges of Sydney, time is taking its toll particularly from concrete, is rare particular their self-assembly structures.

on the materials that form our most because the structures face poorly

Dr Jiang hopes increasing knowledge of

iconic structures. understood stresses that can result in

how these metals perform at the nano-

catastrophic failure.

For Professor Mark Bradford, at the Centre level could lead to understanding how

for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety in The pair is using complex computer they can be manipulated to enhance

UNSW’s School of Civil and Environmental modelling to better understand the forces their capabilities.

Engineering, overcoming the effects of that can affect the integrity of curved

In particular Dr Jiang is working on

age, acid rain and climate change is a concrete forms.

developing new methods of encouraging

challenge he is ready to accept.

They have already built four-metre- self-assembly of these nanoparticles on

Supported by an ARC Discovery Grant, diameter domes and tested these in the a larger scale.

Professor Bradford and colleague Centre’s state-of-the-art heavy structures

He hopes his findings will be useful

Dr Ehab Hamed, are developing an research laboratory.

in developing new and complex

innovative retrofit approach that can

With cement being the second-most used nanostructures for use in industry

strengthen domes with externally

material on Earth next to water, Bradford applications such as gas sensing,

bonded composite materials.

says it makes sense to open up the catalysts and lithium ionic batteries.

Dr Hamed has already used the architectural possibilities of the resource.

“This is not a very new field, but there

technology on masonry buildings in

“Nobody previously had the expertise are many challenges still,” Dr Jiang says,

the Middle East with positive results.

to do the mathematical modelling of adding his work could lead to high-capacity,

Professor Bradford says the team has also concrete shells,” says Professor Bradford. low-cost and long life-span batteries that

had approaches from NSW Roads and “We are now developing these models.” could help reduce greenhouse emissions.

Traffic Authority to see if the technology

Dr Xuchuan Jiang, an ARC Future Fellow

can be used on infrastructure such as

within the School of Materials Science

bridges nearing the end of their life cycle, THE OPPORTUNITY

and Engineering is dealing with a rarer

or which need strengthening to cater for Graduate research work leading to a

resource to enhance capabilities.

increased traffic loads. Master of Engineering, Master of Science,

He is looking at the functional properties Master of Philosophy or PhD is available,

As part of their research they are also

and potential of low-dimensional as well as coursework in the School of

hoping to pioneer an innovative way

nanostructures of metals such as gold,

of building thin curved or domed Materials Science and Engineering.

concrete structures.









32 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Grant Turner, Mediakoo









Designing intelligence ... Professor Claude Sammut









Robots to the rescue

Fast-learning, intuitive and autonomous robots are

coming closer to reality.





A robot that searches for survivors in a “This highly promising technique of prototype is a maze game. Two players

collapsed building and then maps the learning by demonstration results in a have to cooperate to pick up treasures

site for human rescuers to follow would robot adapting to unknown and changing in the maze. We’ve been playing it at a

make search and rescue missions far circumstances,” Professor Sammut says. nursing home. People love it.”

less perilous.

As well as working on rescue robots, Other research by Dr Ryan focuses

Making it actually happen is the goal the group is striving to develop general on more efficient control of the giant

of the Artificial Intelligence Research cognitive abilities of robots. Under stevedoring robot cranes that move cargo

Laboratory, which is part of the ARC the leadership of Associate Professor around Australian ports.

Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Maurice Pagnucco, Dr Alan Blair and

He hopes the work will change the way

Systems. newly appointed Future Fellow, Professor

these multi-tonne cargo robots operate

Michael Tielscher, the researchers

The group at UNSW’s School of so that more of them are able to move

are investigating new methods for

Computer Science and Engineering has around without running into each other.

programming and learning complex

established an international reputation

problem-solving behaviour.

by harnessing the competitive spirit of

its researchers in the creation of highly The promise of making artificial THE OPPORTUNITY

innovative robotic software. intelligence work to greater effect while Several scholarships are available to

giving a richer interactive experience is students working towards a PhD or

Led by Professor Claude Sammut,

the ambit of yet another lecturer at the

the challenge has been to improve Masters by Research.

school: Dr Malcolm Ryan.

locomotion, navigation, sensing,

decision-making and learning in robots He uses computer games to help elderly

that are used in real-life situations. people who have suffered an injury

rehabilitate their sense of balance.

“The focus of most of our robotics

The work uses the same 3D vision

research is the use of machine learning

technology of the rescue robots to monitor

to help create autonomous systems,”

patients’ body movement in the game.

Professor Sammut says.

“Rehabilitation exercises are usually dull

A rescue robot is taught how to drive

and repetitive,” Dr Ryan says. “We want

over a simulated rubble field by capturing

to make them more motivating and fun

human input at a keyboard and then

by incorporating them into a computer

matching that with the images seen by

game. It’s called exergaming. Our current

the robot.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 33

Photo Frederick J Brown, AFP, Getty

Among the ruins ... a survivor of the Sichuan earthquake









Damage control

Technology being developed at UNSW is helping improve

responses to workplace and environmental disasters.





It’s hard to imagine greater need for between UNSW and a number of The simulators are teaching mineworkers

disaster risk management than in the Chinese authorities. how to survive potentially life-threatening

aftermath of the devastating Sichuan workplace hazards using virtual-reality

This partnership will not only help

earthquake and Victorian bushfires. mining environments.

Australian researchers monitor unfolding

Researchers from UNSW’s School of disasters, but will improve research Developed by UNSW’s School of Mining

Surveying and Spatial Information Systems capability on a range of environmental Engineering in a seven-year collaboration

played a leading role in the earthquake issues as well. with Coal Services Pty Ltd, the system

recovery effort in China, using radar re-creates hazardous situations through

UNSW is also making a difference in

satellites to survey the ground movements interactive training scenarios that are similar

another disaster zone with a team of

in the quake zone after the disaster. to a highly sophisticated computer game.

more than 80 scientists investigating the

Under the guidance of Associate Professor impact of the Samoa tsunami and helping “Our research efforts are directed

Linlin Ge, the group was among the the government enhance its disaster at developing new kinds of artistic

THE OPPORTUNITY

first in the world to generate a ground risk-management strategy. experiences that can also inspire innovative

displacement map of the region, showing The Australian Laureate Fellowship has

industrial and commercial applications,” a

The team is being led by Associate

earth surface upheaval while identifying strong focus Centre director, Professor

says iCinemaon building and mentoring

Professor Dale Dominey-Howes,

potential aftershock and landslide areas. the next generation

Dennis Del Favero. of PhD scholars.

co-director of the Australian Tsunami There are PhD opportunities for those

The School, headed by Professor Chris Research Centre and Natural Hazards They may not win an Oscar for their

interested in the area of Public Law.

Rizoz, is today recognised as a world Research Laboratory, a global leader in efforts, but the iCinema training technology

leader in satellite image technology. the field. could avert a mining disaster.

The power of this technology was again This Centre, also headed by Professor

revealed when bushfires ravaged Victoria James Goff, is unique in the region for

in 2009. its use of geologists, geographers, THE OPPORTUNITY

engineers, sociologists, policy scientists PhD and post-doctoral research

The team was able to pass on to Victorian opportunities are available, as are

and ecologists to gain a holistic

fire authorities high-resolution imagery industry and government partnerships.

understanding of hazards phenomena.

of the fire zones by accessing data from

Chinese satellites. At UNSW’s iCinema Centre disaster risk

management is all part of the game and

Scientists are now able to respond more

its award-winning iCASTS – (iCinema

effectively to disasters such as these

Advanced Safety Training Simulators)

because of a valuable new partnership

– are attracting great interest.









34 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Dr John Brackenbury, Science Photo Library









High fliers ... locusts might hold clues for researchers to develop microaircraft









With flying colours

The sky is the limit when it comes to aviation technology.







A dream of a microaircraft that mimics Limiting aircraft noise and emissions in The team is looking at composite

the flight of insects is more than just a the wider world of aviation is also a focus helicopter airframes and has developed

flight of fancy. of research at UNSW. models to predict how a frame might

behave under stress, such as in an

Dr John Young, at the School of Dr Sameer Alam, another ADFA-based

emergency landing.

Engineering and Information Technology researcher, has developed the Air Traffic

at the Australian Defence Force Academy and Operations Management Simulator “The particular response we are looking

(UNSW@ADFA), is using computer (ATOMS), the first system worldwide to for is a crushing behaviour that maximises

modelling to reveal how a locust’s wings integrate air-traffic modelling with data the energy that a structure can absorb,”

change shape during flight. and computations on aircraft noise and says Professor Kelly.

emissions.

The work, carried out in collaboration with The researchers are working with

Oxford University researchers, has been The system is used by Airservices Australia Australian Aerospace in a program

published in the journal Science. The to study the environmental impact of air directed by the Cooperative Research

team used high-speed cameras to film traffic procedures and is also the primary Centre for Advanced Composites

the wing movements of locusts then fed simulator in a study funded by the Structures. They hope to test the

the information into Dr Young’s 3D model, Eurocontrol Experimental Centre in Paris. crashworthiness of a new generation

which showed how the wing structure helicopter structure in Germany in 2010.

Simulation results from ATOMS show that

contributes to efficient flight. The knowledge the team is gaining on

savings of up to 30 percent are possible

carbon fibre performance and failure in

The findings are, Dr Young believes, on fuel and have resulted in reductions

airframes is improving helicopter safety

another step toward the creation of in flying time, carbon dioxide emissions

and positioning Australian industry

miniature aircraft. and noise.

to have world-leading design and

“Certainly these aircraft are going to “Many of the procedures aircraft now follow building capabilities.

be fielded in the next decade. They’re were developed in the 1970s without any

probably not going to be as sophisticated real scientific thought,” notes Dr Alam.

as nature’s flyers but we will see them,” THE OPPORTUNITY

“We can use our system to work out

Dr Young says. Postgraduate programs are open to

optimal routes and change flight plans to

And the work has real applications minimise noise and emissions.” civilians as well as defence personnel.

with the microaircraft already slated Scholarships are available.

In the School of Mechanical and

for deployment in areas as diverse as

Manufacturing Engineering, Professor Don

bushfire monitoring, search and rescue

Kelly and colleagues are not concerned with

and industrial accidents.

how planes fly, but rather how they crash.







www.research.unsw.edu.au 35

Researchers at UNSW are fighting for individuals’

rights, working to sustain the fabric of our communities

and helping people in developing countries.







Human rights

Green buildings

High-density housing

Welfare in the developing world

Mental health after the tsunami

Reducing drug harm

Emotional lives of men









36 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

CHAPTER FOUR:



CHANGING [ SOCIETY ]









www.research.unsw.edu.au 37

Photo Patrick Cummins

Democratic defender ... Professor George Williams









The rights stuff

Anti-terrorism laws are posing major challenges

for democratic nations.





Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, “Despite the volume of literature, much UNSW has also been instrumental in

democratic nations have enacted security about these laws remains to be examined the push for better protections federally.

laws of stunning scope and number. and understood,” he says. “There is Professor Williams, along with colleagues

War-like measures that were once also the prospect that more laws will be Andrew Lynch, Ed Santow and Paul

unthinkable – detention without charge, enacted in response to further terrorist Kildea at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre, and

heightened surveillance and new sedition attacks, like those in Mumbai.” Andrea Durbach and Andrew Byrnes

offences – are now accepted as normal. at the Australian Human Rights Centre,

Also to be investigated is the “leakage”

wrote submissions to the Federal inquiry

“The legal system has been fundamentally of exceptional measures into other areas

charged with determining whether

altered,” says Anthony Mason Professor of criminal law. “These measures ought

Australia needed formal human rights

of Law, George Williams. “In the past to have been contained in the terrorism

protections.

these extreme powers were for conflicts context, but they’re turning up in anti-bikie

like World War II which had a clear legislation. That’s a real concern,” he says. Chaired by UNSW Visiting Fellow Father

endpoint. But the conflict against terrorism Frank Brennan, the inquiry recommended

A second thrust of the research will

has no endpoint. Australia enact a human rights act.

address some of the thorniest issues

“It’s no longer an exceptional response to in public law; namely the adequacy of

a transient threat, but a long-term shift in oversight and review mechanisms to

the way the law works,” says Professor monitor the operation of the laws, and THE OPPORTUNITY

Williams, recently awarded an ARC the ability of human rights mechanisms The Australian Laureate Fellowship has a

Laureate Fellowship to investigate the to protect individuals. strong focus on building and mentoring

challenge these laws pose for democratic the next generation of PhD scholars.

“This is especially important in Australia

nations. There are PhD opportunities for those

in the absence of a human rights act,”

interested in the area of Public Law.

The prestigious Fellowship gives Professor Professor Williams says.

Williams, founding director of the Gilbert

The weakness in human rights protections

+ Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW,

in Australia has been a long-term concern

the resources for a detailed comparative

for UNSW’s legal researchers. In 2005

analysis of the scope and operation

Professor Williams chaired the Victorian

of the laws in countries ranging from

Human Rights Consultation Committee,

Australia and New Zealand, to India,

which led to the enactment of the first

the UK and the US.

Charter of Rights by an Australian state.









38 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Angela Wylie, fairfaxphotos.com









High-density housing ... apartment living may not be suitable for all









Future proofing Australia

The findings of UNSW sustainability researchers are

helping to shape critical public policy.





With the construction sector responsible Researchers at the City Futures Research to a huge drain on the public purse in

for around 30 to 40 percent of our annual Centre (CFRC) believe that buildings not the form of extended pensions.

global greenhouse gas emissions, a only have an effect on the environment,

The Australian Institute for Population

climate emergency could be averted but also on their inhabitants.

Ageing Research (AIPAR) has launched

by making our existing buildings more

“High-density housing may well be the the first nationwide Longevity Index

sustainable.

answer to Sydney’s urban sprawl but more designed to assess the effects of interest

“If we retrofit our existing buildings the than 50 percent of Sydney apartment rates, inflation and longevity on the cost

energy we’d save would reduce the dwellers are unhappy in their homes,” the of self-funded retirement.

need for additional power stations,” Centre’s Director Dr Bill Randolph says.

The researchers behind the index,

says Dr Peter Graham from the Faculty

He warns that the NSW Government’s the Australian School of Business’s

of Built Environment (FBE).

Metropolitan Strategy, which plans Professor Michael Sherris and Professor

“Carbon emissions can be reduced 640,000 new dwellings for Sydney – John Evans, say past modelling has

by 30 percent with little cost to the 70 percent of which will be high-density underestimated the population’s

economy and jobs can be created at – will only work if apartment living is longevity in light of improved medical

the same time.” made more appealing. treatments – leaving many financial

institutions scrambling to fund extended

Dr Graham has spent the past two years “Planning assumptions based on an

superannuation requirements.

with the United Nations Environment ideal type of apartment resident – young

Program in Paris coordinating the singles, couples and empty-nesters “These are the types of things that we

Sustainable Buildings & Climate – don’t sufficiently capture the complexity need to know and consider, when we’re

Initiative (SBCI). The SBCI aims to help of the apartment population. thinking about retirement decisions,” says

“mainstream” sustainable buildings Professor Sherris.

“The question is not whether more

globally and assist the industry in rapidly

apartments are a sustainable option but

reducing its greenhouse emissions. Much

whether increasing numbers of people THE OPPORTUNITY

of the work Dr Graham was coordinating

living in apartments can be sustained,” The CFRC works in partnership with the

at SBCI was released at the UN Climate

Dr Randolph says. community, government and business to

Change Conference in Copenhagen.

The nation’s sustainability is also contribute to the issues that impact on

“Australia lacks a consistent framework urban regions. Postgraduate research

influenced by Australia’s ageing

for policy that sets regulatory targets opportunities are available in FBE to urban

population.

for the industry, such as zero carbon or

researchers wanting to expand their skills.

zero energy buildings, that could help us The proportion of Australians aged 65 and

avoid the worst-case scenarios of climate Postgraduate research opportunities are

over is projected to almost double to a

change,” says Dr Graham. available in many areas of AIPAR’s work.

quarter of the population by 2050, leading





www.research.unsw.edu.au 39

Photo Ryan Pyle, Corbis

Struggling to survive ... an elderly woman cleans clams in Fujian province









A world of difference

From China to Papua New Guinea, UNSW researchers are

working for the good of some of the globe’s most vulnerable.







UNSW researchers are looking at welfare “Most of the population will remain Associate Professor Worth’s team is

and economic issues affecting the two dependent on old-age provision through also evaluating programs to reduce the

extremes of age in China. family support for many years to come,” transmission of HIV to newborn children.

says Professor Whiteford, also from

At the Social Policy Research Centre “This therapy is highly effective in

the SPRC.

(SPRC), Professor Ilan Katz and preventing HIV among newborns, but

Dr Xiaoyuan Shang are looking at the “The question is how do you create in PNG many women ... do not come

extent, nature and cause of child abuse a pension system that gives people back to an antenatal clinic to receive

in China. adequate incomes in retirement as the this treatment and many babies die from

Chinese population rapidly ages?” AIDS-related conditions,” she says. “Our

“Early findings reveal that most people in

research is aimed at finding out why.”

China would not do anything about child Closer to home, Associate Professor

abuse because they think it’s a private Heather Worth from the International HIV While infection rates in PNG have not

matter for the family,” Professor Katz says. Research Group is helping stem the HIV yet come down, the work of Associate

epidemic in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Professor Worth and her colleagues is

“There isn’t really a legal framework for

changing the way PNG responds to HIV

them to intervene when a child is being For the past three years, the UNSW

– ultimately saving lives.

abused so we need to help establish a team has worked with the PNG Institute

new child welfare law and a system for for Medical Research implementing the

responding to abuse.” HIV social research training program with

THE OPPORTUNITY

10 full-time, early-career researchers.

Their research will lead to a raft of PhD and Masters by Research programs

This program coincided with the first

recommendations to Chinese government in social research, particularly in Asia and

national HIV research agenda and

agencies. the Pacific.

provided a pool of well-trained

At the other end of the ageing spectrum, researchers where previously there

Professor Peter Whiteford is helping forge were few.

an effective national pension system for

“The HIV epidemic in Papua New

the Asian giant.

Guinea is serious,” says Associate

The research provides a detailed Professor Worth. “The estimated

description of the system over the past prevalence is more than two percent

30 years and assesses whether it has in adults, making it one of the

achieved its goal of social security for most HIV-affected countries in the

more people. Asia –Pacific region.”







40 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Dimas Ardian, Getty Images AsiaPac









Out of the shadows ... a survivor in Aceh remembers the tsunami









Healing power

When disaster strikes its impact is more than physical. Trauma is being dealt

with by UNSW researchers using methods from psychiatry to the fine arts.







When the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 mental health and livelihood interventions and South Africa examining responses to

rocked the Indonesian province of Aceh, to ease the trauma and poverty the epidemics and disasters.

it was just one more disaster in a decade people experience.

She has worked with the University of

of misery to strike the people.

“Aceh has a strict Islamic tradition and Ulster on an exhibition that examines

In the aftermath of the killer quake, that will be carefully taken into account the trauma of dispossession in Northern

UNSW researchers joined with non- in our research,” says Professor Bryant. Ireland, Indigenous Australia and South

government agencies to help deal with “We’re putting a lot of effort into Africa.

post-trauma and the mental health impact understanding local perceptions, idioms,

“Much of our work focuses on dimensions

of the catastrophe. terms and constructs to explain what’s

of traumatic experience that are not

happened and how people cope.

Yet it soon became apparent that the civil readily expressed or represented in

conflict and human rights abuses post- “Essentially what we’re trying to do is everyday language, but that needs to be

disaster, had mental health implications bring science to an international problem addressed if a reconciliation or conflict

far outstripping those of the tsunami itself. that traditionally has not been amenable resolution is to succeed,” she says.

to scientific study.”

Examining this phenomena is a “In this sense, art or creative expression

collaborative project between the UNSW In recent years there has been a is vital to expanding understanding and

Schools of Psychology and Psychiatry significant growth in trauma studies analysis of the effects of trauma. It can even

– under the stewardship of Australian among cultural researchers. directly assist a reconciliation process.”

Laureate Fellow Professor Richard

The UNSW Centre for Contemporary

Bryant, Professor Derrick Silove and

Art and Politics at the College of Fine

Dr Zachary Steel. THE OPPORTUNITY

Arts, under the directorship of Professor

The team is working with tsunami- Jill Bennett, has pioneered work on the Postgraduate research and PhD

displaced residents from the district study of trauma and its expression in art, scholarships exist in many study

of Barat – one of the worst hit areas in particularly in relation to post-conflict areas. Clinical and forensic psychology

the disaster – doing a series of needs communities. postgraduate programs include intensive

assessments and evaluations. professional training.

Professor Bennett is involved in

The ultimate aim is to develop whole- collaborative research projects with

of-community programs that combine academics in The Netherlands, China









www.research.unsw.edu.au 41

Photo Bruce Magilton, Newspix

Big Day Out ... young people were asked about drug use









Risky business

Research into reducing drug harm is targeting

a new generation of young people.





The number of people infected with contract hepatitis C within the first three In 2009 the study revealed that crystal

hepatitis C in Australia is on the decline years, less than 30 percent of young methamphetamine – or ’ice’ – use

– a happy development for educators adults exposed to injecting knew where fell across Australia, with NSW

targeting injecting drug users about the to access sterile needles. recording the steepest drop. This

dangers of sharing dirty needles. contrasted with a sharp increase in

“We need to be aware that injecting

cocaine use by the state’s injecting

But researchers warn a new generation is a part of young people’s social

and recreational users. “In a perfect

of teenagers and young adults may be networks and that, if educated properly,

world we’d like to see decreases in

falling through the education net. they can share information with their

all the drugs monitored,” says Chief

peers about reducing the harms.

Research shows that despite the decline Investigator Dr Lucy Burns.

in overall Hepatitis C cases, infection “This means we have to provide better

“We know people who are highly

rates are highest in people under 20. education to school-aged kids in order

dependent on drugs are unlikely to

to get that information to them before

According to an annual survey conducted stop, but at least we can focus on

they start to inject.”

at the Big Day Out concerts by the harm reduction by providing information

National Centre in HIV Social Research Reducing drug harm is also the focus for the implementation of targeted

(NCHSR), one in four young adults aged of another of the University’s premier policies.”

between 16 and 25 is aware of injecting national research centres.

drug use among their friends but has

In the past 10 years the National Drug

minimal knowledge of how hepatitis C THE OPPORTUNITY

and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC)

is transmitted. A comprehensive range of postgraduate

has coordinated the Illicit Drug Reporting

“Around 83 percent of infections are System and the Ecstasy and Related research opportunities exist at NDARC

caused by blood-to-blood contact through Drug Reporting System – Australia’s and NCHSR.

unsafe injecting practices yet a large largest drug-monitoring programs.

percentage of young people surveyed

The programs report on the price,

thought it could be caught from sharing

purity and availability of drugs and

toilets or kissing,” says Research Fellow

serve as an early warning system,

Dr Joanne Bryant.

identifying trends in illicit drug markets

Dr Bryant says the study is unique – essential information for governments,

because it captures young people before law enforcement agencies and

they start injecting. While most users health workers.









42 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Patrick Cummins









Men’s business ... Dr Clifton Evers explores the lives of surfers









Secret lives of men

The emotional lives of men are being revealed

through UNSW research.





Among surfers a pat on the back can The impact is likely to be worse for men “Intimacy is a very big part of their lives,

convey a wealth of meaning, while in who are single, separated, divorced or so for instance getting a pat on the back

retirement men often find their so-called widowed because of their lack of support, from an older guy means much more than

golden years tarnished by loneliness. he says. just hello,” he observes. “It means you are

bonded through shared experiences.”

These are just some of the insights into “I suspect that a lot of men would like

the secret life of men being revealed by to be more social in retirement, but they While young men might put surfing and

UNSW researchers. don’t know how to make new friends out their mates front and centre, they are still

of the work environment,” he says. exploring their emotional lives.

Social Policy Research Centre Research

Fellow Dr Roger Patulny says while social In contrast, surfing is predominantly the “The way they have learned to talk about

contact in older age is vital for wellbeing, domain of younger men, who hang out their emotional lives is by acting it out

research shows men are often isolated in groups. through a third object such as surfing,

– putting them at risk of depression and cars or sports stars,” he says.

Until now, however, there has been little

poor physical health.

understanding of the bonds uniting “They may talk about a mate and the

Before retirement, men and women spend devotees and their emotional lives. experiences that he is going through, but

similar time with family and friends outside really they are trying to work out what is

Dr Clifton Evers – a lifelong surfer

the household (70 minutes and 75 minutes going on for themselves.”

himself and Post-doctoral Fellow in the

respectively per day), he says.

Journalism and Media Research Centre

But post-retirement men retreat to their – debunks the idea of surfers as “straight

families, spending just 53 minutes a day as steel, strong as granite, austere and THE OPPORTUNITY

on social contact outside the home, while inviolate”. Postgraduate research possibilities are

women spend almost double that time available in journalism, media, cultural

“Young guys hang out in tight-knit studies and social policy work.

– 103 minutes – socialising outside.

crews,” he says. “There are strict pecking

“Retired men report a shift towards orders and through that they develop an

spending more time with partners emotional life.

– a finding strangely at odds with what

women say,” Dr Patulny says.









www.research.unsw.edu.au 43

UNSW research is changing the world – and so can you.

Whether it’s work on the environment, health care,

technology or society, there is room for your input.







Partnerships

New research hubs

Making a difference

Fellowships

Prizes









44 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

CHAPTER FIVE:



ENGAGING WITH [ RESEARCH ]









www.research.unsw.edu.au 45

Coming full circle ... OneSteel’s Paul O’Kane with Professor Veena Sahajwalla









Industrial Strength

Strong partnerships between researchers

and industry can take innovation to new levels.





Australian steel-maker OneSteel was OneSteel’s Sydney and Melbourne plants “We can do the research, but we can only

putting its engineering cadets are now manufacturing all their steel get as far as proving our work in the lab,”

through UNSW when it was introduced products, mainly for the construction says Professor Sahajwalla of the crucial

to a novel research project in the Materials industry, using the UNSW “polymer role of industry partners.

Science labs, which promised to take injection” green steel method.

“You are always going to have people

recycling to a new level.

“It was a very novel idea but the people who look at something new and are a bit

Five years later, having steered the in OneSteel wanted to do something unsure. So, you need industry leadership,

UNSW concept through industrial trials environmentally friendly,” says Mr O’Kane. to believe in the idea and to convert it into

at its Sydney steel plant, OneSteel has a commercial reality.”

“With the added benefit of reducing

turned Professor Veena Sahajwalla’s

electricity use, the potential to cut UNSW’s world-leading photovoltaics

idea into a reality.

production costs, increase productivity researchers will also benefit from a new

What OneSteel Technical and and create a competitive advantage for link with the leading international supplier

Development Manager, Paul O’Kane, an Australian-made product, in the face for the solar power industry, Germany’s

saw was a chance for a major steel of imports, was also very high.” Roth & Rau AG.

company to make a significant

OneSteel has continued its cadetship The company will set up a state-of-the-

environmentally friendly change. Electric

program with UNSW, providing art silicon solar cell production line on

arc furnace steel-making recycles scrap

scholarships for undergraduates in campus, in the $20m Solar Industrial

metal, so it is already an industrial-scale

the School of Materials Science and Research Facility, the first solar research

recycling process accounting for about

Engineering. and development facility of its kind

40 percent of steel production worldwide.

in Australia.

But, it’s also energy-hungry. Mr O’Kane sees the tie-up as the right

combination of educational, technical

Professor Sahajwalla had discovered that

and industrial experience to build the

waste plastic and tyres – which usually THE OPPORTUNITY

company’s next generation of managers.

clog landfill around the world – could The ARC links academics and industry

With the “green steel” collaboration,

be “mixed in” with the coke and coal through Linkage grants. In 2009, UNSW

OneSteel not only opened its own plant

in an electric arc furnace, creating a

up for industrial trials, but sponsored won $17.4 million in ARC Linkage grants,

cleaner, more efficient burn – and

five extra PhD students to work on the which brought a further $31.5 million

reducing the electricity required in the

research. to the table in co-contributions from

steel-making process.

industry and other partners.









46 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Photo Patrick Cummins









A grand vision ... the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at UNSW









New research hubs

Two new places of research, made possible by significant donations

from philanthropists, will facilitate ground-breaking research at UNSW.





The Lowy Cancer Research Centre, The Centre’s existence is in no small way CERPA is the first place in Australia to

officially opened in 2010, is the first due to the vision of businessman and cover all aspects of energy research – from

research centre in Australia to bring philanthropist Mr Frank Lowy, whose family renewable technologies and sustainable

together childhood and adult cancer agreed to donate $10 million toward the fossil fuel use to markets policy.

research at the one site. The $100 million- cost of the new building - the largest single The institute will be housed in UNSW’s

plus facility houses up to 400 researchers philanthropic donation ever received by

from UNSW and the Children’s Cancer flagship research facility, the Tyree Energy

the University. Technologies Building (TETB), which is due

Institute Australia (CCIA), making it one

of the largest dedicated cancer research A new energy research institute at UNSW, for completion in 2012.

centres in the Southern Hemisphere. the Centre for Energy Research and The $125 million building is supported

UNSW is a leader in the field of adult Policy Analysis (CERPA), is providing a by $75m in funding under the federal

cancer research with internationally groundbreaking approach to fuelling our government’s Education Investment Fund

recognised medical scientists such as future in a clean, sustainable way. and is one of the first such projects to get

inaugural Centre Director Professor Philip under way.

The multidisciplinary Institute brings

Hogg and Professors Robyn Ward and UNSW alumnus Sir William Tyree,

together the capabilities of seven UNSW

Levon Khachigian (see pages 18 and 19). after whom the building is named, has

faculties: Engineering, Science, Law, Arts

They are teamed at the new Centre with and Social Sciences, Built Environment, the generously donated $1 million towards the

CCIA’s renowned childhood cancer Australian Defence Force Academy and the building and pledged a further bequest of

researchers, including Professors Michelle $10 million.

Australian School of Business.

Haber, Murray Norris and Glenn Marshall.

Photo FJMT Architects









Engineering a new future ... an artist’s impression of the Tyree Energy Technologies Building, viewed from Anzac Parade



www.research.unsw.edu.au 47

Photo Steve Lunam copyright Australian Museum

Leading

the

field









Royal Society of NSW Edgeworth 2009 Khwarizmi International Awards

Major research prizes David Medal Professor Brett Neilan

awarded in 2009 Associate Professor Adam Micolich School of Biotechnology and

School of Physics Biomolecular Sciences

ENI Renewable and Non-Conventional (see page 31) (see above)

Energy Award

Eureka Prize for Scientific NSW Scientist of the Year Award

Professor Martin Green Research (sponsored by UNSW) – Physics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry

ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence and Astronomy

(see pages 6 and 7) Professor Justin Gooding

School of Chemistry Associate Professor Linlin Ge

Premier’s Award for Outstanding (see pages 22–23) School of Surveying and Spatial

Cancer Researcher of the Year Information Systems

Eureka Prize for Water Research (see page 34)

Professor Philip Hogg and Innovation

UNSW’s Cancer Research Centre NSW Scientist of the Year Award

(see page 19) Professor Brett Neilan

School of Biotechnology and – Engineering, Mathematics and

Biomolecular Sciences Computer Sciences

Sir William Upjohn Medal

(see pages 12–13) Professor Gernot Heiser

Professor David Cooper

School of Computer Science and

National Centre in HIV Epidemiology NSW Scientist of the Year Award Engineering and NICTA

and Clinical Research – Environment, Water and Climate

(see page 16) Change Sciences Green Globe Awards – Sustainability

Professor Brett Neilan Champion Category

Australian Academy of Sciences

Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal School of Biotechnology and Professor Stuart Wenham

Biomolecular Sciences ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence

Professor Victor Flambaum

(see above) (see pages 6 and 7)

School of Physics









48 Research@UNSW 2010 –2011

Celebrating at the Eureka Awards ... UNSW individual finalists (l–r) Professors Levon Khachigian, Justin Gooding, Brett Neilan,

Associate Professor Greg Leslie and Professor Stuart Wenham. Not pictured: the team from the iCinema Centre









Royal Australian Chemical Institute 2009 NHMRC Academy (inaugural)

RK Murphy Medal

Major Fellowships

Professor Bruce Brew

Professor Neil Foster St Vincent’s Clinical School awarded in 2009

School of Chemical Sciences

and Engineering 2009 NHMRC Academy (inaugural) NHMRC Australia Fellowship

(see page 24) Professor Glenda Halliday

Prince of Wales Medical Professor George Paxinos

2009 Fulbright Senior Scholarship Research Institute Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute

Associate Professor John Foster

2009 NHMRC Academy (inaugural) Professor Levon Khachigian

School of Biotechnology

Centre for Vascular Research

and Biomolecular Sciences Professor Andrew Lloyd (see page 18)

(see pages 22 and 23) School of Medical Sciences



2009 Fulbright Professional Scholarship ARC Laureate Fellowship

2009 NHMRC Academy (inaugural)

Dr Vanessa Hayes Professor Mark Harris Professor Richard Bryant

Children’s Cancer Institute Australia School of Public Health & Community School of Psychology

for Medical Research Medicine (see page 41)



2009 NHMRC Academy (inaugural) Professor George Williams

School of Law

Professor Richard Bryant

(see page 38)

School of Psychology

(see page 41)









www.research.unsw.edu.au 49

Photo Britta Campion

Making

a difference





If you would like to collaborate with Students interested in pursuing a

UNSW researchers and/or would like postgraduate research opportunity

to explore the possibility of an industry should contact:

partnership please contact:

Graduate Research School

Office of the Deputy

The Graduate Research School is the

Vice-Chancellor (Research)

central administrative and support unit

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) for all students enrolled in PhD, MPhil

is responsible for driving the strategic and Masters by Research higher degrees

research direction, in particular, at UNSW and their supervisors.

maintaining and advancing the University’s

Phone: + 61 2 9385 5500

profile in research and research training,

Fax: + 61 2 9385 6238

as well as technology transfer.

Email: enquiries.grs@unsw.edu.au

Room 137, The Chancellery, UNSW Web: www.grs.unsw.edu.au

Phone: + 61 2 9385 2700

Fax: + 61 2 9385 8008

Email: enquiries.research@unsw.edu.au For information on commercialisation

Web: www.research.unsw.edu.au possibilities please contact:



Postal Address: NewSouth Innovations

The University of New South Wales

UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052 NewSouth Innovations Pty Limited (NSi)

Australia is UNSW’s commercialisation arm and

specialises in transforming research and

Office of Media and technology developed at UNSW into

Communications successful ventures or products.



The Office of Media and Communications Phone: + 61 2 9385 5008

is responsible for the management Fax: + 61 29385 6502

of internal and external communications Email: m.bennett@nsinnovations.com.au

and handles all media liaison for Web: www.nsinnovations.com.au

the University.

UNSW Foundation

Phone: + 61 2 9385 3249

Fax: + 61 2 9385 1683 The UNSW Foundation Limited, a

Email: j.brookman@unsw.edu.au registered charity, is a company limited

Web: www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/ by guarantee. Registered in 1988, the

articles/index.html company is linked to the University by

a trust deed and is the principal vehicle

for UNSW’s fundraising activities.

It oversees the raising of philanthropic

gifts for scholarships, research and

capital projects.

Phone: + 61 2 9385 3202

Fax: + 61 2 9385 3278

Email: unswfoundation@unsw.edu.au

Web: www.unsw.edu.au/alumni/pad/

alfoundation.html









50 Research@UNSW 2010 -2011

–2011 Looking to the future ... detail of the Law Building at UNSW

Credits









Produced for the UNSW Office of the

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) by the

Office of Media and Communications

Managing Editor: Mary O’Malley

Editor: Susi Hamilton

Deputy Editor: Fran Strachan

Sub-editor: Dani Cooper

Proofreader: Pam Dunne

Design and production: Tonic Connective

Contributors:

Bob Beale, Dani Cooper, Anabel Dean, Dan

Gaffney, Susi Hamilton, Denise Knight, Steve Offner,

Fran Strachan, Peter Trute and Louise Williams

Copyright:

The University of New South Wales, January 2010.

CRICOS Provider No: 000098G

ISSN: 1836-1978 (Print)

ISSN: 1836-1986 (Online)





Printed on recycled paper:

Spicers Monza Satin Recycled









www.research.unsw.edu.au 51