School of Chemistry

The School of Chemistry would like to express a hearty thanks to Wilsmore Fellow Dr Nick Chilton from the University of Manchester, for the brilliant EPR workshop that he ran this week.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Colette Boskovic, Associate Professor Craig Hutton, and Professor Gavin Reid for each successfully obtaining an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project grant. Together they have received over $1.25 million, contributing to the Faculty of Science’s total of nearly $9.75 million.

Faculty of Science researchers will share in more than $12 million dollars of funding from the latest ARC round of grants.

In a long running collaboration with Prof. David Goldberg (Johns Hopkins University), the Jameson lab, including PhD candidates Josh Prendergast and Zahra Shirani-Sarmazeh, have published a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Based on a big-data analysis of publications and citations by League of Scholars, the most recent edition of The Australian’s Research Magazine named the following researchers of The School of Chemistry as young up-and-coming Australian leaders in their respective fields:- Dr Lars Goerigk in “Molecular Modeling”- Dr Marc-Antoine Sani (Separovic group at Bio21) in “Biophysics”

Congratulations to the Goerigk group who published a front-cover article in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), which also got selected for PCCP’s themed collection of “2018 hot articles” [1]. The paper addresses the every-growing and confusing “zoo" of double-hybrid density functional theory (DFT) methods.

In a paper published today in Advanced Energy Materials PhD student Saghar Masoomi‐Godarzi (Jones Group) describes a new class of materials that promote intra-molecular Singlet Fission. This process, which takes high energy photons and creates two low energy photons, has been demonstrated in new advanced organic semiconductor materials where the two excitons are hosted on the same molecule. Theory suggests that the maximum efficiency of solar cells can be increased from 32% to around 45% by incorporating SF materials.

Seven University of Melbourne staff members and associates have been selected to participate in the Homeward Bound global leadership initiative for women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine).

University of Melbourne coordination chemists Paul Donnelly and Colette Boskovic were recently invited to contribute articles to a special issue of Coordination Chemistry Reviews celebrating Coordination Chemistry in Australia.

Alice O’Rourke (University of Birmingham), the 2018 International Museums & Collections Award winner, has just completed a new themed exhibition on the ground floor of the Chemistry Building.

Congratulations to PhD student Gemma Gransbury on winning a poster prize at the International Conference on Molecule-based Magnets (ICMM2018) in Rio de Janeiro.

This week, the School of Chemistry welcomed three students from Humboldt University (HU), Berlin, as part of the exchange program recently established by Associate Professor Uta Wille.

The School of Chemistry celebrated its annual Student Awards evening on 15th August to celebrate the achievements of our outstanding students of 2017.

Congratulations to Boskovic Group PhD student Maja Dunstan, who has received an Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Postgraduate Research Award.

Academic staff and graduate researchers from the School of Chemistry engaged in spirited discussions at the Women in Chemistry panel discussion as part of the Science Festival.

Kolev Group PhD student Lenka O'Connor Sraj has received a travel award of US$400 from the SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) North America Awards and Fellowship Committee.

Dr Czyz has joined the School of Chemistry as part of the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre (Chemical Industries) within the Polyzos Group. She is a synthetic organic chemist and will lead industry engagement in photoredox catalysis and flow chemistry.

Dr Chris Ritchie and colleagues have published a paper on a new class of self-assembled molecules for advanced materials.

Professors Jon Barnett and Madeleine van Oppen were among those awarded Laureate Fellowships by the Australian Research Council, with five Future Fellowships also awarded to Faculty of Science researchers.

Crystallographers at the University of Melbourne received a boost following the installation of a state-of-the-art small molecule X-ray diffraction (XRD) machine.

Congratulations to Boskovic Group PhD student Gemma Gransbury, who has just received an Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Postgraduate Travel Bursary.

Professor Sue Thomas, CEO of the Australian Research Council, and representatives from major chemical companies, industry groups and partner universities joined University of Melbourne staff for a breakfast hosted by the ARC Training Centre for the Chemical Industries at the Woodward Conference Centre on Thursday.

Professor Frances Separovic was the featured guest of the most recent Eavesdrop on Experts podcast. Speaking with presenter Dr Andi Horvath, she reflects on the road she has travelled, from school in Broken Hill to Deputy Director of the Bio21 Institute.

A recent article featuring Professor Richard O'Hair has been published in ChemComm (Chemical Communications).

Congratulations to Lenka O’Connor Šraj, Dr Inês Almeida, Chelsea Bassett, Associate Professor Ian McKelvie, and Professor Spas Kolev for the publication of a news story on the their research on the Elsevier Chemistry page.

Congratulations to Boskovic Group MSc student Aiden Atkin on the award of an Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Honours Scholarship for his project “Inelastic Neutron Scattering of Lanthanoid Complexes”.

The School of Chemistry and the Chemistry Institute at Humboldt University of Berlin are offering third year students the opportunity to complete the research component of the Chemical Research Project CHEM30013 in Germany over 8 weeks between December 2018 and February 2019 whilst experiencing the German culture and a Winter lifestyle.

Congratulations to Dr Tessa Young, a recent PhD graduate from Tony Wedd’s lab, who has been awarded a Durham International Junior Research Fellowship (Durham University, UK).

In a long running collaboration with Prof. David Goldberg (Johns Hopkins University), the Jameson group, including PhD candidate Josh Prendergast, have published a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. This investigation is part of a joint NIH grant.

The first female chemistry professor in Victoria, Frances Separovic forged her career against the odds, and has just been named a ‘trailblazer’ on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Former University of Melbourne student, Professor Christine McKenzie (University of Southern Denmark), inspired women early career researchers at the School of Chemistry’s Inaugural International Women’s Day networking lunch.

A recent article published by Dr Chris Ritchie and PhD student Hedi Karoui detailing the microwave-assisted synthesis, characterization and post-synthetic modification of a series of polyoxometalates has been featured on the front cover of RSC journal New Journal of Chemistry.