Research in the School of Chemistry & Physics

Energy and Environment

Professor Andrew Abell, Professor Michael Bruce, Dr Christian Doonan, Dr Hugh Harris, Dr David Huang, Professor Stephen Lincoln, Associate Professor Greg Metha, Dr Chris Sumby

Researchers in this area undertake fundamental research into the key areas of energy usage, storage and demand,
and environmental chemistry.

Examples of projects include:

• Application of carbon dioxide as a primary reagent for the formation of useful organic molecules
• Gas storage with metal-organic frameworks
• Optimisation of dye-sensitised solar cells
• Nanocatalysis
• Determination of heavy metal contaminants in tissue samples

Functional Materials

Professor Andrew Abell, Professor Michael Bruce, Professor Stephen Lincoln, Associate Professor Simon Pyke, Dr Christian Doonan, Dr Chris Sumby

Research in this theme is focussed on the design and construction of new molecules and molecular assemblies,
which can be utilised in the generation of new materials, such as polymers, proteins, peptides, catalysts, molecular devices, sensors, and probes.

Examples of projects include

• General approaches to protein ligand design: new therapies and biological probes
• Applications of cyclodextrins to the design of molecular devices and smart materials
• Supramolecular chemistry of [3]-radialenes
• Complexes with carbon chains as models for molecular wires

Medicinal and Biological Chemistry

Professor Andrew Abell, Professor John Bowie, Professor John Carver, Professor Stephen Lincoln, Dr Tak Kee, Associate Professor Simon Pyke, Dr Jonathan George, Dr Hugh Harris, Dr Peter Hoffmann, Dr Tak Kee, Dr Tara Pukala

Researchers in this area investigate the chemistry of proteins and peptides, for example to answer important biological questions relating to the development and prevention of diseases. Further work in this area focuses on drug design and development, including the identification and synthesis of novel small molecules to block or activate cellular targets.

Examples of projects include:

• Molecular chaperone proteins: their structure, function and interactions
• Enzyme mimics and molecular reactors
• Structural determination of proteins using mass spectrometry and NMR
• Structure-based drug design
• Synthesis of natural products

Molecular Photoscience

Professor John Bowie, Associate Professor Greg Metha, Dr Tak Kee, Dr Hugh Harris, Dr Peter Hoffmann, Dr Tara Pukala

Researchers in this area investigate the application of light and mass spectrometry as central chemical research tools to gain insight into the chemical and physical properties of molecules. Computational chemistry using state-of-the-art high performance computers underpins these experimental studies.

Examples of projects include:

• Interstellar chemistry
• Ultra-sensitive chemical detection using cavity ring-down spectroscopy
• Non-invasive chemical imaging of cells and tissues
• Investigation into gas phase metallic and bi-metallic clusters

Atmospheric Physics

Professor Iain Reid, Professor Bob Vincent, Dr Andrew MacKinnon

The group is interested in all aspects of the physics of the atmosphere (and ionosphere) from the ground up to altitudes near 100 km. It develops and exploits new radar, passive and active optical techniques and GPS and other satellite techniques for remote sensing of the atmosphere.

• Meteoroid fragmentation with radio holography
• GPS measurements for ground and space
• Radar investigation of the turbulence and radio-wave scatters in the lower atmosphere
• Lidar and passive optical studies of the atmosphere
• Radar imaging and radar interferometry of the atmosphere

Geophysics

Professor Stewart Greenhalgh

Researchers in this area conduct theoretical and experimental studies using elastic and electromagnetic
waves to image the Earth’s interior on a variety of scales. The primary emphasis is on sensor technology, digital signal processing, numerical modelling and inverse theory.

• Laboratory investigations of electrical resistance tomography in anisotropic media
• Reflection of seismic waves from attenuating and poro-elastic ocean bottom sediments
• Full waveform inversion of cross hole radar data for conductivity and permittivity distributions

High Energy Astrophysics

Professor Roger Clay, Professor Bruce Dawson, Associate Professor Ray Protheroe, Dr Gavin Rowell

The group has broad interests in high energy astrophysics at energies from sub-TeV to the highest particle energies known. They are members of large international collaborations, including Pierre Auger, H.E.S.S. and LUNASKA.

• Auger Project: Cosmic ray energy and mass composition
• Cosmic ray production and intergalactic propagation
• Study of the solar cycle using the Buckland Park muon array
• TeV gamma-ray astronomy (HESS) and detector development
• Optical monitoring of variable and flaring astronomical sources
• LUNASKA Project: Observation of high energy neutrinos by detection of lunar Cherenkov radio waves
• Extreme astrophysics at TeV gamma ray energies
• Radio to X-ray observations of high energy sources

Medical Physics

Dr Mohammad Mohammadi, Dr Eva Bezak

This program operates in collaboration with Medical Physicists in Adelaide hospitals. The main areas of research are modelling of the growth and destruction of tumours, verification of dose delivered in radiotherapy and image reconstruction techniques.

• Dose distribution studies in prostate brachytherapy
• Proton energy deposition in tissue
• Air-cavity measurements for intensity modulated radiotherapy
• Monte Carlo simulation of air cavity effects on X-ray dose deposition

Optics and Photonics

Professor Tanya Monro, Professor Jesper Munch, Associate Professor Murray Hamilton, Associate Professor Peter Veitch, Dr David Ottaway

Research by this group encompasses all aspects of photonics: the science, development and application of coherent light, and classical optics. It includes collaborations with exciting international projects to develop gravitational astronomy (LIGO, VIRGO and TAMA), for nextgeneration optical telescopes (Gemini) and remote sensing (BoM, WA DoE).

The Centre of Expertise in Photonics also has worldleading facilities for the development and fabrication of new softglass optical fibres, lasers and sensors.

• Surface characterisation, wavefront sensing and adaptive optics
• High power solid-state lasers
• Bio-optics: exploiting design features of insect eyes
• Atmospheric water vapour spectroscopy
• Fibre lasers in the infra-red
• Extreme non-linear effects in optical fibres
• Large mode area mid-infrared fibres
• Fibre-optic detection of viruses and water quality
• Photon-electron interactions within optical fibres

Theoretical Physics

Professor Derek Leinweber, Professor Tony Thomas, Professor Tony Williams, Associate Professor Max Lohe, Dr Rod Crewther, Dr Waseem Kamleh, Dr Ross Young

This group is internationally renowned for their research exploring the fundamental quantum field theories of the Standard Model of the Universe. As home of the Centre for Complex Systems and Structure of Matter (C2SSM), significant advances have been made in unveiling the nature of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory describing the interactions between quarks and gluons as they compose particles such as the proton. Supporting nuclear and particle physics facilities around the world, their work reveals the most fundamental aspects of nature and explores the extreme conditions of neutron stars, supernova explosions and the early universe.

• Lattice QCD, numerical simulations on parallel supercomputers
• Quark confinement, symmetry breaking and mass generation
• Advanced visualizations of lattice-QCD data sets
• Neutrinos: flavour oscillations and mass
• Chiral effective field theory
• Quantum computation, entanglement and information processing
• Axion phenomenology and photon production in intense fields
• Finite-dimensional quantum affine algebras and their applications
• Topological defects of monopoles and vortices in the Standard Model

University Institutes and Research Centres with Affliated Researchers

• The Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing
• Centre for Expertise in Photonics

Institutions with Affiliated Researchers

• Australian Synchrotron
• Bureau of Meteorology
• Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing)
• CSIRO
• Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO)
• e-Research SA
• European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (Trento)
• Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington (Seattle, USA)
• LIGO Scientific Collaboration (USA, Japan, Europe)
• Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH)
• Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (USA)
• University of Canterbury
• University of Cambridge
• University of New South Wales
• University of Sydney