School of Chemistry, UNSW

News and Events

Video Competition for High School Students

Ready, steady and action - enter our video competition! The topics for this year are Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology. The competition is open to all NSW high school students in years 7-12, submit your videos individually or as a team. So get creative and you could win prizes! Competition closes Monday 7 October 2013, for more details see this pdf document. Please make sure you read all of this document before submitting your entry.

Howard Fellowship 2014 - Call for Applications

The School of Chemistry invites applications for a short-term visiting lectureship from an eminent academic in the discipline of chemistry to spend a period of 4 to 6 weeks in the School. The successful applicant will deliver a research lecture, meet with UNSW researchers, and deliver a series of undergraduate lectures. It is anticipated that the successful applicant will be able to establish productive research collaborations with staff at UNSW, potentially leading to new funding opportunities. Further information is available from this leaflet.

Neptune Bio-Innovations Industry Partnership Undergraduate Award

The Neptune Bio-Innovations Induatry Partnership Awards, valued at $3000 per annum for up to four years, is available to students who plan to major in Chemistry. There are two awards and they are open to students currently enrolled in their first semester at UNSW and undertaking either CHEM1011, CHEM1031 or CHEM1051; selection will be based on your academic background and performance at interview. Further details are available in the attached brochure. Closing date for application is 31 May, 2013.

Cover Article in Angewandte Chemie for Steve Colbran

Exactly one hundred years after Alfred Werner received his Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1913 for his coordination theory of transition metal complexes and over 100 years since Arthur Hantzsch, Werner's Ph.D. supervisor, discovered a route to dihydropyridines, the work of A/Prof. Steve Colbran, Ph.D. student Alex McSkimming, and Mohan Bhadbhade (Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre) on rhodium complex-Hantzsch pyridine conjugates is featured on the front cover of Angewandte Chemie. A/Prof. Colbran's group at UNSW have demonstrated that their novel conjugates efficiently catalyse the transfer hydrogenation of imines in air under ambient conditions; a key catalysis step which mimics that occurring in metallo-(de)hydrogenase enzymes.

Research Grant Successes

The research excellence of the School of Chemistry was recognised in the recent ARC outcomes for funding commencing in 2013; academics from the School were awarded a total of $2.1M over the 3 years 2013-2016; $1.39M in Discovery Projects and $700k in DECRAs.

Assoc. Prof. Steve Colbran led a grant entitled 'A new metalloprotein-inspired methodology for energy-efficient chemical reduction' worth $310k with Prof. Les Field and Dr. Graham Ball; Dr. Jason Harper won $360k to look at 'Getting the reaction outcomes you want: towards solvent-controlled reactivity using ionic liquids'; Prof. Barbara Messerle was awarded $390k for 'Turning homogeneous catalysts into heterogeneous catalysts: Robust linking of organometallic complexes onto inert carbon supports' and Assoc. Prof. Pall Thordarson received $330k to investigate 'How are self-assembled gels formed? From trial-and-error to rational molecular design'; all of these being DPs.

The DECRAs went to Dr. Leigh Aldous, $325k for his project entitled 'Lignin in ionic liquids: electrochemical approaches towards delignification and depolymerisation', whilst new appointment Dr. Alex Donald was awarded $375k for his application 'Strike while the iron is hot - structure and reactivity of iron-oxo complexes that mimic carbon-hydrogen bond activating enzymes'.

In addition, Prof. Brynn Hibbert was a co-author on a Materials Science DP led by Prof. David Young entitled 'Heat-resisting iron-nickel base alloys in challenging new applications: oxygen permeabilities and resistance to internal oxidation' that was awarded $460k.

Naresh Kumar was awarded a UNSW Goldstar Award of $40,000 for research into 'Antimicrobial biomaterials to reduce implant related bacterial infections'.

Congratulations also to Shelli McAlpine on the award of a $443K grant (announced on 19 October, 2012) from the National Health and Medical Research Council for "Developing novel molecules that target hormone receptors as an alternative cancer therapy."

Southern Highlands Conference on Heterocyclic Chemistry

This annual residential conference has become a feature of the heterocyclic calendar over the past 24 years. Details of the 2013 conference, including registation form, are available here.

UNSW/ARC scholarships offered for "New methodology for organo-transition metal catalysis"

Two Ph.D. scholarships are on offer to research a conceptually new methodology that exploits sophisticated organo-transition metal-organo-hydride conjugates as catalysts for asymmetric reduction of unsaturated organic substrates and for energy-efficient reduction of CO₂. The successful candidates will be co-supervised by A/Prof. Steve Colbran, Prof. Les Field, and Dr. Graham Ball. Details of both scholarships are available in this document.

UNSW and Bragg Institute (ANSTO) scholarship on "Switchable Magnetism"

The aim of this project is to deliver crystalline materials displaying host:guest modulation of their bulk magnetic properties. The research will focus on magnetic materials consisting of molecular units in polymeric coordination complexes, the only materials able to provide the dramatic flexibility and control of both the lattice topologies and magnetic dimensionalities that are required for this work. The successful candidate will be co-supervised by A/Prof. John Stride (UNSW) and Dr. Richard Mole (ANSTO). (Full details available here)