Research Groups

Welcome to our group website!

Our research interests are in the broad areas of nanobiotechnology and bio-organic chemistry. The approach we have taken is the bio-mimetic one, i.e. to look to Nature for inspiration for solving the challenges ahead, especially as Nature provides us with many functional examples of nanotechnology in action.

For further information about our work, please browse through this website and have a look at our research, techniques, and publication pages.

News

We're on the front cover of Nanotechnology! Full review article here: Nanotechology, 2007, 18, 412001 and discussion on nanotechweb.

Interested in joining our group? Up to $35,000 per year in Ph.D. Scholarships for top Australian and New Zealand Honours students available at UNSW! Please contact me before 31st October 2007 for further information.

Our Katie Tong, graduates with B.Sc. Honours! More photos here.

Daniel (Danny) Goldstein, Ph.D. student (B.Sc. Hons. - UNSW) joins the group!

Nature Nanotechnology article on single molecule imaging of a porphyrin catalyst is out (Nature Nanotechnlogy, 2007, 2, 285-289).

Article on solid-state polymer/C60/porphyrin solar cells now on the web at J. Phys. Chem., C, 2007.

Dr. Pall Thordarson

Pall Thordarson (Palli) was born and raised on a farm in Vopnafjörður, Iceland. He undertook his B.Sc. (Chemistry) at the University of Iceland before heading to Australia in 1997 to do a Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Maxwell J. Crossley at the University of Sydney. After completing his thesis in 2001 he obtained a Marie Curie Fellowship to work with Prof. Roeland J. M. Nolte and Prof. Alan E. Rowan at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Dr. Thordarson returned to Australia in 2003 to take up an independent position as a Sesqui Research Fellow with a joint position at the Electron Microscope Unit and the School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney. He currently holds an Australian Research Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (ARC) which he obtained in 2006. Dr. Pall Thordarson moved to the School of Chemistry at UNSW to take up a position as a Senior Lecturer in November 2007.

His publication record includes a paper in Nature and several papers in high-impact chemistry journals such as J. Am. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. More details about the work of Dr. Pall Thordarson are available in his CV.

Facilities

Our group will be moving to the School of Chemistry, UNSW at the end of 2007. The School of Chemistry at UNSW features a brand-new Chemistry Building (opened in December 2006) with state-of-the-art facilities for Chemistry Research. The School is conveniently located on top of the Analytical Centre that houses centralised NMR, MS, Surface analysis and Microscopy facilities for UNSW. We also have strong ties with Dr. Timothy Schmidt's laser spectroscopy laboratory at The University of Sydney and the Electron Microscope Unit, The University of Sydney, which is one of the most advanced microscopy facilities in the world with state-of-the-art instrumentation in areas such as TEM and SEM plus a range of other microscopy techniques including AFM, STM and fluorescence microscopy.

Want to know more?

Interested students with Australian or New Zealand permanent residency and a first class B.Sc. Honours are most welcome to apply for a position in our group. Currently, UNSW is offering up to $35,000 per year in a Ph.D. Scholarship for top B.Sc. Honours students from Australia and New Zealand. International students are advised that fees for international students are currently above $22,000 and the competition for International Post-graduate Research Scholarships (IPRS) is extremely strong. That said, international students with interest in our work, top academic performance (at least > 80% average for B.Sc.), some research experience and good communication skills are encouraged to seek further information about research opportunities in our group. We also have substantial experience in collaboration with industry and we welcome inquiries about consultation or research collaboration.

For further information simply visit our contact page or give Palli a call on +61-(0)2-9385-4478.