10 - MIC
1007 Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology involves the development of materials with new functionality and
applications through design and manipulation at the nanoscale, with application in areas as
diverse as sustainable energy, biomaterials, electronics, environmental remediation, drug and
gene delivery, and other aspects of biomedical research. It is a major strength at UQ, with
vigorous fundamental and applied research programs in all of these areas. Activity is centred
at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), which hosts the
ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials (ARCCFN), and the Schools of
Chemical Engineering; Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences; and Mathematics and Physics.
There are currently 72 FTE RHD candidates enrolled with projects focusing in
nanotechnology and 37 have been awarded during 2003-08
AIBN moved into a $76M building in 2006 and has 19 group leaders and over 350
researchers. Of the group leaders, 9 are fully involved in nanotechnology and a further 4 are
partially involved. Publication in 2009 included over 200 peer reviewed journal articles
(76% A*/A) and book chapters. Since its inception the AIBN has hosted 3 Federation
Fellowships, 2 ARC QEII/ARF fellowships; 4 ARC Future Fellowships; 2 ARC APDs; 2
NHMRC research fellowships, 1 NHMRC postdoctoral fellowship; 1 Qld Premier’s
Fellowship and 6 Qld Smart Futures Fellowships.
Amongst its staff AIBN, Professors Gray, Lu and Middelberg are all Fellows of the Academy
of Technological Sciences and Engineering and Professor Campbell is a Fellow of the
Australian Academy of Science. Professor Lu was recent recognition by Thompson Reuters
as an ISI Highlighted Researcher in Materials Science. Further, Engineers Australia has listed
AIBN Director, Professor Gray, and Group Leaders Professor Lu and Middelberg as amongst
Australia’s 100 Most influential Engineers.
UQ has substantial infrastructure supporting intensive research activity in nanotechnology. In
addition to the AIBN, there is the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis with advanced
facilities for electron microscopy and the Centre for Advanced Imaging with extensive
capabilities in NMR studies for soft materials and biomolecules. The AIBN has attracted over
$30million in support of three new NCRIS facilities in nanofabrication, biologics and
metabolomics.
The interdisciplinary nature of this area at UQ is reflected in the cross-coding of many
researchers (particularly group leaders) and research outputs with other FOR codes,
particularly: macromolecular and materials chemistry; physical and structural chemistry;
theoretical chemistry; chemical engineering; and materials engineering. Key investigators
include:
Bhatia: Theory and experiment on molecular transport in nanopores. His framework for
modelling adsorption equilibrium and dynamics enabled more reliable design of adsorptionbased processes. Applications of transport theory in nanotechnology, including nanofluidics,
molecular sieving and catalysis. ARC APF. Total publications 2003-08: 66. Total competitive
research funding of $7.1M since 2000.
Gentle: Production and characterisation via synchrotron and neutron beam methods of thin
films and nanostructured materials. Pioneered grazing incidence synchrotron X-ray
diffraction in a low-pressure environment with an area detector and synchrotron grazing
incidence polarised X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Publications 2003-08: 24. Funding
>$17M in last 10 years.
Lu: Major contributions in the development of nanoporous materials and membranes for
molecular filters and adsorbents, and the design of nanocomposite catalytic systems for
photocatalysis and mobile hydrogen storage applications. 8 filed patents on functional
nanomaterials promising for alternative solar cells, hydrogen storage and purification for fuel
cells, and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. Twice ARC Federation Fellow;
ARC APF; Director, ARC CoE for Functional Nanomaterials. Currently Deputy-ViceChancellor (Research) at UQ. Publications 2003-08: 189. Funding >$25M in last 5 years.
Middelberg: Bioengineering, biotechnology and interfacial biophysical chemistry. Major
contributions in the controlled in vitro assembly of viral structural proteins to yield synthetic
nanoparticles for vaccine applications. Contributed new understanding of biomolecular
structure and behaviour at fluid-fluid interfaces. Translation of research through 7 distinct
patent families and a startup company. Fellow of ATSE, ARC Federation Fellow. Queensland
Smart Futures Premier’s Fellow. Total publications 2003-2008: 60. Total funding of more
than $6.8M since 2003.
Monteiro: Reputation in the field of living radical polymerization (LRP), making
contributions to the areas of LRP mechanisms, synthesis of nanoparticles using LRP, and
synthesis of complex architectures by LRP. His translation of innovation to
commercialization has led to two provisional patents and a startup company. ARC QEII
Fellowship; ARC Future Fellowship. Publications 2003-08: 56. Funding >$7.3M and $5M
(Euros) since 1999.
Smith: Computational reaction dynamics, nanotechnology, biophysics and biotechnology.
Significant contributions to the understanding of catalysis effects in lightweight materials for
mobile hydrogen storage; titania-based nanoparticles for photocatalysis as well as C/B/N
nanotube and ribbon architectures for nanoelectronics applications. Winner, Humboldt Bessel
Research Prize, 2007, Germany. Publications 2003-08: 70. Funding of $14.3M in last 10
years.
Trau: Colloid and surface chemist with research interests dedicated to understanding
nanostructured assembly and manipulation of matter in order to produce novel materials and
devices. Internationally recognized for significant contributions in this field, both in terms of
fundamental scientific understanding and also for innovative cross-disciplinary applications
in materials science, biology and biotechnology. Awarded an ARC Federation Fellowship,
“Young Tall Poppy” Award for the State of QLD, Paul Harris Fellowship, Fulbright
Fellowship. Publications 2003-08: 41. Funding >$21M over last 10 years.
Wang: Development of functional materials for renewable energy conversion and
environmental remediation. Expert knowledge in design and modification of layered metal
oxide compounds for new visible light active photocatalysts. ARC QEII Fellowship.
Publications 2003-08: 25. Funding >$6M since 2005.
Whittaker: Polymer chemistry applied to the fields of biomedical polymers and
photolithography. Has developed technologies for EUV and immersion lithography,
including non-CA resists for 32 and 22 nm nodes. Biomaterials programs in molecular
imaging, drug delivery, DNA delivery, artificial blood vessels, artificial vitreous, bone repair,
anti-microbial surfaces, spinal cord regeneration. Publications 2003-08:72. Funding $21.9M
in last 10 years.
Yu: Research focus on nanoporous and nanomaterials for biotechnology, clean energy and
environment protection. Research interests extend to sol-gel chemistry and self-assembly
strategies to understand the fundamental structure-property correlations and to design
functional nanostructured composites in biomaterials, bioanalysis, proteomics, drug delivery,
catalysis, photocatalysis, and environmental chemistry. ARC Future Fellowship. Publications
2003-08: 65. Funding of $1.4M from 2005-2013.
Zhu: Synthesis, characterization and computational studies of carbon-based nanomaterials
for gas adsorption and catalytic transformation reactions. Publications 2003-08: 61. ARC
APD Fellowship. Funding >$9.6M in last 10 years.
Zou: Development of hierarchical semiconductor nanoring/nanowire heterostructures, which
substantially widen the application of semiconductor nanostructures. ARC QEII Fellowship
and Future Fellowship. Publications 2003-08:120. Funding >$9.6M in last 10 years.
The breadth of nanotechnology research at UQ has lead to a significant publication in key
journals generally associated with other disciplines (and assigned to other FOR codes for the
purposes of this exercise, e.g., Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte
Chemie Int. Ed., Adv Functional Materials, and Adv Materials). While this has reduced the
volume of papers reported here, the quality remains demonstrably high, with 69.7% of papers
appearing in A*/A journals. Notable amongst the outputs are highly cited articles in Nature
(Lu, Smith et al., 2008), Nature Methods (Flaim, 2005), Nature Materials (Yu, 2003) and
Nature Biotechnology (Wolvetang, Chung et al., 2006).
Nanotechnology researchers at UQ have developed an impressive array of international
collaborations. Notable amongst these is the Queensland-China Alliance in Nanomaterials for
Clean Energy Technologies ($2M funding from the Qld National and International Research
Alliance Program (NIRAP) with matching funding at the Chinese end); a collaborative
research program between the ARC CoE for Functional Nanomaterials and Chinese
Academy of Science laboratories in Dalian and Shenyang.
1005 Communications Technologies
UQ's work in 1005 is undertaken within the microwave and optical communications group in
the School of Information Technology and Electrical engineering. This work concentrates on
design and development of devices and subsystems having applications
in telecommunications and remote sensing. The majority of UQ's activity in this area has
been reported under 0906 code.
1006 Computer Hardware
UQ’s work in 1006 is undertaken within the ubiquitous computing group in the School of
Information Technology and Electrical engineering. This work concentrates on the design of
digital electronics and reconfigurable computing circuits for computer hardware, and so spans
the areas of computer hardware and electrical engineering, with more of an emphasis on the
latter discipline. The majority of UQ’s activity in this area has also been reported under the
0906 code.