Sydney Nano
Monthly Newsletter
November & December 2022
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Message from the Interim DirectorOver the last few weeks I have had the privilege of stepping into the Interim Director role at Sydney Nano. I look forward to working closely with our Sydney Nano community over the coming months and building on our many successes in 2023. We farewelled our previous Director Prof Ben Eggleton at our recent Town Hall and I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Ben for his leadership of Sydney Nano - we wish you the best of luck in your new role as PVC Research.
While the year draws to a close, Sydney Nano has been busier than ever. We have hosted world-leading academics at our Distinguished Lecture Series, connected with our colleagues from the MacDiarmid Institute at the Future Computing Symposium, and showcased our research at the Australian Circular Economy Conference. Thank you to A/Prof Girish Lakhwani, A/Prof Yixiang Gan, Dr Arnold Ju, and Dr Moein Seyfouri for facilitating these events.
I warmly congratulate all of our members who have been recognised for their outstanding research, teaching, and leadership in the recent weeks. Congratulations as well to those awarded 2023 ARC grants. You can read more about the many achievements of our community below.
Finally, I wish everyone a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break. I hope you take the time to recharge and spend time with your loved ones and I look forward to working with you all in 2023!
Associate Professor Alice Motion
Interim Director, Sydney Nano
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Sydney Nano Town Hall & End of Year EventIn our final Town Hall for the year, we farewelled Prof Ben Eggleton as Director of Sydney Nano and welcomed A/Prof Alice Motion as interim Director. Congratulations to our many award winners and thank you to all who attended the event. We look forward to welcoming you to more in person events next year!
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Sydney Nano - MacDiarmid Institute Future Computing Symposium
In early November, Sydney Nano held a two-day symposium in collaboration with the MacDiarmid Institute focused on the world of future computing. This symposium featured presentations from members of both institutes, as well as a few colleagues from the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, who shared their ongoing research on diverse computing methods, with a mix of theory and experiments across photonics, neuromorphic, quantum, spintronics, signal processing, and soft matter computing. Read more here.
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First University of Sydney Net-Zero Initiative (NZI) Conference
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3rd Australian Circular Economy (ACE) Conference
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Sydney Nano - ISMB Distinguished Lecture SeriesSydney Nano was thrilled to host a mechanobiology Distinguished Lecture Series featuring presentations from Professor Michael Sheetz, Nobel Laureate Professor Martin Chalfie, and Distinguished Professor Rong Li earlier in November. This engaging lecture series was attended by over 100 guests from the University of Sydney and broader NSW, following on from the 4th International Symposium on Mechanobiology held at the Sydney Nanoscience Hub from 6-9 November 2022 and co-hosted by Sydney Nano and the Australian Society for Mechanobiology (AuSMB). Watch the lecture series here.
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New ARC Centres of ExcellenceCongratulations to our Sydney Nano members involved in leading new ARC Centres of Excellence:
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ARC LIEF Grant SuccessCongratulations to our Sydney Nano members who have been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipmnent and Facilities (LIEF) Grants! Congratulations to:
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ARC 2023 Discovery Project Grant SuccessCongratulations to our Sydney Nano members who have been awarded funding for ARC Discovery Project Grants. University of Sydney-led projects with Sydney Nano members are listed below:
- Prof Alexander Broom - The Social Life of Death
- Prof Chris Ling and Prof Brendan Kennedy - Rare earth-free high-performance magnets
- Prof Chiara Neto - Gas-enriched slippery surfaces
- A/Prof Daniel Dias-da-Costa - Energy dissipation characterisation in dynamic brittle fracture
- A/Prof Matthew Cleary - On the Combustion of Green Hydrogen in Future Energy Systems
- Dr Matthew Griffith - Organic Bioelectronics: Solving Key Barriers to Precision Neuromodulation
- Dr Omid Kavehei - A novel platform-technology for long-term subcutaneous neurophysiology
- Prof PJ Cullen - Plasma driven electrochemical synthesis of urea
- Prof Richard de Dear - The impact of work-from-home environments on comfort and productivity
- Prof Richard Payne - Site-specific protein functionalisation at diselenides via photocatalysis
- Prof Susan Park - Global Governing Gaps and Accountability Traps for Solar Energy and Storage
- Prof Susan Park - Global Governance, Eco-Justice, and International Grievance Mechanisms
- Dr Svetlana Postnova - Biophysics of the brain's waste disposal system
- Prof Xiaozhou Liao - Metallic materials with combined chemical and structural heterogeneities
- Dr Yu Heng Lau - Remodelling encapsulin nanocages to help enhance plant carbon fixation
- Prof Yuan Chen - Degradation of atomically dispersed M-N-C carbon catalysts in acidic media
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Olivia McRae wins the Student Innovation Award for Social Impact! Congratulations to PhD candidate Olivia McRae on being awarded the University of Sydney 2022 Student Innovation Award for Social Impact for her science communication improv show 'Lines of Best Fit'. Learn more about her work by watching this short video.
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2022 Vice Chancellor's Awards for Excellence
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Dr Livia Salvati Manni newest ECR Ambassador Congratulations to Dr Livia Salvati Manni on being appointed as a Sydney Nano Early Career Researcher (ECR) Ambassador. Livia's research interests focus on the self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules in extreme environments. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof Gregory Warr in the School of Chemistry. Welcome Livia!
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2022 Highly Cited Researchers
Top 2% of their fields:
- Prof Ali Abbas, Prof Marcela Bilek, A/Prof Filip Braet, Prof Julie Cairney, Prof Iver Cairns, Prof Yuan Chen, Prof Martijn de Sterke, Prof Andrew Doherty, Prof Benjamin Eggleton, Prof Cameron Kepert, A/Prof Boris Kuhlmey, A/Prof Maryanne Large, A/Prof Sergio Leon-Saval, Prof David McKenzie, Prof Ainsley Newson, Prof Cathy Stampfl, Prof Salah Sukkarieh, Prof Hala Zreiqat.
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Prof Anita Ho-Baillie wins the Royal Society of NSW Warren PrizeCongratulations to Prof Anita Ho-Baillie from the School of Physics on being awarded the Royal Society of NSW Warren Prize, which recognises research of national or international significance by early- or mid-career engineers and technologists. Read about Anita's research here.
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Prof Elizabeth New wins AFR Emerging Leader award
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Prof Ali Abbas named Australia's first Chief Circular EngineerCongratulations to Prof Ali Abbas, Sydney Nano Deputy Director (Industry, Innovation & Commercialisation) on joining Circular Australia as the first Chief Circular Engineer. The appointment of Ali as Chief Circular Engineer builds on Circular Australia’s national leadership working with businesses, government and researchers on circular economics, metrics, circular supply chains and its taskforces and research. Congratulations Ali! Read more here.
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Prof Hala Zreiqat wins Takreem AwardCongratulations to Prof Hala Zreiqat on receiving the Takreem award for Scientific and Technological Achievement. Takreem was established in 2009 with the aim of honoring Arab accomplishments and bringing Arab achievers to the forefront of the global stage. Congratulations Hala!
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Award & Grant Opportunities
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Media Highlights
- Australian Museum interviewed Dr Arunima Malik and other winners of the 2022 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research about their work on how diets impact the environment.
- SBS interviewed Professor Albert Zomaya from the Faculty of Engineering, who has been named one of the 200 Best Scientists in the World by Stanford University.
- Stock Journal and Asian Agribiz reported that Professor Salah Sukkarieh from the Faculty of Engineering is set to address the United Nations on how agricultural robots can aid food security issues. 2SM also reported on the Centre for Field Robotics’ agricultural robots.
- Australian Financial Review reported the winners of their Higher Education Awards, including Professor Elizabeth New from the Faculty of Science receiving the Emerging Leadership award. The piece featured an op-ed by Professor New. The AFR also reported the University’s Direct Air Capture project was a finalist in the Research Commercialisation category and the USYD Rocketry Team was a finalise in the Employability category.
- The Conversation published a review by Associate Professor Penelope Crossley from the Sydney Law School about the play RBG: Of Many, One, directed by Priscilla Jackman at the Sydney Theatre Company. Yahoo! News syndicated the story.
- Campus Morning Mail reported Professor Ben Eggleton was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) and the University staff appointed as fellows to the Academy of Social Sciences.
- Nutriçao reported that Professor Salah Sukkarieh from the Faculty of Engineering addressed the United Nations about agricultural robots aiding food security.
- The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Dr Chiara O’Reilly from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, who predicts there will be increased monitoring of museum visitors because of the climate change protests.
- Australian Financial Review reported that food security is a matter of putting technology to work, quoting Professor Salah Sukkarieh from the Faculty of Engineering.
- Open Forum published an article by Professor Martin Tomitsch from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning on the future of autonomous vehicles.
- Ausbiz interviewed Ausbiz interviewed Professor Deanna D’Alessandro from the Faculty of Science about climate technology.
- The Conversation published an article by Dr Aysu Kuru from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning on what mirrored ants, vivid blue butterflies and Monstera house plants can teach us about designing buildings. Yahoo! News and Architecture and Design syndicated the story.
- Renew Economy published an opinion piece by Professor Ali Abbas from the Faculty of Engineering. In addition, Circular Australia announced Professor Abbas yesterday as Chief Circular Engineer. AAP (syndicated) also reported on the Net Zero and Circular Economy conference, quoting Professor Abbas.
- ABC RN interviewed Professor Ali Abbas from the Faculty of Engineering about how Australia can achieve a circular economy by 2030.
- Campus Morning Mail mentioned that Professor Simon Ringer from the Faculty of Engineering had been appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure), and Professor Louise Sharpe from the Faculty of Science had been appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Researcher Training). The article also mentioned several recipients of the Vice-Chancellor Awards, including Dr Omid Kavehei from the Faculty of Engineering.
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Member Publications- Ainsworth, M. J., Lotz, O., Gilmour, A., Zhang, A., Chen, M. J., McKenzie, D. R., Bilek, M. M. M., Malda, J., Akhavan, B., & Castilho, M. (2022). Covalent Protein Immobilization on 3D‐Printed Microfiber Meshes for Guided Cartilage Regeneration. Advanced Functional Materials, 2206583.
- Choi, W. W. Y., Sánchez, C., Li, J. J., Dinarvand, M., Adomat, H., Ghaffari, M., Khoja, L., Vafaee, F., Joshua, A. M., Chi, K. N., Guns, E. S. T., & Hosseini-Beheshti, E. (2022). Extracellular vesicles from biological fluids as potential markers in castration resistant prostate cancer. Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology.
- Crago, M., Lee, A., Farajikhah, S., Oveissi, F., Fletcher, D. F., Dehghani, F., Winlaw, D. S., & Naficy, S. (2022). The evolution of polyurethane heart valve replacements: How chemistry translates to the clinic. Materials Today Communications, 33, 104916.
- Cui, H., Zhang, Y., Shen, Y., Zhu, S., Tian, J., Li, Q., Shen, Y., Liu, S., Cao, Y., & Shum, H. C. (2022). Dynamic Assembly of Viscoelastic Networks by Aqueous Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation and Liquid–Solid Phase Separation (AqLL‐LS PS2). Advanced Materials, 2205649.
- Hosseini-Giv, N., Basas, A., Hicks, C., El-Omar, E., El-Assaad, F., & Hosseini-Beheshti, E. (2022). Bacterial extracellular vesicles and their novel therapeutic applications in health and cancer. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 12.
- Jiang, L., Kong, K. V., He, S., & Yong, K. (2022). Plasmonic Biosensing with Nano‐Engineered Van der Waals Interfaces. ChemPlusChem, 87(11).
- Jiang, Y., Fan, M., Yang, Z., Liu, X., Xu, Z., Liu, S., Feng, G., Tang, S., Li, Z., Zhang, Y., Chen, S., Yang, C., Law, W.-C., Dong, B., Xu, G., & Yong, K.-T. (2022). Recent advances in nanotechnology approaches for non-viral gene therapy. Biomaterials Science.
- Kikuchi, K., Adair, L. D., Lin, J., New, E. J., & Kaur, A. (2022). Photochemical Mechanisms of Fluorophores Employed in Single‐Molecule Localization Microscopy. Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
- Kong, W., Zeng, F., Su, Z., Wang, T., Qiao, L., Ye, T., Zhang, L., Sun, R., Barbaud, J., Li, F., Gao, X., Zheng, R., & Yang, X. (2022). Oriented Low‐n Ruddlesden‐Popper Formamidinium‐Based Perovskite for Efficient and Air Stable Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 2202704.
- Li, H., Wang, J., Warr, G. G., & Atkin, R. (2023). Extremely slow dynamics of ionic liquid self-assembled nanostructures near a solid surface. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 630, 658–665.
- Li, S., Zheng, H., Wu, B., Ding, J., He, J., Liu, Z., & Liu, Y. (2022). Layer-dependent excitonic valley polarization properties in MoS2 –WS2 heterostructures. Optics Letters, 47(22), 5861.
- Liu, B., Victorelli, F., Yuan, Y., Shen, Y., Hong, H., Hou, G., Liang, S., Li, Z., Li, X., Yin, X., Ren, F., & Li, Y. (2022). Platelet Membrane Cloaked Nanotubes to Accelerate Thrombolysis by Thrombus Clot‐Targeting and Penetration. Small, 2205260.
- Liu, Y., Wood, J. A., Giacometti, A., & Widmer-Cooper, A. (2022). The thermodynamic origins of chiral twist in monolayer assemblies of rod-like colloids. Nanoscale, 14(45), 16837–16844.
- Mahmud, M. A., Zheng, J., Tang, S., Liao, C., Wang, G., Bing, J., Leung, T. L., Bui, A. D., Chen, H., Yi, J., Bremner, S. P., Nguyen, H. T., & Ho-Baillie, A. W. Y. (2022). Water-Free, Conductive Hole Transport Layer for Reproducible Perovskite–Perovskite Tandems with Record Fill Factor. ACS Energy Letters, 21–30.
- Miao, S., Atkin, R., & Warr, G. (2022). Design and applications of biocompatible choline amino acid ionic liquids. Green Chemistry, 24(19), 7281–7304.
- Miao, S., Hoffmann, I., Gradzielski, M., & Warr, G. G. (2022). Lipid Membrane Flexibility in Protic Ionic Liquids. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 5240–5245.
- Mohammed Asiri, S., Levina, A., New, E. J., & Lay, P. A. (2022). Investigations of cellular copper metabolism in ovarian cancer cells using a ratiometric fluorescent copper dye. JBIC Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry.
- Petrovic Fabijan, A., Martinez-Martin, D., Venturini, C., Mickiewicz, K., Flores-Rodriguez, N., Errington, J., & Iredell, J. (2022). L-Form Switching in Escherichia coli as a Common β-Lactam Resistance Mechanism. Microbiology Spectrum, 10(5).
- Rath, R. J., Farajikhah, S., Oveissi, F., Dehghani, F., & Naficy, S. (2022). Chemiresistive Sensor Arrays for Gas/Volatile Organic Compounds Monitoring: A Review. Advanced Engineering Materials, 2200830.
- Runge, A. F. J., Long Qiang, Y., Alexander, T. J., & de Sterke, C. M. (2022). Linear pulse propagation with high-order dispersion. Journal of Optics, 24(11), 115502.
- Soufiani, A. M., Lee‐Chin, R., Fassl, P., Mahmud, M. A., Pollard, M. E., Zheng, J., Weber, J. W., Ho‐Baillie, A., Trupke, T., & Hameiri, Z. (2022). Implied Open‐circuit Voltage Imaging via a Single Bandpass Filter Method—Its First Application in Perovskite Solar Cells. Advanced Functional Materials, 2210592.
- Wang, T., Ye, T., Qiao, L., Kong, W., Zeng, F., Zhang, Y., Sun, R., Zhang, L., Chen, H., Zheng, R., & Yang, X. (2022). Anionic surfactant anchoring enables 23.4% efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. Science China Materials.
- Wu, Y.-C., Wu, C.-Y., Tsai, S.-W., Chen, H.-J., Liu, W.-J., Lin, D., Gong, T., Yong, K.-T., & Kong, K. V. (2022). Merocyanine Complexes Coupled with Plasmonic Au Nanoparticles for Inhibiting Tau Aggregation. ACS Applied Nano Materials.
- Yang, W., Kim, K. D., O’Dell, L. A., Wang, L., Xu, H., Ruan, M., Wang, W., Ryoo, R., Jiang, Y., & Huang, J. (2022). Brønsted acid sites formation through penta-coordinated aluminum species on alumina-boria for phenylglyoxal conversion. Journal of Catalysis, 416, 375–386.
- Yang, Z., Liu, X., Cribbin, E. M., Kim, A. M., Li, J. J., & Yong, K.-T. (2022). Liver-on-a-chip: Considerations, advances, and beyond. Biomicrofluidics, 16(6), 061502.
- Zhang, Y., Marlow, J. B., Millar, W., Silvester, D. S., Warr, G. G., Li, H., & Atkin, R. (2023). Effect of ion structure on the nanostructure and electrochemistry of surface active ionic liquids. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 630, 931–939.
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