Sydney Nano
Monthly Newsletter
December 2021
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Message from the DirectorIt is timely that our final newsletter for the year includes some very exciting announcements. I am most excited about our four new Grand Challenges for 2022-2023 spanning sustainability, biosecurity, solar energy and health. Well done to the teams, and thank you to the selection panel for their efforts. In addition, we have four new Kickstarters and one new Frontier to add to our research portfolio commencing next year. Our Smart Sustainable Building Network has grown, and we are pleased to announce two new clusters to support research in operational building management. Our Executive Committee team for 2022-2023 will look a little different, with some of our Deputy Directors departing, as we make way for new leadership. Thank you to Wojtek, Anita, Omid, and James who have supported Sydney Nano over the past few years in leadership roles. Welcome to the incoming Deputy Directors, who look forward to meeting and working with our community in the new year. This past month, we were lucky to have Dr Jeremy O'Brien from PsiQuantum join us for a Distinguished Lecture on unique technologies in the areas of silicon photonics. Additionally, there is much to celebrate, with many of our Members receiving awards and prizes. Read on to find out what these are and who has won! The University shutdown will commence from COB 23 December, and reopen from 10 January. Personally, I would like to wish our community a very restful, enjoyable break over the festive season. I very much look forward to connecting with everyone in the new year be it for research, events, outreach, and socially, too.
Happy holidays!
Professor Ben Eggleton
Director, Sydney Nano
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Four new Sydney Nano Grand Challenges announced
We are thrilled to announce the next round of Sydney Nano Grand Challenges! Spanning 2022-2023, these new projects will provide innovative solutions to some of the world’s greatest emerging challenges spanning sustainability, biosecurity, solar energy and health. The four awarded projects receiving 75K p.a. and in-kind support are:
Eco-Active Building Envelopes: To lay the groundwork for a new generation of buildings that are self-sufficient in energy and water consumption, able to produce on-site food to encourage healthy eating habits and contribute to the regulation of heat stress and pollution. Led by Dr Arianna Brambilla & Prof. Deanna D’Alessandro.
Nanosensing Airborne Pathogens for Public Biosecurity: Develop disruptive nanoscale sensing technologies for detection of airborne pathogens to upgrade public biosecurity standards and regulations. Led by Prof. Antonio Tricoli & Prof. Corinne Caillaud.
Organ-on-Chip for Blood Clot assessment: Develop microfluidic devices based on vascular imaging of affected patients to detect thrombotic tendency in recipients of COVID-19 vaccine. Led by Dr Lining (Arnold) Ju & Dr Freda Passam.
Solar Fuels: To create new nanomaterials and chemical processes that capture and ‘bottle’ sunlight in the form of energy-rich, renewable fuels. Led by Prof. Anita Ho-Baillie & Dr Fengwang Li.
Learn more about these exciting projects and their multidisciplinary teams.
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Four new Kickstarters & one new Frontier
Along with new Grand Challenges, we are pleased to announce four new Kickstarter projects & one new Frontier joining our schemes in 2022.
Kickstarters:
Nano In Sight: Led by Prof. Stephanie Watson & Dr Yogambha Ramaswamy to address a critical problem in regenerative machine and stem cell therapeutics.
Hybrid Nano-Systems Curing Cancer Spread: Led by Dr Pegah Varamini & Dr Behnam Akhavan to find an interdisciplinary multimodal approach, harnessing the power of nanotechnology to shift paliative care to preventative solutions for cancer spread.
Bacteriophage NanoRobots: Led by Dr Hien Duong, combining science, engineering & medicine to perform cutting-edge research using nanotechnology to develop smart phage nanorobots to fight resistant bacteria.
Smart sensors for intelligent buildings: Led by A/Prof. Daniel Dias-Da-Costa, for an efficient, reliable sensing platform that continuously monitors the critical parameters of sustainable civil structures.
Frontier:
Breaking space-time barriers with nanosensors: Led by Dr Amandeep Kaur & Prof. Katrina Jolliffe addressing food security and healthcare by developing a molecular and nanotechnological approach that allows to visualise and measure biological & biochemical events.
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Smart Sustainable Building (SSB) Network: new clusters
We're pleased to announce new clusters and co-chairs to the SSB Network, including the 'Virtual Design & Construction' led by Associate Professor Daniel Dias-da-Costa and Dr Mike Seymour and 'Legislation, Regulations & Rating Schemes', co-led by Nicole Marchhart and Dr Katherine Owens. Additionally, SSB has been structured within two categories, 'Smart Building Blocks', reflecting tangible building assets, and 'Sustainable Building Management' to support operational building management. Find out more about the emerging clusters.
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Sydney Nano Executive Committee: outgoing
A big thank you to the four outgoing Sydney Nano Deputy Directors for their outstanding contributions in their leadership roles, including Prof. Wojtek Chrzanowski, Dr Omid Kavehei, Prof. Anita Ho-Baillie, and Prof Jim Rabeau. Their dedication to Sydney Nano and their respective portfolios has been detrimental to the success of the Institute.
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Sydney Nano Executive Committee 2022-2023
We're pleased to announce Deputy Directors coming onboard to our Executive Committee team. For 2022-2023, our Deputy Directors will be:
We look forward to introducing our Sydney Nano community to our Deputy Directors in the new year.
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Distinguished Lecture Dr Jeremy O'Brien from PsiQuantum
Thank you to Dr Jeremy O'Brien, CEO of PsiQuantum who demonstrated at a recent Sydney Nano Distinguished Lecture how unique technologies in the areas of silicon photonics and quantum system architecture enable the path to large-scale, fault-tolerant, general-purpose quantum computing and describe the specific applications being developed across climate, healthcare, life sciences, energy. Over 70 participants attended the talk.
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BINA & Sydney Nano Awards
Congratulations to Prof. Jun Huang & Dr Yu Heng Lau on receiving a Bar Illan Institute for Nanotechnology, Israel (BINA) x Sydney Nano Research Award, a first joint research award for Sydney Nano & a partner institution. The award will enable the development of joint projects with BINA.
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Sydney Nano Publication Awards
Five Sydney Nano Members received a Sydney Nano Publication Award, valued at $1,000 each, recognising their efforts in publishing their research. Congratulations to:
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Taste of Research Awards
We are pleased to announce four Sydney Nano Taste of Research Awardees who have been awarded $2500 and the opportunity to develop their research skills, gain experience, and contribute to finding real-world solutions. Congratulations to:
- Yuhang Zhang (3rd Year, Biomedical engineering) hosted by Dr Gurvinder Singh (School of Biomedical Engineering)
- Yukai Fu (4th Year, Biomedical/Mechanical Engineering) hosted by Dr Behnam Akhavan (School of Biomedical Engineering)
- Kiarash Kyanian (4th Year, Biomedical Engineering and Commerce) hosted by Dr Arnold Ju (School of Biomedical Engineering)
- Rafia Ali (4th Year, Pharmacy) hosted by Dr Pegah Varamini (Sydney Pharmacy School)
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Sydney Spotlight: Dr Arianna Brambilla
Dr Arianna Brambilla, Co-Chair of the ‘Building Efficiency’ cluster at the Sydney Nano Smart Sustainable Building Network, was interviewed about the need to transform how we design and construct buildings in response to climate change, starting with the 'building envelope'.
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SOAR Prize 2022 Recipients
Celebrating 8 Sydney Nano Members receiving a 2022 SOAR Prize! The two-year prize helps up-and-coming research leaders build their careers by increasing the scale and impact of their research. Congrats to all 22 University of Sydney recipients. The Sydney Nano Member recipients are:
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Awards & Grant Opportunities
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Upcoming Events - Public events by the University
- Stay tuned for exciting events by Sydney Nano in 2022!
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Member Publications- Omelyanchik, A., Villa, S., Singh, G., (...), Canepa, F., Peddis, D. Magnetic properties of bi-magnetic core/shell nanoparticles: The case of thin shells (2021) Magnetochemistry, 7(11), art. no. 146.
- Gilchrist, A.M., Wang, P., Carreira-Barral, I., (...), Quesada, R., Gale, P.A. Supramolecular methods: the 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid (HPTS) transport assay (2021) Supramolecular Chemistry.
- Mcnaughton, D.A., Macreadie, L.K., Gale, P.A. Acridinone-based anion transporters (2021) Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 19(44), pp. 9659-9674.
- Mcnaughton, D.A., To, T.Y., Hawkins, B.A., Hibbs, D.E., Gale, P.A. Delivering anion transporters to lipid bilayers in water (2021) Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 19(44), pp. 9624-9628.
- Park, J.H., Shin, B.S., Jabbarzadeh, A. Anisotropic Wettability on One-Dimensional Nanopatterned Surfaces: The Effects of Intrinsic Surface Wettability and Morphology (2021) Langmuir.
- Spiteri, A.G., Wishart, C.L., Pamphlett, R., Locatelli, G., King, N.J.C. Microglia and monocytes in inflammatory CNS disease: integrating phenotype and function (2021) Acta Neuropathologica.
- Garrett, M., Liu, Y., Merklein, M., (...), Madden, S., Eggleton, B. Multi-Band and Frequency-Agile Chip-based RF Photonic Filter for Ultra-deep Interference Rejection (2021) Journal of Lightwave Technology.
- Lesani, P., Singh, G., Lu, Z., (...), New, E.J., Zreiqat, H. Two-photon ratiometric carbon dot-based probe for real-yime intracellular pH monitoring in 3D environment (2021) Chemical Engineering Journal, art. no. 133668.
- Zeng, H., Roberts, D.A. Recent Progress in Stimuli-Induced Morphology Transformations of Block Copolymer Assemblies (2021) Australian Journal of Chemistry.
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