News Release:
Five-year grant for crystal study at UNE
| Date 4/3/04 No 042/04 Professor Mark Spackman will be spending the next five years doing what many scientists only dream of: full-time research. The Australian Government is funding Professor Spackman, at the University of New England (UNE), to devote himself to his fundamental research into the properties of molecules in crystals. He is an international authority on that subject. A Professor in Chemistry, within UNE's School of Biological, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, his investigation of crystal structure over the past 20 years has been motivated primarily by his appreciation of what he calls the "inherent beauty" of such structures. He is excited, however, by the possible implications of his research for the development of new optically-active materials that could have important applications in high-speed communications and compact data storage. The Australian Research Council (ARC) has awarded Professor Spackman a Professorial Fellowship, as part of a grant worth $615,000, for the years 2004-2008. It is one of only 24 such Fellowships beginning this year in Australia. "It's a real feather in the cap for the University," Professor Spackman said, pointing out that another UNE academic, the historian Professor Alan Atkinson, holds a Professorial Fellowship that began last year. Professor Spackman's work involves analysing data from X-ray diffraction experiments that provide detailed information on the three-dimensional distribution of electrons in crystals. "I've always been interested in exploiting these experiments to determine the specific properties of molecules in crystals," he said. |
"Modern experimental techniques are making available, in a matter of days, data that once took months to obtain. With the availability of such a mass of data, it's important that it be analysed rigorously to extract all the information it contains. That's the challenge. I'll also be trying to extend the experiments to obtain even more information." The project combines experiment and theory, and will involve experiments with collaborators at the Universities of Sydney and Western Australia, and at the new Research Reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney. It will also involve visits to overseas synchrotron facilities, including the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, where a current postgraduate student, Andrew Whitten, and postdoctoral fellow, Dr Joshua McKinnon, have been working for the past few weeks. In the future, Professor Spackman hopes that experiments will be conducted at the Australian Synchrotron being built in Melbourne. The ARC Fellowship will underwrite Professor Spackman's salary (allowing the University to employ another staff member), and the salary of a Postdoctoral Fellow who will arrive from Germany next month to assist him. "I'm hoping it will result in a flow of honours and postgraduate students at UNE becoming involved in the project," he said. Media contact: Professor Mark Spackman, School of Biological, Biomedical
and Molecular Sciences, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 2722 or Jim Scanlan,
Public Relations, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3049. |
