Our research
The School carries out research in a wide range of areas related to sciences and computational technology. These are housed in three established research Centres and several research groups. More information can be obtained using the links below to each Centre and research group.
Centre for Bioactive Discovery in Health and Ageing
The focus of the Centre is on the discovery of and research into bioactive compounds that can play an important part in human health and ageing, including cancer research and synthesis of novel anticancer drugs. These areas are targeted as National Research Priorities (Promoting and Maintaining Good Health). Research projects include investigating new anticancer and diabetes drugs and the role of antioxidants, dietary supplements and herbal extracts associated with the immune and inflammatory responses.
Centre for Engineering Intelligent and Secure IT-Solutions
From education to agriculture to everyday social interaction almost every aspect of life on earth is aided or influenced by Information Technology. For regional and rural communities, IT solutions such as e-learning and telemedicine have the potential to overcome the limitations of distance and lack of physical infrastructure. However, to be effective, such solutions must be secure, efficient and well-engineered. The aim of this School Centre is the development of underlying techniques and technologies in the areas of information security, artificial intelligence and software engineering in order to construct secure and reliable IT solutions. A major theme of this Centre is the facilitation of the Security targeted research area of the University.
Centre for Molecular Microbiology
The focus of the Centre is the use of molecular biology to study microorganisms of importance to human health, agriculture and industry. The goals are to develop and maintain high quality, outside-funded research projects, to train graduate students, and to strengthen undergraduate teaching in this area. Organisms under study include the anaerobic bacterium Dichelobacter nodosus, which causes footrot in sheep, filamentous fungi from the genus Aspergillus, and the fungus Thielaviopsis basicola, which causes black root rot in cotton. Molecular techniques are also being used to investigate auxin production in rice.
Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour
The Centre conducts research over a wide variety of species (including domestic, exotic, avian and primate species) to answer questions of perceptual processing, communication, development and memory in animals, investigating interactions of brain mechanisms and behaviour.
In 2007/8, active research projects included perception (multi-modal and biological motion), cognition, vocal behaviour and development, brain lateralization, and social behaviour studied in a variety of animal species (dogs, horses, gibbons, marmosets, elephants, zebra finches, Australian magpies).
Industrial and Environmental Process Technology Group
The focus of the Industrial and Environmental Process Technology (IEPT) group is the application of fundamental principles of Physics and Chemistry to improve the economic and environmental effectiveness of processes of industrial interest. Our activities incorporate both strategic basic research aimed at elucidating mechanisms of importance in these processes and applied research directed towards specific process optimisation.
Nonlinear and Complex Analysis Group
Nonlinear and complex analysis investigates both pure and applied mathematical problems through analytical as well as topological and algebraic tools. This group develops theoretical techniques and apply them to partial differential equations arising from various important problems in differential geometry and natural sciences, such as physics, biology, ecology and chemistry. The concrete problems we work on include the Chern-Simons model in condensed matter physics, the de Gennes model in liquid crystals, the logistic and related models in population biology, and image reconstruction for diffraction and phase contrast tomography.
Research of this group has been supported by several ARC discovery grants and involves intensive collaboration with leading researchers around the world.
Photonics Sensors Group
The Photonics Sensors Group (PSG) was originally established as the Optical Fibre Sensing Group (OFSG) by Professor Gerry Woolsey in 1993. Since then the PSG has trained a multitude of Honours, Masters and PhD graduates. The PSG investigate photonics sensors in a whole range of applications ranging from agriculture and environmental monitoring, through to high voltage and highly-corrosive chemical environments. The group develops optical fibre and well as bulk (unbound) optical sensors for deployment in both gaseous and liquid media. Hosted by the discipline of Physics and Electronics, the PSG has two photonics research laboratories, equipped with equipment such as visible, near and thermal infrared lasers, diode array spectrometers, a multitude of oscilloscopes and electro-optical transducers, precision optical benches, precision optical components for optical fibre and bulk optical experiments, and a plethora of gaseous electronics apparatus. We welcome opportunities for conducting multi-disciplinary research with internal and external partners.
Precision Agriculture Research Group
The Precision Agriculture Research Group (PARG) is a multi-disciplinary team of academic, research and technical staff engaged in the development and application of sensors and practices in precision agriculture. The group, initially formed in 2002, runs numerous externally-funded research projects involving organizations as diverse as Cooperative Research Centres for Spatial Information (CRC-SI) and Irrigation Futures (CRC-IF), Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC), Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) and Beltana Highwall Mining. PARG is well equipped with some of the latest (including newly developed) sensors and global positioning systems (GPS) for conducting fieldwork.