News
Find out about the latest news, announcements and stories about chemistry at ANU.
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The RSC was represented at the RACI NSW organic chemistry symposium 2017, 29 November, University of Sydney, by Kelsey Horvath, Nick Magann, Natalie Shadwell and Maddie Sowden. All four gave well-presented posters, with congratulations to Maddie Sowden won a best poster prize (one of 3 winners from over 60 poster presenters), but all four presenters were winners!
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ANU is marking the Research School of Chemistry's 50th anniversary with the unveiling of a new sculpture.
The Research School commissioned painter Dr Julie Brooke from the ANU School of Art & Design and sculptor Geoff Farquhar-Still to create the work called Translation.
The work is an abstract rendition of the many aspects of modern chemistry.
"The Research School of Chemistry is an extraordinary building, and we wanted to make something that belonged there," Dr Brooke said.
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A new study led by ANU has shed light on how the earliest forms of life evolved on Earth about four billion years ago.
In a major advance on previous work, the study found a compound commonly used in hair bleach, hydrogen peroxide, made the eventual emergence of life possible.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Rowena Ball from ANU said hydrogen peroxide was the vital ingredient in rock pores around underwater heat vents that set in train a sequence of chemical reactions that led to the first forms of life.
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In 1968 Professor Martin Bennett set sail for Australia, leaving his life in England to join a small burgeoning University that would soon become his new home.
“I came because I was offered a very good opportunity,” Martin explains. “I was at University College of London. I was quite happy there, but it was a little bit of a patriarchal system, and I really was feeling the need for a little bit more independence.
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“I’ve had fun.”
When asked why he’s stayed with the Research School of Chemistry for so long, that is the first thought that comes to Professor Elmars Krausz.
“I seem to have the title professor, but do I profess?,” Elmars asks. “I’d say, maybe not, I could be better described as an amateur. An amateur, from the French amour, is more somebody who loves something.”
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Professor Michelle Coote, a graduate of the University of New South Wales, joined the Research School of Chemistry after a varied career in a range of chemical fields.
“I studied industrial chemistry at the University of New South Wales and had various industrial placements, including a year in a paint laboratory at Rhom and Haas in Geelong,” Michelle explains. “I became interested in polymer chemistry and kinetics and did both honours and my PhD at University of New South Wales.”
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“I believe very strongly that Rod Rickards greatest lesson was to encourage me to always be inquisitive and to look at an unexpected outcome in chemistry not as a failure but as an opportunity to understand the science more deeply and even help address new problems. I have been guided by this lesson throughout my academic career”
ANU Alumni Joanne Jamie completed her PhD at the RSC in 1992. Focusing on organic chemistry, Joanne says her studies encouraged her to think about the potential positive outcomes that could be found in chemical research.
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Headline-grabbing crack-downs on drug abuse in sports industries, discovering new chemical compounds, developing malaria medications and potential medical methods for prenatal diagnoses.
This is the life of ANU Associate Professor Malcolm McLeod, whose most recent work involved creating new chemical methods for detecting doping, leading to a clean-up in the greyhound industry of steroid abuse.
For years, dopers may have been avoiding prosecution because there was no way of proving that animals were being drugged.
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The ANU recently hosted the world renowned science communicator Dr Peter Wothers of Cambridge University, who gave a series of free science demonstrations titled Burning Issues: The Chemistry of Fire and Flame.
The interactive shows focussed on a series of principles and misconceptions about everyday chemicals and gases, illustrating key concepts about combustion.
Over a thousand people enjoyed the demonstrations over the week of shows, which appealed to both young curious minds and amateur scientists.