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2012, L’Oréal For Women in Science

More efficient solar cells with quantum dots

Dr Baohua Jia

Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

The global race to develop high efficiency, low cost solar energy is fierce. And Baohua Jia and her colleagues are front runners.

Click image for hi-res. Photo: Dr Baohua Jia, Swinburne University of Technology (credit: L’Oréal Australia/sdpmedia.com.au)
Click image for hi-res. Photo: Dr Baohua Jia, Swinburne University of Technology (credit: L’Oréal Australia/sdpmedia.com.au)

Conventional solar cells are efficient, but thick and expensive. Baohua and her colleagues imagine a future when solar cells are so thin and cheap that city skyscrapers will be powered by a coating on their glass. But at present such thin-film solar cells are not efficient enough for general use.

Using her knowledge of nanotechnology and optics, Baohua and her colleagues have already created thin-film solar cells that are more than 20 per cent more efficient than those of her competitors. They have already lodged two patents.

But Baohua thinks she can do better. And that will be the focus of the work assisted by her $25,000 L’Oréal Australia & New Zealand For Women in Science Fellowship.

Continue reading More efficient solar cells with quantum dots →

2012, L’Oréal For Women in Science

New treatments for blood cancers

Dr Kylie Mason

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research/Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

Click image for hi-res. Photo: Dr Kylie Mason, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research/Royal Melbourne Hospital (credit: L’Oréal Australia/sdpmedia.com.au)
Click image for hi-res. Photo: Dr Kylie Mason, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research/Royal Melbourne Hospital (credit: L’Oréal Australia/sdpmedia.com.au)

Dr Kylie Mason has set herself the goal of developing new ways of treating diseases that are considered incurable.

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2012

Better materials, one atom at a time

The first microscopes gave humans the ability peer deep into the microscopic world, allowing us to see cells and microbes in unprecedented detail. Using the latest electron microscopes we are now able to see detail down to single atoms.

Scanning transmission electron microscopy images of a BiSrMnO3 crystal. Credit: Adrian D’Alfonso/Michel Bosman

In fact, materials scientists can detect impurities in their latest compounds, atom by atom, using powerful electron microscopes aided by sophisticated modelling of what happens when the electron beam hits the material.

Dr Adrian D’Alfonso and a team of theoretical physicists at the University of Melbourne have developed these models and they are already helping groups around the world look at and understand nanomaterials in a way they haven’t been able to before.

Continue reading Better materials, one atom at a time →

2012

Mapping a future for Australian birds

Australia’s birds are bright and noisy compared with birds elsewhere, so perhaps it is no surprise they account for over 18 million of the more than 30 million observations in the Atlas of Living Australia; including records from before European settlement.

Now, funded by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), a team led by spatial ecologist Dr Jeremy VanDerWal of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change at James Cook University (JCU) is developing a website, known as “Edgar”, to clean up existing records and augment them with reliable observations from enthusiastic and knowledgeable bird watchers.

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2012

Finding pulsars in the archives

China has a large community of astronomers awaiting the construction of new telescopes to study pulsars.

When CSIRO pulsar researcher Dr George Hobbs described the high-quality data stored in the Parkes Observatory Pulsar Data Archive—which is openly available—it led to Australian pulsar data being the basis of collaboration between Chinese and Australian pulsar researchers. And they have already published several papers on what they have discovered. The archive is also serving as a major resource in an international search for gravitational waves.

Continue reading Finding pulsars in the archives →

2012

Melbourne takes centre stage in physics

Melbourne shared in the announcement of the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle in 2012, and the city is expected to reap millions of dollars in economic benefits brought by the conference at which this discovery was announced.

The Melbourne Convention Centre was the host of the 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics, where the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle was announced in 2012. Credit: MCVB
The Melbourne Convention Centre hosted the 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics, where the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle was announced in 2012. Credit: MCVB

The announcement that a suspect matching the elusive subatomic particle’s description had been found came at the 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics, held at the Melbourne Convention Centre in July, in a joint announcement with CERN in Switzerland.
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2012

Higgs boson: the Australian connection

In 2012, scientists celebrated at the announcement of the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, a subatomic particle that completes our model of how the Universe works.

Director of the High Energy Physics Conference, Geoff Taylor (right) celebrates the Higgs-like particle announcement at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Credit: Laura Vanags/ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale
Director of the High Energy Physics Conference, Geoff Taylor (right) celebrates the Higgs-like particle announcement at the Melbourne Convention Centre with Pauline Gagnon of CERN. Credit: Laura Vanags/ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale

The announcement was made simultaneously at CERN in Geneva, and to hundreds of physicists gathered in Melbourne for the International Conference on High Energy Physics.

“As scientific discoveries go, this is up there with finding a way to split the atom,” says Prof Geoff Taylor, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP).

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2012

Australian Synchrotron helps its big brother in Geneva

New technologies and techniques needed for the next upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are being tested at the Australian Synchrotron.

The Australian Synchrotron is helping CERN researchers develop better particle beams for the Large Hadron Collider. Credit: The Australian Synchrotron
The Australian Synchrotron is helping CERN researchers develop better particle beams for the Large Hadron Collider. Credit: The Australian Synchrotron

In 2013, the LHC will shut down for enhancements that will enable it to generate a reliable supply of Higgs-like particles.
Continue reading Australian Synchrotron helps its big brother in Geneva →

2012

Next generation packaging

Melbourne-based manufacturing company RMAX is working with CSIRO to make a sustainable, and biodegradable, version of a product involved in the life-cycle of many of the things we buy.

The prototype biodegradable polymer box (on the left) alongside a standard expanded polystyrene box. Credit: Gary Toikka, CSIRO
The prototype biodegradable polymer box (on the left) alongside a standard expanded polystyrene box. Credit: Gary Toikka, CSIRO

They hope to cut the environmental impact of the nine thousand tonnes of expanded polystyrene (EPS) that ends up in Australian landfill every year.
Continue reading Next generation packaging →

2012

Victoria in race to print solar cells

In the future, the entire roof of your house could be a solar panel, and you could harness the power of the sun to charge your mobile phone while on a remote bushwalk, thanks to cheap, printable solar cells.

In the future, your entire roof of your house could be tiled with printed solar cells like this one. Credit: DJ Jones, University of Melbourne
In the future, your entire roof of your house could be tiled with printed solar cells like this one. Credit: DJ Jones, University of Melbourne

Work is underway to perfect the “printing” of a film-like layer of solar cells that can be applied cheaply to hard or flexible surfaces to generate electricity from sunlight. Continue reading Victoria in race to print solar cells →