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2013 Achievements

The School congratulates the following staff and students on their achievements:

 

  • Congratulations to Dr Asaph Widmer-Cooper, who along with 3 co-applicants, has been awarded $15,000 by the European Centre for Atomic and Molecular Simulation (CECAM) to run an international workshop on the structure and dynamics of glass-forming materials. This will be held at the ETH-Zurich from June 26-28, 2013. 


  • Congratulations to MSc candidate, Ms Madeline Kavanagh, who has won the 2013 RACI Western Sydney Section Honours Prize. Madeline, who was an honours student in 2012, will receive her award at a dinner on 21 May 2013. As guest speaker she will present a talk on "Design and synthesis of metabolically stable LRRK2 inhibitors for Parkinson' disease".

  • Congratulations to Associate Professor Adam Bridgeman, who has been awarded the 2013 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Learning and Teaching. This award is in recognition of Adam's outstanding teaching and contributions towards student learning. Read more here.

  • Congratulations to PhD candidate, Ms Jessica Stanley, who has been awarded the RJW Le Fèvre Research Travelling Scholarship and the 2012 Agnes Campbell Postgraduate Prize.

  • Congratulations to MSc candidate, Ms Madeline Kavanagh, who has just been awarded the 2012 Agnes Campbell Honours Prize, 2012 Agnes Campbell Postgraduate Prize and the 2012 RACI Western Sydney Section Honours Prize.

  • Congratulations to Mr Nate Davis, who has been awarded a Cambridge Australia Bragg Scholarship. This fully funded scholarship will enable Nate to do his PhD in the Cavendish Laboratories at the University of Cambridge.

  • Congratulations to Mat Todd's research group, whose OSDDMalaria project was just highlighted by the Guardian as one of the top 10 malaria innovations. Visit here (scroll down to No.5).

  • Congratulations to PhD students, Mr Tom Godfrey, Mr Samuel Yu Him Liu and Ms Emily Reynolds, who have been invited to attend the 6th AONSA Neutron School at J-PARC, Tokai, Japan from 17 - 21st June this year. 

  • Congratulations to Dr Adrian George, whose short film clip won first prize at the recent ‘THETA 2013’ conference  (Scroll down to "Theta Vox Pops part 5" clip). 

  • Congratulations to PhD candidate, Ms Lara Malins, who has been selected to attend the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting to be held from 30 June to 5 July, 2013 in Lindau, Germany. Lara will be one of 8 researchers from Australia to attend, and one of about 600 young scientists internationally. The meeting will provide the opportunity to meet with 36 Chemistry Nobel Laureates in various lectures and discussions. Read the University news article on Lara here.

  • Congratulations to Professor Max Crossley, FAA, who has spent two weeks in February at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India as the first Australia-India Senior Visiting Fellow under the auspices of the Australian Academy of Science and the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). He has commenced a collaborative research program with chemistry groups at BHU headed by Professor Lallan Mishra and Associate Professor Vinod Tiwari. Professor Crossley also visited the Indian Institute for Science Education and Research - Mohali and the INSA headquarters in Delhi where he met with the Academy President, Professor Krishan Lal.

  • Congratulations to Professor Max Crossley, FAA, who presented the 50th anniversary Professor Bawa Kartar Singh Memorial Lecture at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India to an audience that included many of the professors of the University, family members of the late Professor Singh including a member of the Indian High Court, and a large number of students.  This event on February 19, 2013 went extremely well and was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University, Professor A.K. Grover.

  • Congratulations to Dr Kaitlin Beare whose work on the “on-water catalysed aromatic aza-Claisen rearrangement” was recently selected as a HOT ARTICLE by the editors of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.

  • Congratulations to our newest Postgraduate Teaching Fellows. They are Ms Madeline Kavanagh, Ms Carol Hua, Mr Nathaniel Davis, Mr Leo Corcilius and Ms Amandeep Kaur.

  • Congratulations to Associate Professor Brian Hawkett, who has been granted US$100,000 from AOARD to work with the US Air Force and Michigan Tech on ionic liquid ferrofluids for aero space applications.

  • Congratulations to Honours students: Ms Zoe Hungerford, Ms Katrina Badiola, Ms Clara Shen, Mr Eliot Salmon and Ms Mimi Gemmell, all 5 have been awarded an Honours Scholarship from the University of Sydney.  Honours Scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and personal attributes such as leadership and creativity.

  • Congratulations to Professor Michael Kassiou, who has received a grant from Parkinson’s NSW for research into the development of brain-penetrable LRRK2 inhibitors for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.


  • Congratulations to Associate Professor Richard Payne, who has been award a new Cure Cancer Australia grant from the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation. Cure Cancer Australia Foundation is funding a record 38 young researchers in 2013 and has formally announced the names of the 29 early-career cancer researchers who have received new grants in 2013 to support their work of finding a cure for cancer. This is a $3.2million investment in the fight against cancer that has been directly generated by the generosity and support of Cure Cancer Australia donors, fundraisers and corporate partners. Press release can be found here.

  • Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Len Lindoy, who has been appointed an Endowed Chair Professor at Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. Len will spend some time each year undertaking research in the Center for NanoBio Chemical Materials. 

  • Congratulations to Dr Jenny Zhang, who has received a Marie Curie Fellowship to do postdoctoral research at The University of Cambridge, UK this year.

  • Congratulations to Mr Marcello Solomon, Honours 2012 and commencing a PhD with Dr Deanna D'Alessandro's group this year, who has received a CSIRO OCE Postgraduate Top-up Scholarship. The collaboration between the D'Alessandro team at USyd and CSIRO’s Manufacturing, Materials and Minerals group aims to develop metal-organic framework catalysts that will permit a more efficient utilisation of resources.

  • Congratulations to Professor Sébastien Perrier who has won the early career award, the Le Fevre Memorial Prize, which recognises outstanding basic research in chemistry by scientists of no more than 40 years of age in the calendar year of nomination. Sebastien will receive his award and $3,000 prize money at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute award dinner in October or November 2013. Read the full article here.

  • Congratulations to Professor Peter Lay who has been awarded the 2013 David Craig Medal. The David Craig Medal is awarded annually and rewards contributions of a high order to any branch of chemistry by active researchers.The prize was announced by the Australian Academy of Science on 16 January 2013 and will be presented to Peter on 30 May 2013 in the Shine Dome’ event in Canberra. Read the full article here.

  • Congratulations to Richard Payne, Meredith Jordan and Ron Clarke.  All three have been promoted to the position of Associate Professor.

  • Congratulations to Professors Peter Harrowell and Brendan Kennedy who have been awarded a 2013 University Bridging Support Grant.