The University of Queensland has attracted two grants worth in excess of $1 million each in the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Discovery-Projects scheme announced today.
Awarded nearly $20 million in total, UQ remained one of the nation’s leaders in the Commonwealth Government’s funding allocations, announced by Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training Dr Brendan Nelson.
“I’m very pleased with the results and I would like to congratulate all the researchers concerned. I’m especially pleased that our success rate has increased,” said Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor David Siddle.
• Optical physics researchers Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Dr Matthew Davis, Associate Professor Norm Heckenberg, Professor Gerard Milburn and Dr Keith Schwab were awarded $1.39 million over five years (2003-2007).
UQ has a growing research effort making an international impact in the burgeoning new area of quantum information science.
Its goal is to determine how information can be processed and communicated if we harness the principles of quantum physics – which enables tasks not possible in the everyday world of classical physics.
The research group plan to examine the properties of micro Bose Einstein Condensates (BEC) – collections of atoms in the same quantum state – and will develop methods to count small numbers of ultra-cold atoms, engineer their state and build a prototype device.
• Professor Stuart Crozier, Professor Larry Forbes and Dr Huawei (Bob) Zhao were awarded $1.03 million to develop the next generation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners used to examine soft tissue injuries.
They will develop new engineering design methods to generate novel super-conducting magnet systems in an effort to improve the accuracy and speed of MRI scans as well as better patient safety, comfort and clinician access.
The University also performed well nationally in the three fellowship categories that are integrated into the Discovery grants.
It received the second highest number of Australian Postdoctoral Fellowships (14) and equal-second highest number of Australian Professorial Fellowships (3), both after the Australian National University (17 and 5 respectively), and two Australian Research Fellowships. The Australian Professorial Fellowships were awarded to Professor Crozier, Professor Max Lu and Professor Hugh Possingham.
UQ attracted more than 65 percent of funding allocated to Queensland institutions and was awarded the fourth highest amount of $19.76 million for 81 new grants (63 percent of the State’s entire allocation) after the Australian National University ($40.63 million), the University of Sydney ($28.15 million) and the University of Melbourne ($25.85 million).
The ARC’s total Discovery projects and fellowships commitment over five years (2003-2007) totalled $231.17 million in 921 separate grants.
Media: For further information, contact Joanne van Zeeland at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2619 or email: communications@uq.edu.au).
