The University of Queensland`s commitment to excellence in research has been recognised with two of the University`s world-renowned researchers being awarded Federation Fellowships this week.
Professor John Mattick, AO, the director of UQ`s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, and Associate Professor Bostjan Kobe, from the School of Molecular & Microbial Sciences, were recognised for their demonstrated excellence in conducting outstanding and ground-breaking research.
Federation Fellows are considered to be world-leaders in their chosen fields of research and the program is aimed at attracting some of the world`s best research talent as well as offer opportunities for top Australian researchers to continue their work here.
Professor Mattick, was recently recognised as developing one of the top 10 discoveries of 2004 by the world-leading journal Science, for his work on "junk" DNA.
His research will investigate ribonucleic acids, which comprise 98 per cent of the output of the human genome. The project may transform our understanding of genetic programming and is expected to have far-reaching consequences in medicine, agriculture, engineering, biotechnology, information science and associated industries.
Associate Professor Kobe is working on project that will contribute to the worldwide effort in sequencing the genomes of humans and other organisms. This work has identified a large number of proteins with unknown functions. Determining the functions of these proteins is one of the next great challenges in biology.
The research will lead to the discovery of new biological molecules, interactions and processes essential for the function of cells, identify new therapeutic targets and strategies to combat disease and identify new concepts in bio- and nanotechnology.
UQ Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Hay, AC, said the University`s reputation as a leading research institution had been further enhanced by the latest Federation Fellowship appointments.
"These two worthy candidates join our current 10 Federation Fellows in an unparalleled convergence of world-leading researchers at The University of Queensland," Professor Hay said.
The Federation Fellowships are funded under the Australian Research Council`s (ARC) National Competitive Grants Program and each Fellow will receive an indexed salary of around $235,000 a year for five years.
The latest round of ARC Centres of Excellence, also announced this week, has seen UQ researchers involved in five of the 11 Centres.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor David Siddle, said the strong role UQ played in these projects would be integral to their success.
"UQ`s involvement in these leading scientific centres shows our researchers have an outstanding profile in the Australian research community," Professor Siddle said.
UQ is involved in the following Centres of Excellence announced this week:
• ARC Centre of Excellence in Innovative science for sustainable management of coral reef biodiversity will be based at James Cook University. UQ researchers involved are Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr Sophie Dove, Dr Maoz Fine and Dr John Pandolfi from the Centre for Marine Studies. The Centre received $12 million to develop focus, scale and scope to build an enduring program of innovative research development, leading to world leadership in coral reef science.
• ARC Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics will be based at the Monash University. UQ researcher Dr Ian Wilkie, from the School of Veterinary Science, is involved. The Centre received $10 million to gather together a team of experts in microbial genetics, bioinformatics and protein structure and function undertaking integrated studies on microbial genomics that are focused on fundamental biological processes and host/pathogen interactions with the aim to benefit Australian primary industries.
• ARC Centre of Excellence in Design in Light Metals will be based at Monash University. UQ researchers involved are Professor Graham Schaffer and Associate Professors Arne Dahle and Carlos Caceres from the School of Engineering. The $14.5 million Centre will adopt a systematic process of virtual materials selection to assess modifications to the property profiles of light metals systems that will maximize the competitiveness of light alloys and new light metal hybrid materials based on aluminium, magnesium and titanium.
• ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science will be based at the Australian National University. UQ researcher Professor David Vaney, from the Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre, is involved. The $11 million Centre will explore three themes: the extraordinary sensitivity and adaptability of vision; how vision forms the basis for behaviour; and why vision fails, especially with age.
• ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits will be based at the University of Tasmania. UQ researchers involved are Professors Tim Napier-Munn and J-P Franzidis from the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre. The $15 million Centre will encompass an innovative program of multidisciplinary research in ore deposit location, formation, discovery and recovery.
Media: Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (07 3365 2802).
