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 News Archive




Deputy Head receives recognition for advancement of women in science
Professor Mary Garson has been recognised for her contribution to supporting and encouraging other women int...

Competitive Grant Round and Fellowship Success 2009
The School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences (SCMB) has achieved strongly in the ARC and NHMRC research grant rounds announced October 200...
Nov 4, 2009

Award-winning teachers and program
Three of the School's staff have been honoured at the 2009 UQ Awards for Excellence in Teaching & Learning. Associate Professor Lawrie Gahan received an Award for Teaching Excellence.  Professor Ross Barnard and ...
Nov 3, 2009

PhD students explain their work in 3 minutes
Eleven SCMB research higher degree students competed in the SCMB round of the 2009 UQ Three Minute Thesis Competition, with one student going on to win second place in th...
Sep 17, 2009

Award for distinguished chemist
SCMB's Professor Istvan Toth is the recipient of the 2009 Adrien Albert award for sustained, outstanding research in a field related to biomolecular chemistry. The pre...
Sep 11, 2009

Solar Cell Funding Boost
Researchers from the Centre for Organic Photonics & Electronics within SCMB have received almost $2 million from the Queensland Government to lead an international allianc...
Sep 11, 2009

Open Day 2009 display draws crowds
Hundreds of visitors made their way to the School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences' display as part of 2009 UQ Open Day St Lucia.  See a collection of photographs here. ...
Aug 10, 2009

Landmark software deal benefits genetics undergraduates
Coordinator of SCMB's second year Genetics course, Dr James Fraser, has negotiated a deal that will see students access leading bi...
Jul 18, 2009

2009 Chemistry Titration Competition
More than 260 students from 30 high schools attended UQ in May to participate in the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Titration Competition for 2009. Acid-base titration is a method in chemistry that allows quantitative analysis of the ...
May 27, 2009

School Newsletter May 2009 published
Catch up on the news for the first few months of 2009 in the latest edition of the SCMB newsletter.  Download the PDF by clicking on the link directly above.
May 8, 2009

Gates Foundation grant for mosquito disease research
Professor Paul Young has received a US$100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an altruistic vaccine for mosquito transmitted pathogens. The Foundation's Grand Challenges in Global Health grants foster creative pr...
May 7, 2009

Students honoured at Undergraduate Awards Evening
Thirteen students recently received prizes ranging from cash to books to membership of professional associations at the SCMB Awards Ceremony for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate Studies 2008. 
Apr 17, 2009

Bloody anomaly in 'Nature' and GEN podcast
Congratulations to Dr Renfu Shao and colleauges, including Assoc Prof Steve Barker, on being published in the 2 April 2009 edition of the leading science journal, Nature. The 'Research Highlights' section of the issue...
Apr 3, 2009

Scholarships success for RHD students
Research Higher Degree students who commenced in the School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences in 2008 and 2009 have won more scholarships and living stipends than those of any other School or Institute in the University. Around...
Mar 31, 2009

ALTC grant win means deeper learning for first year students
Assoc Prof Lawrie Gahan and Dr Gwen Lawrie are winners of an Australian Learning & Teaching Council competitive grant for their project ‘IS-IT learning?  Online Interdisciplinary Scenario-Inquiry Tasks for active learning in large, fi...
Mar 31, 2009

New UQ research finding about the bane of parents' lives - head lice
Head lice are a challenge for parents of primary-school aged children all around the world, including Australia. read more on the UQ News page...
Feb 13, 2009

2008 'School in Review' newsletter published...
Late in 2008 the School Executive Committee requested that a newsletter summarising the School’s highlights for 2008 be produced.   Download PDF file by clicking on link above.
Jan 13, 2009

The real cost of university research, featuring Chemistry at UQ
When ABC television's 7:30 Report did a story on the funding shortfall in publicly-administered research in Australia, they featured the work of SCMB Federation Fellow, Professor Paul Burn, and the newly-opened Centre for Organic Photonics ...
Jan 6, 2009

Symposium ignites grass roots Chemistry
Finding ground-upwards solutions to the likes of climate change and energy was the focus when a group of chemists from The University of Queensland (UQ) and National University of Singapore (NUS) converged for a two-day symposium held 15-16 December...
Dec 19, 2008

SMMS 4th Annual RHD symposium success
The 4th Annual SMMS Postgraduate Symposium held on Tuesday 25 November in Women’s College was a great success. A full day of talks and poster sessions was rounded off with a fascinating talk from Professor Mark von Iztstein, Director of the In...
Nov 29, 2008

Competitive Grant Rounds Success
SMMS achieved a success rate of 27% in the October 2008 ARC Discovery Projects round, compared to a UQ average of 25%, a Faculty of BACS average of 21%, and a national average of 20%. An application for an ARC Linkage grant was also successful. Th...
Nov 14, 2008

4th annual SMMS RHD Student Symposium
Staff and students are encouraged to register for the symposium, to be held 25th November at Women’s College. Cash prizes and complimentary lunch and teas provided. ...
Oct 28, 2008

2008 RACI Titration competition finals
Fifteen high school teams competed 18 October in the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Titration Competition Queensland finals. Pictured in one of SMMS’s undergraduate Chemistry labs is the winning team from Beenleigh State High Sch...
Oct 22, 2008

T.G.H. Jones lecture 2008
Descendants of Thomas Gilbert Henry Jones, professor of chemistry 1940-1965, attended this year’s public lecture in his honour, given by CEO of the Australian Research Council (ARC), Professor Margaret Sheil. Pictured with the SMMS’s Pr...
Oct 19, 2008

Prof. Mike Jennings wins 2008 UQ Award for Excellence
Professor Michael Jennings is the winner of a 2008 UQ Award for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision. Professor Jennings’s research centres on bacterial pathogens such as Neisseria meningitides that causes meningitis and se...
Sep 29, 2008

Prof. Margaret Sheil, CEO ARC speaks at TGH Jones lecture
Professor Margaret Sheil, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Research Council will speak on the topic of "A new ERA for the ARC and the National Innovation System" at the annual TGH Jones memorial lecture on 6 October 2008.  ...
Sep 29, 2008

UQ Open Day 2008
UQ Open Day 2008 saw hundreds of prospective students and members of the public tour the SMMS displays and activities in the modern first year Chemistry laboratories. more news...
Aug 20, 2008

2008 Trailblazer Awards
A team of SMMS staff and students is the winner in the Open category of the 2008 Trailblazer Awards presented by UQ's commercialisation arm, UniQuest. Dr Joanne Blanchfield, Professor Paul Burn and PhD student Melissa Foster received $7,500 ...
Jul 30, 2008

Assoc. Prof. Paul Young awarded 2008 David White Excellence in Teaching Award
A/Professor Paul Young, Head of the Molecular Virology Unit in SMMS has been awarded the 2008 David White Excellence in Teaching Award. This award is given by the Australian Society for Microbiology in recognition of excellence in the teaching of, a...
Jul 22, 2008

2008 RACI Titration competition
Around 230 high school students attended UQ to participate in the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Titration Competition for 2008. Acid-base titration is a method in chemistry that allows quantitative analysis of the concentration of an unknown...
Jun 6, 2008

SMMS researchers make giant leap forward in West Nile vaccine research
SMMS researchers have made a giant leap forward in the race to develop a vaccine for the potentially debilitating West Nile virus. read more...
Jun 4, 2008

SMMS Awards Evening 2008 - huge success
The SMMS Awards Evening celebrating Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate studies in 2007 was held this year in the James and Emelia Mayne Centre amongst the artwork of the University Art Museum. Please follow the link (below left) for more info...
Jun 3, 2008

T.G.H. Jones lecture 2007
The TGH Jones Lecture is being held on Monday 19th November at 4:00pm in 50-T105 and will be delivered by Dr Richard Jefferson, Director of the CAMBIA BiOS Initiative based in Canberra. CAMBIA is an independent, international non-profit institute,...
Oct 24, 2007

Smart Women-Smart State Award awarded to Prof. Linda Blackall
At the recent "Smart Women-Smart State Awards", SMMS Professor Linda Blackall won the Women in the Community/Public Sector - Science Prize. Prof. Blackall's research on wastewater management will maximise Australia’s ability to contr...
Oct 2, 2007

Dr Gary Schenk receives UQ Research Excellence Award
SMMS researcher, Dr Gary Schenk was recently honoured with a UQ Research Excellence award. At the awards ceremony UQ Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), Professor David Siddle explained how "The University understands that excellence in research...
Oct 2, 2007

Bancroft-Mackerras Medal for Excellence awarded to Assoc. Prof. Tom Cribb
The Bancroft-Mackerras Medal for Excellence is awarded by the Australian Society of Parasitologists and recognises outstanding contributions of its members to the Science of Parasitology. It is based particularly on work published over the last 5 ye...
Jul 23, 2007

Dr Amanda Mabbett awarded Smart State Fellowship
Dr Mabbett was awarded a Smart State Fellowship which includes a $150,000 grant for a three year project. Dr Mabbett’s project will research new ways to tackle the antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus (or Golden Staph). This bacteria is ...
Jul 19, 2007

Assoc. Prof. Paul Young presents seminars in Maylasia
Associate Professor Paul Young from SMMS has just returned from a seminar tour of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia promoting a new diagnostic assay for dengue patients that for the first time allows specific diagnosis on the day of patient presenta...
Jul 9, 2007

Dr Craig Williams receives Pathfinder Grant
Dr Craig Williams’ Synthesis and Testing of MorphPlus project has recently been successful in attracting funding from the Pathfinder proof-of-concept grant program. The funding has been approved for synthesis of the MorphPlus molecule and test...
Jul 9, 2007

SMMS Awards Evening 2007
The annual SMMS Awards evening were held on Thursday 26th April, 2007 at the University Art Museum, the Mayne Centre. This was an opportunity for all staff and students to acknowledge the hard work that awardees in the discipline areas of biochemi...
May 29, 2007

SMMS Podium Projects to get underway
The much-anticipated SMMS Podium Project will get underway on Monday 30th April. The podium outside of the 3rd floor School office in the Chemistry building will be transformed over a period of 6 months, to include a fully enclosed space for use by ...
Apr 20, 2007

RHD candidate Elena VIrtue awarded 2006 Ausbiotech award
Elena Virtue, Research Higher Degree candidate with the School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences was awarded the 2006 Ausbiotech Queensland Student's Awards for Excellence for her research project presentation on “Rapid Diagnosis of Known ...
Feb 2, 2007

The Hon. Kevin Rudd and The Hon. Stephen Smith visit SMMS
The Hon. Kevin Rudd, Leader of the Opposition, and the Hon Stephen Smith, Shadow Education Minister, today visited an SMMS teaching laboratory for a major policy announcement on science and maths course HECS fees. Mr Rudd’s Press Release was d...
Feb 2, 2007

Dr Mark Schembri receives UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award
Dr Schembri, one of eight UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award winners, has been honoured for his work in isolation of several strains of good bacteria which can prevent Urinary tract infections.
Sep 21, 2006

Assoc. Prof. James De Voss has "hot paper" in the Journal of Chemical Communications
James De Voss’ paper has appeared as a “hot paper’ in the Journal of Chemical Communications. Disrupting sexual signalling in the Queensland fruit fly, the most destructive horticultural pest in Australia, could save farmers milli...
Sep 15, 2006