Monash University is committed to fostering high quality research that addresses national and international priorities. With campuses and partnerships in Australia and overseas, Monash pursues knowledge and solutions from a global perspective.
The Australian Research Council’s continuing support of Monash University research results in the development of innovations that have and will continue to have positive impacts on the community and industry throughout Victoria, Australia and the world.
Monash University is strongly committed to research excellence, creating impact through quality research training and delivering impact from innovation through its engagement and collaboration with industry and government.
Sustainable solutions
The Monash Sustainability Institute is dedicated to delivering solutions to key sustainability challenges through research, education and practice. The Institute draws together teams that transcend traditional boundaries and provides a portal for knowledge sharing.
Monash Researchers are at the forefront of efforts to develop a new generation of solar cells - cells that are lighter and cheaper and could be embedded in roofing materials.
Federation Fellow Professor Doug MacFarlane was a major partner in a successful $6 million bid for Victorian Government funding to develop the third generation of solar cells,
Partners in the consortium include the CSIRO, University of Melbourne, BP Solar, Merck and Bluescope Steel.
Another important project aims to decontaminate water using environmentally friendly materials. Water decontamination usually involves the use of oxidants such as chlorine and chromium, but a team led by Federation Fellow Professor Alan Bond is working on a way of using sunlight and electricity to safely clean contaminated water.
Climatologist and ARC Federation Fellow Professor Amanda Lynch is one of eight Monash scientists to share in the prestige of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and environmentalist Al Gore.
Professor Lynch was a contributing author to the Panel report, which has raised community understanding of the costs of hotter and drier seasons and more erratic weather events.
Researchers at the Monash Centre for Green Chemistry aim to design chemical processes and products that are hazard-free, waste-free, energy efficient and non-toxic.
One example is the shift away from petroleum as a raw material for industry. Crops high in carbohydrate – for example, corn and sugarcane – are used to make plastics, fuels and chemicals.
Centre for Green Chemistry Director Professor Milton Hearn said it was possible for science and industry to develop environmentally sound technologies because nature already performs perfectly green chemistry – incredible feats of chemistry and engineering using no other ingredients than those found on an average day: sunlight, water, air and nutrients.
Unlocking the secrets of infection and immunity
Monash researchers are helping to explain the critically important processes of infection and immunity.
Using structural biology and synchrotron light as his main research tool, Professor Jamie Rossjohn has provided insights into bacterial toxins, proteins that cause gas gangrene, pneumonia and tuberculosis.
A protein’s specific function is determined by its shape, and Professor Rossjohn is one of Australia’s leaders in the field of protein crystallography – the science of mapping protein shapes. Based on this knowledge, new drugs can be developed that target a particular protein.
He has also investigated how the human body fights off viruses, such as Epstein-Barr virus and influenza, contributing to our understanding of how our Killer T-cells function.
Professor Rossjohn received the Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year in 2004. In 2006, he was awarded a prestigious Federation Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. He is head of the Protein Crystallography Unit in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University.
His research program is supported by the ARC, NHMRC, and Anti-Cancer Council and had led to over 110 publications, including articles in Nature, Science and Cell. Many of his students and post-doctoral researchers have received national awards and fellowships.
For his outstanding contribution to medical sciences Professor Rossjohn was awarded the Gottschalk medal from the Australian Academy of Science in 2007 and the 2007 Commonwealth Health Ministers Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research.
Lightening the load in metal materials
A Monash engineer is leading the quest for the holy grail of aircraft manufacturing – a lighter, cheaper aluminium alloy.
Based at Monash University’s Department of Materials Engineering, Federation Fellow Professor Barry Muddle is Research Director of the $14.5 million ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals.
The Centre provides a vital link between research and industry sectors, cementing its international reputation in September 2007 when it signed an agreement with the Aluminium Corporation of China – the biggest player in the fastest growing major aluminium market in the world.
The partnership is significant, given that China expects to start making large, homegrown commercial aircraft by 2020 and needs light aluminium alloys to increase the efficiency of its new jets. Aircraft manufacturers globally are committed to taking the weight off to reduce fuelcosts and this means finding lighter materials with the strength of traditional aluminium.
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is 80 per cent composite material – currently a lighter alternative to aluminium – but it’s also more expensive to make, so there is a huge opportunity for new products.
In a major national initiative, the Centre has formed the Australian Partnership in Light Metals Research with the CSIRO Light Metals Flagship and the CAST Co-operative Research Centre – a collaboration between government, industry and research bodies.
Under ARC funding arrangements, the Centre will receive Commonwealth funding of $2.9 million a year for five years. Combined with participant contributions from five other university partners, the Victorian government and the CSIRO National Flagships Collaboration Fund, the Centre will operate on a budget of over $25 million for the next five years.
Protecting the rights of Australians
Laws that protect the rights of mentally ill Australians are the subject of major research by Monash Professor of Law Bernadette McSherry.
Professor McSherry was awarded a Federation Fellowship from the Australian Research Council to investigate national models for improved mental health laws.
Professor McSherry, an internationally recognised expert on mental health law and criminal law, will explore national legal frameworks that could help shape the way in which people with mental illnesses can access the highest standard of mental health care.
The main aim of the research program is to explore the role of the law in improving access to optimal mental health care and promoting and maintaining good mental health.
This could enable Australia to set the international agenda by providing model frameworks for other countries to respond to the mental health needs of their citizens.
The program will bring together international and Australian mental health experts as well as consumer representatives to develop models for both civil commitment laws for those with serious mental illnesses and sentencing laws for mentally ill offenders.
Professor McSherry was one of 20 researchers in Australia to be awarded a Federation Fellowship from the Australian Research Council in 2007.
Mental health is one of the Commonwealth Government’s national health priority areas.
This research program will help shape the way in which individuals with mental illnesses can access the highest attainable standard of mental health care.
Safeguarding history
Monash is a richly diverse and multicultural community serving Australian born students together with students from over 100 other countries. Monash values its multicultural and multifaith communities and is home to several schools and institutes specialising in cultural studies including the Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation.
In 2007 the School won two Australian Research Council linkage grants, one for a study into patterns of change in Melbourne’s Jewish community in conjunction with the welfare organisation Jewish Care.
52,000 statements in the collection are from Australian Holocaust survivors.
The collection is available in digital format to students through the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, part of the Monash School of Historical studies. The Centre is dedicated to the study, preservation and enrichment of all aspects of Jewish life, culture and learning.
The Centre’s teaching program covers Jewish history, Jewish languages, Jewish classical and modern literature and studies in Jewish law, religion, philosophy, politics and sociology.
The Centre offers undergraduate, honours and postgraduate studies in Jewish civilisation. In 2008 the Centre will begin a Masters level program in Holocaust and Genocide studies.
Monash students and researchers also have access to an extensive library relating to the history of Jewish Civilisation and Judaism, the Laura and Israel Kipen Judaica collection, which is kept in the Sir Louis Matheson Library on the Clayton campus.
The School of Historical Studies covers studies in history, archaeology and ancient history, international studies, religion and philosophy.
To raise community awareness of the importance of history and heritage, the School established the Institute for Public History in 2004.
Links:
Monash University www.monash.edu
Monash University Research http://www.monash.edu.au/research/
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