Three QUT researchers have been awarded ARC Future Fellowships totalling more than $3 million for projects pushing the boundaries of current knowledge to produce real-world benefits, from self-charging wearables and using daylight to design new materials to investigating new understanding of child sexual abuse and its prevention.
The researchers are:
(Above from left: Professor Zhi-Gang Chen, Associate Professor Sarina Sarina, Professor Kelly Richards)
Associate Professor Sarina Sarina, from QUT’s Centre for Materials Science, has received a $920,000 Future Fellowship for Plasmonic nanoparticle catalysis for nitrogen-based synthesis.
Dr Sarina said the project aimed to explore the novel application of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and light into selective trapping and releasing of molecules during the catalytic process.
“My project covers some very interesting chemical reactions like producing value-added chemicals from abundant raw materials, such as producing fertilizer like ammonia and urea from atmospheric nitrogen gas and producing amides, which are critical in pharmaceuticals’ synthesis, from a cheaper nitrogen source,” Dr Sarina said.
“Normal daylight is enhanced by nanoparticles that selectively trap and release molecules, which allows us to control chemical reaction pathways as needed in a green and smart way.
“In other words, we use ordinary daylight to position molecules and facilitate reactions between them, and in this project the focus is on molecules containing nitrogen.”
Professor Sarina’s research opens new capabilities in areas of catalysis for organic synthesis, conversion of solar energy to chemical energy, and an in-depth understanding of mechanisms for new photocatalytic processes.
Professor Sarina has consistently demonstrated excellence in research at QUT, notably the pioneering application of plasmonic metals and light to regulate chemical reactions. She achieved her PhD from QUT and was received a QUT Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award and became the recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (2014) and ARC DECRA fellowship (2019-2022).
Professor Kelly Richards, from QUT Centre for Justice, has received $1,030,000 in funding for her project, Preventing child sexual abuse by understanding perpetrators’ motivations, building on her extensive research and fieldwork with child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrators in Australia, Canada and the US.
Professor Richards said research on CSA perpetration had been stymied by a fixation on background factors such as the gender of perpetrators and the ‘risk factors’ they possess.
“It is often assumed that CSA perpetrators are innately sexually attracted to children, have been CSA victims, or are mentally ill, but there are no definitive links between these factors and CSA perpetration,” she said.
“This project will investigate a critical, yet unrecognised gap of the emotional, visceral and experiential factors that compel or entice the person to act in the very moment a crime is committed.
“Discovering what propels someone who fits background risk factors commit CSA but not another will significantly advance our ability to explain and prevent the urgent problem of CSA perpetration.
“Current CSA prevention measures could be more effective if they were informed by a deeper understanding of why adults perpetrate CSA.”
Professor Richards has designed and led large and complex projects totalling more than $2.6 million in mostly external funding and has produced 114 publications, in 80 per cent of which she is the sole or lead author. Professor Richards has previously been named both a Churchill Fellow and a Senior Fulbright Scholar.
Professor Zhi-Gang Chen from the QUT Centre for Material Sciences and School of Chemistry and Physics has received a$1,066,360 ARC Future Fellowship for his project, New generation flexible thermoelectrics for wearable electronics.
Professor Chen aims to develop lightweight, flexible and durable thermoelectric thin films (F-TEDS) for wearable electronics in health for such devices as pacemakers and hearing aids as well as other sectors.
“This makes F-TEDs particularly attractive for charging portable, wearable, and implantable microelectronics that are vibration-, emission- and noise-free that do not require recharging,” Professor Chen said.
“F-TEDs for wearable applications have been extensively studied but none can simultaneously produce high power output, high wearability and remain stable structurally for the long-term.
“I have recently developed advanced inorganic thermoelectric materials and devices for use in personal, industrial and civil applications which will underpin the aims of this project.”
Professor Chen has initiated and managed a number of large research projects and competitive grants as lead chief investigator or chief investigator including but not limited to five ARC Discovery grants, two ARC Linkage grants, more than 10 industry investment and two Queensland Smart Futures Funds. He received the Queensland International Collaboration Award (2011).
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