News

New dating techniques find that Laos’ stone jars may be at least 3,000 years old, but the sites remained significant for rituals until just 700 years ago.

The Biden Administration’s strong climate leadership is reverberating around the world. Where does Australia now fit and what options do we have to reframe climate change policy?

Meriam elder Uncle Segar Passi shares his knowledge of weather, wildlife, sea, land and sky and how they influence his artwork, now featured on a new commemorative coin.

Students have demonstrated that artificial intelligence can identify individual feral cats in the wild in what could be a step forward in the fight to control them.

A new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.

Some of Australia’s iconic ecosystems are collapsing, which is likely exacerbated by climate change. But we must understand the dynamics of our ecosystems in order to protect them.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the issue of food insecurity among university students to the front pages of many newspapers in Australia and the United States. But even before the recent pandemic, there were increasing numbers of students reporting food insecurity.

The discovery of bacteria inside the algae that live inside corals sheds new light on reef-building corals and could be important for understanding coral bleaching.

Recently described fossils are the most diverse yet of forests that grew in Antarctica around 56 million years ago, providing valuable information about Earth’s past and future climate.

New research works out where and when to apply planned fire for the benefit of kangaroos and other Australian animals in a time of rapid environmental change.

New dating techniques reveal Australia’s oldest known, intact, Aboriginal rock paintings - dating back 600 generations.

Research finds the first Australian-based record of a major global event where the Earth’s magnetic field ‘switched’ – and north became south.

MATRIX, Australia’s residential research institute for the mathematical sciences, is pleased to announce the award of US $600,000 over three years in funding from the US based Simons Foundation.

The University of Melbourne and Bush Heritage Australia have been awarded a significant grant of $1.2 million by The Ian Potter Foundation to build an open-source Conservation Knowledge System.

The University of Melbourne's Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program has won the 2020 Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science.

Wiradjuri man and geographer Associate Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher explores how Indigenous people and knowledge can save Australia’s environmental unravelling

Professor Head is one of Australia’s leading researchers whose work focusses on human-environment relations, both prehistoric and contemporary.

The Federal Government has announced that Faculty researchers are to lead 27 new projects worth $13 million under the ARC Discovery Project (DP21) scheme.

The Federal Government has announced $84 million for 200 new projects under the ARC DECRA scheme and a further $7.1 million in funding for research that improves the lives of Indigenous Australians.

Researchers in Australia have resolved a fundamental design challenge in next-generation perovskite solar cells, bringing their widespread use a step closer

Professor Kate Smith-Miles studies how mathematics can help us trust algorithms, but her work unexpectedly created beautiful, mathematically-generated art

Researchers have a new tool to understand our climate history, and how different regions may have responded to past global climate change

The only spider known to weave a container to catch prey, researchers now have the first insights into the evolution and structure of the basket-web spider’s rare silk

Associate Professor David Kennedy leads a multi-agency group that is using commercial drone technology and volunteer pilots to map coastal erosion in 3D.

Dr David Jones has received $1.29 million dollars from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency ARENA to examine self-assembled singlet fission materials to improve silicon solar cell efficiency.

If we really care about closing the gap we need a serious discussion about Indigenous water rights and Indigenous voices in water management

The University of Melbourne has appointed Professor Moira O’Bryan as Dean of the Faculty of Science.

Researcher Zena Cumpston’s new booklet on indigenous plants encourages their use and appreciation – providing a portal through which a wide audience may begin to understand the complexity of Indigenous scientific practice

People have been suspicious of ‘nothing’ going back all the way to the mathematical idea of “zero.” Yet there is real value in “nothing” and we need to appreciate it more.

The failure of the Murray Darling Basin Plan is linked to poor political decisions but also to poor market design. The allocation mechanism for our most valuable tradable natural resource is now a gambling pit, so what can be done to fix this mess?

Large-scale testing is key to controlling COVID-19 and statistical modelling shows that analysing grouped samples can give a better and more efficient indication of the prevalence of disease

Maiyuren Srikumar has been awarded the University of Melbourne’s inaugural Flagstaff Partners Award in Science and Engineering.

Australian researchers describe their plans to build the SpIRIT satellite – launching by 2022 – that’s helping to develop cutting-edge space capabilities in Australia

Researchers are targeting essential microorganisms inside insect pests in an approach that could revolutionise agricultural pest management

Delays to reporting test results and contact tracing from an overloaded system slows the containment of COVID-19. Victoria’s testing strategy needs to recognise this risk and allocate resources accordingly

New research shows atrazine, a herbicide banned in the EU but widely used in Australia, causes abnormalities in marsupial genitalia

The ‘hard lockdowns’ of some of Melbourne’s public housing buildings are another example of Australia’s long history of paternalism against public housing tenants

Timor-Leste is now COVID-19 free, but the ongoing threat of disruption from the pandemic could have longer term impacts on the country

Mathematical Biologist Dr Jared Field is one of five Australian scientists chosen to undertake a two-week residency at ABC Radio National.

Four academics from the Faculty of Science have received ARC Future Fellowships to commence in 2020.

A Faculty of Science team has been awarded funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to study the movement of bacteria that live inside corals.

University of Melbourne based startup Carbon Cybernetics has been awarded a prestigious BioMedTech Horizons grant to develop a highly specialised neural implant for epilepsy.

Amid the gloom, the COVID-19 crisis has created opportunities to accelerate existing and emerging technologies to make Australia a renewable energy superpower

Geographers don’t just look at maps of where COVID-19 is occurring, they ask why. Looking at the big picture and the factors driving trends can help us to better understand its impact

Professor Kate Smith-Miles, leading a team of university and industry partners, has received funding for an Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre in Optimisation Technologies, Integrated Methodologies, and Applications (OPTIMA).

The Mathematical Research Institute MATRIX is delighted to announce that The Australian National University has joined Monash University and The University of Melbourne in a three-way partnership.

New awards that highlight the University’s commitment to gender equality in STEMM have been announced. This initiative of the Faculty of Science was made possible by anonymous donors to the 2019 Dean’s Fund for Science Scholarships Appeal.

Major funding will allow researchers to build a small satellite to be launched by 2022.

Environmental Microbiology Professor, Linda Blackall, and Mathematics and Statistics Professor, Aurore Delaigle, have been recognised by Australia’s peak science academy.

Scientists are investigating novel technologies and management strategies to control insect pests in Australian grain crops through a new research initiative.

Scientists from the University of Melbourne, CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have successfully produced in a laboratory setting a coral that is more resistant to increased seawater temperatures.

How would people and systems cope if a major earthquake or cyclone occurs while the COVID-19 pandemic continues? The answer is – preparation is key

SWARM technology has brought together the country’s leading experts from Australian universities to work on our recovery after COVID-19.

As a global community, we must work beyond our national borders to protect threatened species and maintain biodiversity.

Australia needs new business models between industry and agriculture to inspire investment in trees on farms in order to guarantee the country’s future timber resources.

Jane Elith, Professor of Biodiversity Modelling in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, was this week elected an international member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in the USA.

Forecasting the spread of COVID-19, including the likely number of undetected cases, is fraught and difficult, but a sense of the numbers is important for appreciating the challenges ahead

Dr Rachel Popelka-Filcoff, an internationally recognised expert in radioanalytical chemistry and the scientific analysis of Indigenous Australian natural mineral pigments will lead the University of Melbourne’s Archaeological Science Group as the Kimberley Foundation Minderoo Chair in Archaeological Science.

A machine learning framework has been created to precisely locate atom-sized quantum bits in silicon – a crucial step for building a large-scale silicon quantum computer

Associate Professor Lauren Bennett is a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences.

Dr Amy Prendergast is a Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Geography.

Larger animals tend to live longer than smaller ones, but within the dog kingdom it pays to be short.

Head of the School of BioSciences, Professor Ute Roessner, has been named a Trailblazer on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Scientists have used new quantum magnetic imaging techniques to study the hardest known biomineral – the magnetite found in mollusc teeth – which may inspire new industrial materials

Professor Devi Stuart-Fox is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Co-Chairs the Melbourne Hallmark Research Initiative in BioInspiration.

Dr Suzie Sheehy is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Accelerator Physics in the School of Physics

For International Women's Day, Colette Boskovic from the School of Chemistry talks about her research and experiences.

Dr Eleanor Green is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Petrology in the school of Earth Sciences.

To celebrate International Women's Day, Jennifer Flegg highlights her research and recent achievements.

Three outstanding Faculty of Science academics have been recognized in the 2020 Australian Academy of Science Awards.

The swamp wallaby, an iconic Australian marsupial, has accomplished an incredible reproductive feat as the only mammal known to be pregnant and lactating throughout the female’s entire adult life

Australia’s season of bushfires shows us just how easily our unique biodiversity and ecosystems could be wiped out. Now is the time for long-term planning for climate change to protect them

New techniques for dating volcanic eruptions, a lone axe and Indigenous oral traditions give us a new minimum age for human occupation in Victoria

For drought-busting rains, Australia might just have to wait for the tropical oceans to serve up some moisture, finds new research

Many Australians blame our variable climate for the recent severe bushfires and crippling drought, but researchers say these ‘natural’ disasters are not natural at all

An analysis of the words and actions of past and present US Presidents confirms Donald Trump’s hostility to science, and suggests it may hurt him politically

Australia’s trees have evolved with fire, most needing some fire for renewal, but now our forests have had too much severe fire

As our world becomes increasingly connected, the only way we can manage the risk of pests coming into Australia is ensuring an effective biosecurity system.

While completing her Master of Ecosystem Forest Science , Cleo got the opportunity of a lifetime to intern with the UN in Thailand.

Professor Rachel Webster has received an Officer of the Order of Australia for her service to education in the field of astrophysics and astronomical research, and for her dedication to young women scientists.

Professor Anthony (Tony) J. Guttmann has been named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his contributions to the discipline of Mathematics.

Anti-viral bacteria used to control dengue-carrying mosquitoes can bounce back from heatwaves, according to new research

Research to improve the quality of public landscapes is among three projects awarded $1.4 million from the Australian Research Council

University of Melbourne researchers are redesigning wheat to create healthier versions of one of the world’s favourite foods – bread

Burned forests in steep mountains can be just as hazardous after the rains come and flames have been extinguished. And the risks are increasing, so what can be done?

The massive scale of these bushfires heightens the risk to animal populations and species - and as climate change bites the onus will increasingly be on us to protect and foster our wildlife.

The 2020s will use increasingly complex technology to ramp up our efforts to understand more about the Universe.

Research into our gut microbiome – or our ‘second brain’ – has already produced vast amounts of data, but we are only scratching the surface of our own complex ecosystems.

From watching the heavens to discovering waves of light, relativity and entropy, understanding the nature of time has been a major human endeavour.

Animals like beetles and birds are teaching us new ways of understanding colour at a nanoscale, which could change the way we manufacture it.

A rapid rise in global temperatures would lead to more extremes, whereas a more gradual and stabilised rate of climate change would decrease the temperatures we would experience

Five University of Melbourne students are among 125 students from around Australia to receive a 2020 New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship.

Scientists are facing up to the challenge of food security and sustainability on myriad fronts.

With her living bequest, Professor Kerry Landman — a leader in the field of applied mathematics — aims to share the beauty of maths by supporting future teachers in the field.

The 2019 Dean's Awards for Excellence have been announced.

The Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme provides focused research support for early career researchers in both teaching and research, and research-only positions. It supports research in areas of critical national importance by enabling outstanding Australian and international early career researchers to conduct their research in Australia.

The Merri Creek is a vital artery of Melbourne’s waterways and hosts some of Australia’s most threatened ecosystems.

In 1998 L'Oréal and UNESCO founded the For Women in Science program and in 2007 launched the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Australia & New Zealand Fellowships. L'Oréal and UNESCO aim to promote and highlight the critical importance of ensuring greater participation of women in science.

In the 90s, Professor Richard Robson created a new class of coordination polymers, and his models inspired an entirely new field of chemistry.

Professor Wedell will join the School of BioSciences to take up the Fellowship for her project, 'Sexual conflict and evolutionary dynamics of insecticide resistant genes'.

The Australian Research Council has awarded Future Fellowships to Professor Howard Bondell, Associate Professor Colette Boskovic and Dr David Garrett.

Professors Ann Roberts and Kenneth Crozier are Chief Investigators on the $34.9 million Australian Research Council funded centre that will develop the next-generation of miniaturised optical systems, turning science fiction into fact.

Dr Kim-Anh Lê Cao has been awarded the Georgina Sweet Award to promote and support female scientists who demonstrate excellence in the area of Quantitative Biomedical Science.

Titled 'Spirit' and filmed in the remote Indian Himalayas, the film picked up multiple awards in New York, Germany and Dehli.

Cambridge Australia Scholarships provides scholarships for outstanding Australian graduates to undertake Masters and PhD studies at the University of Cambridge.

In July, twelve Bachelor of Science students toured schools in regional and disadvantaged areas of Victoria to inspire the next generation of young scientists.

The University of Melbourne has welcomed Federal Government funding of $35 million for an ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics to search for dark matter.

Despite an improvement in equality over recent years, many women still face difficulties pursuing a career in mathematics. A new portrait exhibition at the University of Melbourne hopes to inspire more women to join the profession.

Dr Claire Farrell and John Rayner from the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences (SEFS) combine beauty and biodiversity in the heart of Melbourne.

In2Science is a schools partnership program that places volunteer university mentors in secondary school classes to inspire students to study STEM disciplines. The University of Melbourne was able to donate 65 microscopes worth over $30,000 to local partner schools.

Listen to our unique 12-episode podcast series showcasing the value of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects as a pathway to jobs of the future.

Two students from the Faculty of Science have won a 2019 Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in PhD Thesis.

The Geography Postgraduate Society (GPS) have launched The Sites, a monthly podcast designed to communicate research from within and around the school to a generalist audience.

Each year the University of Melbourne recognises and celebrates the outstanding work of academic and professional staff in the key areas of engagement, professional excellence, research, strategic priorities and teaching through the Melbourne Excellence Awards.

Finding a mathematical proof is a long, difficult process – involving trial-and-error, grunt work and the occasional eureka moment

Dr Chris Murray has enjoyed a successful career in dentistry, but to contribute to a better future, he’s leaving a gift in his Will to support his personal passion – environmental preservation.

Like most things in life, careers don’t always have a clear and straightforward path. Hear the career stories of the Faculty of Science's Frances Separovic and Theresa Jones. You just never really know what you are capable of, and sometimes you have to follow your nose and just take the opportunities as they happen.

For several millennia during the Last Interglacial period, temperatures were higher than pre-industrial levels and that had an impact on our climate system. But with recent dire forecasts of global warming, what can the past tell us about the future of our climate?

Innovative design is combining with new, low-cost nano-satellite technology to build Australia’s first space telescope, Skyhopper

Urban forests are great for keeping our cities cool, but as temperatures go up they need water to survive - and that’s where redirecting storm water to street trees comes in

Like the evolution of classic computers in the 1940s, quantum computers are on the cusp of mainstream, and researchers, businesses and universities are already getting themselves quantum ready

The quantum revolution is coming, and it’s taken some big leaps of thinking from some of the biggest minds of the 20th century to get us to this point.

Quantum computing can be a challenging concept to get your head around - could you explain it?

Quantum computing could stream-line financial calculations, optimise the workings of complex systems like logistical networks and enhance artificial intelligence. So how hard can it be?

Two Faculty of Science academics received AOs in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours list for distinguished service.

The University of Melbourne has partnered with the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) and the City of Melbourne on a research project to retrofit the building that houses the office of the Victorian Premier with a green roof.

Professors Kerry Landman, David Balding and David Karoly are among six new fellows elected from the University of Melbourne

New experiments and mathematical modelling reveal that bacteria swimming in the oceans are supremely evolved to detect and move towards hard-to-find nutrients

Five of the finalists will be awarded $A10 million each to fund projects that address an area of social need.

The BioInspiration Seed Funding Competition is designed to have teams develop creative, nature-inspired solutions to global/ practical/ human technological and design challenges.

Professor Paul Mulvaney will lead a project to develop flexible graphene electronics after successfully receiving funding from the Australia-China Science Research Fund (ACSRF).

This is the highest award of the SSR and given in recognition of a career of research and scholarly activities in the field of reproductive biology

Thanks to the generosity of Biotech pioneer Peter Turner, the transformative Early Career Overseas Research Grants are giving emerging scientists like Dr Rebecca Morris the opportunity to develop their research in depth with other leading scientists and institutions around the world.

The prize recognises his work in NMR spectroscopy, which can be applied to design, optimisation and processes in research and industrial sectors.

There have been more than 50 formal inquiries into bushfire management in south-eastern Australia since 1939, but what lessons have we learned?

Working with juvenile in vitro embryo (JIVET) production, Bethany’s research could help maximise the offspring from an individual cow over her lifetime.

Kim-Anh Lê Cao, Stephen Leslie and Lars Goerigk have been acknowledged with awards from the Australian Academy of Science in recognition of their research and contributions to their scientific fields.

Professor Lesley Head from the School of Geography and Professor Linda Blackall from the School of BioSciences were on the Australian Academy of Science expert panel that reported that insufficient flows and poor management led to the massive fish kills in the Darling River this summer.

Australia’s Nullarbor caves are a precious time machine to millions of years ago, and crucial to understanding our future climate. So, why aren’t they World Heritage listed?

Nine members of the diverse Melbourne Science alumni community have been given Australia Day Honours.

Although scientific evidence says the Earth is a sphere orbiting the Sun, there are some people around who still think our planet is flat... and social media plays a role

A new drug delays motor neurone disease progression and improves cognitive and clinical symptoms according to trial results announced by a spin-out company from the Florey and University of Melbourne.

The Bushfire and National Hazards CRC and its predecessors have been supporting research in the Faculty of Science since 2013. Recently, the BNHCR gave funding for three projects out of the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences.

Researchers have discovered a ‘blind spot’ in atomic force microscopy – a powerful tool capable of measuring the force between two atoms, imaging the structure of individual cells and the motion of biomolecules.

The Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) has awarded Professor Peter Taylor its highest honour, the George Szekeres Medal, and Dr Nicholas Beaton, Professor Jan De Gier, and Professor Tony Guttmann were awarded the prize for best paper.

Dr Roslyn Hickson has been recognised with the Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award for her research using mathematical modelling to predict the spread of disease.

In 2019 the Faculty of Science is launching a tiered mentoring program for all Bachelor of Science students. A key component of this is The First Year Mentoring Experience, a peer mentoring program designed to support commencing Bachelor of Science students as they transition into tertiary study.

Greater freedom of movement and investments in human rights and social opportunities can help protect humans from environmental threats like rising sea levels, new research says.

Dr Hall was one of six early career researchers awarded a 2018 Victoria Fellowship in Physical Sciences by VESKI at an awards ceremony on 24 October.

Ms Harcourt was honoured for her seminal work in integer linear programming and other contributions to the mathematical and statistical sciences.

Some Australian birds can control their temperature and avoid overheating by reflecting near-infrared wavelengths of sunlight, regardless of their feather colour

As the Hubble Space Telescope prepares to mark its 30th year, what can we expect from its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope?

A new software tool predicts landslide boundaries two weeks before they happen

Ms Alison Harcourt, an 88 year-old statistician who works at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, was featured on the ABC 7.30 program on Monday night.

Senator for Victoria, James Paterson, launched the new ARC Training Centre for Chemical Industries at the University of Melbourne on Friday 21 September.

Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham has been awarded the 2018 David Syme Research Prize - one of Australia’s oldest annual research awards - for her work towards a malaria vaccine.

This is the first time I participated in the 3MT contest and I am amazed by how much I have learned in the process. Based on feedback from the judges and other participants, my talk has “evolved” a lot during the three rounds of competition. I feel like I have gained a great amount of clarity about my research, and this is very useful for my career and my PhD.

From 2 – 11 July 2018, the Faculty of Science hosted a group of students and a travelling academic from the College of Environmental Science & Engineering at Peking University for a week-long study tour.

Some of the technological innovations of 2017 sound more like sci-fi, but according to the brains behind a few of them, the future is still full of surprises