Faculty of Science awarded three ARC Future Fellowships

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

100 Fellowships were awarded across the country, of which The University of Melbourne received 15, the most of any university.

Professor Howard Bondell – School of Mathematics and Statistics

Statistical Modelling in the Era of Data Science: Theory and Practice

This project aims to develop innovative statistical methodology that is interpretable, theoretically justified, and scalable to today's growing complex data. With the influx of data being collected in both the public and private sectors, making sense of this data is a fundamental task. Through a rigorous modelling framework, this project intends to facilitate the discovery of knowledge by developing powerful new tools to extract insight from these complex datasets. The outcomes of this project will benefit society by providing techniques to enable research advances and inform decision-making for a broad base of disciplines, including applications to network security, energy forecasting, environmental monitoring, and public health.

Associate Professor Colette Boskovic – School of Chemistry

Metal-Based Molecular Materials: From Electronic Structure to Functionality

This project aims to develop and explore new metal-based molecular materials, focusing on molecules that can act as magnets or be switched between multiple states by heating/cooling. This project expects to deliver an improved understanding of how the molecular electronic structure engenders desired physical properties in the target species. This insight will allow development of design principles for robust systems for nanodevices or advanced materials. As well as achieving important advances in fundamental chemistry, this project is anticipated to help lay the foundations for development of novel materials for high density data storage, quantum computing, molecular electronics/spintronics, optical displays or temperature/solvent sensors.

Dr David Garrett – School of Physics

Carbon Cybernetics: Next generation tools for neuroscience

The scope for technology that communicates directly with the human nervous system, is enormous. For fundamental study, the age of bionics is upon us. Biology has ways of recognising when a foreign body is present, thus implanted devices need to be camouflaged from the body's immune system. Today's bionic devices fail because they are rapidly rejected. We will use the element of biology, carbon, to construct a new class of technology for future implants. Using a combination of permanent diamond and flexible carbon fibres we will create materials that are invisible to the immune system and last for decades. Seamlessly connecting our thoughts and actions with the power of human electronics.

More information can be found on the ARC announcement page.