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NewsRecent news stories of interest to Monash-based synchrotron users. Latest news23/06/2011 - Synchrotron and Neutron New Users Symposium
This one day symposium is being organised by ANSTO and will be held on 8 July 2011 at the University of New South Wales. The Symposium targets students, postgraduates and researchers wanting to learn more about how synchrotron and neutron techniques can be applied in their research. Download the Symposium flier here or, to find our more, visit the Symposium website. 18/05/2011 - Applications are now open for the 5th Cheiron School Sept - Oct 2011 The 5th AOFSRR Cheiron School will provide basic knowledge and perspectives on synchrotron radiation science and technology for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, young scientists and engineers who want to pursue careers in a field requiring synchrotron radiation. An annual event, the Cheiron School is organised by the Asia-Oceania Forum for Synchrotron Radiation Research (AOFSRR), RIKEN, JASRI and KEK and held at the SPring-8 facility in Hyogo, Japan. This year, the Cheiron School will be hosted by SPring-8 from 26 September to 5 October 2011. The curriculum will include lectures on a broad range of instrumentation and applications topics, round-table discussions with lecturers and synchrotron radiation researchers/engineers about practical and specific activities at synchrotron facilities and practical training sessions on SPring-8 beamline facilities. The AOFSRR will fully fund 4 individuals to attend the Cheiron School. A further 4 places will be offered jointly by the Australian Synchrotron and ANSTO to highly ranked applicants to support their travel to the Cheiron School. Further information about how to apply can be found on this webpage. 16/05/2011 - Splitting water to create renewable energy simpler than first thought? An international team, of scientists, led by a team at Monash University has found the key to the hydrogen economy could come from a very simple mineral, commonly seen as a black stain on rocks. Read more here. 10/03/2011 - VPAC Announce MASSIVE Supercomputer Availability VPAC is pleased to announce the availability to our Members of the exciting new system known as MASSIVE (Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment) located at the Australian Synchrotron (M1) and Monash University (M2). MASSIVE is a collaboration between VPAC, the Australian Synchrotron, Monash University, and CSIRO, and is a component of the NCI Specialised Computational Facilities program. Stories about MASSIVE have recently been published in The Age and Cosmos Magazine. The MASSIVE system consists of of 1,000 CPU-cores and 168 NVIDIA M2070 GPUs and will be open for general use in later March, at a date to be announced. Further details about the project are available at www.massive.org.au or by contacting info@massive.org.au. 04/02/2011 - Post-doctoral positions available at JASRI Japan Synchrotron Research Institute (JASRI/SPring-8) is currently seeking candidates to fill postdoctoral positions in the Research & Utilization Division. Futher details are available here. 12/12/2010 - Postdoctoral Research Fellowships available at the Australian Synchrotron The Australian Synchrotron is seeking dynamic, proven early-career researchers to join a dedicated and driven team. The Postdoctoral Fellowship positions are offered as fixed term contracts and appointees will join specific technical areas that include: Accelerator Science, Microcrystallography (MX2), Powder Diffraction (PD), Imaging & Medical (IMBL), or Small Angle/Wide Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS). If you enjoy a challenge and are seeking an opportunity to showcase your research talents through striving to produce quality research outcomes, then this is the position for you. More information about each project and details of how to apply can be found here. 08/12/2010 - Monash PhD student wins Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal Dr Martin Duriska from the Faculty of Engineering and the Centre for Green Chemistry has won the 2010 Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal for his research into a new class of molecule called a 'nanoball' that can behave like a magnet, and has the potential to lead to the improvement in storage capacity in present day computers by 500 times. 30/11/2010 - CRCBID Detector team travels to IEEE’s Tennessee conference Andy Berry, Goran Panjkovic, Marie Ruat and Matt Dimmock from the Monash Centre of Synchrotron Science recently travelled to Knoxville, Tennessee to attend the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2010 Joint Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference and 17th Room Temperature Semiconductor Workshop. 30/11/2010 - Modelling of detector material underway at MCSS Dr Marie Ruat, a post-doctoral fellow at Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science (MCSS), is an expert in modelling the performance of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) and Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector semiconductor materials. Marie previously worked at the CEA-LETI institute (the Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory of the French Atomic Energy Commission) in Grenoble, France and at the National Microelectronics Center (Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica [CNM]) in Barcelona, Spain investigating Silicon, Cadmium Telluride and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) 3D detectors for medical imaging; and for the inner detector of ATLAS, one of the experiments of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. 27/10/2010 - Hot chip CRCBID's fast shaping microchip was tested at the Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science this month, with positive results. Designed by the team at MCSS, then manufactured by TSMC (Taiwan) in a multi-project wafer fabrication, this chip uses novel circuitry specifically for high speed measurement of incoming signals. The potential application is for "spectral" data acquisition and processing for imaging systems used in imaging equipment, particularly computed tomography (CT ) cameras. Read more here. More news28/07/2010 - Partnership creates new biomedical imaging research centre at 770 Blackburn Road Monash University and technology company Siemens have signed an agreement to establish a biomedical imaging research centre to be located in the MCSS building at the University's Clayton campus. The facility, which has been designed to support biomedical research and will also have the technological capabilities to support a wide range of engineering and scientific research, will be fitted out with a suite of Siemens imaging products including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. Find out more here. 14/06/2010 - Innovative Monash asthma research wins top American award Congratulations to Professor Stuart Hooper from the Monash Institute of Medical Research who has won a Senior Investigator Award from the American Asthma Foundation worth $835,566. Prof Hooper, with collaborators including Dr Karen Siu and Prof Rob Lewis from MCSS and Dr Andreas Fouras from the Division of Biomedical Engineering, uses phase contrast X-ray imaging to image lung aeration and lung liquid clearance at birth. To find our more read the full article here. 29/04/2010 - TARDIS archiving raw protein crystallography data TARDIS is a multi-institutional collaborative venture that aims to facilitatie the archiving and sharing of raw X-ray diffraction images from the protein crystallography community. The establishment of TARDIS has been led by Associate Professor Ashley Buckle of the the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University Whereas other databases make processed data available, TARDIS aims to foster the sharing of raw data for both the scholarly record as well as improving methods of image analysis and data processing. Find out more about it here. 01/03/2010 - Applications for AINSE 2010 Postgraduate Research Awards Applications for AINSE 2010 Post Graduate Research Awards (PGRA) are now open. The application form can be found here. These top-up scholarships are for doctoral candidates holding an APRA or equivalent scholarship at an AINSE member university. Applicants will have a research project associated with nuclear science, or its applications, and require access to the unique national facilities at ANSTO. The scholarships provide a supplement stipend of up to $7,500 pa as well as a travel and accommodation allowance to enable students to work at Lucas Heights. 23/02/2010 - AINSE Winter School - call for nominations Nominations should come through the appropriate Heads of Department /School with a covering letter of support (no more than one page) and a statement of interest from the applicant (again no more than one page), a copy of the applicant's academic record and this completed nomination form. The internal Monash closing date for applications is April 14 2010 and the required paperwork should be emailed to dean@sci.monash.edu.au. 12/11/2009 - Exciting Opportunities at ANSTO ANSTO is planning an expansion of its accelerator facilities in Sydney, funded through the government's Education Infrastructure Fund. As a result we have two new research positions to fill (Physicist / Senior Physicist / Instrument scientist), specialising in Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and Ion Beam Analysis. A further four technical positions will be advertised shortly. Details can be obtained by clicking the Vacancies link on ANSTO's website. 26/10/2009 - Congratulations to the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coherent X-Ray Science CXS, in collaboration with Santa Maria College in Northcote, have been awarded the Schools First State Impact Award for Victoria for their program Growing Tall Poppies - the aim of which is to encourage more students, and particularly girls, to the study of physics. See www.schoolsfirst.edu.au and the press release on the CXS website for additional details. 19/08/2009 - New in-house x-ray detector microchip tested successfully MCSS and the CRCBID have fabricated their second in-house x-ray detector microchip (an electronics miniaturised chip) and it is yielding promising results. The lessons learned from the analysis of this microchip are providing further optimisations for the next generation chip, with which we aim to provide better quality data from detected x-rays. This will, in turn, lead to improved contrasting images. The main issue with current x-ray detector systems is that image contrast can be poor, particularly when differentiating between soft tissue and other similar structures within the body. Smart, fast custom microchips may provide a way to achieve higher contrast ratios, which will yield improved cancer diagnosis. Dr Ronny Veljanovski, Project Manager for the Detectors Stream of the CRCBID, says that, "our microchip design and implementation skill set has grown over the last few months with the employment of key microchip engineers and the procurement of industry standard electronic design automation tools such as those from Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys. These tools have a commercial value that run into the $millions and are used by many multinationals in the IT and microchip field. MCSS and CRCBID are now equipped with world class microchip infrastructure and are ready to tackle the most complex of designs in the x-ray detector arena. Microchips and micro-electronics are a pervasive enabling technology and are at the heart of the modern electronics and IT world in which they can be found in computers, medical equipment and cars to name a few." 06/08/2009 - Nano research hits gold When it comes to cancer research, finding the location of cells is thwarted by a lack of high-resolution imaging methods that can reveal the location of implanted stem cells within a living body. However this is set to change thanks to the work of Dr Chris Hall from the Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science. 06/05/2009 - New imaging and therapy beamline announced Monash University has led a successful funding bid to use the Australian Synchrotron to research and potentially treat human diseases such as cancer. The National Health and Medical Research Council and the Victorian Government have announced $14.7 million for a major upgrade to the imaging and therapy beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, enabling it to become one of the most advanced medical beamlines in the world. To find out more view the following press releases:
18/02/2009 - Australian Synchrotron User Advisory Committee The Australian Synchrotron has set up an independent User Advisory Committee to provide advice to the Australian Synchrotron Director on issues from a user prespective. Two Monash researchers - Don McNaughton and Matthew Wilce - are representatives on the committee and Roland De Marco is the Chair. Feel free to express any concerns you may have about the Australian Synchrotron to these Monash representatives, or any other committee member. For a complete list of these and profiles of the members, click here. 06/02/2009 - The Australian Synchrotron Helps Monash Researchers Fight Against Malaria A team of Monash University researchers led by Professor James Whisstock has made a major breakthrough in the international fight against malaria, which claims the life of a child across the world every 30 seconds. For the full story visit www.lightsources.org/cms/?pid=1003253. 13/01/2009 - The Australian Synchrotron's New Travel Process for Interstate and New Zealand Users Recently, there has been a change in procedure for all interstate Australian Synchrotron users. Travel will now be handled differently, please refer to this page for details. The Australian Synchrotron will continue to book accommodation but flights will not be booked. Users must apply for funding and once approved then book their own flights and ground travel. 13/01/2009 - Monash / CSIRO Collaborative Research Support Scheme Identifies Synchrotron Research as a Priority Area The Collaborative Research Support Scheme (CRSS) is jointly funded by Monash University and CSIRO to encourage the development of collaborative research between the two organisations in priority areas. The scheme underwent an extensive review recently, with a number of changes being implemented for the next round - Round 5 (for funding in 2009 through to 2011). The priority areas identified for round 5 includes projects utilising synchrotron facilities. The guidelines have now been finalised and can be found here. A call for expressions of interest will take place early in 2009, at which time an application form will be placed on this website. Applicants will be given 8 weeks to prepare a 4 page expression of interest which will need to be submitted both electronically and in hardcopy to the Monash Research Office. Any questions about this scheme should be directed to either:
Kylie Thoroughgood
Elaine Osborn 12/01/2009 - NSRRC Announces New Beamline From the 2009-2 cycle (May to August), a Small/Wide Angle X-ray Scattering endstation located at the BL23A beamline for structural characterization with soft matter and nanoparticles will be open to all users at Taiwan's National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre (NSRRC). All users are invited to apply for beamtime through the NSRRC website. For more information about the beamline please visit http://www.nsrrc.org.tw/www/eng/endstation/17b3/saxs/
26/09/2008 - Monash Student Wins a Place at Synchrotron School in Japan Monash University Postgraduate student Radha Maganti from the School of Chemistry is one of only ten Australian students who won funding to attend the Cheiron Synchrotron School, held at the Japanese light source, SPring-8, for 10 days from the 29 September 2008. The Cheiron School aims to provide basic knowledge as well as perspectives of synchrotron radiation science and technology for PhD students, young scientists and engineers who wish to pursue their career in a field requiring synchrotron radiation and join a synchrotron radiation facility in the Asia Oceania region. The comprehensive curriculum will include lectures by leading scientists, including Professor Rob Lewis, Director of the Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science (MCSS) and expert in medical uses of synchrotrons and detector development. Professor Lewis is delighted that a Monash University student was selected to attend the prestigious school. “Radha will gain invaluable experiences, which will kick-start her scientific career involving synchrotron radiation” Professor Lewis said. “With the Australian Synchrotron located adjacent to the Clayton Campus, Radha will have access to this amazing technology at her doorstep, enabling her to excel in her chosen research field”. Radha is excited about the chance to travel to Japan, and learn about synchrotron radiation at the world’s largest synchrotron radiation facility. “It’s such an amazing opportunity to learn about synchrotron radiation and how I can make the most of this great technology in my own research” Radha said. The school is held annually under the auspices of the Asia-Oceania Forum for Synchrotron Radiation Research (AOFSRR).
17/09/2008 - Cross-Country Collaboration Gives Students Synchrotron Experience Monash University undergraduate students made the most of a cross-country collaboration with Curtin University, by taking part in an experiment at the Australian Synchrotron earlier this month. Perth scientist, Professor Roland De Marco from Curtin University enabled Monash students to gain hands on experience with the powder diffraction beamline, as his colleagues and students watched from Perth. Professor De Marco is researching the nature of corrosion in the mild steel pipes that carry oil and gas from the ocean deeps to the surface. The importance of understanding mild steel corrosion is profound, as corrosion causes leakages, which results in costly repairs and environmental complications. Using the high brilliance of synchrotron light, Professor De Marco can view the chemistry of the metal surface in its fluid environment. "What I want to do is to develop new materials to bind to the surface that will prevent corrosion of the mild steel," says Professor De Marco. This cross-country collaboration is a world-first; no two universities have collaborated in this way at an undergraduate level using a synchrotron. The initiative was made possible thanks to Professor De Marco, Doctors Kia Wallwork, Karen Siu and Rosalie Hocking. |
