School of Chemistry

Congratulations to Dr Quentin Meyer who has just been awarded the Post-doctoral research Runner-up in the Young Electrochemist prizes sponsored by Metrohm

The School of Chemistry congratulates Quentin on his award for his paper on “Air perturbation-induced low-frequency inductive electrochemical impedance arc in proton exchange membrane fuel cells”. The award committee noted that there were a large number of exceptionally high standard submissions this year, and this was reflected by the judging scores being very close. Metrohm plan to run a similar prize in 2021, so they encourage everyone who missed out on this round to apply again. 

Congratulations also to the other UNSW winner, in the Higher degree by research section, Agus Poerwoprajit “Understanding the surface structure-electrocatalytic property relationship: from nanocrystals to single atoms”.

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Scientia Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow Kris Kilian and NHMRC ECR Dr Iman Roohani have developed an exciting new technique

The School of Chemistry congratulates Kris and Iman on the development of a new technique called COBICS (ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell suspensions) where bone-like structures can be rapidly fabricated, with hierarchical structure, directly into a bath of hydrogels and living cells. The base technology is a ceramic paste-based material that quickly solidifies in water to a structure that mimics native bone tissue.

This means that surgeons, dentists, scientists, etc. of the future may be able to replace damaged bone with this material. In contrast to previous techniques that either require a piece of the patients own bone, or a lab build analogue fabricated at very high temperatures with toxic chemicals, this new technique allows printing in the presence of biology, so that the material can be deposited directly with a patient’s own cells.

This could radically change clinical practice and ultimately reduce suffering and save lives.

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