Three Monash Science researchers become ARC Future Fellows

Science researchers have won over $2 million of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships awarded to Monash University.

The Faculty of Science has secured three of the 11 ARC Future Fellowships awarded to Monash, with the Faculty’s success rate of awarded grants at 30% surpassing the Monash success rate (23.9%).

Monash will receive $10,097,475 in funding for the ARC Future Fellowship research projects with $2,667,136 going to Faculty of Science researchers.

The ARC yesterday announced that $94 million had been awarded to fund 100 mid-career researchers to focus on finding solutions for key industry challenges and training the next generation of researchers under the ARC Future Fellowships scheme.

“Congratulations to our 2022 ARC Future Fellows,” said Monash Science Dean, Professor Jordan Nash.

“This is an excellent result for the Faculty of Science which will enable our researchers to tackle a range of issues from new materials which can potentially revolutionise electronic devices to insights into better understanding how animals maximise their health,” he said.

The new Future Fellows are awarded to outstanding mid-career researchers, who will receive funding support for the next four years to undertake their innovative research in Australia.

The Future Fellowships scheme encourages research in areas of national priority, with preference given to researchers who can demonstrate a capacity to build collaboration across industry, with other research institutions and with other disciplines.

The Monash Science 2022 Australian Future Fellows are:

Dr Travis Johnson

School of Biological Sciences

Project: How is the blood cell population size controlled?

Macrophage-like cells are an ancient animal blood cell lineage critically important for development, immunity, and homeostasis. This fellowship seeks to reveal the genes and control mechanisms used by animals to achieve an optimally-sized army of these cells - to contain threats for survival upon infection, heal following acute stress exposures, or for development, ongoing maintenance, and repair of wear and tear. By marrying the genetic tractability of the model organism Drosophila and its simple, yet conserved blood cell system, this project will yield new insights into the mechanisms that govern the animal blood cell population. This will benefit our fundamental understanding of how animals maximise their health throughout life.

Amount awarded: $784,594

Dr Ricardo Ruiz Baier

School of Mathematics

Project:

Next-generation methods for transport in poroelastic media with interfaces

Deformable porous structures are ubiquitous in the design of materials such as filters, sponges, and prosthetics. They often show complex mechano-chemical processes that occur across several spatio-temporal scales. To mathematically describe them requires coupled sets of nonlinear, multiphysical, and multiscale equations. This makes the design of accurate, efficient numerical methods challenging. The Fellowship aims to address the mathematical characteristics encountered in poromechanics equations and their discretisation methods, and to devise novel mathematical and computational techniques for extending the analysis to cases where large deformations and the presence of interfaces and coupling with other neighbouring elements are relevant.

Amount awarded: $1,080,000

Dr Mark Edmonds

School of Physics and Astronomy

Project:

Kagome metals: From Japanese basket to next generation electronic devices

This project aims to investigate a new material that is very promising for electronic devices that can operate faster and be more energy efficient than today’s silicon-based technology. Kagome metals have topological non-trivial nature and can pass current without resistance, making them ideal for next-generation electronic devices. This project aims to grow Kagome metals in the ultra-thin layers needed to realise this potential, make devices, and study their electronic properties. Expected outcomes of the project will include showing Kagome metals can form the basis of ultra-low energy electronic devices, as well as having future applications in high temperature fault tolerant quantum computing.

Awarded: $802,542

For more information about the ARC Future Fellows visit: https://www.arc.gov.au/funding-research/grant-announcement-kits/future-fellowships-2022

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