Four UWA projects win national research funding

Research projects that will maximise the benefits of porous materials, explore the connection between people and nature in urban cities and investigate why galaxies die are part of four new projects at The University of Western Australia to receive Federal Government funding.

The funding was announced today by Federal Minister for Education Dan Tehan under the Australian Research Council’s Future Fellowships Scheme.

Dr Luke Davies from UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing will use a $741,242 research grant over four years to investigate the correlation between dead galaxies and their location.

“This project aims to use new state-of-the-art Australian surveys and innovative analysis techniques to measure the factors that kill galaxies in the distant universe for the very first time,” Dr Davies said.

Associate Professor of Structural Chemistry, Dr Stephen Moggach, from UWA’s School of Molecular Sciences has been awarded $1,030,149 over four years to investigate the potential for porous materials to trap and release useful gasses.

“This research will allow better porous materials to be designed and will provide a unique approach for gases to be used in a variety of applications, from energy to medical sectors.”

Associate Professor Stephen Moggach

Director of the Centre for Western Australian History, Associate Professor Andrea Gaynor will explore the relationships between people and nature in modern cities from a historical context.

“In an increasingly urbanised world, nature in cities is crucial for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, but today’s urban wildlife, trees and reserves are legacies of a largely unknown past,” she said.

Professor Gaynor will use $977,708 over four years as part of a project to promote urban sustainability and produce vital new insights into changing urban cultures and environments.

Dr Aaron Robotham, from UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, will aim to uncover the fate of satellite galaxies over cosmic time – a question still unanswered by astronomists. 

He will use a $866,404 grant over four years to examine data from 3D galaxy surveys and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive to detect the spread of stellar material within dark matter.

“The research involves advanced computation, and will train the next generation of researchers in skills applicable in many domains,” Dr Robotham said.

For more information on the ARC Future Fellowships, visit the ARC website.