Young Deakin researchers star at ARNAM conference

Some of the brightest young minds in advanced materials were at the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds last December for the ARNAM 2008 Annual Conference.

ARNAM stands for Australian Research Network for Advanced Materials, an initiative supported by the Australian Research Council.

“It is a wonderful way for researchers to share ideas,” said Deakin’s Professor Xungai Wang who with Jim Williams from the Australian National University was co-chair of the conference.

“We know that the ARC is particularly happy with the achievements of this network.

“Conferences like the one we hosted at Deakin last December are especially important for Early Career Researchers (ECR). There were more than 180 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows here for the conference, which featured a very successful day long ECR workshop on the final day.”

Professor Wang said it was also a feather in Deakin’s cap that the conference was held at the Waurn Ponds Campus.

“I think it is recognition of growing awareness of what Deakin is achieving in research in advanced materials,” he said.

There was other more formal recognition of that during the conference with two Deakin researchers being presented with award.

Dr Aiden Beer was presented with an award for his oral presentation while Dr Yan Zhao received an award for her poster presentation.

“It was a surprise,” Dr Beer said. “It is always nice though to be recognised by your peers.”

Dr. Beer’s research is focused on magnesium and its alloys, and is primarily concerned with microstructure manipulation and alloy development for enhanced mechanical properties.

His current research interests include the development of new wrought magnesium alloys, the hot deformation and annealing behaviour of magnesium alloys (dynamic and static recrystallisation), the static recrystallisation of twins and in-situ annealing experiments combined with electron back scattering diffraction.

Dr Yan Zhao, one of the inaugural Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Fellowship holders, specialises in fibre surface functionalisation and last year was one of the inaugural recipients of an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Her award winning poster display focussed on the superhydrophobic modification of normally hydrophilic cotton fabrics.

“These awards will raise more awareness of the working in advanced materials we are doing at Deakin,” Professor Wang said.

“Overall, it was a highly successful conference, for Deakin and for ARNAM."

For further information on ARNAM visit:
http://www.materials.com.au/

A copy of the Conference Booklet is also available at this site.

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