Home is where the research is!
As any good businessperson will tell you, return customers are the best ones because they are a sign you got it right the first time.
Deakin
Federation Fellow and director of the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation,
Professor Peter Hodgson, is wondering if the same applies to researchers.
“We’ve got Lingxue Kong back here as an Associate Professor after he left us and went to South Australia,” Professor Hodgson said with wry laugh.
“He’s one of the best researchers in the business, a wonderful collaborator across a broad range of disciplines and to have him come back makes you think we must be doing something right here at Deakin.
“And with Lingxue back, putting together research teams in the skilled way he does, whatever we’re doing that’s right will only get better!”
There is more to this home-coming than first meets the eye.
Professor Kong was Professor Hodgson’s first post-doctoral fellow. And he worked at the University of New South Wales with the CMFI’s deputy director, Professor Xungai Wang.
“I’d guess you could say we’re all one big happy family again,” quipped Professor Hodgson.
Professor Kong leaves little doubt that working with his old mentor was high on the reasons for leaving UniSA, that and the joyous ability to get to work in just a few minutes, one of the great add-ons doing research at the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds.
“Peter has always been very supportive,” he said. “He trusts his researchers, he has confidence in people and lets them get on with their work, and of course he will guide you as well.
“I worked with Deakin for four or five years and then I moved to UniSA for five years and while I was there I was following what Peter and other people at Deakin have been doing and I saw the CMFI in particular has been quite dynamic.
“Also when Peter approached me he left everything quite open. He said just come over and have a look. I came for an interview and I found the environment here was quite nice.”
Professor Kong’s approach to research fits snugly into the Deakin ethos of breaking down the traditional boundaries – going where ever the knowledge is, not just sticking rigidly to faculty or subject limitations.
“My research has been multi-disciplinary,” he said.
“I had a background in mechanical engineering and then after I joined Deakin University the first time I was involved in research in materials.
“When I joined UniSA I shifted to manufacturing.
“That’s three quite different disciplines so I believe I have developed some diverse research skills through these interests.
“Currently I am working on some bio-material and bio-medical devices at the micro and nano level.
“We are developing a drug delivery system using new materials which can control the release of drugs and also target the drug delivery.
“We are working on diseases related to the stomach and small intestine … colon and rectum cancer.
“These areas are not easily accessible for traditional drugs.
“It is quite challenge but we are determined we will able to contribute, particularly using this multi-disciplinary approach.
“When I was at UniSA I was working on this but since I have been at Deakin they have been very supportive and we will make the process even faster.
“I have only been back here about half a year and it has been quite exciting.
“We have been developing quite a few new initiatives in research and also some international collaborations.”
As well as being multi-disciplinary, Professor Hodgson and his staff at the CMFI take great pride in their multi-cultural approach – there are researchers from 17 different countries, all made to feel at home at Deakin whether they’re here for the first time, or in Professor Kong’s case, the second.
“I am originally from China,” he said. “Wu Han in central China.
“I did my undergraduate and masters degree in Donghua University in Shanghai.
“Australia was the first foreign country I went to. I chose Australia because my first degree was in textiles engineering and Australia produces the best wool in the world and at that stage had a very strong department in that field at the University of New South Wales, where I did my PhD.”
Then came the move to what was then the School of Engineering and Technology, now the CMFI where the science and the chance to work under Professor Hodgson was almost matched by being able to live so close to the university.
“That was one of the attractions for us to work in Geelong too,” said Professor Kong whose family has also settled well in their old stamping ground.
Son Charlie, aged 16, has settled in well at Geelong Grammar, even if he’s not the most famous Charlie to go there!
“It’s nice to be back,” Professor Kong said.