Turning over a new
LIEF
It was a red letter day for Deakin University
on September 10 when the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian
Research Council, Professor Margaret Sheil, officially opened
a range of new facilities at the Geelong Technology Precinct.
The facilities were provided under the ARC’s
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme
and combine to keep Deakin as a world leader in the area of
lightweight, high strength steel and other advanced materials.
The new facilities are:
- Advanced Deformation Simulation Laboratory
(Federation Fellow Peter Hodgson) - $825,000.
- Real-time Observation of Thermal and Mechanical Response
at the NanoLevel (QE2 Fellow Matthew Barnett) - $648,000.
- Near Net shaped Casting Alloy Development Facility (Professor
Hodgson) - $520,000.
- Multidisciplinary Environmental Field Emission Gun Scanning
Electron Microscope (Matthew Barnett) - $400,000.
 “The
LIEF scheme is about putting world class researchers alongside
world class infrastructure so that they can get on and do
their job and that is what we are seeing here today,”
Professor Sheil said.
“The other thing about the LIEF scheme
that I think is important is that the decisions are made on
the basis of the work of the researchers, not on which university
they come from.
“So I think the LIEF scheme fulfils
an important role in the Government funding of investment
in research.”
Professor Sheil said another positive aspect
of the LIEF scheme is that it encourages collaborations.
“We put excellent infrastructure alongside
excellent researchers, but in order to do that, they have
to collaborate, they have to come together in the application
process,” she said.
“What we see out of that is that we
get a lot of longstanding and genuine collaborations.”
Professor Sheil also noted that co-location
provided a great boost to collaboration and that ITRI, Deakin’s
new Institute for Innovation Research Technology, provided
great opportunities for co-location.
Professor Peter Hodgson, ITRI’s new
Director of Research, thanked Professor Sheil for attending
the GTP and then took her on a guided tour of the facilities.
“I am very glad that Margaret has
agreed to come here today to open these facilities,”
Professor Hodgson said.
“I first met Margaret when she was
at the University of Wollongong, which for me has been a benchmark
for many of the things we have been trying to do at Deakin.
“One of the things I found about the
University of Wollongong was that it had a very strong connection
with the city.
“I don’t believe we had that
when I first came to Deakin’s campus here at Waurn Ponds.
“The things we have been doing in
research here now have built that inter-action.”
Professor Hodgson reflected on the growth
of the metals area at Deakin over the past decade.
“We only had about 15 people when
I first arrived, and barely any equipment at all.
“Now we have a fantastic facility
that allows us to really be a world leader in some areas of
the development of steel, particularly in the strip casting
method which is a revolutionary process for making steel strip
directly from the melt.
“I want to thank the ARC for its fantastic
role in providing our team with the equipment that will help
them make a really significant difference with their research.
“And when we talk about a significant
difference, we are talking about helping Australian companies
stay competitive in a tough market.
“We are working with a number of Small
to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at the moment and that will bring
a lot of benefits to them, to their employees to the broader
community.
“At the same time we are developing
the sorts of advanced lightweight, high strength steel that
is going to make motor vehicles more environmentally sustainable
but still safe.
“It’s quite important research,
and it’s really fantastic that here at Deakin, we can
be so heavily involved in this sort of work.”
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