Introduction Welcome to the latest issue of Research@UNSW, a biennial publication highlighting the breadth of important research taking place across the University of New South Wales. We’ve focused this issue on our industry, business, government and community partnerships that are so vital to our research effort – whether it be in medicine, science, engineering or the arts. As you would be aware, UNSW is one of Australia’s top universities – a member of the Group of Eight and of the prestigious international network U21. The only Australian research-intensive university established with a scientific and technological focus, UNSW continues to build on its reputation for world-class research in areas critical to the future, with close links to industry and an emphasis on practical application and impact. If you are already involved in research collaboration with our institution, you may see opportunities for further involvement – if not, you may see an opportunity to become involved. The publication is also aimed at keeping key stakeholders in government and the higher education sector informed, as well as outlining opportunities for students interested in pursuing postgraduate research at UNSW. “We’ve focused There are contact details at the back of the publication for anyone interested in pursuing a this issue on our partnership or collaboration, or postgraduate study. You are also more than welcome to contact the individual researchers whose work is highlighted in these pages. industry, business, government UNSW shares with its many partners a commitment to pioneering research and innovation, so important to the long-term welfare of the nation. I hope you find Research@UNSW an inspiring and community showcase of some of the outstanding examples of our research partnerships in action. partnerships.” Photo: Grant Turner, Mediakoo Les Field Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) The University of New South Wales Contents TECHNOLOGY 4 ENVIRONMENT 14 HealtH 22 Atomic action 6-7 Let all the rivers run 16-18 Kids cancer: the good fight 24-25 Solar flair 8 Toxic terminators 19 The silent assassin 26 A Living Laboratory 9 Climate collaborators 20 Radiation rescue 27 Top tech for hire 10 Change by a whisker 21 Cracking the drug culture 28 Out of this world 11 HIV’s stolen decade 29 Safety in 3D 12 Eye on the future 13 SOCIETY AND THE ECONOMY 30 RESEARCH OUTCOMES 38 Easing the big squeeze 32-33 To market, to market 39 For video about these Learning the lessons of the GFC 34 A sturdy partnership 40-41 projects go to: Forensic fallacies 35 Nurturing talent 42 www.research.unsw.edu.au/research-magazine Centre of change 36 Fighting for refugee rights 37 Contacts 43 Research@UNSW The hope for a better future lies in new technology. To ensure research breakthroughs translate into real-world applications, UNSW has forged partnerships with some of the world’s leading players, from NASA to China’s solar power giant, Suntech. Partners in... Technology technology Atomic action Brave new world ... Professor Michelle Simmons, Director, ARC Centre of Photo: Anthony Johnson, Excellence for Quantum Computing and Communication Technology fairfaxphotos.com Exponentially faster and far more secure. National University, Griffith University and Of course, the need for a quantum internet These are the exciting promises of the University of Queensland are laying the hinges on the successful development of a quantum computing and communications, groundwork for an ultra-secure quantum practical quantum computer. which could revolutionise the future of “internet” that will link these computers of information processing beyond anything tomorrow around the world. UNSW researchers are also leading this we can imagine. race, embedding single phosphorus atoms Quantum communication uses particles of in silicon to create quantum bits, or qubits, By harnessing the unusual properties of light called photons to transmit information, which are the fundamental components of quantum physics and building atomic-scale similar to the way today’s internet uses optical quantum computers. electronic devices, researchers at UNSW are fibres, with one key difference: the quantum making major inroads towards developing a nature of single photons will make this Silicon offers the advantage of being scalable quantum computer. transmission totally secure. widely used and understood by computer manufacturers and should be easier to “We aim to develop quantum computers with While early systems allow point-to-point data transfer to industry. In addition, electron the potential to fundamentally transcend the transmission along dedicated optical fibre spins can be maintained for much longer in limitations of conventional supercomputers,” lines over distances nearing 100 kilometres, silicon than other materials, meaning more says Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons, researchers in the Centre are looking to calculations can be performed before the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for extend this to the national and global scale. information encoded on that spin is lost. Quantum Computing and Communication Working with an Australian company called Technology (CQC2T) at UNSW. Quintessence Labs, the Centre’s aim is to In silicon quantum computing, data is develop a multi-party network. encoded on the rotational spin of an Together with Scientia Professor Andrew electron, bound to a single phosphorus atom. Dzurak, Professor Sven Rogge and The unique combination of secure A clockwise spin represents a zero and a Dr Andrea Morello, she is leading a team communications and ultra-fast computation counter-clockwise spin represents a one – of researchers working at the forefront of has garnered interest from military and but in the slippery quantum realm, particles physics, nanotechnology and engineering. government, as well as multinational exist in two different states at the same time, And the vision extends further – CQC2T corporations and financial institutions that meaning they can represent both numbers researchers based at the Australian want to safeguard valuable information. simultaneously. 6 Research@UNSW 2012.13 Research@UNSW “[Our] device represents the ultimate in precision engineering. “ It’s the first time anyone has been able to show this level of control of a single atom.” Professor Michelle Simmons Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computing and Communication Technology Following on this success, researchers in the “The path is most Centre developed the world’s first atomically precise single-atom transistor, which was likely to succeed detailed in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. beyond laboratory This is the key advantage of quantum While a few single-atom devices had been demonstrations and computers. Current supercomputers work by developed previously, these had a relatively wiring up thousands of individual processor large error in the positioning of the atoms, become a technology chips, with each processor working on one an essential drawback limiting their overall with dramatic possible solution to a given problem. functionality. capabilities.” “In contrast, quantum computers have an “[Our] device represents the ultimate in inherent ability to solve problems in a parallel precision engineering,” says Simmons, John Randall way, trying out trillions of different solutions who was named the 2011 NSW Scientist President, Zyvex Labs at the same time, with the same physical of the Year. “It’s the first time anyone has processing unit,” says UNSW’s Australian been able to show this level of control of a National Fabrication Facility Director Andrew single atom.” Dzurak, from the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications. In addition to gaining recognition from Developing feasible, cost-effective high-profile international journals, the manufacturing processes for these devices is It means they’re perfectly suited for solving research has also spawned some promising a significant challenge that must be overcome. extremely complex, data-intensive problems, industry partnerships. These collaborations are an important bridge with implications for disciplines ranging from to moving the technologies forward. “Working medicine to finance. The Centre is working with US-based with industry partners allows us to observe Zyvex Labs to transition these single-atom how industrial processes work so that we can International attention on work at the fabrication technologies to an industrial scale. use their tools and engineer their scalable CQC2T is growing with the recent publication designs into our architectures,” says Simmons. of critical breakthroughs in the field by “There are easier paths to demonstrate Centre researchers. qubits, but the path chosen by Simmons, “At the same time it allows our industry while extremely ambitious, is in our opinion partners access to the latest technologies In January 2012, PhD student Bent Weber was the most likely to succeed beyond laboratory in fabrication, measurement and design. first author on a study in Science, detailing the demonstrations and become a technology We’re developing systems that are roughly creation of the world’s narrowest silicon wire – with dramatic capabilities,” says Zyvex Labs 10 to 100 times smaller, that simply don’t exist just four atoms wide and one atom tall. president John Randall. in their production lines.” Despite having a diameter roughly 10,000 The Centre also has a strong partnership times thinner than a human hair and being with Sandia National Laboratory in the