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chemistrychemistry January/February 2019 in Australia Directed evolution: the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry chemaust.raci.org.au • Introducing chemical education highlights • Brynn Hibbert, IUPAC Analytical Division representative • Australia’s chemical industries: a social network analysis INSTRUMENTS CONSUMABLES CHEMICALS SERVICE & REPAIRS Rowe Scientific is your one-stop-shop for all laboratory supplies. Face to face service or online ordering, we give you the choice. ISO 9001:2015 LIC 10372 A 100% Australian owned company, supplying scientific laboratories since 1987. SAI Global Order online now www.rowe.com.au South Australia & NT Queensland Victoria & Tasmania New South Wales Western Australia Ph: (08) 8186 0523 Ph: (07) 3376 9411 Ph: (03) 9701 7077 Ph: (02) 9603 1205 Ph: (08) 9302 1911 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] REF324 Pictures are for illustration purposes only and may vary with the final product. Rowe Scientific reserves the right to change pricing without notice. Whilst every X:\MARKETING\ADVERTISING\CHEMISTRY IN AUSTRALIA effort is made to ensure correctness at time of publication, specifications and details should be checked prior to ordering. All prices are subject to 10% GST. January/February 2019 20 Huihai Xie cover story Chemical evolution: the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Darwin’s concept of evolution revolutionised biology some 150 years ago 14 and remains a central paradigm of biology. This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognises the application of evolutionary principles at the molecular level, directing molecules to rapidly evolve useful functions. iStockphoto/ktsimage 20 The life of Brynn news & research In this International Year of the Periodic Table, Dave Sammut and Chantelle 6 News Craig profile Australia’s representative to the IUPAC Analytical Division, 8 Research Emeritus Professor Brynn Hibbert. 12 Education research 42 Events 24 Networks, workforce development and resilience 42 Cryptic chemistry Industry networks are surprisingly fragile, and Australia’s chemical industries are no exception. Tom Spurling and colleagues explain the importance of members social network analysis. 30 Obituary 28 Profile: Mapping molecules 31 RACI National Awards 36 RACI centenary fellows A scientist once told me that identifying the optimal interaction between molecules is like finding a needle in a haystack. Professor Brian Smith is an expert at just that. views & reviews 4 Guest editorial 5 Your say 37 Books 40 Grapevine 24 41 Letter from Melbourne chemaust.raci.org.au guest editorial Highlighting chemistry education research It was with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation to Ultimately, this experiment provided a novel approach to contribute the guest editorial for this issue. I am particularly examining key principles of the palladium-catalysed Suzuki– excited to be the instigator and editor of the new Chemistry Miyaura reaction in the undergraduate laboratory (Pullen R., Education Research section of the magazine (p. 12). Chemistry Olding A., Smith J.A., Bissember A.C. J. Chem. Ed. 2018, doi: education as a research field has been growing in Australia for 10.021/acs.jchemed.7b00964). During early iterations, staff and some time. Recently, this area has enjoyed increased interest students observed that aryl iodides exhibited very poor from not only established chemistry researchers, but also reactivity compared to the corresponding bromides. A follow-up students undertaking honours and postgraduate studies in study led by Dr Alex Bissember (which also featured chemistry education. One potential benefit I can see from this undergraduate researcher Angus Olding) determined that this exposure is the opportunities for collaboration between phenomenon derived from the unexpected poor turnover of a chemistry education researchers and chemistry researchers, fundamental palladium species on the active catalytic cycle which can benefit all parties involved. These opportunities can (Ho C.C., Olding A., Smith J.A., Bissember A.C. Organometallics yield exciting outcomes for chemistry education researchers, 2018, vol. 37(11), pp. 1745–50). chemistry researchers and students undertaking studies in This recent example reflects that research in chemical chemistry – an example of which I will share. science and chemistry education go hand in hand. Further During my honours year in chemistry education, I found the support for this important relationship may take the form of combination of teaching and research thrilling, and went on to reinforcing and promoting greater recognition of the value of complete PhD studies in chemistry education at the University educating future chemists, in addition to inspiring students by of Tasmania. In parallel, I undertook a Graduate Diploma of presenting them with engaging examples of chemistry research. Education (Senior Years) at the Queensland University of As experts in our fields, it is essential that we continue to Technology. During this time, I also taught at both the improve approaches to educating future generations of University of Tasmania and a local high school. Despite the scientists, and disseminating and sharing research in this area differences between teaching in secondary and tertiary is a key step towards these aspirations. institutions, I saw that linking of the educational content with I invite RACI members and readers of this magazine to aspects of chemistry research was particularly successful in contact me to share summaries of your recently published engaging students across both environments. This is by no articles that are consistent with the scope of Chemistry means a new concept but one that we should regularly revisit as Education Research. The guidelines, including contact the needs and interests of our students continually change. information for submissions, appear with the new section on With these issues in mind, the placement of Chemistry p. 13. Education Highlights beside the chemical science research Reyne Pullen MRACI CChem is currently working as a section of Chemistry in Australia recognises the mutual benefits postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New South between research in chemistry education and chemical science. Wales, where he is contributing to the significant redevelopment and redesign of the first-year chemistry curriculum. He has Research exploring how we teach chemistry can benefit previously undertaken chemistry education research at Monash disciplinary chemistry itself, and vice versa. University and the University of Tasmania, and participated in During my PhD studies at the University of Tasmania, I various science communication and outreach activities in Tasmania. explored the development of new chemistry laboratory experiments to better prepare students for postgraduate study. One of these, involving a cross-coupling reaction, allowed students to investigate a variety of concepts and develop a number of core skills across synthetic and analytical chemistry. ADVERTISING SALES RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Mary Pappa David Huang Sam Adeloju (Chair) [email protected], Michael Gardiner, Ph/fax (03) 9328 2033/2670 [email protected] Helmut Hügel, Colin Scholes, Madeleine Schultz, Pamela Sutton-Legaud, chemaust.raci.org.au [email protected] Richard Thwaites EDUCATION RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Reyne Pullen CONTRIBUTIONS EDITOR PRODUCTION [email protected] Contributors’ views are not necessarily endorsed by the RACI, and no Sally Woollett Control Publications Pty Ltd responsibility is accepted for accuracy of contributions. Visit the website’s Ph (03) 5623 3971 [email protected] GENERAL ENQUIRIES resource centre at chemaust.raci.org.au for information about submissions. www.control.com.au [email protected] Robyn Taylor © 2019 The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. Ph/fax (03) 9328 2033/2670 unless otherwise attributed. Content must not be [email protected] PRODUCTION EDITOR BOOK REVIEWS reproduced wholly or in part without written permission. Catherine Greenwood Damien Blackwell PRESIDENT Further details on the website (chemaust.raci.org.au). [email protected] [email protected] Vicki Gardiner FRACI CChem ISSN 0314-4240 e-ISSN 1839-2539 4 | Chemistry in Australia January/February 2019 your say Judging evidence Call to RACI citizens In the Sept/Oct issue of Chemistry in Australia, I received special The RACI needs to be involved with the wider community. I mention as one of those nasty experts who give expert witnesses suggest a citizen science project (citizenscience.org.au). a bad name. Not only that, I had previously been attacked by four While writing an article on a way of jazzing up the relevance judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for being a bad of some dry physical chemistry I selected the topic of expert witness, so my reputation is legally in tatters. Previously, I fragrances. This led to a revelation as to the constipation in had been an associate professor in physics for many years but had Australia’s regulatory regimes in dealing with products perfumed just retired so my reputation in legal circles didn’t actually matter with Huon pine (100%). to me. Since then, I have published about 120 scientific papers as Its major fragrant component, methyl eugenol, had been an honorary member of staff, so my reputation has been partly tested (among many) by Doug Waterhouse at CSIRO during restored by the physics community. It was never actually in doubt, World War II as