Major research achievements in the area of science and technology

• Advance materials
• Animal and veterinary science
• Architecture and the built environment
• Cellular and molecular biology and biotechnology
• Environment, ecology and sustainability
• Fundamental and enabling sciences
• Information and communication technologies

Advance materials

The Nanostructrual Analysis Network Organisation, Major National Research Facility (NANO-MNRF) will offer Australian researchers a unique level of national access to high-resolution nano-scale investigative tools and resources. Funding includes a Commonwealth grant of $11.5 million as part of the Backing Australia's Ability initiative.

Animal and veterinary science

Dr Mark Krockenberger (Faculty of Veterinary Science) has been awarded an ARC Linkage Grant of more than $400,000 to investigate the prevention and treatment of chlamydiosis and cryptococcosis diseases threatening koala populations.

The Faculty of Veterinary Science attracted a research grant of $3.2 million from the Meat and Livestock Association to unravel the details of early stages of Johne's disease in sheep and cattle.

The Faculty of Veterinary Science received funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation for its international reference laboratory for EHN virus.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Julie Cavanagh developed a DNA test that has been sold worldwide for the detection of a genetic defect found in calves.

Architecture and the built environment

Dr David J Gunaratnam (Architecture) has received an ARC Discovery Grant for the years 2004 - 2006. He will work closely with Civil Engineering on the project: "Management of Complex Assets Using Smart Information Systems".

Cellular and molecular biology and biotechnology

Dr Joel Mackay (Molecular and Microbial Bioscience) received an ARC Discovery Project grant 2003 for the "Characterization of erythroid differentiation related factor (EDRF): a novel a-globin binding protein".

Dr Adrienne Adams (Molecular and Microbial Biosciences) received an NHMRC Project Grant for the "The structural basis for the action of anticancer DNA-intercalating topoisomerase poisons".

Dr Merlin Crossley (Molecular and Microbial Biosciences) received an NHMRC Project Grant for "Multiprotein complexes in gene repression".

Environment, ecology and sustainability

Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

• The faculty received substantial funding for research into many areas - including plant breeding and cotton growing - from rural industry and development corporations.
• A vast array of qualitative and quantitative data collected by Dr Inakwu Odeh about soils from north-west NSW and south-west Queensland. This research, which was funded by the CRC for Sustainable Cotton Production, will provide benchmarking of soil quality for future monitoring of the land resources and catchment health.
• Dr Robert Park was appointed Grain Research and Development Corporation Professor of Cereal Rust Research and leader of the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program. Professor Park, who is based in the Plant Breeding Institute at Cobbitty, will lead a world-class research program into rust diseases of cereals.

Fundamental and enabling sciences

Professor Gus Lehrer (School of Mathematics and Statistics) received a five-year ARC Professorial Scholarship of $825,000 to research new theories on diagram algebras and eigenspace geometry with potential benefits for cryptography and electronic security.

Professor Leo Radom (School of Chemistry) secured $1.25 million for an ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship for a project investigating free radicals in chemistry and biology.

Professor Max Crossley was invited to become a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. The fellowship includes funding of collaborative research with the Fukuzumi group at the University of Osaka.

Professor Peter Robinson and his team were awarded the Royal Societies of Australia Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Scientific Research for developing a new model of the brain's electrical activity.

Associate Professor Iver Cairns, Dr Simon Johnston, and Professor Elaine Sadler were awarded Australian Professorial Fellowships by the Australian Research Council for research in the fields of space physics, plasma physics, and astrophysics. Over their lifetimes, these grants will bring in excess of $3 million to the School of Physics.

Information and communication technologies

The Language Technology Research Group has been awarded the contract to complete the Scamseek project by the Capital Markets CRC and Australian Securities and Investment Commission. The Scamseek project has a $2.2million budget to build a surveillance tool for identifying financial scams on the Internet. This is Australia's largest research project in language technology.

VAST Audio, a University of Sydney biotech spin-off company won the Best Operations Plan and Best Overall Business Plan at the NSW Enterprise Workshop and also received a Biotechnology Innovation Fund grant of $244,000.

The Centre for Risk, Environment, Systems Technology and Analysis in the Department of Chemical Engineering began developing the program it will operate for the new CRC for Sustainable Resource Processing.