PRACTISING SCIENTISTS

Identify practicising male and female Australian scientists, the areas in

which they are currently working and information about their research
PROF. MICHELLE COOTE

Chemical Occupation Professor, Polymer Chemist

Named Industry ARC Centre for Excellence for Free-Radical
Chemistry and Biotechnology, Australian National University Research
School of Chemistry.
Branch of Chemistry Polymer chemistry, radical chemistry,
theoretical chemistry.

Michelles Role and Research

Project Coordinator at ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials

Science.
Prof. Cootes research, which spans organic, polymer and biological
chemistry, focuses on the use of theory to clarify the mechanisms of
chemical processes and to design novel reagents for manipulating
their outcome.
To study electrostatic effects on chemical reactions.
Explore the extraordinary catalytic power of enzymes, designing
materials with tuneable debonding properties and improved
stability to degradation.
Designing better reagents to control stereochemistry of polymers
produced in free radical polymerisation.
Use quantum chemistry calculations to identify and explain the
mechanism, kinetics and thermodynamics of complicated multistep chemical processes - information that is difficult to obtain via
experiment alone.
Design in silico new chemical reagents to improve the efficiency of an
existing process or, in some cases, allow new chemical products to be
made.

The development and experimental benchmarking of

computational methodology for studying larger chemical reactions,
including those related to polymerisation and enzyme-mediated
processes.

Clarifying the mechanism by which organic materials degrade and

the design of improved antioxidants.

The design of new chain carriers for organic synthesis.

DR. NIAL J. WHEATE

Chemical Occupation Senior Lecturer, Pharmaceutical Chemist

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Named Industry University of Sydney (Head of Cancer Research in

Faculty of Pharmacy).
Branch of Chemistry Medicinal chemistry

Nials Role and Research

Dr Wheate's research interests are in the field of metal-based drugs for

use in chemotherapy.
Drug design and synthesis, encapsulation of drugs in macrocyles,
attachment of drugs to nanoparticles, drug solid state stability
and polymorphism (materials science),
Drug mechanisms of action, improving drug solubility through the
formation of cocrystals, drug formulation, and interactions in various
dosage forms.
Examine the DNA binding of platinum drugs to develop magnetically
directed drug delivery for platinum drugs.
Dr Wheate has examined a range of delivery scaffolds for platinum
drugs including: dendrimers, gold and iron oxide
nanoparticles, aptamers and macrocycles.
Recently, he has been exploring new drug designs that incorporate
the structural features of picoplatin and triplatinin to a single
drug.
First to show the application of cucurbiturils as delivery vehicles and
has shown how they can be used to improve drug solubility, drug
stability in the solid and solution states and their use in biodiagnostics.
Leading expert in the pharmaceutical formulation of cucurbiturils
having designed oral tablet, eye and topical cream dosage forms.

PROF. MARIA SKYLLAS-KAZACOS

Chemical Occupation Professor, Chemical Engineering

Named Industry Professor at UNSW in School of Chemical
Engineering
Branch of Chemistry Electrochemistry: Study of electricity and how
it relates to chemical reactions.

Marias Role and Research

As an electrochemist, Marias knowledge of energy storage led to work

in 1984 on redox flow cells. The element vanadium was used since it
exists in many oxidation states that could be used in both the
positive and negative half-cell solutions, thereby eliminating crosscontamination by diffusion across the membrane.

Marias discovery that you could prepare highly concentrated

pentavalent solutions indirectly from the more soluble tetravalent ions,
combined with a fortuitous scraping of the carbon electrode that made the

PRACTISING SCIENTISTS
vanadium oxidation-reduction reactions reversible, led to the filing of
the first patent for an all-vanadium redox battery in 1986.

The vanadium battery is regarded internationally as one of the most

feasible energy storage technologies available.

The battery helps reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse

gas emissions by meeting the growing need for efficient renewable
energy storage.

Maria continues to build on her pioneering work on the vanadium redox

battery by investingating ways to get more power from each battery
to bring the cost per kilowatt down.

Maria is working with one of the biggest aluminium companies in Dubai to

develop advanced diagnostics, fault detection and control systems
for aluminium smelters.

Maria also researches the preparation and characterization of

conductive polymers and conductive plastic composites.

Gather, process and present information from secondary sources about

the work of practising scientists identifying:
The variety of chemical occupations

Analytical chemistry - determination of what substances are in a sample

and how much of each is present; qualitative, quantitative on product
purity, food, quality.
Physical chemistry - study and measurement of physical aspects of
compounds and reactions such as rates of reaction/kinetics/
thermodynamics and the structure and bonding in compounds,
energy considerations.
Environmental chemistry - study of how substances interact in the
environment and monitoring of pollutants in air, water and soil; heavy
metal pollution, acidic oxides, collect samples. Usually work for EPA,
mining companies and government.
Biochemistry study of the chemistry of living things, cellular
reactions, enzymes, metabolic reactions (breaking down fats +
carbohydrates), function and regulation of genes.
Organic and medicinal chemistry study of carbon compounds and
its synthesis i.e. hydrocarbons, alkanols, alkanoic acids, benzenes,
esters. Also focuses on medicines based on carbon compounds e.g heroin
for pain relief.

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Polymer chemistry - the development of new polymers, studying

how polymerisation occurs and how to make it more efficient. They also
explore the properties of polymers, its uses and production.
Industrial chemistry designing industrial processes for maximum
yield, minimum cost, engineering and resources.
Nuclear chemistry - the production and uses of radioisotopes for
medicine and industry and the study of the fundamental nature of
nuclear reactions.
Forensic chemistry analysis of biological molecules and
inorganic molecules as evidence in the court of law (e.g. blood, DNA,
skin, hair).

A specific chemical occupation for a more detailed study

Industrial Chemist

An industrial chemist is involved with monitoring and managing

industrial processes.
They study the structure and chemical reactions of materials that
can be used in industry.
Industrial chemists research lead to the production of a wide variety of
commercial products ranging from petrochemicals, detergents, plastics
and semiconductors.
These chemists may specialise in analytical chemistry, organic
chemistry or inorganic chemistry.

Roles

Monitor and manage the production process so that it is safe, time

and cost efficient.
Ensure that chemical reactions have high yield and rate of reaction.
Design monitoring procedures and quality control testing.
Check that raw materials meet specifications.
Monitor whether products are sufficiently pure.
Ensure that effluents and solid wastes from the factory do not exceed
allowable limits of pollutants.
Work with environmental officers and marketing personnel.

Roles in Crude Oil Industry

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Ensure that the crude oil is heated to the correct temperature so

that it fully vaporises and then rises through the fractionating tower
appropriately.
Each vaporized fraction of the crude oil must reach the
temperature at which it will condense back into a liquid at the
correct height in the tower or else the fractions will become
contaminated.

Chemical principle: the boiling point principle in reverse

The smaller in mass a gaseous molecule is for a fraction of
crude oil, the weaker the dispersion forces, thus the lower the
temperature at which the molecules change state from gas to
liquid (condense).
As the gaseous molecules cool by moving up the tower they
lose energy and slow down sufficiently so that dispersion
forces can form and hence, the vapour condenses into a
liquid.