AUSTRALIAN FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE, 2003
The Shine Dome, Canberra, 31 July to 1 August
Program (PDF file)
Session 1: Advanced materials
Chair: Professor David McKenzie
Advanced materials synthesis
Professor Marcela Bilek
Applied and Plasma Physics, University of Sydney
Advanced materials characterisation
Associate Professor Dougal McCulloch
Faculty of Applied Science, RMIT University
Session 2: Extinction events in the geological past – causes and effects
Chair: Dr Charley Lineweaver
Mass extinctions
Dr Annette George
School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, University of Western Australia
Novel biomarker distributions and their stable isotopes in Permian/Triassic sediments
Dr Kliti Grice
School of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University
Discussion
Session 3: Gene silencing – from basic mechanisms to industrial and therapeutic applications
Chair: Dr Wayne Gerlach
DNA-based catalytic agents as potential inhibitors of vascular disorders
Associate Professor Levon Khachigian
Centre for Thrombosis and Vascular Research, University of New South Wales
Gene silencing in plants and other eukaryotes
Dr Peter M Waterhouse
CSIRO, Canberra
Discussion
Session 4: Protein structure as a gateway to drug design
Chair: Dr Jacqui Matthews
Zinc binding proteins as molecular scaffolds for drug design
Dr Joel Mackay
School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney
The role of protein structure in functional annotation of proteins
Dr Bostjan Kobe
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Queensland
| Discussion
Session 5: New approaches to the evolution of complex biological systems
Chair: Associate Professor Christopher Daniels
Evolutionary developmental physiology – how does individual developmental plasticity lead to heterochrony?
Dr Sandra Orgeig
Department of Environmental Biology, University of Adelaide
New approaches to the 'evolution' of complex ecological systems – kangaroo population dynamics
Professor Hugh Possingham
Department of Mathematics and School of Life Sciences, University of Queensland
Discussion
Session 6: Utilising large astronomical datasets
Chair: Associate Professor Rachel Webster
Scanning the sky – learning about the universe through large datasets
Dr Brian Schmidt
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University
Data challenges in astronomy
Dr David Barnes
School of Physics, University of Melbourne
Discussion
Session 7: Quantum computing
Chair: Professor Bob Clark
Quantum computing – theoretical challenges
Dr Howard Wiseman
School of Science, Griffith University
Solid-state quantum computing and quantum electronic devices
Dr Alex Hamilton
School of Physics, University of New South Wales
Discussion
Session 8: Molecular ecology – integrating genetics with demography to understand population biology
Chair: Professor Richard Frankham
Monitoring, molecules and models – integrating genetics and demography in the analysis of plant population viability
Dr Andrew Young
CSIRO Plant Industry
Molecular ecology meets conservation biology – Australian mammal case studies
Dr Andrea Taylor
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
Discussion
