University News

People who say that mosquitoes are inexplicably attracted to them might be interested in physicist Stephan Karl’s work.

The PhD candidate took out an award sponsored by Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall’s biotechnology company Ondek Pty Ltd at the recent Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Symposium. The award was given for Stephan’s work on the magnetic properties of malaria-infected cells and how to exploit them for diagnosis and treatment.

In early October, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, officially launched the presence of UWA in the acclaimed interactive 3D virtual world of Second Life.

The dream to recreate the beautiful, picturesque grounds of the University of Western Australia in virtual 3-Dimensional glory began in May 2007 and resulted in creation of the UWA Virtual Universe & UWA’s triumph in the Google Earth ‘Build your Campus in 3D’ competition. This dream moves into a new dimension, as creators of the Virtual Universe, Dr Chris Thorne (School of Physics Honorary Research Associate) and Jay Jay Jegathesan (School Manager), have teamed up with 3D visualisation guru, Paul Bourke, Senior Research Fellow with UWA’s Western Australian Supercomputer Program (WASP) to bring UWA into Second Life, a virtual world accessible via the Internet which enables its users to interact with others through avatars and they are able to socialize and participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services or travel throughout the virtual world.

Tim Perkins
Genetic Research Scientist, rows for Cambridge
BSc (majoring in Biophysics and Chemistry) 2001

I finished my biophysics degree at UWA in 2001 and headed for Europe where I took up a job as Research Assistant at Imperial College, London at the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection.

I now work at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre, famous for human genome research, with a world class Pathogen Biology team. The work is on gene expression in salmonella and recently deep sequenced bacterial mRNA which I believe to be a world first.

A team of UWA astrophysicists has captured one hour of valuable video footage of the aftermath of a massive gamma ray explosion 11 billion years ago – just a few billion years after the Big Bang.

The ancient light was detected for the first time on Earth by a one-metre robotic telescope installed just last year at the Gingin gravitational wave observatory, 70 km north of Perth.

The Zadko Telescope near Gingin was the first to observe light from an 11-billion-year-old gamma ray explosion. The UWA researchers’ announcement coincides with the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and marks the discovery of one of the most distant explosions observed from Australia.

For decades, the School of Physics has been able to pride itself on its outstanding outreach program involving local Perth schools. Last year saw an incredible expansion of this program overseas, with 23 students from Jurong Junior College and 18 students form National University Singapore High School, visiting UWA. The students took part in week-long specialised research outreach programs held in November and December.

Black holes remain one of the great enigmas of the universe.

But thanks to research by UWA physicist Professor David Blair, within the next decade we may be able to detect gravitational waves on earth and "listen" to the sounds of these and other astronomical phenomena.