Global Utilities

La Trobe University
Science, Technology and Engineering

2010 Research Projects - Now Available

Research Projects for Honours, Master of Chemical Science and Master of Nanotechnology

If you are considering honours wor masters research projects, it is important to make contact with academics in research groups that most closely represent your area of interest. Acceptance into a research project requires having an available supervisor and agreed research topic.

Individual projects for 2010 are also outlined in the 2010 Research Projects Booklet (1.5MB, PDF)


Dr Belinda Abbott

Medicinal chemistry involves the design, synthesis and development of the molecules we need in order to understand, prevent and treat disease. Research projects in medicinal chemistry primarily use the practical skills required for synthetic organic chemistry, sometimes with the opportunity to undertake molecular modelling and/or biological assays depending on the interests of the student and the progress of the project. For more information on these projects, please contact Dr Abbott.


  1. Synthesis of peptide nucleic acid conjugates
  2. Picroroccellin - a lost medicinal product?
  3. Design and synthesis of novel PDK1 inhibitors
  4. Novel Inhibitors of Phosphodiesterase 2

Dr Peter Barnard

Organic and inorganic synthetic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, structural chemistry, medicinal chemistry, molecular imaging, luminescence




  1. New Molecular Imaging Agents for Alzheimer’s Disease I
  2. New Molecular Imaging Agents for Alzheimer’s Disease II
  3. Dinuclear Gold(I) Compounds as Luminescent / Electrochemiluminescent materials
  4. Macrocyclic azolium salts new anion sensors and N-heterocyclic carbene ligand
  5. Iridium Complexes of N-heterocyclic Carbene and Triazole Ligands: Potential New Electrochemiluminescent Materials

Dr Conor Hogan

Research in our group is focused on expanding the bounds of Analytical Chemistry. We seek to develop new chemistries and new technologies which will result in exquisitely low detection limits, enhanced selectivity and miniaturised instruments which can be used in the real world outside of the laboratory setting.



  1. Electrochemically modulated FRET from assemblies of quantum dots and transition metal complexes
  2. Synthesis and applications of luminescent iridium complexes
  3. Lab-on-a-Chip: miniaturized opto-electrochemical sensors
  4. Nanostructured luminescent interfaces for sensing applications: surface active iridium and ruthenium complexes

Dr Andrew Hughes

Synthetic organic chemistry





  1. Developing "click" chemistry; nitrile oxides
  2. Peptide dimers chemistry
  3. Silicon chemistry
  4. Benzotriazole chemistry
  5. Glucosinolates
  6. Modified peptide solid phase synthesis
  7. The cyclic tetrapeptide project
  8. Pseudo-prolines

Dr Adam Mechler

nanochemistry, biomembranes, graphene, surface functionalisation, atomic force microscopy.





  1. Self-assembly of phospholipid molecules: liposome and biomembrane formation and stability
  2. Building nano-architectures: graphite and graphene surface functionalization
  3. Atomic force microscopic imaging of membrane dynamics
  4. Enhancment of AFM liquid imaging method for lipidomic applications

Dr Ian Potter

Our research in analytical and environmental chemistry is associated with the development of sensor and polymer membrane technology for the extraction and sensing of environmental, biological and industrial analytes. In particular, the preparation of sensors to target Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals (EDCs) such as pharmaceutical wastes and metabolites, agricultural herbicides and insecticides, and industrial wastes from manufacturing and mining containing inorganic metals and anions.

  1. Development of polymer inclusion membranes or microspheres for sensor applications
  2. Development of novel polymer matrices or sensing reagents for sensor applications

Dr Anne Richards

Crystal Engineering is the synthesis of new solids with desired physical and chemical properties, that can be used for a series of applications, such as hydrogen storage, gas sensors etc. To achieve the goal of ‘designer crystals’ one has to consider the preferred metal geometry, effect of the anion and the coordination modes of the ligand and through careful combination can achieve crystalline materials that can be 1,2 or 3 dimensional.


  1. Bimetallic framework and cluster synthesis
  2. Synthesis of transition metal or main group clusters and cages
  3. Gas adsorption materials

Dr Evan Robertson

UV laser-based molecular spectroscopy, biomolecule conformation, IR spectroscopy, atmospheric species, aerosols, computational chemistry




  1. Conformational Shape of Biomolecules
  2. IR spectroscopy of aerosols and other atmospheric species
  3. Paper based colourimetric sensing

Dr David Wilson

Our group uses computer calculations to determine the structures and properties of molecules and also to help understand how molecules react. The ability to predict reliable energetics and molecular properties represents a very important application of computational chemistry, and is a major focus of our research. If you are interested in "doing chemistry" using a computer, then research in computational chemistry may be of interest to you. Research projects are available in the following broad areas.

  1. Molecular properties of metallocenes
  2. Drug Design of kinase inhibitors (with Dr B. Abbott)
  3. Amino acids in space
  4. Transition metal chemistry
  5. More transition metal chemistry
  6. Radical chemistry
  7. How accurate can we get – is calculation better than experiment?
  8. Modelling NMR and molecular magnetic properties