Success for AINSE supported researchers
Dr Manickam Minakshi
Dr Manickam Minakshi of Murdoch University is the successful recipient of a prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project (DP) to commence in 2010 will provide $275,000 over four years.
Because of their highly competitive nature, with a success rate of 16%, ARC DPs are one of the most prestigious fellowships available in Australia. This grant has been approved for mapping new cathode materials for aqueous rechargeable batteries. Recently, Dr Minakshi working with ANSTO scientists demonstrated that a rechargeable battery could be produced using aqueous electrolytes which are inherently safer. This technology could power electric vehicles of the future.
With the aid of breakthrough technologies using advanced oxide and phosphate materials for a battery, widespread use of green energy could be achieved for national benefit. This will help us to reduce the current emission observed in transport and energy conversion. The project will facilitate an understanding the electrochemical energy storage technology. The development of new scientific knowledge from this project will be a strategy to the energy industries to build non-pollutant high energy storage equipments.
Dr Minakshi was an AINSE postgraduate scholar at Murdoch University during his PhD studies in 2004, and has held a number of AINSE Research Awards since completing his doctoral studies.
Dr Madhu Bhaskaran
Dr Madhu Bhaskaran has been awarded a prestigious ARC Australian Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (APD) for 2010-2012 as part of her successful early-career researcher Discovery Project (ARC DP1092717).
Dr Bhaskaran, who received her Ph.D. degree from RMIT University in 2009, has been a student investigator on six grants from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) since July 2006. Her Ph.D. program was focussed on electrical characterisation of silicide thin film based ohmic contacts. AINSE funding enabled her to carry out numerous fundamental studies on the properties of the piezoelectric thin films being synthesised by her colleagues and her, in addition to research relevant to her Ph.D. thesis.
This funding provided her with access to specialised equipment and expertise at ANSTO, enabling over 10 high quality journal articles and led to the development of two novel and simplified techniques for the quantitative characterisation of piezoelectric thin films. This work laid the foundation for the synthesis of high performance piezoelectric thin films and her successful ARC Discovery Project proposal, with the related APD Fellowship.
She will utilise this funding to carry out research on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) -compatible ultra-high response piezoelectric thin films for efficient energy harvesting, at the Microelectronics and Materials Technology Centre at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of RMIT University