Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics - refunding by the ARC/GRDC

The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) has been awarded $21 million refunding from the Australia Research Council (ARC) and the Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) for a further 5 years. The University of Melbourne team, led by Professor Tony Bacic, is housed in the School of Botany, Faculty of Science, and comprises five research staff and six postgraduate students. The ACPFG is headquartered at the University of Adelaide and has nodes at the University of Melbourne, University of Queensland and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries. The ACPFG, established in 2002 as a research-based company with an initial investment from the ARC, the GRDC, the South Australian Government and the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and Queensland undertakes vital research into abiotic (environmental) stresses on plants that effect Australian agriculture.

media Release by Minister Bishop

Food Futures Flagship Cluster - redesigning polysaccharides (complex carbohydrates) in cereal grains for improved nutritional value and human health - funding from CSIRO

This project, led by the University of Queensland, also involves the University of Melbourne and the University of Adelaide. The total funding over 3 years will be ~ $3.7M with $0.96M to Professor Tony Bacic, School of Botany, University of Melbourne.

Gum Leaf Auction

On Sunday 30 April 2006 the School of Botany conducted an auction of gum leaves painted by well-known Australian artists. Funds raised were used to support research and training of our future plant scientists in the School of Botany.

Vale Sophie Charlotte Ducker, distinguished botanist, 1909–2004

Thursday 24 June 2004

New Building wins Award

Saturday 19 June 2004

Our new building has been awarded the William Wardell award for Institutional Architecture - New, in the recent 2004 RAIA Victorian Architects Awards.

Description

This is a highly accomplished project, one in which ideas explored through the earlier work of its architects culminate in a most refined and sophisticated building. As a new research facility for the building it houses laboratories, seminar rooms and offices for university staff and industry partners.

The clients sought to update the image of botanists to the new high  tech reality of sneaker-wearing screen-jockeys. They were keen to avoid the ivy clad brick building, so the architects gave them a brick clad ivy building; architecture as topiary. Based on the form of a cut hedge, the building responds cleverly to environmental requirements, its varying site conditions, and the client's needs.

The plan is scalloped around a large and historically important fig tree and is axially orientated for maximum northern aspect. The building's long frontage of glazed green brick on the north side provides a hard urban edge to Tin Alley while the playful south side of syncopated coloured glass panels is  facetted to create a sense of movement and shimmer.

This architectural lozenge establishes a scintillating backdrop for the grassy garden and a set of colourful palates responsive to light and climate, reflecting the  organicist, yet scientific  endeavor of the client.

The School of Botany is a concise building. Neat in its spatial arrangements, economical in its material movements it presents a multi-layered, responsive architecture that successfully shifts the boundaries of expectation.

Woodward Medal to Geoff McFadden
Uninews Wednesday 15 October 2003

New plant biotech centre will develop better crops
Uninews Wednesday 1 October 2003

Traffic

(a new refereed interdisciplinary postgraduate journal) offers scholarly highway for interdisciplinary travellers. Edition 1 featured our own Christina Flann.

see Uninews 23 September, 2002 for the details.

Further info on Traffic here.

New Building Approaches Completion

see the latest images here

Click thumbnails to view larger images	The School of Botany has expanded into a new building, designed by the architectural firm of Lyons. The building provides a northern boundary to the System Garden.  The building side that faces the garden is largely glass, which reflects the changing face of the garden during the day and seasons. The new building provides accommodation for staff and students, including state-of-the-art laboratories, for: The Australian Functional Genomics Centre, The Victorian Functional Genomics Centre, The Royal Botanic Garden's Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology, The School's Applied Ecology group, and The plant research and biotechnology company Hexima Ltd.

ARC Funding of $20m for the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics

STI grant brings $4m to The Victorian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics

see UniNews 12 August 2002

Ex Botany student Sally Gras receives prestigious Gates Cambridge Trust Award

My Honours research in the School of Botany as the first Hexima Scholar gave me excellent scientific grounding in molecular biology and protein biochemistry.  It was also a rare opportunity to learn about business and intellectual property in an Australian biotechnology company.  I experienced the satisfaction of achieving scientific goals aimed at a foreseeable end use. I have just been awarded a prestigious Gates Cambridge Trust Award, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  I will join the Biophysics group at The University of Cambridge in 2003 for a PhD program supervised by Dr Cait McPhee in Biophysics and Professor Chris Dobson in Chemistry.  Dr McPhee is herself a former postgraduate student from the School of Biochemistry at the University of Melbourne.  I will study amyloid fibrils, protein aggregates that are implicated in major diseases such as Alzheimers and bovine spongiform encephalopathy.  I will examine the potential of amyloid fibrils as nanomaterials and build on my combined Science-Engineering degree and my year in Botany as the Hexima Scholar.   I also hope to gain an understanding of the skills Australians will need to maximise our potential in nanotechnology and translate research opportunities to outcomes that benefit the community.  The Scholarship provides travel expenses, University fees, college fees and £7,750 p.a. for living expenses.

Sewage and crops to 'green' tailings at Stawell Gold Mines

Eucalypts and other cash crops could soon transform tailings dams at Victoria's largest goldmine into an environmental and economic windfall for the City of Stawell and the Wimmera region.

Full story.

From UniNews Vol 11 No. 1. 4 February, 2002

Tin Alley Building Starts

A visually stunning new extension to the School of Botany will provide high-quality research accommodation for three cutting-edge botany research groups in the University.

Demolition of the old Tin Alley buildings occured in March 2001. Work on the $5.6 million project commenced in July and is due to be completed mid 2002.

An earlier article in UniNews provides background information.

The image below was taken from the roof of the ILFR building looking East along Tin Alley.

Click on the image to view an enlargement.