Author: mathssciencechampions

Quantum Chemistry? Molecular Physics? She can do both! Meet Dr. Laura McKemmish

By Dr Ruth Thomas

Dr Laura McKemmish
Dr Laura McKemmish

Dr Laura McKemmish is not just a chemist or a physicist – she’s both! Straddling the boundary of two scientific fields – Laura’s research uses computational methods and theory to tackle the complicated problems in chemistry and physics, looking at each from the unique perspective of the other field. When she is not researching, you can catch Laura scrapbooking, watching BattleStar Galactica or organising discussing science with the community in her role as outreach officer for UNSW Chemistry and as a UNSW Women Science Champion.

 So, what is your role at UNSW?

I am a Lecturer in the School of Chemistry, with a so-called “40-40-20” appointment. This means I spend about 40% of my time on research, 40% on teaching and 20% on service, which for me is dominated by my role as Chair of the UNSW Chemistry Outreach Committee. I consider myself a quantum chemist and molecular physicist. My expertise is in theoretical and computational modelling of molecules, particularly their spectroscopy. I love interdisciplinary work and combining interesting methods with interesting applications.

How did you become a lecturer? Did you always want to work in science?

I think I was always destined to be a scientist, particularly in the fields of chemistry and physics. As a child, I loved reading books on spectroscopy, quantum mechanics, astronomy and fundamental theories of physics.

My journey began at University of Sydney, where I did a Bachelor of Advanced Science majoring in Physics, with Honours in Chemistry (Theoretical). During my degree, I did a large range of projects:  from disproving a popular model of quantum consciousness to making a New Ionic liquid and taking a supersonic cooled spectra of 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene. I continued on to a PhD at the Australian National University in Chemistry, focusing on the development of new basis sets for quantum chemistry and graduated with my PhD on “Mixed Ramp-Gaussian Basis Sets” in May 2015.

After my PhD, I travelled to London and spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher at University College London’s Physics and Astronomy department. I worked on producing molecular spectroscopic data for studying hot Jupiter exoplanets and developed methods for theoretically treating ultra-cold atom-diatomic collisions. Last year I returned to Australia and have been working on building my own research team at UNSW.

What does your typical workday look like?

I usually start the day by putting together a to-do list and answering emails on the bus while on my way to work. Once at work, I try to get some writing done on papers about my recent research projects or grants to fund more of my research as well plan future research papers and grants. In between this, I have meetings with students and colleagues who I teach or do research with  and spend some time fixing or writing code for ongoing research projects.  I also give myself time to organise outreach activities with the department. Some days can be very hectic!

 

Example of Laura’s activities to teach chemistry to school students
Example of some of Laura’s outreach activities to teach chemistry to primary school students

What are some of the worst stereotypes about you field?

There are not too many stereotypes in my field, as many people do not really know that my field even exists! The most common misconception though is that since I work in chemistry, I must work in a laboratory. In my research, we put molecules into computers and explore them there – not in the laboratory. I actually never go in the lab except to guide and teach my students when needed.

When you are not working, what do you like to do?

I scrapbook, sometimes knit, read fantasy and science fiction books, watch sci-fi tv series like Battlestar Galactica and play Magic the Gathering.

Why did you join the UNSW Science and Maths Women Champions?

I joined this awesome program with the sole intention of building an awesome network of awesome women in science and maths.

Laura representing UNSW Women Science Champions at Fringe lecture series in Adelaide
Laura representing UNSW Women Science Champions at the inaugural Fringe lecture series at University of Adelaide.

 

Follow Laura on Twitter

 

How do we ensure the world has enough clean drinking water? Ask the Namib desert beetle! 

By Parisa Moazzam

Approximately 2 billion people of the world’s population are living with the risk of reduced access to freshwater resources. As a result, three in ten people lack access to safely managed drinking water services and water scarcity affects more than 40% of the global population. Each day, unfortunately, nearly 1,000 children die due to unsafe water supplies. So, water scarcity is one of the largest issues facing us today.

Finding a clean water source and installing systems to transport this water to people is time consuming and very, very expensive. So, is there a simpler, cheaper way to solve this worldwide problem? The answer may come from a very unusual source – the Namib Desert Beetle.

I am Parisa Moazzam, a PhD candidate at UNSW, and my previous research has focused on looking to nature to solve human problems. In particular, as a scientist, I was interested to see whether nature could provide me with some clues to help modify synthetic materials (such as aluminium surfaces in medical devices) to make them more biocompatible (i.e. more resistant to bacterial attachment in order to reduce risk of infection for patients). Whilst pursuing this research, I realised we needed to look to nature for ways to alter the superhydrophobicity/superhydrophilicity of the surface. This is when my supervisor and I found a very interesting structure on the Namib desert beetle.

The Namib desert beetle lives in one of the driest areas in the world. How does it survive here? It turns out that the surface of the beetle’s back has a unique structure that allows it to collect tiny droplets of water from mist and fog. This process is effective and efficient, allowing the beetle to collect enough drinking water to survive in one of the harshest climates on Earth with little, to no energy expenditure. My colleagues and I wondered – is it possible for us to recreate the structure of the desert beetle’s back within the lab to mimic its unique properties?

We noticed that the underlying surface of the desert beetle’s shell was mostly hydrophobic (water repelling). However, it was covered in a series of bumps that were porous and hydrophilic (water attractive).

To mimic this, we used a fascinating biopolymer called polydopamine (PDA), and applied a technique called negative photolithography to produce a porous membrane surface. We then coated SU-8 surface with PDA to creating hydrophilic, porous bumps, just like the desert beetle’s back. We placed these PDA coated bumps on a hydrophobic material called polypropylene (PP) and measured how much water was collected by the new surface. We found the surface collected a very high rate of water from mist. Excitingly, we found not only was this structure economically viable to be fabricated on a large scale, but due to the porous nature of the polypropylene membrane, the water collection rate could also be substantially increased by using vacuum pressure which is shown in the below figure.

We managed to publish our findings in the Desalination journal. We even include details in our paper about how to fabricate the material into a water harvesting device that could be used for people to make clean drinking water. Importantly, by using a simple, cost-effective, green and rapid method of negative photolithography, we have found a means towards achieving fresh water in a humid environment without consuming energy. Thus, this material could be a possible solution to the world’s water crisis and help change the lives of millions of people.

So now that we have successfully created a synthetic surface that could harvest water from thin air, what’s next?

There are many other potential applications for these surfaces including open-air micro-channel devices, lab-on-chip devices, and controlled drug release coatings. Bio-mimicking the desert beetle’s hierarchical surfaces could be a pathway towards future work involving testing other techniques such as 3D-printing to scale up the work.

You can check out our work here: Link

Follow Parisa on Twitter (@parisa_mzm)