Centre launch marks leap forward for science

Professor Mark Hutchinson

The Australian Research Council's (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics (CNBP) will be officially launched at the University of Adelaide on 21 November with local, national and international dignitaries amongst the invited guests.

The launch will be followed by a three-day scientific retreat where students, scientists, commercial partners, international collaborators and the International Science Committee will learn more about the innovative projects planned for the ensuing 12 months of the seven-year program of research.

The CNBP will bring together physicists, chemists and biologists to control nanoscale interactions between light and matter in order to investigate the nanoenvironments within living organisms.

According to Professor Mark Hutchinson, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for nanoscale BioPhotonics at the University of Adelaide, the launch of the new Centre will open the door to a new wave of scientific discovery.

"Having all the scientific disciplines working alongside one another at the Centre offers opportunities like never before," said Professor Hutchinson. "We will create new generation sensors that, in turn, create new scientific fields."

The new generation sensors will have the capability to operate remotely within living tissue, such as in the brain, within a blood or beside a fertlising human egg. The sensors will also have the ability to take measurements repeatedly over time and in a volume, one billionth of a litre, never before possible. And, according to Professor Hutchinson, that's merely the start of what promises to be a game-changing future for science.

Since being announced in December 2013, the opening of the Centre has been eagerly awaited, not the least of which by those who want to play an integral part in its story. 20 vacant positions have been answered by more than 1,000 International researchers for positions at nodes based at the University of Adelaide, Macquarie University and RMIT.

"We have now started hiring an amazing group of multitalented people," said Professor Hutchinson. "We have people with PhDs in disciplines ranging from theoretical physics to neuroscience to surface-chemistry. The fact that we will all work together is extremely exciting."

The thrill of what's in store is not lost on the Centre's early career researchers, who are eagerly looking forward to the opportunities ahead.

"It's going to be a balance between a kid in a candy store and a bull in a china shop for them, and that's the best way to be," laughed Professor Hutchinson.