Latest News and Upcoming Events

October 2008:	Very Small Product With a Huge Future That happened this month to Neil Foster, professor of chemical engineering at the University of NSW, when he was given a $60,000 grant by the Federal Government specifically to commercialise the research he has been undertaking for the past 10 years.   Professor Foster works in the field of nanotechnology where he has developed Arise, a process for generating nanoscale medicines and medical devices.   The article in its entirety can be found here, or in the October 21st edition of the Daily Telegraph.   Professor Foster wins ExxonMobil Award Professor Neil Foster was honoured at the recent 2008 Awards of Excellence, given by the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers. Professor Foster, who last year was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) won the ExxonMobil Award, which is given for significant ongoing contributions to Chemical Engineering through innovations or a series of related publications over a number of years. Professor Foster has distinguished himself worldwide with his research in the areas of dense gas technology and gas-expanded liquid technology, including supercritical fluids. His work has led to new methods for inhalable drug delivery. "We have pretty much pioneered using supercritical fluids for drug delivery," Professor Foster said."This award is one of the big ones and I was really as pleased as punch about it."   Professor Amal, who is the Head of UNSW's  Particles and Catalysis Research Group and Director of the Centre for Energy Research and Policy Analysis (CERPA), won the Freehills Award, which recognises innovation in product design or development.
August 2008:   Dr Angela Barrett (left), Professor Foster (middle), Emeritus Professor Wainwright (right)	Two articles in  UNSW ENGINEERS  ISSUE 17  (engineering magazine)  about SCF Group Handing along the baton (pg6): Emeritus Professor Mark Wainwright, Professor Neil R. Foster (Professor Wainwright's first student) and Dr. Angela Barrett (Professor Foster's student) all attended the April 2008 graduation ceremony. Professor Foster received a Doctor of Science for his thesis "Supercritical Fluids & Dense Gas Technologies: Fundamentals, Process Development & Applications" and Dr. Barrett received a 2008 UNSW Alumni Association Graduand Award and a PhD for her thesis "Processing Pharmaceuticals using Dense Gas Technology". Making smarter drugs (pg10): Details about Professor Foster and the SCF group's work on improving the efficiency of pharmaceutical drug delivery. According to Professor Foster, "we wanted something useful, viable, and with a commercially relevant endpoint."
July 2008:	Dr. Roderick Sih attained his PhD for his thesis entitled "New process development of dense gas technology for the processing of pharmaceuticals" His thesis can be found in electronic form on the UNSW Library website.
May 2008:	Professor Neil R. Foster is giving a keynote talk on "Production of Magnetically Responsive Biodevices by Dense Gas Technology" (co-authors: Wendy Lam and Raffaella Mammucari) at the 11th European Meeting on Supercritical Fluids (Barcelona, Spain)
April 2008:	Professor Neil R. Foster (left) and Jane Beh (right) received a Doctor of Science and Bachelors of Chemical Engineering respectively, at the UNSW convocation ceremony   Professor Mark Wainwright (right) gave a speech in honour of Professor Foster (left) receiving the Doctor of Science at the convocation ceremony.

Group Members attended ICONN 2008 (International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology) in Melbourne, Australia between February 25-29, 2008

 

• Wendy Lam gave an oral presentation on "Production of Magnetically Responsive Nanocomposites by Dense Gas Technology " on Wednesday February 27th in Symposium B @ 14:15.

 

• Adam G. Carr gave an oral presentation on "Subcritical water as a novel processing medium for the manufacturing of micronized biomaterials " on Friday February 29th in Symposium A @ 12:15.

 

• Jane Chau Chun Beh presented a poster on "Formation of Vesicles by Dense Gas Processing" on Thursday February 28th, in You Yang 6, Level 3 16:45-18:45

• ARISE insulin in the Sydney Morning Herald (January 6th, Health Section)

• Poster presentations by our two outstanding undergraduate honours students: Jane Chau Chun Beh and Robert Tanurahardja, more info to follow shortly.
• SCF would like to welcome Jane Beh to the group, a new research assistant.

• Professor Neil R. Foster admitted into the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering
• Roderick Sih featured in latest issue of Research @UNSW in an article titled "Great White Hope"
• Adam Carr wins 2007 Aker Kvaerner Chemica Design Project Award for his 4th year design project on "Phosphate Hill H2SO4 Plant"
• SCF featured on SCOPE TV show, Adam Carr explains SCF concepts on the program. Check TV Schedule.

1. Monday November 5 - Raffaella Mammucari will be presenting Bone Sterilization Via Dense Gases: Importance in Orthopaedic Reconstruction Surgery.
2. Tuesday November 6 - Adam G. Carr will be presenting Subcritical Water as a Novel Fluid for Pharmaceutical Processing and Drug Delivery Formulation
3. Wednesday, November 7 - Un Teng Lam will be presenting Processing of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles by the Dense Gas Technology
4. Wednesday, November 7 - Roderick Sih will be presenting Liquid Viscosity Measurements on CO2 Expanded Solvent Systems with a Falling Weight Viscometer Under Pressure
5. Wednesday, November 7 - Roderick Sih will be presenting Visualization And Conception of the Atomized Rapid Injection For Solvent Extraction (ARISE) Process for the Production of Highly Soluble Respirable Powders.
6. Thursday, November 8 - Danh Thai Luu will be presenting Optimization of Essential Oil Extraction from Vetiveria Zizanioides Using Supercritical CO2.

• Professor Neil R. Foster, research head of the Supercritical Fluids (SCF) group at ChSE has recently been awarded the Doctor of Science degree by the Academic Board at UNSW. It was conferred because he has a proven record of internationally recognized scholarship.

• Professor Neil Foster was just awarded an honourary Professorship from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China.