Visiting Fellows Post Retirement

Emeritus Professor Athelstan L.J. Beckwith BSc WA DPhil Oxford FAA FRACI, FRS (retired 1996) is continuing to carry out research on the mechanisms of synthetically significant free radical reactions, and to pursue further the application of ESR data to the determination of radical structure, reactivity and stability. Writing up of papers in these areas is proceeding. Publication of a major collection of ESR data for organic radicals was delayed by the incompatibility of the publisher's computer system with that used for the preparation of the tables. The collection will now be published in 2004.

Emeritus Professor Martin A. Bennett BSc Sydney PhD DIC DSc London ARCS, FRACI, FAA (retired 2000) is continuing to write papers based on research carried out in his group before he retired, and continues collaborative research with Professor Suresh Bhargava (RMIT University) on cyclometalated complexes. His last PhD student at RSC, Ms Joanne Adams, submitted her thesis in August 2003; this has now been examined and accepted, subject to minor correction. During the year, a special issue of Inorganica Chimica Acta [352 (2003) 1-252], containing 29 articles from Australian and overseas contributors, was published in Martins honour, with a foreword written by two previous postdoctoral fellows, Eric Wenger and Lou Rendina; a similar issue of J. Organomet. Chem. [607 (2000) 1-239] appeared at the time of his retirement.

Bramley, Dr Richard MSc Sydney, PhD London, MRACI (retired 1997) Research activity since retirement is both collaborative and consultative. The former is largely with Dr Wayne Hutchison at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and is concerned with some aspects of quantum computing. Consultative work is largely with Professor Neil Mansons group at the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, with Dr Karin Ahrling in the Photobioenergetics group in the Research School of Biological Sciences, and with Dr Ron Paces group in the Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science. Much of this work uses electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Some new types of EPR experiments are being developed.

Dr Desmond J. Brown BSc MSc Sydney PhD DSc London (retired 1986), formerly of the JCSMR, has completed his book Quinoxalines: Supplement II, which will be published in January 2004. He is currently preparing a companion volume Cinnolines and Phthalazines: Supplement II.

Dr John K. MacLeod, BSc PhD Queensland FRACI (retired in 1999) continued to be involved in writing papers resulting from work carried out by two of his former PhD students and from a collaborative project with Dr Murali Nayudu, Division of Botany and Zoology (BOZO), School of Life Sciences, ANU. One paper from the latter project has been accepted for publication.

Emeritus Professor Rodney W. Rickards, BSc Sydney FRACI, FAA (retired in 1999) is also a Visiting Scientist at CSIRO Entomology, and continued his research collaboration there with Dr Stephen Trowell. The work is directed towards the discovery of new antibiotics from novel sources such as termites and other terrestrial invertebrates, and has led to the establishment by CSIRO of a spin-off company, Entocosm Pty Ltd, dedicated to producing therapeutic drugs from Australias unique insect biodiversity. The four million species of insects which exist on Earth constitute a virtually untapped resource, in contrast to plants and micro-organisms which have long been targets for drug discovery. Work to date has resulted in one international patent application and an Australian provisional patent application, and the successful submission in 2003 of an ANU PhD thesis by Mr Chunjiu Zhao. Collaboration continued with Dr Geoffrey Smith in the Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BaMBi), Faculty of Science, on biologically-active cyanobacterial metabolites, one quite novel and potent representative of which is currently being assessed as an antitumor agent by a major pharmaceutical company. Research on a possible aggregation pheromone of the unusual velvet worm Onychophora was initiated in conjunction with Drs David Rowell of BaMBi and Judith Reinhard of the Research School of Biological Sciences. Joint research also continued with the University of Queensland and the Australian company, Bio Care Technology Pty Ltd, on the characterisation of complex cyclic peptide antibiotics produced by certain biocontrol bacteria. Rod was a recipient of an Australian Centenary Medal in 2003.

Emeritus Professor Alan M. Sargeson, BSc PhD Dip Ed Sydney FRACI, FAA, FRS (retired 1996) is collaborating with Dr S.V. Smith, ANSTO, Biomedicine and Health, and with Professor B.T. Golding, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on the development of detecting and therapeutic agents for cancer. Currently, a commercial partner is being sought to implement the ANSTO-ANU patent and the research has also been taken up, collaboratively, by groups at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, at Imperial College and Guys Hospital, London, and by TRIUMF, Canadas National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vancouver.

Emeritus Professor John F. Williams, MSc PhD NSW MA Oxford DSc ANU, FRACI, FAIFT (retired 1992), formerly of the Department of Biochemistry, The Faculties is completing manuscripts describing research conducted by himself and collaborators during the earlier years of retirement. This year, he accepted an invitation to submit a substantial article on the History of the Pentose Phosphate Pathway of Glucose Metabolism for the Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry. This is a major new reference work that will soon be published by Elsevier Science.

Publications arising from work conducted by these Fellows and their groups are listed in the Publications Section.