The Selby Research Awards are granted annually by both the The University of Melbourne and The University of Sydney. The award is to assist an outstanding academic establish his or her research career. The Foundation congratulates:

• Dr Carol Hua, School of Chemistry, Senior Lecturer in Exciton Science
  University of Melbourne
• Dr Haihui Joy Jiang, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney

Dr Carol Hua

School of Chemistry
Senior Lecturer in Exciton Science
University of Melbourne
Awarded on 25/03/2024

Project: Chiral Materials in all-Optical Devices

The generation and transfer of enormous quantitiesof information over large distances underpins manyfacets of society including, but not limited to, medicine,communications, and energy. The successful transfer of largeamounts of data in short time periods is achieved using light,enabled by high-speed optical fibre networks (such as theNBN).

A limitation in this process is the conversion of lightsignals back into the electrical domain for processing andstorage, which drastically increases energy consumptionand reduces signal speed. This project aims to developchiral supramolecular materials, known as MetalOrganicFrameworks (MOFs) to enable the all-optical processing andstorage of data. 

These advanced chiral materials have unique interactionswith light, allowing for the ultrafast and energy-efficientmanipulation of light removing the bottleneck in our highspeed optical fibre networks.

The highly tuneable and modular nature of MOFs is expectedto yield powerful understandings of the interplay betweenthe structure of materials and its optical properties.Novel switching mechanisms between multiple states willadditionally be investigated.

These All-Optical devices have widespread technologicalrelevance across the communications, medical and defencesectors where faster and more energy-efficient informationprocessing and storage is critical.

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Dr Haihui Joy Jiang

School of Chemistry
University of Sydney
Awarded on 27/03/2025

Bio

Joy completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Sydney, developing nanomaterials and functional ionic solvents. Joy then moved to Harvard University with a postdoctoral fellowship in the group of Prof. George M. Whitesides, in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, where she worked at the intersection of chemistry, materials science, and engineering. Joy also held a joint appointment in the group of Prof. Dimitar D. Sasselov, at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where she worked on the chemical origin of life. Joy returned to Sydney in 2024, as a Lecturer and group leader in the School of Chemistry. Her group develops sustainable and low-carbon solutions for solving energy and climate challenges.

Project synopsis

The pressing issue of climate change is costing the world $24.2M per hour and will cost Australia $4.5M per hour by 2050. The chemical industry is the largest energy consumer and the third largest greenhouse gas emitter worldwide. The urgent need to decarbonize it motivates my group’s interdisciplinary efforts to develop chemical and material science solutions.

This Selby research award will enable my research team to leverage our unique expertise in plasma electrochemical methods, tunable electrolytes, and device engineering, to develop scalable reaction pathways with zero carbon footprint for the production of useful chemicals — with the primary goal of mitigating climate change. Harnessing the qualities of plasma to drive fast reaction kinetics with minimal costs, the specific goals are to i) electrify the production of high-demand chemicals with zero emission; ii) drive selectivity and scalability of chemical reactions via catalysts at plasma-activated interfaces; and iii) engineer systems for on-demand production and release. The supported research will benefit Australia by advancing clean-energy processes (for our path to Net Zero) and reducing climate risks.

Message of thanks

I sincerely thank the Selby Scientific Foundation for the 2025 Selby Research Award. This honour marks a significant milestone for my team, fuelling our work and providing essential resources empowering us to directly confront the critical need for cleaner industrial processes, particularly within the energy-intensive chemical sector. I deeply value the Foundation’s active role in advancing science and innovation across Australia, especially in supporting early career researchers like myself. This significant support enables my group to accelerate the development of our plasma electrochemical approaches, creating electrified chemical synthetic pathways using abundantly available starting materials, and helping advance Australia’s transition towards Net Zero and a more climate-resilient future.

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