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UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology |
About the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology
The Centre has five academic and over 20 researchers dedicated to membrane science and technology. The Centre has a strong profile and recognition factor internationally as one of the largest membrane groups and as a world leader in a wide range of research areas.Much of the Centre's reputation rests on our approach to wider generic problems from a fundamental engineering science approach incorporating skills from physical chemistry to high level computing, rather than solely from an application focus. Historically, it has been a University Centre for over 20 years and was previously supported as Commonwealth Special Research Centre for 9 years.
Recently, the Centre has leveraged its collective infrastructure and expertise to form collaborative links with other Centres and schools and participate in major research initiatives nationally and internationally. These include a major CSIRO cluster in water, 3 DEST International Linkage Programmes, and three Cooperative Research Centres. This has brought significant research income and profile to UNSW in addition to our continuing success with traditional sources of funding from the Australian Research Council and industry. Due to the increasing role of membranes in the global issues such water, energy, and climate change, the Centre is in a position to take a research leadership role in many of these key technology challenges.
Management and Research Support
The Centre was designated as a Commonwealth Special Research Centre in 1988 and was funded through the Australia Research Council Special Research Centres program until the end of 1996. Over the years since its inception, however, the Centre has been successful in attracting substantial support from industry and government instrumentalities and therefore has been able to sustain its research initiatives.The Centre is currently an UNSW University Centre and has a director and deputy director to oversee day-to-day operations as well as a management team. The current management team includes a representative of the Dean of Engineering at UNSW, the Head of School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at UNSW, the Centre Director, and an additional person (currently the head of the UNSW Water Research Centre). The Centre receives space and contribution of its academics’ time as “in-kind” contribution from the School and UNSW. The School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at UNSW also provides administrative support, occupational health and safety, information technology and financial oversight for the Centre’s activities.
Historical Background
The Centre for Membrane Science and Technology at the University of New South Wales was originally established as a University Centre in 1987, and a Commonwealth Special Research Centre in February 1988.
In 1992, Mr. Barry Jones MP signed an
agreement on behalf of the Centre with UNESCO by which the Centre was awarded
the status of a UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, one of only
four UNESCO Science Centres worldwide. The UNESCO Centre functioned under the
auspices of the Commonwealth Special Research Centre. The aims of the UNESCO
Centre are detailed in this report and focus on international collaboration,
with Australia as a major player.The Centre has established a network of technical liaison and collaboration in Australia, including various research groups and other Centres within the University of New South Wales, other Universities and Government research organisations. Internationally the Centre has a growing network of collaborators and potential collaborators, including a growing link with EU networks. These activities have been further strengthened by the Centre's UNESCO status. Close liaison is also maintained with Australian industry, and the Centre provides a significant technological resource for independent and objective assessment.
A key element of the success of the Centre is the focus of membrane science and technology which recognises that the experimental and theoretical analytical tools developed for the fundamental study of membranes, can hold keys to the successful development of high performance membranes for industrial purposes.
The Centre is hosted by the School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering in which the five academic staff are based. At the end of 2005, Professor A. G. Fane and Professor Dianne Wiley stepped down as director and deputy director respectively, and Professor Vicki Chen became the new director of the Centre. Associate Professor Greg Leslie has subsequently become the Deputy Director of the Centre.
Research Objectives
A balance is maintained between the fundamental research and more applied studies. The former are principally funded through Australian Research Council (ARC) grants. The latter are largely funded by other agencies such as Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) and industry.The research objectives of the Commonwealth Special Research Centre include:
- Physico-chemical characterisation of the structure, properties and transport mechanisms in synthetic membranes.
- Development of sustainable membrane processes for environmental and industrial applications
- Development of improved engineering aspects of membrane module design, operation and process control.
- Development of novel membranes and membrane processes.
- Development of methods to overcome or control the deposition and attachment of solutes and biofilms (fouling) during separation processes.
- Development of instruments and procedures for the characterisation of membranes, in particular for monitoring and control membranes during process operation.