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Global Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and the Evolution of Life in the Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic. A critically important problem directly affecting our society is the effects of climate change on our life support systems and environment. But the impacts of climate change and increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) on the Earth's biosphere are not well understood, so much can be learnt from examining past events that have shaped its evolution. Our research will provide important new insights i ....Global Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and the Evolution of Life in the Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic. A critically important problem directly affecting our society is the effects of climate change on our life support systems and environment. But the impacts of climate change and increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) on the Earth's biosphere are not well understood, so much can be learnt from examining past events that have shaped its evolution. Our research will provide important new insights into how life evolved and survived periods of major environmental upheaval in Earth history, especially its responses to large shifts in global temperatures and atmospheric CO2. These outcomes will provide valuable input to help project how future global warming and rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels will likely impact our modern biosphere.Read moreRead less
Characterising Nuclei Far from Stability With a Novel Recoil Spectrometer. A high sensitivity detector system for use in conjuction with a superconducting solenoidal transporter will be developed for gamma-ray and conversion spectroscopy of neutron-deficient nuclei. The technology will be optimised for near-symmetric heavy ion reactions and applied initially to the characterisation of shape co-existence in the light lead isotopes. These provide a major testing ground for the development of mean- ....Characterising Nuclei Far from Stability With a Novel Recoil Spectrometer. A high sensitivity detector system for use in conjuction with a superconducting solenoidal transporter will be developed for gamma-ray and conversion spectroscopy of neutron-deficient nuclei. The technology will be optimised for near-symmetric heavy ion reactions and applied initially to the characterisation of shape co-existence in the light lead isotopes. These provide a major testing ground for the development of mean-field theories used to predict the stability of heavy nuclei.Read moreRead less
Developing and exploiting a beam of exotic neutron halo nuclei: probing quantum coherence and decoherence at the femtoscale. Developing an Australian rare isotope beam capability with unique features will be a breakthrough in Australia's capability in science. It will create new opportunities for local research with radioactive isotope beams, a field being vigorously developed world-wide, as new access to short-lived radioactive isotopes will open up many opportunities in fundamental research an ....Developing and exploiting a beam of exotic neutron halo nuclei: probing quantum coherence and decoherence at the femtoscale. Developing an Australian rare isotope beam capability with unique features will be a breakthrough in Australia's capability in science. It will create new opportunities for local research with radioactive isotope beams, a field being vigorously developed world-wide, as new access to short-lived radioactive isotopes will open up many opportunities in fundamental research and applications. The experience and strong international linkages from this project will facilitate the longer-term use of future large-scale international facilities. This project will also build links with other areas of research strength in Australia, and keep us at the cutting-edge in research and training in nuclear science, a matter of national importance.Read moreRead less
Seismic wavespeeds and attenuation in upper-mantle rocks: a laboratory study of the effect of partial melting. The influence of partial melting on the seismic properties of the Earth's upper mantle will be explored through a laboratory study. Synthetic rock specimens consisting of the upper-mantle mineral olivine and a small proportion of basaltic magma will be prepared and their grain-scale melt distribution will be characterised. The seismic properties of these materials will be measured at ....Seismic wavespeeds and attenuation in upper-mantle rocks: a laboratory study of the effect of partial melting. The influence of partial melting on the seismic properties of the Earth's upper mantle will be explored through a laboratory study. Synthetic rock specimens consisting of the upper-mantle mineral olivine and a small proportion of basaltic magma will be prepared and their grain-scale melt distribution will be characterised. The seismic properties of these materials will be measured at high temperatures and seismic frequencies with novel locally developed equipment. Comparison with melt-free equivalents will allow the influence of the added magma to be quantified, allowing robust interpretation of seismological models of Earth structure with implications for its chemical and dynamical evolution.Read moreRead less
The seismic signature of crustal fluids. Fluids are expected to profoundly modify the seismic properties of the cracked rocks of Earth's upper crust (to depths of about 15 km) but there are so far few relevant laboratory measurements. Through the development and application of novel experimental techniques we plan to build a better laboratory-based understanding of the seismic properties of fluid-saturated crustal rocks. The outcome will be an improved capacity to monitor the presence of fluid ....The seismic signature of crustal fluids. Fluids are expected to profoundly modify the seismic properties of the cracked rocks of Earth's upper crust (to depths of about 15 km) but there are so far few relevant laboratory measurements. Through the development and application of novel experimental techniques we plan to build a better laboratory-based understanding of the seismic properties of fluid-saturated crustal rocks. The outcome will be an improved capacity to monitor the presence of fluids in diverse situations ranging from geothermal power generation and waste disposal to earthquake fault zones. Read moreRead less
Alpha-particle cluster structure in light nuclei: helping and hindering fusion? A new, efficient detector system will be designed and built to answer a question never before asked - can the special structures of carbon, resembling three alpha-particles, assist rather than hinder the process of fusion with heavy nuclei? This question has arisen through my recent work published in Nature, which showed that in reactions with heavy nuclei, paradoxically both fusion and break-up into alpha-particles ....Alpha-particle cluster structure in light nuclei: helping and hindering fusion? A new, efficient detector system will be designed and built to answer a question never before asked - can the special structures of carbon, resembling three alpha-particles, assist rather than hinder the process of fusion with heavy nuclei? This question has arisen through my recent work published in Nature, which showed that in reactions with heavy nuclei, paradoxically both fusion and break-up into alpha-particles are more likely for carbon than for neighbouring nuclei. These results defy interpretation within the standard theory of nuclear fusion. The project will help to maintain Australia's world-leading position in the study of nuclear fusion.
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Dynamic Correlations and Coherence Effects in Two-Electron Emission Processes. The electronic structure and properties of matter are determined by the correlated motion of electrons. Thus an understanding of this quantum mechanical many-body problem is central to our understanding of nature. We will apply laser-based quantum-state-selective techniques and advanced instrumentation to uncover new phenomena in many-body spin-correlated electron dynamics, quantum coherence and entanglement. The resu ....Dynamic Correlations and Coherence Effects in Two-Electron Emission Processes. The electronic structure and properties of matter are determined by the correlated motion of electrons. Thus an understanding of this quantum mechanical many-body problem is central to our understanding of nature. We will apply laser-based quantum-state-selective techniques and advanced instrumentation to uncover new phenomena in many-body spin-correlated electron dynamics, quantum coherence and entanglement. The resulting benchmark data will force significant developments in theory, extending its predictive power to drive advancements in areas ranging from industrial and astrophysical plasmas, gas discharges, lasers, and planetary atmospheres, to nanoscale electronic and spintronic devices.Read moreRead less
Development of microwave tomography techniques and inverse methods for biomedical imaging applications. Microwave tomography is a rapidly emerging imaging technology with highly significant applications in industry and medicine. In particular, given its sensitivity to differences between normal and malignant breast tissue, non-invasive microwave imaging has been the subject of intense research interest in the last ten years. In collaboration with workers at Chalmers University in Sweden, we wi ....Development of microwave tomography techniques and inverse methods for biomedical imaging applications. Microwave tomography is a rapidly emerging imaging technology with highly significant applications in industry and medicine. In particular, given its sensitivity to differences between normal and malignant breast tissue, non-invasive microwave imaging has been the subject of intense research interest in the last ten years. In collaboration with workers at Chalmers University in Sweden, we will develop and evaluate a scanning microwave imaging tomographic system with a number of potential industrial and biomedical applications. This appears to be a new Australian initiative.Read moreRead less
Bifurcations of dissipative solitons. Fundamental research on the basic concepts of solitons in dissipative systems and their bifurcations is the next essential step for further progress in the science of optical pulse generators and amplifiers. Australia was the first country in the world to use self-organized ultra-short pulses, called solitons, in a commercially-deployed optical transmission line. This proposed new research will answer the question of how solitons behave at the ultimate limi ....Bifurcations of dissipative solitons. Fundamental research on the basic concepts of solitons in dissipative systems and their bifurcations is the next essential step for further progress in the science of optical pulse generators and amplifiers. Australia was the first country in the world to use self-organized ultra-short pulses, called solitons, in a commercially-deployed optical transmission line. This proposed new research will answer the question of how solitons behave at the ultimate limits of optics. New principles of ultra-short pulse generation and amplification, developed in our research, will provide the basis for an unprecedented increase in the capacity of optical transmission and processing of information.Read moreRead less
High-performance computational data-mining techniques for feature detection in complex time series from large-scale, networked plasma experiments. Terabytes of data are gathered from large experimental facilities as complex time-series. Analysis of these data is daunting, especially when they involve high-dimensional spectral or image arrays. We will develop high-performance computational techniques for dimension reduction, efficient data-mining, and experimental control, using as an initial ta ....High-performance computational data-mining techniques for feature detection in complex time series from large-scale, networked plasma experiments. Terabytes of data are gathered from large experimental facilities as complex time-series. Analysis of these data is daunting, especially when they involve high-dimensional spectral or image arrays. We will develop high-performance computational techniques for dimension reduction, efficient data-mining, and experimental control, using as an initial target the H-1NF plasma fusion MNRF at the ANU and its >100 GB/year data stream. The techniques will immediately provide Australian researchers with unique tools for collaboration in international research to develop fusion as a low-emissions source of electricity, and will be applicable to complex time-series analysis in other areas of science, medicine, and defence.Read moreRead less