Judges' work, place and psychological health - a national view. This project aims to address the human, juridical and financial costs of judicial officers’ work-related psychological harm. This harm is implicated in early retirement, sick leave and suicide. It threatens appropriate courtroom conduct, procedural fairness and impartial adjudication. The project seeks to generate new knowledge of the stress judicial officers experience and the individual and institutional mechanisms for managing st ....Judges' work, place and psychological health - a national view. This project aims to address the human, juridical and financial costs of judicial officers’ work-related psychological harm. This harm is implicated in early retirement, sick leave and suicide. It threatens appropriate courtroom conduct, procedural fairness and impartial adjudication. The project seeks to generate new knowledge of the stress judicial officers experience and the individual and institutional mechanisms for managing stressors, combining socio-legal and psychological approaches. Expected outcomes include evidence-based understandings to inform recruitment and retention strategies specific to this highly specialized workforce. This should provide significant benefits for judges’ work capacities and courts' delivery of justice.Read moreRead less
How feedback can impair recognition judgments and undermine border security, criminal investigations, educational testing, and medical screening. If a customs officer learns that they have missed an explosive device while screening luggage, will this affect their judgment? In many scenarios, a person receives feedback about their recognition memory performance and has to try again without having another chance to study the material. Almost no research has examined the effects of feedback on reco ....How feedback can impair recognition judgments and undermine border security, criminal investigations, educational testing, and medical screening. If a customs officer learns that they have missed an explosive device while screening luggage, will this affect their judgment? In many scenarios, a person receives feedback about their recognition memory performance and has to try again without having another chance to study the material. Almost no research has examined the effects of feedback on recognition in the absence of opportunity for further study. This is problematic because many vitally important recognition decisions lack such opportunity. Using various scenarios (face recognition, security screening, multiple-choice testing, and medical screening) this project will demonstrate that feedback affects recognition performance differently depending on the nature of the recognition decision.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sex-offenders in Australia: Assessing risk for practice and policy. A key priority of Australian governments is to improve community safety through reducing the risk of sex offenders re-offending after release from prison. This project will assess the validity of tools used to predict the risk of sexual offender recidivism and identify alternate risk assessment tools for Indigenous and non-Indigenous sex offenders.
Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time ....Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time, and confidence, suitable for application to computerized testing scenarios. The models and testing methods validated in the laboratory will be refined for application in eyewitness memory settings, facilitating better evaluation of identification evidence, and potentially reducing wrongful convictions.Read moreRead less
Metal-promoted bond functionalisation: new routes to amides and thioamides. This project aims to discover new metal-promoted methods to synthesise amides and thioamides, important structural motifs in chemistry and biology. The project will use a mechanism-based approach that integrates theory with gas- and solution-phase experiments to discover new chemical reactions. A benefit of this research will be new eco-friendly alternatives to existing processes, thereby reducing waste and eliminating t ....Metal-promoted bond functionalisation: new routes to amides and thioamides. This project aims to discover new metal-promoted methods to synthesise amides and thioamides, important structural motifs in chemistry and biology. The project will use a mechanism-based approach that integrates theory with gas- and solution-phase experiments to discover new chemical reactions. A benefit of this research will be new eco-friendly alternatives to existing processes, thereby reducing waste and eliminating toxic and expensive reagents.Read moreRead less
Nucleophilic carbenes as organocatalysts for asymmetric synthesis. Chemical compounds which come in two chiral mirror images (enantiomers) can have very different biological function. Often one form can have beneficial effects while the other can cause great harm (such as birth defects in the case of thalidomide). It is therefore very important for the drug industry to have asymmetric chemical reactions that lead specifically to only one enantiomer. The asymmetric reactions in this project ha ....Nucleophilic carbenes as organocatalysts for asymmetric synthesis. Chemical compounds which come in two chiral mirror images (enantiomers) can have very different biological function. Often one form can have beneficial effects while the other can cause great harm (such as birth defects in the case of thalidomide). It is therefore very important for the drug industry to have asymmetric chemical reactions that lead specifically to only one enantiomer. The asymmetric reactions in this project have been used previously to synthesise the anti-cancer metabolite roseophilin. The results of this project will ensure that there are many more similar success stories in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.Read moreRead less
Metal complexes for activation and scission of small, multiply-bonded molecules. The outcome of this work is a series of metal complexes capable of cleaving the strong bonds in a number of small molecules of chemical importance. This will have a significant impact on industry by providing cheaper and safer alternatives to currently expensive and hazardous processes for producing nitrogen and phosphorus containing compounds.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100068
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$417,237.00
Summary
Original metal-based catalysts for enzyme-inspired CO2 activation. The chemical utilisation of CO2 is one of two major strategies in achieving net negative CO2 emissions mitigating the environmental and socioeconomic damage of global warming. Inspired by the ability of natural enzymes to efficiently utilise molecules like CO2, this project aims to develop original metal-based catalysts as enzyme mimics for the efficient transformation of CO2. It will deliver practical strategies to transform CO2 ....Original metal-based catalysts for enzyme-inspired CO2 activation. The chemical utilisation of CO2 is one of two major strategies in achieving net negative CO2 emissions mitigating the environmental and socioeconomic damage of global warming. Inspired by the ability of natural enzymes to efficiently utilise molecules like CO2, this project aims to develop original metal-based catalysts as enzyme mimics for the efficient transformation of CO2. It will deliver practical strategies to transform CO2 into value-added materials permanently removing it from the atmosphere. Project outcomes are expected to enhance industry’s capacity to use CO2 as a feedstock chemical for the production of fuels and materials, providing significant economic and environmental benefits through CO2 upcycling and recycling.Read moreRead less
The development of homogeneous catalytic processes for the manufacture of new chemical products derivable from Australia's resources. The research proposed is deliberately aimed at exploiting opportunities that will arise as a result of changes that are taking place in the global petrochemical industry. It is almost certain that Australia will take part in these changes through the utilisation of its gas and coal reserves and abundant biomass. Early advances in the processes that are presented a ....The development of homogeneous catalytic processes for the manufacture of new chemical products derivable from Australia's resources. The research proposed is deliberately aimed at exploiting opportunities that will arise as a result of changes that are taking place in the global petrochemical industry. It is almost certain that Australia will take part in these changes through the utilisation of its gas and coal reserves and abundant biomass. Early advances in the processes that are presented above will allow Australian industries to benefit from these changes, and will allow significant value-adding to Australia's resources.Read moreRead less
Metal complexes for sustainable light-driven synthesis. The aim of this project is to use cheap, abundant transition metal ions and visible light to enable challenging synthetic chemical reactions. The significant problems addressed are that most synthetic reactions using visible light currently require expensive precious metals, and fundamental reaction pathways used by Nature remain inaccessible. Both of these problems limit the scope of synthetic applications. The outcomes will be new knowled ....Metal complexes for sustainable light-driven synthesis. The aim of this project is to use cheap, abundant transition metal ions and visible light to enable challenging synthetic chemical reactions. The significant problems addressed are that most synthetic reactions using visible light currently require expensive precious metals, and fundamental reaction pathways used by Nature remain inaccessible. Both of these problems limit the scope of synthetic applications. The outcomes will be new knowledge and sustainable technologies that can better harness visible light for useful synthetic chemistry applications. The benefits will be more efficient and cost-effective routes to valuable molecules ubiquitous in everyday life.Read moreRead less