Successful 2003 Discovery Projects Grants by Institution - Australian ...

sciences of memory. We develop methods for understanding complex interactions and collaborations
between brain and environment; and we test naturalistic accounts of autobiographical memory, social
memory, and external memory through case studies in cognitive psychology, history, and media theory.
DP0345180 Dr AC Try
Title: Functionalised Chiral Building Blocks for New Photonic Materials
2003 : $75,000
2004 : $70,000
2005 : $70,000
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Category: 2503 - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Administering Institution: Macquarie University
Summary:
This project describes an approach to a new family of chiral liquid crystals and chiral liquid crystalline
polymers for potential use in display technologies and as wave guides for fibre optic cables in the
telecommunications industry. The compounds are based on a rigid chiral core with attached peripheral
functional group handles that span a range of polarities and can be positioned at several locations.
These new chiral building blocks are anticipated to afford new materials whose properties can be tailored
to specific applications following structure-property studies.
DP0344579 Prof AJ van der Poorten
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Title: Continued Fractions and Torsion on Hyperelliptic Curves
2003 : $20,000
2004 : $20,000
2005 : $20,000
Category: 2301 - MATHEMATICS
Administering Institution: Macquarie University
Summary:
Scientific advance should not blindly add to our knowledge; a true advance brings insights that collapse
different issues into one. Understanding more is to need to remember less. For an important class of
examples, this project identifies the study of a fundamental invariant of a quadratic number field, its
regulator and hence its class number, with maximum torsion on the Jacobian variety of an hyperelliptic
curve. The investigator's methods will surprise some longstanding problems into submission and in
particular will lead them to reveal full data on torsion on hyperelliptic curves of low genus.
DP0344841 Prof JJ Veevers
Title: Mapping Under the Ice - crustal evolution in Antarctica and the assembly of
Gondwanaland
2003 : $60,000
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Category: 2601 - GEOLOGY
Administering Institution: Macquarie University
Summary:
The project will use a novel approach to map the sub-ice geology of Antarctica, and fill a gap in
paleogeographical reconstructions. Paleocurrents indicate that Permo-Triassic river sands in
Gondwanaland were dispersed from the sub-glacial Gamburtsev Mountains and the Beardmore-Ross
region following the collision of Gondwanaland and Laurussia to form Pangea. An integrated U-Pb and
Hf-isotope analysis of zircon grains from these sandstones will map the age and crustal evolution of
these intercontinental origins. Comparison with similar data from older Devonian sands in
Australia-Antarctica-Africa will allow reconstruction of the pre- and post-collisional tectonics of Australia
and adjoining areas of Gondwanaland.
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