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Uniken

Creator
University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit
Call Number
Nf 378.944 UNI
Created/Published
Kensington, N.S.W. : University of New South Wales, [1975]-2015
Issue
1994, no. 3 (18 Mar., 1994)
Images
11
View Catalogue

Contents

HHh HH hh| m jdSSk ;*' :&mm-'-' < IHB ; ®p* 1:M HIM JH11 WB k PWWml I ■ML ®M6mhHbI , THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES 1
Chemist tells Nature how to grow trees 1
UNSW strikes gold in quality quest 1 , 8
Memorabilia shop awaits your visit 2
Scientist awarded inaugural medal 2
Search for new Chancellor begins 2
Quality assurance is the focus of Foundation grants 2
Celebration of chamber music in refurbished Clancy 2
Students respond to Library funding crisis 3
Deputy PM launches Spirited Cities 3
Open day for new student apartments 3
OBITUARY Emeritus Professor Tom Fink 4
The greening of Engineering 4
Teachers head for Malaysia 4
Illustrators who really draw from experience 5
Major rejuvenation for campus 6
, 8 tran sf 6
Union conies to mid campus 6
A warning to be safety conscious 6
Diary 7 , 8
Advertising 7
'Getting it right' with rehabilitation video 8
AVCC calls for limits to government intervention 8
"^OunA-np UNSW Postgraduate Board Student Guild elections 1994 9
Aboriginal teaching – hand in hand 9
Computerised legal research conference 9
UNSW high performance computing resources 9
History in the making at UNSW 10
Creative arts courses at Oatley 10
Noted economist to give New College lectures 10
New role for New College master 10
Industrial Design Lecturer wins Dean's award 10
Tni Chi at the Club 10
"/IrmytA tAe ~£mps 11
ort Farewell functions to honour long-serving sports administrator 11
Fèdback Sad lack of consultation during construction work 11
Congratulations on the 'new look' 11
AGM of the Combined Unions Committe 11
NIDA musicals 11

Text

HHh HH  

hh| jdSSk ;*' :&mm-'-'  

IHB ®p* 1:M HIM JH 11 WB PWWml  

■ML ®M6mhHbI  

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES  

Incorporating the campuses of Kensington; University College, Australian Defence Force Academy; St George, Oatley; and the College of Fine Arts, Paddington  

No. 363 (No. of 1994)  

Fortnightly  

Registered by Australia Post Publication NBF 4388  

18 March 1994  

Chemist tells Nature  

how to grow trees  

PROFESSOR Brynn  

Hibbert’s beard has  

„ j.  

 

That piece of information  

is not of great importance,  

even to Professor Hibbert,  

but developing the tech-  

niques for finding out may be  

very important.  

Working with funds from  

an ARC grant, and with col-  

laboratory in UNSW School  

of Chemistry and others in  

France and the United  

States, Professor Hibbert is  

using technique to  

study how trees grow.  

"frees in fractal con-  

text, include the more con-  

ventional trees, beards and  

the formation of many other  

things from molecules to  

mountains.  

Professor Hibbert proc-  

ess starts with video cam-  

era, which films an object,  

like his beard, and records  

the image digitally. This digi-  

tal information is then ana-  

lysed on computer by  

breaking it down into  

squares of diminishing size  

and calculating what propor-  

tion of each square contains  

how much of the image. The  

slope of the graph plotting  

the filled portion of each  

square against the size of the  

square reveals the fractal di-  

mension of the object.  

And the fractal dimension  

reveals lot of information  

about how the object assem-  

bled itself.  

Professor Hibbert usually  

deals with objects of more  

interest than his beard. Being  

essentially an electrochem-  

ist, he and his collaborators  

have long been interested in  

the relationship between the  

electric current passing  

through solution and the  

form in which metals in the  

solution are deposited.  

Recently, they have been  

doing lot of practical and  

theoretical work on the  

deposition of copper from  

solution of copper sulphate.  

This was published in  

recen edition of Nature (3  

February 1994), The cover of  

that Nature carries an image  

which could be map of the  

Mediterranean (Italy, the  

Adriatic Sea and part of the  

Yugoslav coast suggest them-  

selves) but is greatly en-  

larged image of copper  

deposited in one of those  

familiar fractal patterns.  

“Knowing where the next  

atom, or molecule, or cell  

will deposit itself, or ’grow’,  

hat the world is all  

about,” Professor Hibbert  

said, “All materials assemble  

by methods similar to those  

we have described, in part,  

here.”  

Professor Hibbert and an  

ARC Research Fellow, Dr  

Huang Weigang, have shown  

that “straight” trees of cop-  

per deposited from solution  

are more chaotic, mathemati-  

cally speaking, than more an-  

gular trees that are deposited  

more slowly, when lower  

voltage is applied. They were  

able to show that the speed  

with which copper ions  

move through the solution  

had strong influence on the  

fractal dimension of the cop-  

per deposited.  

“If we and others can go  

on to discover more about  

these growth methods, our  

findings could have pro-  

found implications for  

every process where an ob-  

ject attaches to another  

similar object.”  

“Why, for example, one  

silicon crystal stops growing  

and another one starts, is of  

great interest to makers of so-  

larcells.lt would be useful to  

know why cancer cells grow  

so efficiently. Why is rust so  

clever at bursting through  

the painted surface of your  

car? These are the types of  

question our research has  

made small step towards  

answering,” he said.  

UNSW strikes  

gold in  

quality quest  

UNSW’s quest for gold  

in education has  

paid off.  

“While some universities  

followed ‘go-for-growth’  

strategy, mainly through amal-  

gamations, our aim was to ‘go  

for gold’ and now we’ve  

struck it with the release of the  

first official rankings of Austra-  

lian universities,” jubilant  

Vice-Chancellor, Professor  

John Niland told UNIKEN.  

The University of New South  

Wales is the only university  

from NSW, and the youngest in  

Australia, to be grouped in the  

top band of universities, an-  

nounced on March by the  

Federal Minister for Employ-  

ment, Education and Training,  

Mr Simon Crean.  

UNSW has long had anecdo-  

tal evidence of its impressive  

credentials. Now, for the first  

time, these official rankings of  

Australian universities have  

confirmed this long-standing  

view.  

“Our 45-year-old university  

has come from nothing to really  

something in living memory,”  

Professor Niland said.  

“Since the announcement,  

there have been many calls of  

congratulations. I’ve been  

struck by the awareness right  

throughout the community of  

the grouping results,” he said.  

Professor Niland said judg-  

ing from the response reaching  

his office it is obvious that the  

public are really taking notice  

of these results. “People are  

certainly becoming far more  

discerning in educational mat-  

ters.”  

At the time the rankings  

were announced, The Austra-  

lian newspaper noted: “Until  

this week, half million uni-  

versity students and their par-  

ents had no real way of  

knowing if one university was  

better than another.”  

The Vice-Chancellor said  

that while this was very wel-  

come news, it is only the first  

of many quality rounds and  

UNSW would have to work  

hard to preserve its eminent  

standing.  

The next quality round is for  

teaching. working group is  

currently preparing submis-  

sion for the teaching portfolio.  

The group comprises the Dep-  

uty Vice-Chancellor (Aca-  

demic Affairs), Professor Tony  

Wicken; the Pro-Vice-Chancel-  

lor, Associate Professor Jane  

Morrison; the Director of the  

Educational Testing Centre, Dr  

Jim Tognolini; and Mr Terry  

Hand, Vice-Chancellor’s Divi-  

sion.  

UNSW expected good out-  

come in the “quality scheme”  

as early as last year when the  

scheme was first announced.  

The then President of the  

Academic Board (now Pro-  

Vice-Chancellor), Professor  

Morrison, said the University  

was well advanced for such  

scheme “particularly in rela-  

tion to the research profile of  

the University, course develop-  

ment, new courses, teaching  

methods, student assessment,  

planning and budget develop-  

ment”.  

The six universities in Group  

of the rankings are: UNSW,  

University of Adelaide, ANU,  

University of Melbourne, Uni-  

versity of Queensland and the  

University of Western Austra-  

lia.  

The Federal Government set  

aside $76.7 million in addi-  

tional funds for 1994, to reward  

universities which could dem-  

onstrate:  

■ they had high quality proc-  

esses in place  

■ they were producing high  

quality outcomes in the  

areas of teaching and learn-  

ing, research and commu-  

nity service  

The Government has di-  

vided Australia’s 36 universi-  

ties into six groupings based on  

an evaluation by Committee  

for Quality Assurance in  

Higher Education under the  

chairmanship of Professor  

Bruce Wilson, of the Univer-  

sity of Queensland.  

The committee received sub-  

missions from all the universi-  

ties and visits were made to  

individual institutions.  

Placement in the groupings  

attracted level of additional  

funding based on percentage  

of the institution’s operating  

grant. Universities in the top  

band were able to earn an  

added per cent of the operat-  

ing grant they receive from the  

Department of Employment,  

Education and Training  

(DEBT).  

The Vice-Chancellor is now  

seeking input from across the  

University on the principles  

guiding how the money should  

be allocated.  

Continued on page  

Professor Hibbert and his beard back to mother Nature.  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253883079

APA citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit & University of New South Wales, issuing body. (1975). Uniken Retrieved March 29, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253883079

MLA citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit and University of New South Wales, issuing body. Uniken Kensington, N.S.W: University of New South Wales, 1975. Web. 29 March 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253883079>

Harvard/Australian citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit & University of New South Wales, issuing body. 1975, Uniken University of New South Wales, Kensington, N.S.W viewed 29 March 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253883079

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit.
  | author2=University of New South Wales, issuing body.
  | title=Uniken.
  | year=1975
  | section=volumes : illustrations ; 30-43 cm.
  | issn=0312-7877
  | issue=1994, no. 3 (18 Mar., 1994)
  | location=Kensington, N.S.W
  | publisher=University of New South Wales
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253883079
  | id=nla.obj-253883079
  | access-date=29 March 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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