PhD Candidates

"NMR and MRI studies of Restricted Diffusion."

PhD Candidate since 2009	BSc (Nanotechnology), BSc (Honours)
Awards/Scholarships	Australian Postgraduate Award (2009) UWS Medal for outstanding scholarship (2008) Research
Research Interests	My project aims to develop new analytical models for analysing NMR and MRI diffusion data obtained in restricted geometries such as pores and to compare them with simulations and experimental data.
Publications	Codling, D.J., Zheng, G., Stait-Gardner, T., Yang, S., Nilsson, M., and Price, W.S., Diffusion studies of dihydroxybenzene isomers in water-alcohol systems, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2013, 117, 2734-2741.

"Development of Dynamic MRI Contrasts and their Application to Biological Systems."

PhD Candidate since 2010	BSc (Advanced Science), BSc (Honours, Class 1)
Awards/Scholarships	Professor Kai Yip Cho Memorial Scholarship (2010) Australian Postgraduate award (2010) University Medal for outstanding scholarship (2010) Awarded the Ellice Swinbourne Prize (2009) Awarded the Dean’s Medal (2009)
Research Interests	My research aims are to investigate the use of a diverse range of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging contrasts and then to examine different morphological and physiologic aspects of living biological tissues.

“Development of Advanced MRI Techniques for Biomedical and Clinical Imaging.”

PhD Candidate since 2012	BSc Physics (Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia) MSc Biomedical Engineering (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Awards/Scholarships	University of Western Sydney, Nanoscale PhD Scholarship in Advanced Clinical MRI (2012) STUNED Scholarship, Nuffic Netherlands Government (2005)
Research Interests	NMR imaging and the development of imaging sequence and technique for biomedical and clinical application.

"NMR of Ion Dynamics in Solution (including ionic liquids and salt-polymer electrolytes)."

PhD Candidate since 2011	BSc (Chemical Engineering) Ankara University, MSc (Chemical Engineering) Yildiz Technical University
Awards/Scholarships	Australian Post Graduate Award (2011) Euroasia Pacific UNINET Scholarship (Austria) one time (2009) IAESTE, DAAD - Germany Oct 8 - Nov 30, (2009) EIPRS - (2011).
Research Interests	Ionic liquids: Experimentally investigate and clarify the nature of ion diffusion and conduction in lithium salt-polymer and ionic liquids.

"Development of Advanced MRI Contrast Agents."

PhD Candidate since 2012	BSc (Nanotechnogy), BSc (Honours, Class 1)
Awards/Scholarships	UWS PhD Scholarship (2012) CSIRO Top-Up Scholarship (2012) RASCI Western Sydney Section Honours Prize (2011) UWS Medal for Outstanding Scholarship (2011) UWS Honours Scholarship (2011) UWS Dean’s Merit List (2011)
Research Interests	NMR imaging and the use of various paramagnetic and superparamagnetic contrast agents to produce better images. My research interests lie in understanding the NMR relaxation theory and synthesis of advanced MRI contrast agents.
Publications	Lauto, A.; Mawad, D.; Barton, M.; Gupta, A.; Piller, S.; Hook, J., Photochemical tissue bonding with chitosan adhesive films. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 2010, 9 (1), 47.

"Advanced Numerical Modelling of NMR Diffusion Experiments."

PhD Candidate since 2010	BSc (Nanotechnology), BSc (Honours, Class 1)
Awards/Scholarships	University Medal for outstanding scholarship (2010) Australian Postgraduate Award and UWS Top-Up (2010) Awarded the Dean’s Medal (2009)
Research Interests	NMR theory, with particular focus on restricted diffusion, numerical and computational analysis, particularly finite element analysis.

"Characterisation of Liquid Electrolytes using Advanced Magnetic Resonance Techniques."

PhD Candidate since 2012	BSc (Advanced Science), BSc (Honours, Class 1)
Awards/Scholarships	UWS Honours Scholarship (2011) Australia Postgraduate Award (APA) (2012)
Research Interests	The aims of this project are to: (i) experimentally investigate and clarify the nature of ion translational diffusion and reorientational motions in ionic liquids and (ii) to correlate these dynamic parameters with the physical properties of ionic liquids with a view to the development of ionic liquids with improved performance.

"Experimental and Theoretical Modelling of Diffusion in Biological Milieu."

PhD Candidate since 2011	BSc (Nanotechnology), BSc (Honours, Class 1)
Awards/Scholarships	UWSIPRS Post Graduate Research Scholarship (2011) UWS Medal for Outstanding Scholarship (2011) UWS Honours Scholarship (2010) UWS Dean’s Merit List (2007, 2008, 2009)
Research Interests	In my project cogent semi-analytical and numerical models (e.g., Molecular Dynamics Simulations) are being developed in tandem with extensive pulsed gradient spin-echo (PGSE) experiments on well-chosen model systems that attempt to mimic various aspects of the intracellular milieu (e.g., crowding conditions) to test the validity of the simulated models. The overall aim of this project is to develop more realistic models for analysing diffusion data obtained from PGSE NMR studies of biological cells.

“Development of Advanced MRI Techniques for Clinical Imaging.”

PhD Candidate since 2012	BPhysics (St Petersburg, Russia) MSc-Technology (Lappeenranta, Finland) MPhysics (St Petersburg, Russia)
Awards/Scholarships	Saint-Petersburg government student science awards (2007) “Mariinskiy” hospital annual employee award (2011) University of Western Sydney, Nanoscale PhD Scholarship in Advanced Clinical MRI (2012).
Research Interests	My research is focused on developing next generation diffusion MRI methodology. Extracting more information from such measurements will afford greater in vivo tissue identification. Thus, this project has significant clinical importance.

“Beyond the Noise - High Fidelity MR Signal Processing.”

PhD Candidate since 2013	BSc(Medical Science - Human Bioscience), BSc(Honours, Class 1)
Research Interests	The focus of my research is the development of new mathematical approaches for the improvement of spectrum data quality with minimal processing times.

University of Western Sydney