Honours

Honours

The Honours year is an opportunity to pursue studies with a strong individual research component. Honours students gain a deeper understanding of their field and increase their research skills. Many past BSc(Hons) students have had results of their studies published in the international, refereed literature. Honours students have access to an impressive array of state-of-the-art equipment and to many other facilities outside the University.

For any questions about The BSc(Hons) program, please contact the Head of Program:

Professor Peter A. Williams
p.williams@uws.edu.au
Contact details

Choosing a supervisor for your Honours course
Your supervisors are the main persons you will interact with during the course. To be accepted into the Honours course you need to have a supervisory panel (2 supervisors) and a project outline. Your choice of supervisors will depend on the research project that you undertake. You will need to discuss the project with them prior to applying for admission. An Honours information evening may be useful to you. Times will be advised during classes.

How do I apply for Honours admission?
You may commence studies, either full-time or part-time in either Spring or Autumn semester. The application should include a letter from your potential supervisory panel stating that the research project is suitable for the Honours program and that they are willing to supervise it. You should also include a one-page outline of the proposed research topic.

Apply Now

What are the entry requirements?
You will need to have completed a Bachelors degree or be about to complete it. You will need to have a GPA of 5 or better (credit average) or a GPA > 4.5 overall and a GPA of 5 or better for level 2 and 3 units. You must have organised a supervisory panel and an outline of the proposed research topic.

Areas of research expertise of potential supervisors
Tad Bak: solid state electrochemistry; solid state chemistry; gas-solid reactivity; energy materials.

Andrew Beattie: entomology; oogenesis in blowflies; behaviour of arthropods to mineral oils; biological control of plant-feeding arthropods; integrated pest management.

Jo-Anne Chuck: bioactive compounds from Streptomyces spp; regulation of biosynthetic processes using image analysis, molecular biology, protein chemistry and natural products chemistry; use ofStreptomyces spp. in bioreactors for long term drug delivery.

Gary Dennis: polymer design, synthesis and characterisation; surface properties of polymers as very thin films; polymer nanocomposites; stationary phase design and characterisation for chromatography; surface chemistry – stabilization and destabilization of suspensions, silane passivation of metals.

Chris Derry: health risk analysis applied to water chemistry and microbiology; field monitoring, lab analysis, and integration of results into risk assessment matrices; health risk management and communication; health risk analysis relating to food safety, high voltage power distributions and environmental noise.

Samsul Huda: climate-related risk analysis - opportunity management and decision making; climatic-agronomic-environmental modelling and simulation; plant biosecurity and environmental risk analysis and modelling; climate, food, environment and health; adaptation to climate change impacts.

Cheryl Hunt: medical microbiology; general microbiology; molecular biology.

Annette James: public health nutrition; nutritional science; environmental education.

Mark Jones: molecular and cell biology, investigating disease resistance, cell signalling, gene activation and gene therapy; confocal characterisation of live cell molecular events using fluorescent correlation spectroscopy techniques (FLIM, RICS, N&B).

Kasipathy Kailasapathy: probiotic microbiology; application and development of microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation; hydrogel polymers as stabilisers; extraction and analysis of bioactive peptides.

Kamali Kannangara: synthesis of organic and organometallic compounds and use of spectroscopic techniques for the molecular structure elucidation; functionalisation of carbon nanotubes; catalysts for hydrocracking of bio-fuels; solid state NMR techniques to understand carbon and nitrogen cycling in soils; changes in chemical environments of carbon and nitrogen in plant tissues grown in elevated carbon dioxide characterisation of materials of forensic interest.

Kant Kantharajah: plant biotechnology; plant growth and development; alternative crop production.

Sundar Koyyalamudi: isolation of bioactive compounds from medicinal herbs and their structure determination using high resolution solution NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Peter Leverett: inorganic chemistry; X-ray crystallography; coordination chemistry; solid-state analytical methods; chemical mineralogy.

Julie Markham: role of bacterial biofilms in disease and methods of prevention and control; identification and characterisation of plant-derived antimicrobials; mechanisms of tolerance of bacteria to antimicrobials; role of microorganisms in detoxification of wastes.

Barry McGlasson: postharvest physiology of fresh produce with particular interest in genetic regulation of fruit development, ripening and cool storage disorders, especially stone fruit; expression of a genes involved in the synthesis of linolenic acid, a key component of cell membranes.

Adriyan Milev: synthesis, characterisation and application of nanocarbons such as nanographite and carbon nanotubes; kinetics and mechanism of chiral carbon nanotube nucleation and growth.

Tom Millar: studies of the eye and the tear film; projects will involve tissue culture, protein structure and function, lipid structure and function, immunohistochemistry and rheology.

Charles Morris: plant ecology; fire ecology; germination of native seeds; restoration of the Cumberland Plain woodland.

Poonam Mudgil: tear film components and their interactions; use of polymers to increase ocular comfort in ‘dry-eye’.

Robert Mulley: dietary overlap with sympatric native and exotic carnivores; movement patterns and home range analysis of dingoes; population analysis of free ranging deer; disease monitoring in wildlife species; reproduction and performance with domestic production animals such as deer, pigs and cattle; monitoring dusts and bioaerosols in agricultural and industrial settings. 

Loo-Teck Ng: controlled-release of drugs using hydrogels and intelligent membranes; nano-encapsulation of food additives for controlled-release; ameliorating salinity in soil using hydrogels encapsulated with water-soluble calcium salts.

Janusz Nowotny: solid state electrochemistry; solid state chemistry; gas-solid reactivity; energy materials.

Maria Nowotny: photocatalysis; solid state chemistry; charge transfer.

Julie Old: native mammal conservation; native mammal immunology.

Qaiyum Parvez: agronomy; crop production; farming system research and extension; systems thinking and praxis development; capacity building, communication and rural development; curriculum development and transfer of technology.

Michael Phillips: interactions of probiotic bacteria with the immune system, natural gut bacteria and pathogens; survival and delivery of probiotic bacteria including the use of capsule technology; the role of biofilms in the persistence and transmission of bacterial pathogens; ecology and mechanisms of gastrointestinal pathogenesis; the use of rapid methods to detect pathogens in food.

Narsimha Reddy: isolation of bioactive compounds from medicinal herbs and their structure determination using high resolution solution NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Sue Reed: monitoring dusts and bioaerosols in agricultural and industrial settings; establishment of safe working environments in industries where inhalation of dusts and bioaerosols is common; silica dust in Queensland mines and quarries; impact of long term inhalation of dusts on health of workers.

Adrian Renshaw: general biology and ecology; plant biology and ecology; forensic biology.

Markus Riegler: entomology in agriculture, forestry, medical, veterinary and forensic Sciences; insect molecular biology; microbiology; molecular ecology; population genetics; ecological genetics; evolutionary biology.

Anya Salih: structure-function studies of genes and proteins in live cells by fluorescence and confocal imaging; green fluorescent protein technology; fluorescence analyses of cellular dynamics of proteins and genes; characterisation of cellular oxidative stress responses; photobiology; responses of marine organisms to climate change stress.

Andrew Shalliker: separations in liquid chromatography, with emphasis on theory, fundamentals and separations involving very complex samples; two-dimensional HPLC; flow heterogeneity in fluidised porous beds; complex natural products such as wine, coffee and herbal medicines; heterogeneity of monolithic solid rod HPLC columns; new stationary phase technology.

Leigh Sheppard: solid state chemistry; mass transport; photoelectrochemistry.

Paul Smith: aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on cyanobacteria, bacterial ecology, extracellular enzymes and viruses; providing nutrition for small-scale farmers in developing countries such as PNG.

Ricky Spencer: conservation and ecology of native animals; the management and control of vertebrate pests; current research projects include life history evolution of freshwater turtles in response to fox predation, the impact of Indian Mynas on native birds and small mammals, and new methods to save the dingo.

Robert Spooner-Hart: applied entomology; biological control and integrated pest management in horticultural crops; botanical pesticides and chemical ecology of insects, native bees and pollination.

Roy Tasker: chemical education; interactive multimedia resources to communicate ideas in science; learning chemistry more deeply by visualising the molecular world; developing resources for juries to better understand the significance of scientific evidence.

Tony Webb: social science of resource sustainability, particularly issues of community engagement in planning and community capacity building (social capital) arising from people’s involvement in ecological science issues.

Pete Williams: inorganic chemistry; mineral chemistry; mineral processing; geochemistry; environmental chemistry; X-ray crystallography; coordination chemistry; measurement of non-classical weak bonding effects.

Paul Wormell: computational chemistry and spectroscopy of organic molecules; including compounds of biological, medicinal or forensic interest; electronic and vibrational spectroscopy of naturally occurring heterocycles.