Prof Sean Smith, Dr Hong Zhang and Prof Walter Thiel (MPI Mülheim) have been awarded ARC Discovery-Projects grants to commence in 2010. Their research will be focus on the Mechanism and Dynamics in Fluorescent Proteins: A Computational Investigation.

"Dr Chenghua Sun, Dr Qiao Sun and Dr Zhen Li (CCMS and ARC CoE for Functional Nanomaterials) have been awarded prestigious Queensland International Fellowships in 2009 from the Queensland Government. They will receive assistance of ca. AUD$35K for 6 months to conduct strategic research visits to international laboratories."

• Dr Chenghua Sun will be working with Prof Annabella Selloni at the Princeton University, USA. The collaboration is focus to gain a fundamental understanding of water-splitting over the highly reactive (001) surface of titanium dioxide (TiO2). Three surface conditions will be considered, including clean surface, defective surface and Au/Pd-adsorbed surface. Through state-of-art density functional theory (DFT) studies, an atomic-scale understanding of the adsorption/dissociation behavior of water over the (001) surface will be obtained.

• Dr Qiao Sun will be working in Germany on biomolecular modelling of the function and mechanism of fluorescent proteins with the Computational Biochemistry Group of Dr Stefan Fischer at Heidelberg University and in the laboratory of Prof Walter Thiel at the Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung in Muelheim.  The the collaborations are aimed at gaining an understanding of which residues within this protein influence the fluorescent properties of the embedded chromophore and how such tuning is mediated in order to facilitate the development of improved red fluorescent proteins by protein engineering approach.

• Dr. Zhen Li will be working in Germany with Prof Alf Mews at The University of Hamburg on fluorescent II-VI semiconductor nanowires. The research includes a particular focus on the synthesis of ultrathin quantum nanowires, the preparation of uniform core-shell nanowires and the optical and electronic properties of nanowires.

Prof Sean Smith has been invited to present a seminar on " First Principle Modelling as a Probe for Functionality in Novel Nanotube, Nanoribbon and Nanosheet Molecular Architectures ", at Deakin University on 25th Sept 2009.

A rapid communication entitled "Kinetic Isotope Effect for Ground State Proton Transfer in the Green Fluorescent Protein: A Quantum-Kinetic Model", by Hong Zhang, Sufan Wang, Qiao Sun and Sean Smith has been selected as a "Hot Article" by the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The article (DOI: 10.1039/b912507h) was  published on the website on 30th July 2009.

Prof Sean Smith present a invited seminar on "Computational Molecular Studies of Fluorescent Proteins and Gene Delivery" at Department of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University on 1st Sept, 2009.

Prof Sean Smith present a invited seminar on " Molecular Tchnologies for Sustainable Energy, Nanoelectronics and Gene Delivery Applications: Contributions form Modelling Towards Relational Design" at The Institute of Chemical Physics, School of Science, Beijing Institute of Technology on 1st Sept, 2009.

Prof Sean Smith present a Keynote Presentation on " Molecular Tchnologies for Sustainable Energy, Nanoelectronics and Gene Delivery Applications: Contributions form Modelling Towards Relational Design" at the ChinaNANO Conference, Beijing, China,1-3 Sep, 2009.

Dr Qiao Sun will also be present a talk on " Theoretical Study of Methane Activation on Iron Atoms and Iron Nano-clusters" at the ChinaNANO Conference.

Dr Chenghua Sun has been sponsored by Göran Gustafsson Funding (link in Swedish), Sweden, to carry out an international collaboration with A/Prof. Mats Göthelid at the Department of Materials Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. Dr Sun is working with A/Prof Mats Göthelid from August to October, and the collaboration is focus on the fundamental study of the interaction between dyes and TiO2 for high-performance solar cells.

Prof Sean Smith present an invited seminar on " Novel molecular architectures for nanotube- and nanoribbon-based electronics: exploration via a first-principle computational approach" at the SPIE Nanoscience & Engineering Conference, San Diego, USA, 2-6 Aug, 2009.

Prof Sean Smith present a invited seminar on " Proton chain transfer in the GFP photocycle: a first-principle quantum approach for modelling the kinetic isotope effect" at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, USA.

Prof Sean Smith present an invited seminar on " Mechanism and Dynamics of Proton Chain Transfer in the Green Fluorescent Protein" at the International Conference on Green & Sustainable Chemistry (ICGSC 2009) Conference, Singapore 3-5 Aug, 2009.

Prof Sean Smith gave a plenary talk about  "Computational Bio-nanotechnology at the molecular scale: what can it contribute?" at AIBN Winter School, on 14 July 2009. The AIBN Winter School is from 14-17 July 2009, please go to AIBN website for further detail.

The CBN group took apart of organizing the Molecular Modelling 2009 Conference. We are inviting everyone to join us at the Conference at Mantra Legends hotel at Gold Coast, Australia, 26-29 July 2009. For more detail, please go to the Conference website: http://web.aibn.uq.edu.au/mm2009/

• Dr Hong Zhang presented a talk on "Intercalation of Organic Molecules into Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH): Comparison of Simulation with Experiment".

• Dr Qiao Sun present a talk on "QM/MM study of Far-red Fluorescent Protein HcRed".

• Dr Marlies Hankel present at poster on "Kinetic Sieving Effects in Molecular Carbon Pore Structures".

• Mr Ouyang Defang present a poster on "Structure, Dynamics and Energetics of siRNA-Cationic Vector Complexation: A Molecular Dynamics Study".

Dr Chenghua Sun and Dr Zhen Li received a prestige award Smart Future Fellowship from Queensland Government. Both of them will receive assistance of AUD$50K per annum for three years from Queensland government.

• Ms Yan Jiao. New PhD student supervised here at UQ together with Prof John Zhu and Prof Viktor Rudolph.

• Prof William Polik. Prof Polik (from the Department of Chemistry, Hope College, U.S.A.) is visiting the centre on sabbatical during Sept 2008- Jul 2009.

• Prof Sufan Wang (Returning Visitors) visits centre during Dec 2008- Feb 2009.

• Kenneth Wong (joint PhD student with Prof Aibing Yu, UNSW; working with Dr Aijun Du).

• Huan Yang (joint PhD student with Prof Keli Han, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China; working with Dr Marlies Hankel and Dr Hong Zhang).

• Will Rouesnel (joint PhD student with Prof Justin Gooding and Prof Rose Amal, UNSW; working with Dr Hong Zhang.

• Dr. Denis Hagebaum-Reignier (a member of the theoretical chemistry laboratory at University of Provence in Marseilles)  visitsthe centre during Dec 2008 -Jan2009.

Dr. Marlies Hankel attended the 10th International Workshop on Quantum Reactive Scattering (QRS), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Science, China, 6th-10th June 2009. She is going to present a poster in "Integral and Differential Cross Section for the S(¹D)+HD(v = 0,j = 0) Reaction on the Ground Electronic State."

Prof Smith had a phone interview with The Australian IT on the High Performance Computer (Supercomputer). The interveiw content was post on The Australian IT news on 24th March 2009.

Please note that Prof Smith is one of the group leader in Australian Institute for Bio-engineering and Nanotechnology, not Director.

Dr Marlies Hankel and Mr Peter Tiggerdine held the High Performance Computer Workshop on the 11 March 2009. The High Performance Computer facility is funded through an ARC LIEF grant.