Internship program connects with industry at MCN

From left to right Siew, Lachlan, Mathew and James. 

MCN’s internship program has hit the ground running, with four interns recently joining MCN’s professional staff. With a range of experience in nanotechnology, chemical engineering and physics, the interns were selected by our industry partners to work on projects particular to their skills. MCN welcomes James Griffith, Mathew Lui, Lachlan Pierce and Siew Pei Hoo!

James Griffith completed a Masters in chemistry at Cardiff University in the UK. He brings with him experience as a laboratory analyst looking at electrochemical oxidation using boron doped diamond and the manufacture and use of electrochemical cells for water treatment. James will be working under the guidance of John McCormack, senior researcher from Eden BDM Limited, on a continuing program of prototype development toward the Eden nanoflow battery.

Mathew Lui is currently completing a Masters of engineering science at Monash University on the effect of complex platelet shear rate history on thrombus growth. He brings with him experience working at MCN in mask writing and development, photolithography and soft lithography as well as deep reactive ion etching. Mathew will be working with MCN’s Senior Process Engineer, Bernie Orelup on a range of projects for MCN clients.

Lachlan Pierce completed a Masters of nanotechnology at La Trobe University and brings with him project experience in the investigation in the use of ionic liquids in electrochemiluminescence; the design and construction of microfluidic devices; as well as the study of a nickel/C60 interfacial system by near edge x-ray absorption fine structure and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopies.

Siew Pei Hoo completed a PhD in chemical engineering at Monash University which focused on a novel hydrogel developed from renewable polysaccharide cellulose as a green chemistry which could be used to replace traditional petroleum based polymers. She also has experience in tissue scaffolding and biomaterial engineering and functionalisation.

Both Lachlan and Siew will be working with Trajan Scientific and Medical which is focused on developing and commercialising technologies that enable analytical systems to be more selective, sensitive and specific for biological, environmental or food related measurements, especially those that can lead to portability, miniaturisation and affordability.

Trajan engaged with MCN to continue development of porous polymer monoliths designed as a means of chemical separation, and to take this work from the research domain into a viable manufactured product. General manager of chemistry platforms at Trajan, Dr. Rick Barber said, “MCN is a fundamental interface between the research world and the manufacturing line. The intern program is a fantastic opportunity for us to fast track the research and development stage of this project as we are able to work on parallel applications and work through the initial research work faster, to achieve an end-product more swiftly.”

Lachlan and Siew will be looking at the parametric studies to understand the critical parameters for creating robust monoliths in order to optimize the manufacturing processes. Dr. Barber said, “the benefit of working with two interns concurrently is that they can work on different parts of the same puzzle and then validate each other’s work.”

About the program, MCN managing director, Dwayne Kirk said, “this is highly beneficial for industry because it’s quick and easy for them to access additional specialists with experience relevant to their projects. MCN matches the interns to specific projects to make it as simple as possible for our clients, who then benefit from having interns working solely on their projects to the high standards of MCN’s staff. We are pleased to see that there has been such an enthusiastic uptake from our clients and encourage others who think they might benefit from working with an intern to contact us.”