Staff
Dwayne Kirk
MCN Managing Director
Dwayne joined the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication as Managing Director in June 2011. Dwayne has a multidisciplinary background in management, business administration, strategy, biotech R&D and research commercialisation.
In previous roles he was engaged in several strategic projects at Monash University including leading a CRC bid, research commercialisation and business development in the Faculty of Science, operations of the Institute for Nanoscience Materials and Manufacture, and strategy contributions in the office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Research Infrastructure. Dwayne developed the strategy and assembled $14 million in funding to create the Monash Biomedical Imaging program and led the implementation through negotiation with key stakeholders and vendors. This project included broad consultation across all sectors of the university and its collaborators, strong engagement with potential industry partners and design of the main imaging facility (completed Dec 2011). With state-wide consultation and close liaison with the Victorian State Government, Dwayne led development of the business case and business plan for a $25 million investment to establish the Victorian Biomedical Imaging Capability.[1]
Prior to joining Monash University, Dwayne spent nine years providing project management oversight for a suite of biotechnology research and commercialisation projects in the United States, with stints at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University and at Arizona State University. During this period he co-authored grants worth more than $10 million, published more than a dozen scientific publications and book chapters, and managed a major strategic alliance with Dow AgroSciences which ultimately led to commercialisation of the world’s first plant-cell produced vaccine.[2] Through his own applied research interests, he contributed as a co-inventor on three patent families related to recombinant protein production and processing and was intimately involved in several human clinical trials including preparation of two IND applications to the US-FDA. Dwayne also designed and led the start-up operations of a dedicated biopharmaceutical production greenhouse at Arizona State University.[3]
Amongst other highlights, Dwayne was previously an Officer of the Royal Australian Navy for six years, completed his Doctorate in two years and was co-founder of a successful retail/services business operated in Arizona. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Queensland, an Associate Diploma in Management awarded by the Australian Department of Defence and a Doctorate in Biology from Arizona State University with minors in Law and Business.
[1] See http://www.vbic.org.au/aboutvbic.html
[2] See http://www.dowagro.com/pgb/feature.htm
[3] See http://www.researchgreenhouse.net/azstate_greenhouse.html
Gareth Moorhead
Scientific Director
Gareth joined MCN in a part-time capacity as Science Director in June 2011, seconded from the CSIRO. Gareth is a physicist with a background in radiation detection technologies in particle physics, synchrotron x-ray science and medical and industrial applications. Gareth participated actively for many years in the development and testing of silicon tracking detectors and electronics for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. More recently Gareth’s team has worked with the Brookhaven National Lab and the Australian Synchrotron to develop the world-leading Maia x-ray fluorescence microscopy detector system, a winner of a 2011 R&D100 award.
At CSIRO Gareth is Research Program Leader for Devices, Systems and Engineering in the division of Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE.) CMSE is a large program of around 120 staff located in Clayton and in Lindfield, NSW. The program includes groups working in nano-physics, plasmonics, opto-electronics, traditional and modern optics, fluid dynamics, fluid engineering, micro-fluidics, superconducting devices, quantum information physics, industrial magnetics and synchrotron x-ray science. With this capability the program is contributing to Australian industry and society through projects in non-destructive testing, intelligent processing and advanced high-efficiency electric motors for manufacturing; advanced instrumentation for minerals exploration and discovery; biofuels and biofactories for sustainable industries of the future; advanced ultra-low cost solar cells and high efficiency lighting; lab-on-a-chip sensing and advanced imaging for health benefits and the Australian biomedical industry; advanced optics for gravity wave observatories and for space missions such as NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Explorer (GRACE); and a host of other areas. Many of these research capabilities are strongly linked to the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication as key supporting infrastructure.
In his role as Science Director of MCN, Gareth seeks to facilitate the uptake of advanced fabrication capabilities in the research and development programs of universities, institutes, research agencies and industry clients.
Paul Spizzirri
Facility Manager
Paul Spizzirri joined the MCN in June 2011 and brings with him over 20 years of varied laboratory experience with the last 11 years focused on silicon processing technologies applied to the fabrication of a solid state quantum computer.
In 1989, Paul was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemistry and Biochemistry) from Swinburne University. He has also been awarded a Master of Science (pre) and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne (physical chemistry) for a project where he developed a fluorescence lifetime imaging fibre-optic confocal microscope in the ultrafast spectroscopy laboratories of Professor Ken Ghiggino.
Paul has worked as a microbiologist for the Urban Water Authority and as a chemist and facilities project manager in the pharmaceutical industry for >5 years. After returning to academia in 1999 (School of Physics, The University of Melbourne), he was involved in the establishment of the facilities for the Melbourne node of the ARC Special Research Centre for Quantum Computer Technology which later went on to become an ARC Centre of Excellence. He was the School’s laser safety officer and environmental health and safety manager for a number of years and designed three of the cleanroom facilities at the campus, establishing the silicon processing line of the Melbourne node. As a Research Fellow in Quantum Optical Measurement, Paul mastered a range of processing and measurement technologies including lithography, ion implantation, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies. He has authored or co-authored three books in addition to a number of peer reviewed publications.
Paul is responsible for many of the operational activities of the MCN including training and environmental health and safety matters and can be contacted via phone or email for any queries.
Douglas Mair
Instrument Manager
Douglas graduated in 1993 with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Caledonian University in Scotland. He worked for Motorola’s semiconductor division from 1993 until 2006 in a number of roles. As device technician he looked after product yield and quality on a family of Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) products.
He moved into the role of Failure Analysis Engineer in 1997 to work on new product development, production yield improvement and analysis of failed products from safety critical applications. Douglas returned to Australia in 2006 and worked for Freescale Semiconductor as a Field applications engineer where he assisted customers with microcontroller based designs. He saw the chance to work for the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) as an opportunity to expand his skills beyond semiconductors into the diverse field of nanofabrication.
Manoj Sridhar
Instrument Manager
Manoj completed his Bachelor's degree in Physics at Florida Institute of Technology in 2003, and obtained his Ph.D. (Physics) from Vanderbilt University in 2008. His Ph.D. thesis was titled "Novel MOSFET-based fluidic sensors and simulations of thermal bubble nucleation in nanochannels". Manoj joined MCN in 2009 from the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science & Engineering (VINSE), where he was among the pioneering group of researchers and students to establish the interdisciplinary facility. He has been heavily involved in the planning and development of MCN, and is responsible for the flagship FIB-SEM instrument at the facility. Manoj's main research interests include micro/nanofluidics and micro/nanofabrication of structures using ion and electron beam techniques.
Matteo Altissimo
Instrument Manager
Matteo graduated from the University of Padova (Italy) in 2001 with a 1st class honours degree in Material Science. He gained his PhD from the Politecnico di Milano in 2006 with a thesis entitled "Diffractive Optical Elements for Short Wave Radiation". He moved to Australia during his PhD and designed an X-ray Lithography Beamline for the Australian Synchrotron in 2005. He became a post doctoral researcher at CSIRO in 2006, with a special interest in spectral imaging of trace elements in biological samples. This tied in with his long term interest in nanofabrication due to common techniques such as key optical elements in spectral imaging fabricated by e-beam or x-ray lithography. Matteo was responsible for the care and development of the Cambridge EBMF 10.5 Electron Beam Lithography system at CSIRO and brings a wealth of experience to the position of E-beam researcher at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN). Matteo has been a core contributor to the MCN throughout its development since 2006 and was instrumental in the selection of the Vistec EBL tool.
Matteo's main research interests in the area of nanofabrication are X-ray and neutron optics in addition to plasmonic structures.
Sasikaran Kandasamy
Instrument Manager
Sasi received his Ph.D. degree from RMIT University with his major area of research being microelectronics especially field effect devices for high temperature gas sensing and metal oxide thin films. Prior to joining MCN he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow for Monash University developing acoustic devices for micro-fluidic and bio-sensing applications. At the MCN, Sasi is in charge of the flagship Nano-imprint Lithography (NIL) and the Reactive Ion Etch (RIE) tools. In addition he is responsible for training and process support for MCN users in various nanofabrication areas, including photolithography, metrology and thin film deposition.
Sean Langelier
Instrument Manager
Sean completed Bachelors degrees of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005. He also holds an MS (2007) and PhD (2010) of Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. During his graduate studies, he focused mainly on novel acoustic micro-pumping concepts and modular microfluidic assembly. Sean came to Melbourne in early 2011 as a postdoctoral fellow at the MicroNanophysics Research Laboratory (MNRL) under Profs. James Friend (RMIT, MCN Tech Fellow) and Leslie Yeo (RMIT) where he worked on the development of surface acoustic wave (SAW) actuators for a variety of microfluidic applications. Sean now brings his considerable fabrication and ultrasonics expertise to bear as a staff member of the MCN.
Varsha Lal
Bio Laboratory Manager
Varsha Lal graduated from Flinders University in 2001, completing a Bachelor of Science; Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Biomedical Engineering. She started working at The University of Melbourne as a research assistant, working on a project utilising electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry and cell culture techniques to study neuronal characteristic and morphology in the guinea pig ileum and rat spinal cord.
In 2006, Varsha joined the neurodegeneration group to continue the study of effects of Abeta plaque on Alzheimer’s disease using the Long Term Potentation technique. Most of her work involved studying toxicity of the mice hippocampus to understand and improve cognition. In 2008, Varsha moved to the Mental Health Research Institute to set up and manage the synaptic neurobiology laboratory to provide a service to the staff and external organisations interested in studying neurotoxicity.
Zoran Vasic
Instrument Manager
Zoran graduated from Monash University (Clayton) in 1989 with a major in physics and shortly afterward commenced employment at the CSIRO, where he remained until 1999 investigating the application of RF glow discharge polymerisation to the development of biomaterials and a variety of technologies, including continuous-wear contact lenses, elastomeric sutures for vascular surgery and flexible thin film electronic components. He has co-authored journal articles in surface science and biomaterials and his experience extends to project management on a small scale, having become primary investigator in a commercial collaboration to develop RFID tag technology.
Zoran has furthermore obtained a graduate qualification from Monash University (Clayton) in mathematics and physics teaching at secondary level - professional skills he applied in an academically successful government school setting for several years before combining his scientific and educational experience in the physics teaching laboratories of Monash University.
