Posted November 1, 2016

 

By Seshadri Ramkumar

 

LUBBOCK, Texas – The Australian government is supporting a university/industry collaborative hub to develop value-added future fibers.

 

The Australian government’s research council has supported the creation of an Aus$13.2 million hub with the support from Deakin University and industry partners. The center is part of the Institute of Frontier Materials at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia.

 

The hub will enable Australia to be a leader in fiber research and development and will also support Geelong to be a hub for future advanced fiber manufacturing. Apart from Deakin, Swinburne University of Technology and leading industry partners are involved in this effort. The hub will be led by Professor Xungai Wang, director of the Institute of Frontiers Materials at Deakin.

 

Within a span of less than 20 years, Deakin has emerged as an international player in high-performance fibers research and development. This scribe has witnessed its growth from its nascent stage when Wang moved to Deakin from the University of New South Wales around the turn of this millennium. This scribe visited the then-just-commenced fibers research program at Deakin University in Geelong in 2001, while participating in the 81st World Conference of the U.K.-based Textile Institute, which was held in Melbourne.

 

The hub will focus on priority areas such as nanofibers and short polymer fibers, cheap and light carbon composites and high-performance fibers for biomedical applications.

 

According to Deakin’s vice chancellor, Prof. Jane den Hollander, the hub’s fiber development effort will focus human tissue engineering, safer clothing for sport activities and lightweight carbon composites for automotive application.

 

Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar, Ph.D, FTA (honorary), is a professor at the Nonwovens & Advanced Materials Laboratory at Texas Tech.

Advanced fibers

Australia developing high-performance R&D hub