The 2021 Frater Awards have been announced, with four successful individuals being awarded the opportunity to travel the world to accumulate knowledge.

The Frater Awards are an annual professional development award given to ANFF staff to enable exceptional engineers to foster technical and professional growth via national or international activities. The awards are named after ANFF’s first chairman, Dr Robert Frater AO, who keenly supported the development of young researchers throughout his most distinguished career in advanced microelectronics and as Deputy CEO of CSIRO.

‘ANFF is an incredible organisation, providing the most amazing services and expertise to our clients. All that is only possible because of the world-class experts we have. The Frater Awards are our way of recognising this talent and providing them with more opportunities to grow and develop. I am so very proud of each of this year’s winners and wish them well in these endeavours.’ said Jane Fitzpatrick, ANFF CEO.

Please enjoy the video below as the winners explain their trips and how it will benefit both themselves, and the ANFF community.

Click here to watch the video on Youtube.

The 2021 awardees are as follows:

Olivier Lee Cheong Lem (ANFF ACT)

Olivier will be heading to the Netherlands to extend his knowledge of Cathodoluminescence (CL) working with the AMOLF lab and Prof. Albert Polman’s group there, then onto France where he will present at the E-MRS Spring meeting.

Olivier is responsible for ANFF ACT’s Gatan MonoCL 4 system attached to a FEI Verios SEM. His travels will allow him to learn about advanced CL approaches that provide more indepth analysis for clients investigating the luminescence properties of nanowires, nanoantennae, and 2D materials with the aim to integrate them into nanophotonic devices.

The 2022 E-MRS Spring Meeting and Exhibit held in France is one of the biggest materials conferences. With symposia on ‘Semiconductor nanostructures towards opto-electronic and photonic device applications’ and ‘Materials for nanoelectronics and nanophotonics’, the scientific program of the conference addresses research areas which the ACT node specialises in. Olivier will attend the event, learning from leading scientists in the field.

Bernie Orelup (ANFF VIC)

Bernie will be learning from business leaders across the world about how advanced analytics and AI (AAI) can benefit the ANFF ecosystem. Travelling to Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the USA, Bernie will be exposed to the most current business thinking while learning how to best apply and use AAI in ANFF.

Michal Zawierta (ANFF WA)

Michal is heading to Finland to learn directly from the manufacturers about ANFF WA’s incoming Picosun R200 Advanced Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system. He will undertake specialised training in ALD process development and operations, and learn about tool maintenance. This will guarantee the new system is readily available to clients and that Michal can provide the expert assistance that is expected to accompany ANFF equipment.

The system Michal will be working with will be a unique ALD capability in Western Australian. It’s specifically configured for the deposition of materials suitable for MEMS fabrication and infrared detectors that has been tailored to meet the requirements of the ANFF-WA’s flagship capabilities, including chlorine-free silicon nitride deposition, and low-temperature zinc sulphide (ZnS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films.

Javaid H. Khan (ANFF Q)

With a growing client base trying to understand new biomaterials and nanofibers, ANFF Q has seen a broadening in demands of it’s HPLC equipment. Javaid Khan, who runs the system is therefore going to undertake a 4-day training course with equipment manufacturer Waters in Massachusetts in order to expand his knowledge and increase the assistance he can provide to clients.

The training will help Javaid gain a solid understanding of method development and various procedures used to confirm proper utilisation of chromatographic separation by various solvents and columns.

Opportunity for more

The Frater Awards run each year, so if you’re a staff member start thinking about what training opportunities you’d like to seize upon for next year.

Contact Matthew Wright for more information.