Professional Profile - Ewa Goldys

Professor Ewa M. Goldys holds a Personal Chair in the Department of Physics, Division of Information and Communication Sciences, Macquarie University (2005- continuing), and she has been at Macquarie University since 1992. Her PhD in optical characterisation of solid state materials was awarded in Warsaw in 1989.

Her expertise spans the fields of biophotonics, optical characterisation, ultrasensitive detection of analytes, biosensing, bioimaging. materials synthesis and characterisation and cathodoluminescence. The present projects belong at the interface of materials science, photonics and biotechnology and she is drawing on her earlier achievements in materials science and ultrasensitive optical characterisation where she made major contributions. Her past most significant body of work focused on optical characterisation of trace impurities and defects in materials. She has made a breakthrough in the understanding of the role of oxygen impurity in GaN leading to establishment of commercially relevant methods of GaN growth at low temperatures and on inexpensive substrates. Similar advances were made in the understanding and control of hydrogen in GaN, demonstration of residual hydrogen and identification of elimination methods. She made contributions in the area of advanced microscopy with the development of cathodoluminescence as a diagnostic tool for quantitative analysis and applied to a wide variety of materials.

Her present projects belong to the cross-disciplinary area of Biophotonics. With the ARC support she has developed advanced methods of synthesis and characterisation of fluorescent nanoparticles for applications in fluorescence labelling. Her advanced expertise in ultrasensitive optical characterisation and nanotechnology leads to her novel approaches to biochemical and medical sensing and diagnostics, documented in numerous publications concerning self-organised growth and characterisation of nanostructures. Work in progress focuses on an innovative ultrasensitive surface plasmon resonance sensing system for the application in bioassays capable of sensing ultrasmall volumes, She demonstrated feasibility of the directional two-photon induced surface plasmon-coupled emission and demonstrated that surface plasmon sensing can be done using inexpensive plastic substrates. Her work concerned with metal nanoparticles led to the development of homogeneous silver-coated nanoparticles for their applications in fluorescence enhancement,

Her publication track record includes over 130 refereed journal publications and a similar number of conference publications, 7 book chapters. She is presently editing a book "Fluorescence Applications in Biotechnology and Life Sciences" which will be published by Wiley. She is frequently invited to speak at international symposia and organised four conferences as Chair, including "Biophotonics in Australia: Showcase and Strategic Planning", Macquarie University, Sydney, 22-25 February 2006 and 11 as Committee Member, both locally and overseas.

Her funding record: comprises the total funding awarded of over $ 9M, including over $ 4M as first applicant. Over 40 project awards included several industrial partnerships. The funding record also includes cross-disciplinary projects. She has established the Optical Characterisation Facility at Macquarie University with over $ 2M of LIEF funding.

She is Convenor of ARC/NHMRC Network "Fluorescence Applications in Biotechnology and Life Sciences", and Deputy Director, Macquarie University Biotechnology Research Institute.