Fellowship gong for carbon fibre researcher

Deakin University’s researcher Dr Nisa Salim has received a highly prestigious Victoria Fellowship, delivered by Veski at a ceremony at Sir Redmond Barry Room, Melbourne, on Thursday, 15 October.

Dr Salim has had an outstanding career at Deakin, since she arrived on a scholarship from India in 2008. Her Victoria Fellowship follows an Endeavour Fellowship and the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering’s highly prestigious Gold Medal, both awarded during the past 18 months. She has also received several other awards throughout her career.

Dr Salim has worked as an Associate Research Fellow with Deakin’s carbon fibre research facility, Carbon Nexus, since completing her PhD at the Institute for Frontier materials in 2013.

She will use her two travel Fellowships to visit other world leading carbon fibre industries and research facilities, to establish her “career leadership in developing precursor for the next generation of carbon fibres at Deakin.”

"It has been a delight to have Nisa in our team at Deakin and I'm thrilled that the high quality of her work is recognised with this prestigious award," said Professor Bronwyn Fox, Research Director at Carbon Nexus.

"Deakin's long-standing partnerships with industry, as well as the University of Kentucky, Aachen and University of Southern Mississippi, which Nisa will visit through her fellowships, have all been a key contributor to the success of Carbon Nexus."

The Victoria Fellowships were established by the Victorian Government in 1998. Each year, up to 12 early career researchers receive travel grants of around $18,000 each, to "encourage innovation and the commercial application of research."

In November, Dr Salim will use her Endeavour Fellowship for a six-month visit to Rice University, University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Kentucky, which has a unique wet spinning line for creating carbon fibre precursor.

The Victoria Fellowship will fund a further two-month visit in 2016 to major automotive and aerospace industries in the USA, to gain an understanding of industry requirements on low cost and high strength carbon fibres.

Dr Salim will also visit Europe, spending time with a major carbon fibre spinning company, which produces “white fibre” precursor in bulk, and the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, where training and trials are being undertaken on wet spinning lines.

“It is very important to gain hands-on experience in wet spinning so that we can bring that expertise here, to lead the development of the next phase of Carbon Nexus,” said Dr Salim.

She explained that Deakin and CSIRO are expecting to extend their carbon fibre commitment with a significant investment in wet spinning technology at the Waurn Ponds campus next year - enabling researchers to test experimental batches of precursor, at a scale transferrable to industry, and allowing them to optimise processes for creating quality precursors.

Winning fellowships is a popular pastime for Dr Salim and her family. Her husband, IFM researcher Dr Nishar Hameed, has also received Endeavour and Victoria Fellowships for his polymer research. The couple’s daughter, Nilu, has made her second visit to a Victoria Fellowship awards night in her three short years – and must think this extraordinary success happens in every family.