2026 Bert Halpern Memorial Lecture

The Bert Halpern Lecture Evening is held annually by the School of Science and is named in honour of the late Bert Halpern, Foundation Professor of Chemistry (1970-1980) and the University’s first Head of Chemistry. Renowned for his significant contributions to chemistry, Professor Halpern played a pivotal role in establishing and advancing scientific research at UOW.

The evening celebrates excellence in chemistry and molecular bioscience through the presentation of student and research prizes, including the Bert Halpern Prize, the Larry and Marilyn Hick Award, and the Leon Kane-Maguire Award.

The event also features the 36^th Halpern Lecture. This year, we welcome Professor Kate Jolliffe as guest lecturer, from the University of Sydney, who will present a lecture titled, Taking inspiration from Nature: Design and applications of selective anion receptors.

Date: Thursday, 29 October
Time: 5.30pm – 8pm
Location: Building 67, Room 104 University of Wollongong

Introducing Guest Speaker: Professor Kate Jolliffe

Katrina (Kate) Jolliffe received her BSc (1993) and PhD (1997) from the University of New South Wales. She held positions at Twente University, The Netherlands; the University of Nottingham, UK and the Australian National University before moving to the University of Sydney in 2002 as an Australian Research Council QEII fellow. She currently holds the position of Payne-Scott Professor at The University of Sydney and is the Co-Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Advanced Peptide and Protein Engineering. Kate is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and has been awarded the Beckwith (2004), Biota (2006), Birch (2017), H. G. Smith (2018) and Margaret Sheil (2021) medals of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, the Royal Society of Chemistry Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry award (2023) and the Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor of Researchers (2024). Her research interests are in the areas of supramolecular, peptide and organic chemistry, with a focus on the design and synthesis of functional molecules.

Abstract

Taking inspiration from Nature: Design and applications of selective anion receptors

Professor Kate Jolliffe’s research is focused on the design and development of novel molecular structures capable of selectively binding, sensing, extracting and transporting negatively charged species (anions). This is motivated by the numerous potential applications for these molecules and materials across areas as diverse as the environment and medicine. Most of these applications require anion recognition to occur in a competitive aqueous environment, but the design of receptors capable of selective binding to anions in water is fundamentally difficult to achieve. We take inspiration from the anion binding proteins in Nature to design synthetic anion receptors that range in structure from small peptides to large macrocycles and combine both natural and non-natural binding motifs. We then exploit their selectivity in a range of applications.