Monash Science

08/10/2026

Could a new electrode design help make one of the world’s most important chemicals more sustainably?

Researchers from Monash University and RMIT University have developed a new type of lithium-alloying electrode that overcomes a fundamental energy limitation in electrochemical ammonia production.

Ammonia is essential to global agriculture, particularly for nitrogen fertilisers, and is increasingly being explored as a carbon-free fuel and energy carrier. But conventional ammonia production remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels and large, centralised facilities.

The new research, published in Cell Press Blue, shows that changing the chemistry of the cathode can allow the lithium-mediated reaction to operate at substantially more favourable electrical potentials.

Under optimised conditions, the researchers achieved a faradaic efficiency of 96 ± 6%, meaning almost all the electrical current was directed towards producing ammonia.

Lead author Dr Rebecca Hodgetts said the new materials “change the rules of the game” for green ammonia research.

The study also involved Monash University School of Chemistry researchers Emeritus Professor Douglas MacFarlane and Professor Alexandr Simonov.

The team is now working to scale up the cathodes and integrate them into practical electrolyser prototypes, while the technology is being further developed through ongoing research with Monash spin-out Jupiter Ionics Pty Ltd.

Read more: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.monash.edu/science/news-events/news/2026/new-electrode-design-breaks-key-barrier-to-greener-ammonia-production

07/10/2026

What a weekend for our Monash High Altitude Balloon (MHAB) team!

Our student-led team has successfully launched a high-altitude balloon from Victoria’s Ararat region, reaching approximately 22 km above Earth — and successfully recovering its scientific payload from a remote farm!

The flight marks a major milestone, allowing students to test their complete payload system in the stratosphere, including sensors, communications, imaging systems and onboard data collection.

Even better, our students experienced the entire mission cycle — from designing and building the payload to launching, tracking, recovering and analysing it.

“For an undergraduate, student-led team, this is a significant achievement,” says Dr Alina Donea from our School of Mathematics, who is the academic lead of the project.

“With around 90 students across multiple disciplines, MHAB is becoming much more than a balloon project. It is a place where students can develop real scientific payloads, solve real engineering problems and see something they built actually fly.”

The successful launch follows another exciting milestone, with five MHAB students representing Monash at the 25th Australian Space Research Conference in Adelaide, presenting research on autonomous solar tracking and student-led science and engineering education.

Congratulations to Dr Donea and the entire MHAB team on an extraordinary achievement!

Discover more about MHAB: https://www.monashhab.com/

07/10/2026

Today we’re celebrating Monash Science students graduating from across our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programs.

For every graduate, reaching this moment represents an enormous amount of work, learning and persistence, from completing an undergraduate degree, to building specialist expertise through postgraduate study, to reaching the culmination of years of PhD research.

To all our graduates: congratulations! We’re incredibly proud of what you’ve achieved and delighted to welcome you to the Monash Science alumni community.

We also want to thank our academics, professional staff, research supervisors and mentors who have taught, guided and supported our students and the families and friends who have been beside them throughout their journey.

Congratulations, Class of 2026. Enjoy your moment, you’ve earned it!

07/10/2026

Imagine changing the behaviour of a material simply by nudging its structure at the scale of individual atoms.

A Monash-led international team (including Dr Benjamin Lowe, Dr Bernard Field and Associate Professor Agustin Schiffrin) has done just that.

Using the incredibly fine tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope, researchers manipulated an ultra-thin 2D material that behaves a little like a molecular see-saw.

By tipping its structure, they could change the distance between magnetic electrons in the material and the metal underneath and in turn change how strongly those electrons interact.

Understanding and controlling these interactions is fundamental to learning how advanced electronic, magnetic and quantum materials behave.

Published in Small, the study gives researchers an atomic-scale “playground” where they can deliberately change a material’s structure and see what happens to its quantum properties.

The research was led by scientists from Monash University, FZU in the Czech Republic and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US.

Read more: https://www.monash.edu/science/news-events/news/2026/tiny-push,-big-quantum-change-scientists-tune-material-one-atom-at-a-time

05/10/2026

05/10/2026

We’re celebrating Monash Science alum Dr Greg Taylor, who has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2026 City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award!

An ecologist specialising in the behavioural ecology of birds, Greg completed his PhD at Monash University before taking his fascination with wildlife in another direction, onto the page.

His collection of narrative non-fiction essays, Wildlife of the Open Eucalyptus Forests, is one of just four works shortlisted from a record 128 entries.

Featuring 24 Australian creatures, including the grey kangaroo, wombat, trapdoor spider, swift parrot, thylacine and spotted pardalote, the collection uses storytelling to give readers a fresh perspective on the animals that inhabit Australia’s open eucalyptus forests.

The judges praised the collection for encouraging empathy and insight without anthropomorphising its subjects, describing its conclusion as an urgent and timely call to protect our endangered environment.

Congratulations Greg, a fantastic achievement bringing science, wildlife and storytelling together.

Read more: https://fremantlepress.com.au/2026/09/24/record-year-four-writers-shortlisted-for-the-hungerford-award-from-the-largest-submission-pool-in-35-years/

04/10/2026

Invasive ragw**d is rewriting its genome as it conquers new territory

Common ragw**d is already notorious as a major invasive w**d whose pollen causes hay fever and asthma. Now Monash University researchers have discovered just how dramatically its genome can change as it spreads into new environments.

Scientists analysed 439 ragw**d plants from North America, Europe and Australia and found Australian populations have significantly larger genomes than those overseas, around 120 million DNA base pairs larger than North American plants on average.

Much of the difference is linked to transposable elements, sometimes called “jumping genes”, which can move or replicate within genomes.

The scale and speed of the change is particularly striking because ragw**d arrived in Australia only around 100 years ago.

“Ragw**d has been in Australia for only around 100 years. Yet we are seeing a clear, continent-wide difference in genome architecture compared with its ancestral range,” said lead author and Monash University School of Biological Sciences PhD candidate Byonkesh Nongthongbam.

Professor Kathryn Hodgins said the research shows adaptation can involve more than changes to individual genes, larger-scale features of the genome can also be dynamic.

Understanding how quickly invasive plants can respond to new environments is increasingly important as climate change alters where troublesome species may be able to establish and persist.

The research is published in New Phytologist.

Read more: https://www.monash.edu/science/news-events/news/2026/invasive-ragw**d-is-rewriting-its-genome-as-it-conquers-new-territory

01/10/2026

Australia’s native bees could be declining before we even have the data to know it’s happening.

A new Monash University-led review has found major gaps remain in our understanding of Australia’s extraordinary native bee diversity, including where species live, how they behave and how they are responding to environmental change.

Australia is estimated to have between 1,760 and 3,000 native bee species, most found nowhere else in the world. Yet only three currently have threatened status under federal environmental legislation.

Lead author Dr Scarlett Howard, from the Monash University School of Biological Sciences, says long-term monitoring is essential to establish a baseline and detect changes as pressures on bees intensify.

The good news? There is still time to act.

Researchers say improved monitoring, ongoing research and greater community participation can help identify vulnerable species and develop evidence-based strategies to protect Australia’s unique native bees.

Read more: https://www.monash.edu/science/news-events/news/2026/protecting-australias-native-bees-from-global-pollinator-decline-requires-urgent-action

01/10/2026

Advance your career. Register now 🔗

30/09/2026

The future of food is changing. Could you help shape what comes next?

Feeding a growing world sustainably and safely means rethinking how food is produced, processed, distributed, marketed and consumed.

With the Master of Food Science and Agribusiness, you’ll explore both the science and business of food, from food science, nutrition and technology to innovation, consumer behaviour, supply chains and global agribusiness.

Whether your future is in food technology, product development, food safety, agribusiness, sustainability, supply chains, research or innovation, build the expertise to make your mark on a rapidly changing global industry.

Learn more about why you should study a Master of Food Science and Agribusiness: go.monash.edu/why-mfsa

Meet the Master of Food Science and Agribusiness on 7 October during Graduate Study Week: go.monash.edu/d4sd6j