Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Amelia received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2003 and then worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Electron Microscopy Center, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory (US-DoE) from 2004-2007. In 2008, Amelia returned to Australia, and began employment at Monash University where she has had a variety of roles including a Margaret Clayton Women in Research fellowship in the School of Physics and Astronomy (2009-2013) and managing research capabilities in the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy (2014-2018). Amelia is currently an ARC Future Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy (2019-).
Amelia was recently awarded the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society FEI Cowley-Moodie Award for Research in the Physical Sciences for the development of new methods to characterise the atomic structure of disordered materials.
Research interests
Many materials have the ability to solidify in a disordered structure and form a glass if quenched rapidly enough from a molten phase. This includes particles varying by many decades in length scale (from granules, to colloids, to atoms) and with strikingly different inter-particle interactions that range from simply hard sphere – to attractive (and either directional or non-directional, for example, network and metallic glasses) – to repulsive (charged colloids).
Understanding the physics underlying this apparently universal behavior is a grand challenge and scientists have many unanswered questions. How can a material undergo a transition to a solid phase, and yet still retain the disordered structure of the parent melt? Is the glass transition a real phase transition at all? What role – if any – does structure play in the formation of the glass and its subsequent properties?
Glasses with their unique properties have been a major technological material for centuries. The lack of scientific understanding of why some systems can easily form a glass, and what underlies their undesirable brittle mechanical failure significantly impedes further development.
Amelia‘s research aims to develop new methods to measure the structure of disordered solids like glasses to understand if and how structure plays a role in their formation and properties. Advances in electron microscope optics and detector technology offer new opportunities for developing a “crystallography of disorder”. This could play a transformative role in the further understanding of complex, disordered materials in the same way as traditional crystallography has underpinned advances in knowledge in both the physical and biological sciences.
Supervision interests
Amelia has a range of PhD projects on metallic, network and colloidal glasses that would suit a student interested in experimental materials physics, computational methods and developing new strategies for data analysis. These projects would involve use of the next-generation scanning-transmission electron microscope (UltraTEM) due to be installed in the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy in late 2019 and the Australian Synchrotron. Please contact Amelia directly at any time to discuss these projects.
Research area keywords
- glasses
- transmission electron microscopy
- materials science
- x-ray diffraction
Network
Projects
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The role of structure in the formation and properties of glasses.
Australian Research Council (ARC)
28/02/19 → 27/02/24
Project: Research
Research output
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Breaking plasmonic symmetry through the asymmetric growth of gold nanorods
Melendez, L. V., Barrow, S. J., Liu, A., Connell, T. U. & Gómez, D. E., 20 Dec 2020, In : Optica. 7, 12, p. 1666-1672 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Constructing a library of metal and metal-oxide nanoparticle heterodimers through colloidal assembly
Gschneidtner, T. A., Lerch, S., Olsén, E., Wen, X., Liu, A. C. Y., Stolaś, A., Etheridge, J., Olsson, E. & Moth-Poulsen, K., May 2020, In : Nanoscale. 12, 20, p. 11297-11305 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Correlation of nanomorphology with structural and spectroscopic studies in organic solar cells
Bothra, U., Jain, N., Liu, A. C. Y., Kala, A., Huang, W., Jiao, X., Gann, E., Achanta, V. G., Mcneill, C. R. & Kabra, D., 27 Oct 2020, In : ACS Applied Nano Materials. 3, p. 11080-11089 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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Detection of ring and adatom defects in activated disordered carbon via fluctuation nanobeam electron diffraction
Martin, A. V., Bøjesen, E. D., Petersen, T. C., Hu, C., Biggs, M. J., Weyland, M. & Liu, A. C. Y., 18 Jun 2020, In : Small. 16, 24, 6 p., 2000828.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Mapping Local Surface Plasmon Modes in a Nanoplasmonic Trimer Using Cathodoluminescence in the Scanning Electron Microscope
Liu, A. C. Y., Lloyd, J., Coenen, T. & Gómez, D. E., Aug 2020, In : Microscopy and Microanalysis. 26, 4, p. 808-813 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Prizes
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Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society Cowley-Moodie Award
Liu, Amelia (Recipient), 6 Feb 2014
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Outstanding Symposium Presentation Award
Liu, Amelia (Recipient), 1 Aug 2011
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Science Faculty Margaret Clayton Women in Research Fellowship
Liu, Amelia (Recipient), 7 Jan 2009
Prize: Competitive Fellowships
Press / Media
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A structural issue: breaking down glass to make it stronger
5/03/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Profile/Interview
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Monash scientists develop new technique for measuring atomic order in glass
14/09/17
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Profile/Interview
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