Although our School name contains traditional fields of science, the School of Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry and Physics is firmly of the view that many of the most important and interesting projects do not fit easily within a single discipline. One of our strengths is our ability and willingness to bridge traditional discipline boundaries. That is we can bring the expertise necessary to solve the problem, rather than just the expertise available.
This cross-disciplinary, pragmatic approach is found in our teaching, our research and our consulting to industry and government.
Often the connection between teaching and research/industry projects – the teaching research nexus – is mentioned but not observed. That is certainly not the case here. We know, because we do it everyday, that the most important, challenging and exciting science and mathematics is found in our everyday world. It may be something you can hold in your hand like a phone, a scoop of ice-cream or the next generation batteries needed to power our future world. Or it may be the physical, chemical systems controlling the tissue in the hand doing the holding.
Consulting
Our staff are experienced with consulting to industry and government. This includes on matters of materials extraction and characterising, industrial and applied mathematics to data analysis (including biostatics and health data). We are currently working with industry in bioprocessing, drug development and health technologies too. For more information on our expertise see our research and staff pages.
Outreach and Schools
Schools are an important community to us. There has been a nationwide decline in students choosing the mathematical and physical sciences at schools and universities, partly because they are perceived as hard, partly because the path to jobs seems less well-trodden. We are very keen to turn around these perceptions. We know our graduates readily get jobs, for they stand out from the crowd, they are creative and have in demand skills.
We are very keen to help teachers tell these stories of what careers in the mathematical and physical sciences have to offer. We are also very keen to help make these subjects accessible. Being able to both metaphorically and literally hold this cutting edge science in your hands is a great path to breaking down the challenges. We have lots of methods and examples to do this. We are working with teachers and the School of Educations at Murdoch to provide these examples to schools. We also have a great outreach team with educational (and fun) activities to have at your school or on our beautiful campus. Come talk to us to find out more.