Groundbreaking degrees
Long before CSI was on the scene, and long before any other Australian university had thought about teaching forensic science, Griffith University was developing dedicated forensic science degrees. With innovative degrees in biomedical and medical science, and photonics and nanoscience, Griffith is the place to be for groundbreaking degrees.Double the options
Double your qualifications and your career potential with a Griffith double degree. You'll even graduate in less time than it would take to complete the two degrees back-to-back. Combine your science studies with another area of interest for even more career options, such as criminology and criminal justice, environmental engineering, information technology, microelectronic engineering, and secondary education.Hands-on experience
As a Griffith student you could, through a unique program enabling you to complete a real-life industry research project while still in your final year. The first of its kind in Australia, the Industrial Affiliates Program links you with key industry and government partners at the cutting-edge of research and development in:- Medical research;
- Drug discovery;
- Nanotechnology;
- Forensics;
- Genetics;
- Environmental;
- Water; or
- Marine sciences.
Up-to-the-minute facilities
Science at Griffith encompasses six major buildings at the Gold Coast, Logan and Nathan campuses, giving students access to some of the nation's most technologically advanced facilities.Biomolecular and biomedical science students have access to:
- a biomedical DNA sequencing facility
- digital microscopy equipment
- proteome analysis facilities
- cell and tissue culture facilities
- plant biotechnology laboratories
- a bio-processing pilot plant
Students studying physics-related areas can access sophisticated experimental facilities including:
- the Laser Atomic Physics Laboratory with one of the most sophisticated laser labs in the country)
- a spin polarised electron source
- atom traps and high and ultra-high vacuum equipment
- the Griffith University Scanned Probe Facility, where research is being conducted using atomic force and scanning tunnelling microscopes
- a brand new Bruker Daltonics 4.7 Tesla FT Mass Spectrometer
- an environmental scanning electron microscope
- an ultra-high pressure chemical synthesis facility
- both small molecule and protein X-ray diffractometers
- a Raman facility that's rated as one of the Southern Hemisphere's best
Inspiring teachers
Griffith's science teaching staff members are actively involved in research and industry, ensuring they stay at the forefront of knowledge.
Professor Alan Mackay-Sim and his team discovered the pluripotency of adult stem cells from the human nose.
Under the directorship of renowned Professor Mark von Itzstein, Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics leads international research in the new science of glycomics, the study of carbohydrates' role in disease and the development of new treatments using carbohydrates.
Dr Christine Wells received an Australian Society for Medical Research Queensland Premier's Award for her work on the yeast infection known as Candida or thrush.
Associate Professor Richard John has been seconded to the Australian Academy of Science to lead the Academy's new 'Science By Doing' initiative designed to engage early high-school students nationwide in science education. A Smithsonian Fellow, Richard was selected following the success of the award-winning 'Science on the GO!' schools outreach program he founded at Griffith, as well as his role in Education Queensland's Southern Science Centre for Innovation and Professional Practice, a program designed to up-skill teachers in South-East Queensland by connecting them with university staff, resources and professional development activities.
World-leading research institutes
A leader in science research, Griffith is helping to direct the course of scientific discovery.
Since its launch in 1993, Griffith's Natural Product Discovery project has revealed more than 40 plants and 1500 marine animals previously unknown to science. Scientists from the project have been using advanced biotechnology drug discovery techniques to unlock cures for killers such as cancer, malaria and African sleeping sickness from marine and rainforest plants.
The Griffith Centre for Forestry and Horticulture Research plant biotechnology specialists are using natural genetic engineering techniques to produce a tastier papaya with better resistence to disease.
The $148 million Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Cancer Therapeutics, headquartered at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Victoria, with Griffith University the only Queensland partner, provides leadership in drug discovery against Australia's biggest killers; breast, prostate, ovarian, lung and bowel cancers.
Griffith's Institute for Glycomics and Taiwan's Institute of Biological Chemistry at Academia Sinica, two institutes among just six in the world specialising in carbohydrate drug design and science are working together to target infectious diseases such as rotavirus that kills approximately half-a-million children worldwide per annum and on improved treatments for colon cancer. Glycomics is a rapidly emerging science, with great promise for treatment of infections by viruses and multi-drug resistant bacteria.
Griffith's Centre for Quantum Dynamics leads the way in physics. Researchers have discovered a technique using individual photons that for the first time measures lengths as accurately as the laws of physics allow. Physicists at the Centre have also helped Australia emerge as a serious player in the global race to develop an ion trap quantum computer — the 'holy grail' of quantum physics. They have produced what is believed to be basic building blocks of ion trap quantum computer hardware.
Industry-leading facilities
Griffith keeps adding to its outstanding science facilities, supported by state and federal governments.
The Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies' newly opened research facility will enhance groundbreaking research looking at cellular and molecular cures to some of the world's most serious conditions like neuro-degeneration, inflammatory disease, cancer, as well as neglected diseases like malaria and African sleeping sickness. Eskitis is already home to Australia's first high-throughput screening facility including Opera, the nation's only high content screening device, running thousands of tests daily to rapidly assess the effect of different compounds on cell function.
At the same time, Griffith's new $22 million National Adult Stem Cell Research Centre will position the University as a world leader in the field. The centre will develop clinical applications of stem cell transplantation which could ultimately lead to the treatment of brain diseases including Parkinson's, motor neurone disease, and schizophrenia.
Also new to Griffith is the Australian Attosecond Science Facility, which could be described as Australia's fastest 'camera'. It's based on ultra-short laser pulses, fast enough to observe and record the path of an electron around the nucleus of an atom. The AASF is the first facility of its kind to be launched in the Southern Hemisphere. As we move toward nanotechnology and beyond, advances in research depend on faster and more precise understanding of physics, the basic tool that underpins all scientific discovery.