Biophysicist
Awarded Professorship
Professor Frances Separovic
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Congratulations to Frances for her recent appointment to Professor. WR |
Professor Frances Separovic, University of Melbourne, is a Biophysical Chemist who specializes in NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy and membrane biophysics. Frances has developed solid-state NMR techniques to determine the structure and dynamics of membrane components in situ, specializing in antibiotic peptides and toxins within phospholipid membranes.
Born in Blato, Croatia, Frances emigrated with her family as a young child and grew up in Broken Hill in western NSW. She was awarded both a Commonwealth and teacher’s scholarship to study mathematics, physics and philosophy at the University of Sydney but, having done advanced subjects in high school and having little peer support, decided to leave after first term and worked as a junior technical assistant in a microbiology laboratory at CSIRO. Following the birth of her son, Kane, Frances began to study part-time at TAFE while working full-time at CSIRO Food Research. Whilst at CSIRO, Frances continued with part-time study and completed a BA in mathematics and physics with Honours in physics at Macquarie University, and a PhD in physics at University of NSW, the same year that Kane finished high school. After 23 years working at CSIRO Food Research in Sydney, and a year at National Institutes of Health (USA), Frances joined the University of Melbourne in 1996 as an Associate Professor and Reader in Chemistry.
Frances teaches undergraduate Chemistry at first, third and fourth year levels and has served on a number of University of Melbourne Committees, including: Research & Graduate Studies, Academic Programs, Melbourne Scholarships Policy, Undergraduate Scholarships, Postgraduate Scholarships, Selection Procedures; and was Assistant Dean (EO), Science Faculty. In addition, Frances has played a leading role in several Departmental and Faculty committees, and although serving on so many committees can be tedious, Frances enjoys being able to make a difference.
In late 1997, Frances was selected as one of 12 women in the inaugural Women in Leadership program at the University of Melbourne. The program was a great means to learn how the University functions and enabled Frances to meet a group of wonderful women in academia, who continue to serve as a support network. Such support is especially important for younger scientists and Frances gains great satisfaction in enabling others to do research and as well as working out how something works, especially at the molecular level. Her research group, located at the Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, studies the interaction of antibiotic peptides, amyloid Aβ peptide from Alzheimer’s disease and cytolytic toxins with model biological membranes as well as using NMR to determine the structure of polymeric materials at the atomic level.
Recently Frances was elected to Council of International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB), President of the Australian Society for Biophysics (ASB) and chair of a subgroup of the Biophysical Society (USA); and appointed Director of Australian New Zealand Magnetic Resonance Society (ANZMAG) and to the editorial board of Concepts in Magnetic Resonance. She is an adjunct professor at San Diego State University, USA, and an Honorary Senior Member of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, UK. Frances has successfully organized 18 national and international scientific conferences, published over 90 refereed papers in international journals, and given over 150 conference presentations and 90 invited seminars. As part of a large extended family, Frances takes pleasure in family activities with nephews and nieces, walking, reading, travelling, listening to (loud) music and, when she has time, films and live theatre, visiting museums and art galleries, and playing scrabble.