University of Melbourne Events Calendar

The 2024 School of Chemistry Public Lecture

Modern farming practices require nitrogen fertilisers, and their use is projected to increase by 70-100% by 2050. Unfortunately, approximately 50% of nitrogen fertilisers applied to agricultural systems is lost into the environment. These losses are not only expensive for farmers and consumers but, more importantly, the environmental impact is substantial: ammonia in nitrogen fertilisers is a precursor for particulate matter (PM2.5), while nitrate leaching causes excessive surface water eutrophication and groundwater pollution. Microbial processes also play a role, converting nitrogen fertiliser into gases including nitrous oxide, which has 300 times higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Thus, to lower the greenhouse gas footprint of agriculture, reduction of nitrogen losses has become an important goal. This seminar will present a selection of strategies to improve nitrogen management in soils to increase agriculture’s sustainability.

As part of our ongoing CDTH Clinical AI – the art of the possible series, we are delighted to bring you the 7th seminar in the series!

We’re excited to have renowned speaker in the field of clinical AI, Prof Hongfang Liu, D. Bradley McWilliams Chair Professor at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics and who serves as Vice President of Learning Health System at UTHealth Houston, speak on the ‘insights and opportunities in translational science for healthcare AI and digital health.

In this seminar, she will be deep diving into the effort on advancing translational science leveraging data science, informatics, and AI and propose an implementation framework in healthcare AI and digital health. Insights from the effort of the Open Health Natural Language Processing Consortium will be shared, highlighting shifts in focus due to emerging trends and funding. Additionally, she will discuss the impact of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI on healthcare, the practical challenges of deploying these technologies, and their potential to transform healthcare delivery.