The UNSW Analytical Centre falls under the Division of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research (DVC). Governance is provided primarily from the Divisional/Faculty level by a Board made up of the DVC Research (Chair), Deans of Science, Medicine and Engineering and the Director of the Analytical Centre. The Board is advised by the Analytical Centre Management Group (Managing Director, Directors and Managers of the Analytical Centre Facilities).

The UNSW Analytical Centre is comprised of 4 research and experimental units and facilities:

•   Electron Microscope Unit (EMU)
•   Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility (BMSF)
•   Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility (NMR)
•   Solid State & Elemental Analysis Unit (SSEAU)

The UNSW Analytical Centre, through the commercial arm - Chemical Consultiong Laboratory (CCL), provides the leading edge analytical expertise to the needs of government agencies, industry, the legal profession and private individuals. CCL has been successfully helping industry for the past 15 years by using the staff expertise and the unique analytical instrumentation within the Analytical Centre and other faculties of the university, in the following areas:

•   Independent, quality analytical services
•   Cost effective analysis of unusual and complex samples
•   Problem solving (sources of contaminants), product formulation analysis
•   Expert opinions in chemical analysis and toxicology
•   Interpretation of analytical results
•   Expert witness for a variety of legal cases
•   Confidentiality of results

Electron Microscope Unit:

Electron Microscope Unit (EMU) of The UNSW Analytical Centre is a central research infrastructure unit that provides microscopy and analysis facilities to the research community of the University. EMU is also a founding member of the Nanostructural Analysis Network Organisation Major National Research Facility, which acts as the peak body for nanostructural analysis in Australia and combines the resources of over $70M of instrumentation and 100 staff across 5 national nodes.

The mission of the EMU can be summarised as "Research Services, Research Training and Research Programs". In terms of "Research Services", EMU provides microscopy services to around 350 researchers not only drawn from the UNSW research community, but from dozens of other universities, government and corporate research bodies. Data generated in the unit leads to over 300 peer reviewed papers each year.

Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility:

The Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility (BMSF) of The UNSW Analytical Centre is a central UNSW research facility located in the Faculty of Medicine. It enables research principally in the Faculties of Science, Medicine and Engineering. The facility undertakes research and training through independent programs, collaborations and analytical services in the overlapping areas of: biomarkers and small molecules; proteomics and large molecules; scientific instrumentation and technology. The BMSF is a comprehensive analytical mass spectrometry facility that, in 2000, was classified by the Commonwealth Government as an Australian Major Research Facility. The BMSF is part of the UNSW node of the Australian Protoeme Analysis Facility (APAF) through a joint Major National Research Facility grant involving UNSW, Macquarie University, Sydney University and TGR Biosciences (Adelaide).

The BMSF brings together advanced mass spectrometry equipment and expertise to enable and support medical, biological and molecular/macromolecular research at UNSW and beyond. Mass Spectrometry is increasingly an enabling tool in these fields and the BMSF aims to make this tool accessible and effective for researchers irrespective of their experience in using the technique.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility:

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) Facility of the UNSW Analytical Centre brings together NMR and ESR spectrometers within the purpose-built Analytical Centre housed in the Chemical Sciences Building. Through this recent initiative, the Facility has broadened its scope with a staff of four to serve the research and teaching needs of the UNSW community in areas of structural and dynamic molecular sciences such as found in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Materials, Polymers and Medicine. The Facility is equipped to an international standard featuring Bruker and Varian spectrometers, with capabilities for multinuclear and variable temperature investigations in solid and solution state.

Computer-aided data analysis is performed off-line, in a lab networked to the spectrometers for spectral processing and molecular modelling. In this still rapidly developing area of materials and nano-structural research, we are also targeting specific needs in government and industry which are amenable to magnetic resonance analysis.

Solid State & Elemental Analysis Unit:

The Solid State and Elemental Analysis Unit (SSEAU) of The UNSW Analytical Centre manages instruments for studying the microstructures of molecular and crystalline materials, analysing the chemical composition of surfaces, and determining the elemental composition of bulk samples. SSEAU comprises five laboratories:

•   ICP Laboratory (Elemental Analysis by ICP-MS and ICP-AES)
•   X-Ray Fluorescence Laboratory (Elemental Analysis using XRF)
•   Surface Science Laboratory (Surface Analysis including XPS)
•   X-Ray Diffraction Laboratory (Structural Analysis by Powder XRD and Single Crystal XRD)
•   Spectroscopy Laboratory (Chemical and Structural Characterisation using Vibrational Spectroscopy)