Dr Tim Sullivan invited to speak at the 4th ANZPAC Workshop in Melbourne!

9 Oct 2019

MESA Principal Investigator, Dr Tim Sullivan, was invited, this last week, to speak at the 4th ANZPAC Workshop on Biofouling Management for Sustainable Shipping/1st GEF-UNDP-IMO GloFouling R&D Forum and Exhibition on Biofouling Management, which took place at the Melbourne Conference & Exhibition Centre!

The talk, entitled Taking the rough with the smooth: controlling surface topography as an antifouling strategy– recent progress and new insights?, outlined recent advances and the state-of-the-art in the use and application of surface topography as a means of controlling and combatting against biofouling in the marine environment.

Photo Credit: Dr James Chapman, RMIT (via Twitter @brainybiomat)

The outline of Tim's talk is available in the online programme, and is copied below:

Biofouling, the unwanted growth of organisms such as bacteria, invertebrates and algae on immersed marine structures (e.g. aquaculture cages and ships) represents a costly and troublesome problem. Control of biofouling is a priority for most industries, and much effort is expended annually in reducing, removing or attempting to prevent biofouling. Biofouling control strategies have often involved application of biocidal coatings to kill or deter settling organisms. Unfortunately the compounds used for this purpose, and many of those that were in use throughout the 20th century, are environmentally damaging (e.g. tributyltin). Use and application of many such compounds in antifouling and biofouling control have now been largely regulated throughout Europe and globally. Therefore a situation has developed whereby very few novel alternative biofouling control strategies have emerged capable of fulfilling the market requirements for antifouling.

Controlling or engineering coating or surface topography to enhance or maintain antifouling efficacy, both as an independent means of fouling control, and as part of a multi-facetted antifouling strategy, has been of great interest in the last two decades. A number of commercialised antifouling surfaces have resulted from this research. However, viable micro- and nano-structured coatings that consistently inhibit or delay biofouling under real-world tests remain challenging in many cases. Here, we discuss progress in the field, including the results a number of studies on both natural and artificial surfaces in controlling biofouling in the marine environment using surfaces topography.