When Bronwyn Fox arrived at Deakin University in Geelong in 2001, her first lab was a disused basement full of leaves. "There wasn't even a microscope."
Next month, when Professor Fox takes over as the new director of Swinburne University of Technology's Factory of the Future, she'll be leaving behind a team of 33 researchers, some of whom she mentored and trained - and a $100 million research precinct  focused on advanced materials and new-generation manufacturing.
The arc of Professor Fox's career mirrors the rise of billion-dollar carbon fibre and composite technology - and a global trend toward engineering materials at the molecular level that are stronger, lighter and more versatile than mining-based commodities such as steel and aluminium. 3D printing and nano-fibre technologies are part of that revolution. 
As noted in Fox's Deakin website biography: half of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner is made from carbon fibre composite materials. This has enabled a 20 per cent improvement in fuel economy and a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
In short, carbon fibre is produced by a complex baking process of 5-10 micrometre strings of polymer, called a precursor, and mostly derived from oil at this stage, although work is being done to develop more eco-friendly, plant-based polymers.
The baking process causes the carbon atoms to bond as crystals with a resulting fibre that is strong, light, and resistant to damage by chemicals and temperature. The fibres are then set in a matrix in an epoxy resin. The aerospace and military industries, requiring high-performance components, have been especially quick to adopt the material.
The Dreamliner story has direct relevance to what's now occurring in Geelong. In 2006, Bronwyn Fox was attending a conference in Europe, where the supply dynamics of carbon fibre was on the agenda.  "There was a huge wave of demand for carbon fibre at that stage but the world didn't have the capacity to supply it."
Most of that demand came from Boeing, but at the same time the automotive industry was starting to explore carbon fibre composites for car components. "The car makers were caught in a bind. They could access carbon fibre at a reasonable cost when there was a downturn in the aerospace sector, but when the aerospace sector picked up ... the costs went up."
There was also the conundrum that manufacturers were too busy meeting demand to invest in research and development - and yet it was accepted that carbon fibre technology was in its technical infancy, heavy with challenges and potential.
In fact there was no purpose-built research facility in the world. This is where Fox and Deakin saw opportunity.
Seven years later, in 2013, two such research facilities began operation: the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, and the $34 million Carbon Nexus facility at Deakin's Waurn Ponds campus, south of jobs-battered Geelong. Carbon Nexus, with Bronwyn Fox as its research director, is essentially a factory producing experimental batches of fibre - in partnership, but effectively as an outsourced research and development lab - for companies from the United States, Canada, South Korea, Russia, China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Thailand.
Fox says Australia is seen as a good place for overseas ventures to try out secret research because there's an idea that we've abandoned manufacturing ambitions. "A German company we're talking to says it's like working in the forest. No one knows you're there," she says.
Because of confidential intellectual property agreements, Fox was unable to disclose much of what is being achieved. But just a taste is pretty impressive.
Last year, in partnership with Canadian auto components and systems maker Multimatic, Fox's team pulled off a world first by curing a carbon composite in a matter of minutes. In 1996, when she was a PhD student, it took eight hours. This year, Multimatic established an engineering base in Scoresby.
On Friday, car-seat maker Futuris were crash-testing a light weight carbon fibre seat. "Seats make up a lot of weight in a car. Get the weight down and you get fuel costs and emissions down," says Fox.
On Friday she emailed to say the crash-tests went well. Why not? The crash cells in Formula One cars are now made of carbon fibre.
While Fox was disappointed not to witness the tests personally, she was busy at a meeting with Professor Darren Martin of the University of Queensland, who is also chief scientific officer for start-up company TenasiTech, which is commercialising polymer nano-composites. Martin is working at the nano level on converting the cellulose in spinifex - the resilient plant that covers a third of Australia - into an environmental friendly precursor for carbon fibres.
"He's already achieved this at the proof of concept level," says Fox.
In the US, the Oak Ridge facility is working on a 10-year plan to develop its own bio-based carbon fibre. Fox says the two facilities are in frequent communication, and that there is enough scope for carbon fibre technology to allow a more collaborative spirit than a competitive one.
Except perhaps in one area: that of driving down the cost of carbon fibre and composite production. This will be the key to greater jobs growth in the sector.
Two carbon fibre-based companies, Quickstep and Carbon Revolution (which is wholly based at Waurn Ponds), have more than 200 employees between them. Carbon Revolution was started by Deakin engineering students in a garage. Last week Christopher Pyne cut the ribbon at the opening of its $24 million factory in Waurns Ponds. It's planning to go public in 2017 with an initial offering of $100 million.
With all this Geelong-based excitement, why is Bronwyn Fox moving to Swinburne? "Geelong is in a better place right now. There's a lot of innovation going on."
Recently she was told by an insider at the Department of Economic Development  of a looming $2-billion loss of jobs in the south-east of Melbourne with the collapse of the auto-parts industry. "I've been so focused on Geelong I haven't considered other areas being badly hit... and Swinburne is looking at ways transitioning auto workers into other areas... with a focus on next generation technologies."