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Yuan Xu completed a Bachelor of Engineering degree (Chemical and Material) from the University of Queensland in 2015. After that, he started his PhD in the research field of colloidal science, rheology and chemical engineering, supervised by Professor Jason Stokes. He has continued in UQ as postdoctoral research fellow since 2019, at which, he has contributed to multidisciplinary projects including viscoelastic lubrication of soft matter systems, and programming structural anisotropy in nanocellulose hydrogels. His research capability focuses on the area of rheology, colloidal science/ physical chemistry, material/physical science, soft matters/complex fluids, and tribology/lubrication.

I have a multidisciplinary background in chemical and civil engineering, chemistry and materials science. Currently, I am the UQ leader of the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life, based at USC. I apply my expertise to understand the effects of fungal decay and moisture intrusion in timber connections, as well as the improvement of the fire performance of timber. I supervise 6 PhD students.

I obtained my BSc.(Hons) from the University of New South Wales in Australia, then went on to pursue a PhD at the Australian National University’s Research School of Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Anthony Hill. After stints at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh as a research fellow in groups of Andrew Weller and Polly Arnold respectively, I began my independent career at the National University of Singapore in 2014. Since then I have focused on methodology development using pincer complexes and frustrated Lewis pairs to address challenges in small molecule activation, in particular the selective activation of carbon-halide and carbon-chalcogen bonds. My achievements have been recognized with research awards including Asian Chemistry Prizes from Japan and China (2018) and the Thieme Chemistry Journal Award in 2019. In 2022 I was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship, which I assumed at the University of Queensland in mid-2023. The theme of the research for this fellowship is the recycling and repurposing of fluorocarbons through selective activation using organometallic techniques.

Professor Chengzhong (Michael) Yu is an internationally recognised expert in nanotechnology, chemistry and materials science. He is the author of over 400 scientific publications with over 36,000 citations. He has received National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership (L3) and Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship.

His research interest includes functional nanomaterials and their applications in healthcare, agriculture, and energy storage. He is working with industrial partners to provide innovative solutions for challenging problems in our society.

Xiuwen Zhou received her PhD in 2014 from the University of Geneva (Switzerland), where she worked with Prof Tomasz A. Wesolowski, who is recognized as the co-inventor of Frozen-Density Embedding Theory (FDET) alongside Nobel laureate Prof. Arieh Warshel (co-winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry). Then she moved to the University of Queensland (UQ) as a visiting scholar, supported by two awarded fellowships, i.e., a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowship (2015) and an Australian-APEC Women in Research Fellowship (2016). She then took up a UQ Development Fellowship in 2017, working as a teaching and research fellow at UQ School of Mathematics and Physics. Later, she was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA) commencing in 2019.

Biography:

John Zhu is currently a Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, UQ. He is also the inaugural Director of Carbon Energy Research Centre. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering, UQ in 2002, then worked as a lecturer in Curtin University of Technology from 2002 to 2004. He moved back to UQ at the end of 2004 and has been working in the same school until present. He is the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships, including RK Murphy Medal 2013, Freehills Award IChemE 2011, runner up of Innovator of the Year Award International IChemE 2011, the University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award 2007, an ARC Future Fellowship from 2013 to 2016, an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship from 2008 to 2012, an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2003 – 2005. In May 2012, John Zhu’s long term collaborative research with Eden Energy was recognised by Thomson Reuters Innovation Award for Innovative Collaboration between the University of Queensland and Eden Energy.

Research:

John Zhu’s research interests and expertise exist in advanced catalysis, gas adsorption and separation, direct carbon fuel cells and solid oxide fuel cells with strong application focus on clean energy and environment. His current projects include research into scale up of direct carbon fuel cells, next generation solid oxide fuel cells, hierarchically-structured bulk materials for gas storage and catalytic reaction, carbon nanotubes/MOFs composite membranes, carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites for automotive applications, advanced plasma-assisted catalytic processes for clean energy production and air pollution control.

Teaching and Learning:

John has taught several engineering courses including Research Methods (CHEE7200), Heat and mass transfer (CHEE3002), and Engineering investigation and analysis (CHEE3010). He is currently lecturing a third year course, Reaction Engineering (CHEE3005).

Projects:

1. Transport Processes in Flexible Porous Materials for Gas Separation and Storage, ARC DP

2. Prototype test of Direct Carbon Fuel Cells, QLD Research Partnership Program

3. Carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites for automotive applications, ARC LP

4. Development of a Novel One Step Process for Gas Conversion to Liquid, ARC LP

5. Fundamentals and practical applications of hierarchically-structured bulk materials, ARC Future Fellowship

6. Development of novel cathodes for next generation solid oxide fuel cells, ARC DP

Dr Zyta Ziora received PhD (Wroclaw University of Science & Technology, Poland) in chemistry and has wide range of experience in development of antimalarial therapeutics (the University of Montpellier, France), antibacterial agents, enzyme inhibitors and drug candidates against Alzheimer disease (Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Japan). Her research time is currently dedicated mainly to projects devoted to the modification of existing antibiotics, and complexing them with additional antimicrobial agents, like metal ions, to produce more potent alternatives and by this to overcome the drug resistance of superbugs. She is also working on alternative to antibiotics nature-derived compounds with antimicrobial and anticancer potency, such poliphenolic derivatives to control tyrosinase function.