Mining the intelligent minds for tomorrow
RMIT
Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry
CAMIC was established in 2010 by Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhargava.
To translate research excel lence in sustainable indus trial technologies into inno vations that solve real-world problems. The Centre has a multidisciplinary approach to research excellence and unites researchers from chemistry, physics, biol ogy and engineering on one platform. It has strong ties with academic and industrial partners across the world.
2021
We faced challenges like no other year in 2020 and 2021 as the COVID pandemic and lockdowns affected all aspects of our operations. How ever, despite the challenges, CAMIC has grown to become a benchmark of research innovation at RMIT being the largest centre at the Uni versity.
CAMIC is rapidly growing both do mestically and internationally. Many companies have approached CAMIC to engage in partnerships. The Centre actively contributes to RMIT’s international reputa tion and global ranking while help
ing the university meet its KPI’s.
CAMIC currently has 26 researchers and over 140 postgraduate students. We continue to produce high-impact research, collaborate with key indus try and government partners in largescale projects, graduate enterpriseready PhD students and engage the public with a global media presence.
Our EXPERTS come from at least 25 countries around the world.
“CAMIC - A platform for borderless minds to cnnovation”.
Distinguished Professor Suresh K. Bhargava, AM
Dean- Research and Innovation (Indian Partnerships) Director – Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry (CAMIC), STEM College
Since its establishment in 2010, The Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemis try (CAMIC) has been a truly multidisciplinary platform, known for its innovation, research excellence and pioneering start-up ecosys tem. Over the last 10 years, CAMIC has ex panded rapidly. Nowadays, it consists of 26 scientists and has welcomed 140 postgradu ate students, as well as over 80 collaborators and research associates from 25 countries. Our 7 Research Groups: Resource Utilisa tion, Nano-Biotechnology, Nanotechnology & Sensing, Applied Electrochemistry, Catalysis, Chemical Engineering and Molecular Engineer ing lead the world in cutting-edge research. During the last couple of years, we have faced challenges beyond our imagination. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be another major disruptor of our activities, making us focus on building our resilience and adapting in the face of adversity. Chal lenges are excellent opportunities for growth and CAMIC as a well-established centre has proved that. Our performance exceeds our expectations despite the circumstances.
2021 in terms of numbers has been an excellent year. We had a rapid recovery from hardships and the drop-in activity in 2020. We received over $6.5 million in funding and 50% of this was from Industry. We deliver above and be yond with 163 publications of which 137 were
journal papers, 88 % in top-tier (Q1) journals, 12 book chapters, 5 new patents, 4 conference publications and 5 cover pages in leading jour nals. We are happy to announce that CAMIC has transformed the life of 140 HDR students and accomplished over 69 graduations since 2015. At the same time, CAMIC has been working on building strong partnerships in various sec tors in Australia. Our most exciting new part nership is with Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd.
While we celebrate our successes, in these challenging times it is our first responsibility to stand hand-in-hand and shoulder-to-shoulder with our trusted partners. The second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic has taken a heavy toll on all walks of life globally, with so many innocent lives lost – mothers, fathers, sis ters, brothers and students. Our hearts go out to our partners – we feel deeply about your challenges and we are here to support you.
Our collaborative successes reflect the hard work, scientific curiosity and entrepreneurship of each of our members, collaborators, associ ates and students. I am proud that CAMIC has grown to become a benchmark in research ex cellence at RMIT. Depending upon University support, CAMIC’s vision for the future is to keep growing as an international platform, to col laborate with industrial and academic partners and undertake academically excellent research that has real impact and translational potential.
FRACI, FRSC, FNASI, FTSE, FAAAS, FNAE, FTWAS-UNESCO, KIA Laureate and QPM Chair ProfessorOur commitment to high impact research outcomes through ac tive collaboration be tween our researchers, global network, stu dents and industry have made CAMIC a model to follow and pursue in centres worldwide.
At a glance
CAMIC is committed to translating research excellence in sustainable industrial technologies into in novations which solve real-world problems.
Inaugurated in 2010, The Centre for Advanced Materials and In dustrial Chemistry (CAMIC) is a multidisciplinary research centre known for performing cuttingedge research in seven disciplines.
CAMIC is located at the heart of the Melbourne CBD in RMIT University’s Melbourne City campus. It sits within the STEM College under the School of Science. The centre was built to house dedicated, state-of-the-art laborato ries for industrial chemistry research, including academic laboratories for uranium ore and mercury processing, which is one-of-a-kind in Australia.
CAMIC has successfully secured fund ing through government sources, including: Australian Competitive Grants (ACG); Other Public Sector; Cooperative Research Centre (CRC); collaborative research partnerships with industry, including projects with Agilent, Alcoa, BHP Billiton, Bioele ktra Australia, Clean TeQ, CSIRO, Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd, Rio Tinto; and international collabora tive grants, including the AustraliaIndia Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) and Bangladesh Council of Scien tific and Industrial Research (BCSIR).
In the last decade, our research ers have developed several patents across a wide variety of disciplines. In partnership with various interna tional collaborators and the indus try sector like CSIRO in Australia we have patented different methodolo gies and systems for monitoring, for instance, a pyrolysis reaction sys tem and method pyrolysing organic feed. At the same time, we are at the forefront of next gen 3D printed catalysts to propel hypersonic flight. CAMIC’s research philosophy re volves around working in collabora tion with industries and government bodies. Together with the diverse scientific backgrounds of our mem bers, we take a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to problem-solving. Challenges are tackled from identifi cation and conceptualization to com mercialization; innovations and com plete solutions come from the early conceptual stages, to the engineered prototypical materials and devices.
we are at the forefront of next gen 3D printed catalysts to propel hypersonic flight.
Passion, experience and willingness.
Distinguished Professor Bhargava leads the pioneering research in seven disciplines as Director and Founder. Each discipline has its own labora tory, led by its own group leader(s).
Catalysis: Heterogeneous cataly sis with industrial applications and computational materials design.
Applied Electrochemistry: New ma terials by electrochemical methods, fundamental and applied electro chemistry of metal surfaces, electro deposition, inorganic materials and the surface chemistry of minerals.
Molecular Engineering: Complex es of gold, palladium and platinum for catalysis, sensing applications and anti-cancer drug development.
Nano-Biotechnology: Innova tive biomaterials and medical tech nologies based upon nanotech nology, including the design and development of targeted theranostics, molecular biosensors, and tissueengineered materials for debilitating diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
Resource Utilisation: Chemi cal technologies related to min ing, including environmental con cerns, uranium, copper and ore leaching/processing and remediation.
Nanotechnology & Sensing: In dustrial sensors for analytes of global environmental and health significance, such as mercury.
Chemical Engineering: Process inten sification, industrial catalysis, polymer composites and hybrids, dense gas/ hydrothermal processing, and surface functionalisation and immobilisation.
CAMIC fosters a dynamic environment where each discipline functions as an individual research group in their respective fields of expertise and col laborates with other disciplines to form multidisciplinary approaches to innovations, research and enterprise.
In addition to the seven disciplines, CAMIC maintains close ties with other departments within the School of Sci ence and the STEM College at RMIT Uni versity, as well as external collaborators in other universities, industry and gov ernment, nationally and internationally.
Our mission is to provide an inclusive and engaging en vironment which promotes scientific and innovative thinking, producing research excellence with relevance, and enterprise-ready re search graduates.
With an emphasis on strong industrial engagement and networks, CAMIC strives to produce excellent research and a new generation of globally trained graduates equipped with the tools to create disruptive innova tions.
Despite the challenges that the world has been facing during the last couple of years, CAMIC demonstrated its ability to adapt and grow in the face of hardship.
Members awards01
Our members received several awards in recognition of outstanding achievements.
New Projects02
Due to the high demand for partnerships and collaborations, CAMIC’s members managed to land and secure new projects in all 7 disciplines.
New funding03
The recognition and prestige that CAMIC has been building in the last couple of years are reflected in the external funding that we secured in 2021.
More exposure04
Without a doubt, CAMIC has demon strated its efficiency and ability to create unprecedented global solutions which has
Driving positive impact in research on an academic platform.
CAMIC’s success is attributable to the high prestige of our members. In 2021 they built strong partner ships and conducted innovative research projects leading them to be awarded, promoted, recognized by top-grade institutions, extensive media coverage, and invited as special guests at international events in person and on digital platforms.
For having been elected as a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences and American As sociation for the Advancement of Science, for his outstanding contribution to the fields of industrial chemistry and technology, particularly for molecular engineering, catalyst and nanotechnology. Professor Bhargava’s innovative solutions to industry was recognised by the UNESCO program and the AAAS. Prof Bhargava in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic deteriorating situation of international students innovated a new model of mentorship, Covidya or “knowledge together” (in Hindi), focusing not only on scientific guidance but also providing much needed mental support through an informal digital environment.
For being appointed to Editorial Advisory Board of Energy and Environmental Science (Roy al Society of Chemistry, IF = 38.53). For establishing a new industrial contract with Scimita (with AFL) – “Steam methane reforming catalysis” awarded. Adding a new project through the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, with A/Prof Darfizzi Derawi, UKM, Malaysia, “Revealing the role of organosilane-functionalized on metal-supported mesoporous silica (SBA-15) catalysts for green diesel production from waste cooking oil.” for joint PhD student.
Professor Kalpit Shah and his team who took top honours at Victorian Water Awards - winning the R&D award for their circular-economy technology developed with in dustry partners. The collaboration with South East Water, Intelligent Water Net works (IWN) and Greater Western Water, is an Australian first, with the tech remov ing pathogens and contaminants from the solid organic material left after sewage treatment to create biochar, a product that can then be used as a soil improver.
We want to congratulate
For his special guest appearance as speaker at the WNCST 2021 congress on Spatially Orthogo nal Materials for Catalytic Cascades. Highlighting the collective efforts of Karen Wilson, Chris topher Parlett, Mark Isaacs, Neil Robinson, Nicole Hondow, and more in designing, fabricating and applying hierarchical porous catalysts for sustainable chemistry. Being the session chair during the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Catalysis Sciences—hosted online.
For being invited to serve as a Nanobiotechnology associate editor for Frontiers in Biosciences & Bioengineering and Frontiers in Molecular Bioscience. For co-editing a book entitled, “Nano-strategies for Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance -Nano-di agnostics, Nano-carriers, and Nano-antimicrobials)”, Publisher by Springer Nature, Switzerland. For being invited as a speaker with the topic “Harnessing nano-bio inter face for biomedicine applications”, web lecture, Dofar University, Oman, 07 April 2021.
For her promotion to Group Leader of Molecular Engineering Group (MEG) in CAMIC at RMIT and received a Certificate of Recognition from Australia India Business Council (AIBC) for sci entific contribution on International Women’s Day, 2021. Dr Ojha has supervised 10 PhD and 3 undergraduate students as a postdoc supervisor at Monash and RMIT Universities. She was a Senior Supervisor of two master’s students: Syed Saaduddin and Tamim Naseer at STEM College, RMIT University. Both students have submitted their theses and graduated in 2021.
Dr James Chapman; as the supervisor of the PhD student Piumie Rajapaksha awarded the Australian Water Association best student prize. Additionally. For being a plenary Speaker at the International Conference on Sustainable Energy-Water-Environment-Wa ter Nexus in Desert Climates, 2021. Compliments for being appointed Chair of the Ana lytical and Environmental Chemistry Division for the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.
Team members for patenting a chemiresistive substrate for hydrogen gas sensing (PCT/ AU2021/051274), attracting attention from several media outlets and NASA contractors, who are currently testing the technology .
Dr Ippolito for being awarded an ARC LEIF grant for Flexible Flame Aerosol Synthesis Technology (Led by UniSyd) - LE210100084 ($498,600). Along with the Next Generation Technology Fund (NGTF) Phase 1 - Advanced Radio Frequency Payload Research Net work, Dr Ippolito secured a total of $325,200 AUD.
Dr Sabri for being was promoted to Senior Lecturer in July 2021 and was appointed a CSIRO Visiting Scientist. He also co-organised the Chemical Nanosensors Australia (CNA) summit, held in March of 2022.
Dr Selvakannan Periasamy, Distinguish Professor Suresh Bhargava, Professor Karl Föger, Dr Maciej Mazur and the PhD student candidate Roxanne Hubesch for their outstanding national and international media exposure regarding their innovative 3D printed catalysts to propel hypersonic flight.
CAMIC’s constant dedication to provide HDR students a transfformative expirience to develop skills, oportunities and innovation outcomes .
The Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry graduated students in two sessions held this year, with Distinguished Professor Bhargava. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, ceremonies were held virtually.
In 2021, we celebrated over a decade of success. We were able to mark this important milestone despite the challenges and restrictions we faced left us overjoyed. Since its establishment in 2010, CAMIC has rapidly grown into a model to follow and emulate in centres worldwide. We will con tinue our impactful research journey over many more decades to come.
future.
CAMIC a benchmark centre for redefining innovation
CAMIC leaders and members are highly recognised researchers driven to create positive impact.
Our diverse composition provides an inclusive and engaging environment across the 7 disciplines, achieved
through innovative problem solving, entrepreneurial thinking with crossdisciplinary and global collaborations. This diversity of expertise and re search projects has made CAMIC a highly desirable partner in in
dustrial and academic collabora tions. A snapshot of CAMIC’s com position is shown in the pie graph.
Dr Karl Föger is the Chair of the Centre for Advanced Materials & Industrial Chemistry (CAMIC) and an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University. As one of the initiators of SOFC technology in Australia, he has an interna tional reputation in research and develop ment in the energy and environmental fields and has published a number of papers on SOFC technology.
The Board provides inde pendent strategic advice to CAMIC about its goals and focus. Its members include eminent scien tists and industry leaders.
Director: Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhargava AM
FRACI, FRSC, FTSE, FNAE, FNASc, FAAAS
Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhargava is a world-renowned interdisciplinary sci entist. He is among the top 1% scientists in the resources sector and has super vised over 60 PhD students at RMIT. He has passionately strived over the years to create solid and sustainable global re search partnerships to improve and ad vance Science and Technology.
Deputy Director Professor Rajarathi nam
Professor Rajarathinam Parthasarathy is a Professor of Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering at RMIT. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Newcastle and has over 25 years of academic experience in overseas and Australian universities and over four years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
Dr Lathe Jones is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of CAMIC. His research interests are electrodeposition, inorganic materials and the surface chemistry of minerals. He is currently working on elec trocatalysis, inorganic chemistry of gold and porphyrins, and several aspects of ore leaching/characterisation with some applied projects in the minerals sector.
Committee Member Prof Alan Bond FAA, FRSC, Monash University, Australia
Emeritus Professor Alan Bond was the R. L. Martin Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Monash University. He has held prestigious ARC Federation and Pro fessorial Fellowships and was the Deputy Director of the ARC Special Centre for Green Chemistry, in which he is still ac tive.
Committee Member Prof Lakshmi Kant am
FNA, FNASc, FRSC, Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), India
Prof Kant am is the Dr B. P. Godrej Distinguished Professor of Green Chemistry and Sustainability Engi neering at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. She is the imme diate former Director of CSIR-IICT, Hy derabad She is also a recipient of the RMIT International Visiting Foundation.
Dr Stephen Grocott has 40 years of ex perience in minerals processing, process development and industrial chemistry. Before joining QPM, he was the Chief Technical Development Officer with Clean TeQ. He is an Adjunct Professor in Ap plied Sciences at RMIT University. He has worked extensively with and continues to work with CSIRO, CRCs, and international
Committee Member Dr Stephen Grocott MD and CEO, Queensland Pacific Metals, Australia
Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhar gava AM is the Associate Pro ViceChancellor (India) and the Founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Materials & Industrial Chemistry at the College of Sci ence, Engineering and Health at RMIT University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Exeter (UK). He was conferred a DSc (Honoris Causa) by Rajasthan Uni versity (India), the latter of which was presented by the president of India, for his leadership, research and sig nificant contribution to advances in chemical technology.
Professor Bhargava is recognised as a world-renowned interdisciplinary scientist who delivers both research ex cellence and industrial relevance. He is in the top 1% of the world’s most-cited scientists. He is a highly recog nized member of the science community. Some of his awards include, the 2017 TIMES Network NRI of the Year Award, the 2016 Khwarizmi International Award (KIA) by the Government of Iran, the 2015 CHEMECA medal, the Indian National Science Academy’s P. C. Ray Chair (dis tinguished lecture series 2014) and RMIT University Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award (2006 and 2014).
Professor Bhargava is also an elected fellow of more than 7 learned academies around the world includ ing the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sci ences and Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry and the National Academy of Sciences, India. He advises both government and industry. He has been a passion ate researcher for over three decades, with a focus on gold chemistry and its applications in medicine.
Dr Lathe Jones is a graduate of the University of Queensland in Inor ganic Chemistry. After postdoctoral positions at the University of Man chester (United Kingdom) and the University of Zaragoza (Spain), he worked at CIDETEC (Spain) for seven years as a Senior Research Fellow, where he managed a team of researchers on applied chemis try projects with industry. He moved to RMIT in 2010 as a Vice-Chancellors’ (Industry) Fellow, where he is now a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of CAMIC. His re search interests are electrochemistry, inorganic mate rials and minerals science. Dr. Jones has more than 80 publications, over 2,464 citations, and an h-index of 24. Over 13 PhD Completions and 1 Masters by Research Completions. He is currently supervising 4 PhD students and has been highly involved in attracting funding and partnerships from Industry in the last 6 years in collabo ration with other scientists at CAMIC in RMIT University.
Professor Rajarathinam Parthasarathy is a Professor of Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering at RMIT. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineer ing from the University of Newcastle and has over 25 years of academic experience in overseas and Australian univer sities and over four years of experience in the oil and gas in dustry. Professor Parthasarathy has taught several under graduate courses and served as HDR manager, Program Manager and Discipline Head of Chemical Engineering at RMIT University. He has previously supervised over 35 HDR students and is currently supervising 12. His research interests lie in multiphase flow in gas-liquid, solid-liquid and liquid-liquid systems, non-Newtonian fluid flow, bio degradable polymeric materials, and process intensifica tion. Professor Parthasarathy has over 190 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications (98 in journals).
CAMIC - global leadership and advanced research programsDeputy Director of CAMIC Chemical Engineering Group Leader
Professor Vipul Bansal is the Director of the Sir Ian Potter NanoBioSens ing Facility, and the Group Leader of the RMIT Nano-Biotechnology Re search Laboratory (NBRL). He leads a trans-disciplinary research team that collaborates across the intersection of chemistry, biology, physics, engineering and design to provide nanotechnology solutions for health, environment and energy issues that have industrial importance and high social impact. Professor Bansal is leading the develop ment of a nano-diagnostic hub which will play a critical role in the early diagnosis of a variety of diseases, food and environmental problems. This includes a product, currently in clinical trials, that will aid cancer diagno ses and development of next-generation cellular im munotherapies. His work has received over 12,850 cita tions with an h-index of 61, along with a host of awards and media coverage for advances made by his team.
Professor Karen Wilson was appointed Professor of Catalysis in the School of Science at RMIT University in 2018 and was previously Chair of Catalysis and Research Director of the European Bio energy Research Institute at Aston Uni versity, UK (2013-17), where she also held a prestigious Royal Society Industry Fellowship in collaboration with Johnson Matthey. Prior to this, she was a Reader in Phys ical Chemistry and Senior Lecturer at the Cardiff Cataly sis Institute (2009-13) and University of York (1999-2009) respectively. She obtained her PhD and BA(Hons) from Cambridge University, and MSc from the University of Liverpool. She has published >270 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 73, 18935 citations Google Scholar). Professor Wilson’s research focuses on the development of tune able porous heterogeneous catalysts for use in green and sustainable chemistry and the utilisation of renewable resources in chemical processes. Recent projects have spanned the conversion of biomass from agriculture or for estry waste to fuels and chemicals, to the transformation of bakery waste to additives for application in coatings and polymers. She has also worked on depollution technolo gies to remove organic contaminants from wastewater in the seafood industry and palm and olive oil plantations in South East Asia. She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Zhengzhou University in China and Associate Editor of the Wiley journal Energy and Environmental Ma terials, and the RSC journal Sustainable Energy and Fuels.
Professor Adam Lee was appointed Professor of Sustainable Chemistry in the School of Science at RMIT Universi ty in 2018. He holds a BA(Hons) in Natu ral Sciences and PhD in surface science and catalysis from the University of Cambridge. Following academic positions at Hull and York universities, he has held Chair appointments at Cardiff, Warwick, Monash, and Aston universities, in addition to a prestigious EPSRC Leadership Fellowship. His research ad dresses the rational design of functional materials for sus tainable chemical processes and energy production, and the development of in-situ/operando methods providing molecular insight into surface reactions. He was awarded the 2000 CR Burch Prize by the British Vacuum Council, the 2004 Fonda-Fasella Prize of the Elettra synchrotron, the 2011 McBain Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industry, and the 2012 Beilby Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, IOM3, and the Society of Chemical Industry. Professor Lee’s research interests span heterogeneous catalysis, nanoporous sol ids, green chemistry, and synchrotron science. He has authored over 270 articles (h-index 72, 19,098 citations) and delivered 40 invited plenary and keynote lectures. He has graduated over 30 PhD and MSc students, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Australian Chemical Institute and Associate Fellow of the IChemE and is Editor-in-Chief of Materials Today Chemistry.
Dr Ravi Shukla is an Associate Profes sor of Bioscience & Food Technology. He leads the Targeted Theranostics and NanoBiotechnology research program at the School of Science and coordinates Uni versity’s Biotechnology teaching program. Before join ing RMIT University as a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow in 2011, Dr Shukla received a PhD in Cell Biology followed by a post-doctoral position at NIH’s Cancer Nanotechnology Platform at the University of Missouri, USA. His current research interests revolve around the understanding of materials-biomolecular interactions interfacing cell biol ogy, nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. He has special interests in the design and development of target ed theranostics, molecular biosensors, non-viral nucleic acid delivery, and tissue engineered materials for debili tating diseases including cancer and diabetes. Two of the nanobiotechnology products his team is developing are patented and currently in clinical trials. Dr Shukla serves a co-editor in chief of Current Research in Nutrition & Food Science and an associate Editor for Frontiers in Bio science & Bioengineering. His research has received over 7000 citations with an h-index of 37. He routinely engages with and contributes to the day-to-day University aca demics and has supervised 15 Ph.D., 5 Masters, and over 50 undergraduate researchers through to completion.
ATTRACT AND DEVELOP HIGH PERFORMANCE INNOVATION GLOBALLY.Associate Professor Ravi Shukla Nano-Biotechnology Group Leader Catalysis Group Leader Catalysis Group Leader Nano-Biotechnology Group Leader
Associate Professor Kalpit Shah is currently an acting assistant associ ate dean and professor of chemical and environmental engineering dis cipline at RMIT University. He has re ceived >$25M research funding, published more than 100 Q1 journal articles and holds ten patents, four of which are on the verge of commercialisation. He is one of the few researchers in Australia who has developed fluidised bed technologies/processes from a conceptual level to an industrial scale and has over 20 years of research and industrial consultancy experience. Professor Shah is also currently a Deputy Director (Academic) for the Australian Research Council Funded Traning Centre on Transforming Biosolids. His current research projects include fundamen tal and applied research in the areas of advanced thermochemical conversion systems and waste to value-addition.
Associate Professor James Tardio is a Group Leader of the Resource Utili sation Group. He is a Higher Degree by Research Manager for Chemistry and Environmental Science in the School of Science at RMIT. He obtained a BSc (1st class Honours) in Chemis try from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and a PhD in Industrial Chemistry from RMIT University in 2002. His research interests include minerals processing chemis try, catalysis and water treatment. James has authored over 130 journal articles (h-index 25), graduated over 15 PhD students and received over $2M from multiple re search funding from government and private sources.
Dr Samuel Ippolito
Dr Samuel Ippolito is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering (Electri cal and Biomedical Engineering) at RMIT University. He teaches expan sively across several fields, from em bedded C++ programming, advanced software engineering design and real-time operating sys tems. He also performs fundamental research into sev eral areas within the chemical sciences and advanced functional materials disciplines. This includes investiga tions into machine learning for chemical classification, the development of chemical sensors for H2, NO2, NH3, Hg vapour and VOCs for industrial sensing applications; development and characterisation of metallic, bi-metal lic and metal oxide-based sensitive layers; research into mercury removal technologies for coal-fired power gen eration and alumina refinery effluent control/abatement.
Over the past ten years, Dr Ippolito has worked on large joint industrial research projects with companies in cluding Agilent, Alcoa, ExxonMobil, Newmont Mining and BHP Billiton and helped to commercialise chemi cal sensing technology for the Australian mining in dustry. He has over 120 publications (h-index 36), su pervised 17 PhD students and 1 MSc graduates, and is currently supervising 6 PhD and 1 Master’s students.
Dr Selvakannan Periasamy is a Research Fellow and Group Leader for the Cataly sis Group, where he has been since 2009. His fields of interest are heterogeneous catalysis, CO2 utilization, methane activation, endother mic fuels for high-speed flight vehicles, nanostructured catalysts, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and addi tive manufacturing practices in catalysis. He has 81 pub lications in international peer-reviewed journals, 3 book chapters, and edited a book, with an h-index of 37 (4800 Ci tations). Prior to joining RMIT, Dr Periasamy was a Research Fellow at the University of Paris-Sud, France (2007-09) and a Research Scientist at Innovation Centre, Tata Chemicals Ltd, India (2005-07). He received his PhD (2005) from the National Chemical Laboratory (University of Pune) of In dia. He graduated from the American College, India with a master’s and bachelor’s degree in chemistry (1996-2001).
Dr Ylias Sabri is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering (Chemical and Environmental discipline) at RMIT Uni versity. He is a Group co-leader for Nan otechnology and Sensing within CAMIC, where he leads research in the areas of waste manage ment and pollution control. He has published one book chapter, over 90 journal articles and four major patents. Over the past 12 years, he has worked on several indus trial research projects with companies such as Cement Australia, Agilent Technologies, Rio Tinto, ExxonMobil, Alcoa World Alumina and BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina. Dr Sabri has received several awards including the Me gan Clark award at the RACI Centenary Congress 2017, the RMIT Invention Disclosure award, AINSE travel awards and Surface Science awards. He is constantly looking to develop long-term collaborations in the fields of chemi cal sensor technology developments for pollution con trol as well as waste upcycling to value-added products.
Dr Ruchika Ojha is an inorganic syn thetic chemist and electrochemist performing research in the field of cancer and energy-storage solutions. Her research interest includes syn thesising advanced material, solution and solid-state electrochemical analysis, generation and stabilisation of the metal complexes with rare oxidation states, hydrogen-storage and energy-storage systems. Dr Ojha received her PhD from Monash University in 2017, under the supervision of Prof. Alan Bond, Prof. Glen Dea con and Prof. Peter Junk. After her PhD completion, she worked as a Research Fellow at Monash University (from 2017- to 2019) on an ARC-funded collaborative project between Monash and RMIT Universities. In 2020, she was awarded a Research Fellowship funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) at RMIT University. In this role, she worked on a Proton Flow Reactor system for Electrical Energy Storage.Presently, Dr Ruchika Ojha is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in the STEM College at RMIT. She is working on synthesising novel bimetallic goldplatinum anticancer drugs and undertaking electrochem ical studies to increase their overall anticancer activity. Dr Ojha is a Group Leader of Molecular Engineering Group, CAMIC; a Committee Member of the Women in Chemistry Group, VIC; and a Membership Officer of Electrochemis try Network, RMIT. She is also a proud mum of two kids.
Dr James Chapman
Dr James Chapman is an Associ ate Professor in Chemistry. He is an experienced academic with a demonstrated track record in re search, teaching, and leadership in higher education. James is skilled in Analytical Chemistry, Spectroscopy, and Chemomet rics. His research portfolio centres on developing tools to diagnose and detect biochemicals in complex systems underpinned by spectroscopic/spectrometric and micro scopic methods. The objective of this work is to develop rapid sensors to immediately detect specific events or systems such as disease or pollution based on detect ing biochemical changes in combination with artificially intelligent systems as a means to analyse single mol ecules, cells, or contamination of any complex system.
Professor Madapusi is currently the new Director from the BITS Pi lani Dubai Campus and the former Associate Dean, Chemical and En vironmental Engineering, in the School of Engineering and heads the iRWT (Innovative Resources and Waste Transformation) research group in the School of Engi neering. After completing his studies at Madras University and University of California, Davis, he has been affiliated with CTC Technologies, Inc., University of Texas and Na tional University of Singapore prior to RMIT. His research includes the areas of molecular assembly, application of nanomaterials for energy and environment, resource and energy recovery from waste and biomass, super critical fluids and hydrothermal processing. His recent research has been funded by ARC (Discovery and Link age), AMPC, ECP (RMIT and industry partners), Agency of Science and Technology, National Environment Agency and the Ministry of Education in Singapore. He is an in vited member of the IChemE Energy Leadership Forum and contributes to the high-pressure forum at the yearly American Institute of Chemical Engineers Conferences, the ICMAT. He has contributed to over 200 peer-reviewed publications, with 9,394 citations and an h-index of 47.
Dr Mirzadeh has diverse educational and professional backgrounds in Engi neering (BSc and MSc, 1997 and 2001 respectively), Chemistry (PhD, 2009) and Business (MBA, 2014). Since 2012, she has led the Molecular Engineering Group in CAMIC as Group Leader and Research Fellow. She was awarded the prestigious Endeavour Fellowship at the University of Nottingham in 2014. Her translational research into the development of gold-based anticancer drugs has led to several patents, peer-reviewed publications, re view articles, hot papers and cover articles. Her work has been featured on more than 240 media and online out lets across the world - including the Daily Mail (UK), FO CUS Online and RTL.de (Germany), 7News and SBS (Aus tralia), Innovation Toronto (Canada), Science Daily and SciTech Daily (USA) - reaching over 170 million people.
Dr Mirzadeh is an advocate for and trailblazer in entrepre neurship. Her ‘Entrepreneurship in Science’ workshops have attracted students and early-career researchers at RMIT as well as members of the Royal Australian Chemi cal Institute (RACI) and Science Industry Australia (SIA). Since 2017, she has been the Diversity Champion of Inno vation at RMIT. This is a strategic role to enhance innova tion through diversity and inclusion. She has over two decades of knowledge, expertise and entrepreneurial acumen from her roles as researcher, consultant and ex ecutive. . She is helping to develop an innovation eco system, generate greater impact in research and innova tion, and pro- mote diversity and inclusion in Victoria.
Senior Member
Professor Miao Chen was awarded a PhD in Chemistry in 1998 from Lanzhou University. From 1999-2001, she was a Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck In stitute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. From 2001-2007, Professor Chen was employed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as a Professor at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics where she was a recipient of a significant research grant through the prestigious ‘Hundred Talents Program’. Professor Chen joined CSIRO as a CSIRO OCE Science Leader in 2007. She is a Professor in the School of Chemistry, RMIT Universi ty, leading multidisciplinary team who conduct research across chemistry, materials science, physics and biology. Professor Chen has a keen interest in fundamental issues related to complex and low-grade ore processing (Cu, Au, and Uranium), solid/liquid interfacial chemistry, micro/ nanostructures of thin films, electrochemistry and chemi cal sensing technology, surface lubrication and protec tion. She has over 150 ISI journal papers published with an h-index of 35. She holds over 23 patents and has pre sented at numerous international conferences. Her cur rent research is focus on In situ characterization of surface and interfacial reactions; Solid-state electrochemical sen sors for industrial environmental application; Mineralsolution interfacial chemistry (leaching mechanism and kinetics study with Synchrotron techniques; Low grade ore, mining tailings processing, waste materials pro cess, acid mine drainage management and remediation.
Emer. Prof. Neil Furlong (FTSE), RMIT University and the University of Melbourne
Prof. Martin Bennett (FRS, FRSC, FRACI, FAA), The Australian National University
Prof. Alan Bond (FAA, FRACI), Monash University
Prof. Jochen Petersen, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Prof. Richard Kaner, University of California, USA
Prof. Alexander Blake, The University of Notting ham, United Kingdom
Prof. Kazunari Domen, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Prof. Paul Weiss, University of California, USA
Prof. Karl Föger (FRACI), Ceramic Fuel Cells
Prof. Lakshmi Kantam (FNA), Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India
Prof. Kattesh Katti (FRSC, FNAI), University of Mis souri, USA
Dr Andrew Hind, Agilent Technologies
Dr Raksh Vir Jasra, Reliance Industries
Dr Mark Pownceby, CSIRO
Dr Stephen Grocott, Queensland Pacific Metals
Dr Mohan Rao Chintalagiri (FTWAS, FNA, FASc, FNASc, FAPSc, FTASc), Centre for Cellular & Molecu lar Biology, Hyderabad, India
Dr Murali Sastry, IITB-Monash Academy
Distinguished Professor Andrew Ball, School of Science
Professor Milan Brandt, School of Engineering
Professor Salvy Russo, School of Science
Dr Rajesh Ramanathan, STEM College
Dr Maciej Mazur, STEM College
Dr Ahmad E. Kandjani, CSIRO
Assoc. Prof. Satya Ranjan Sarker, Jahangirnagar, Univer sity, Bangladesh
Dr Jagannath Das, Reliance Industries, India
Dr Ganga Reddy Velma, IICT, India
Bridge the gap between academia and industry.
Dr Hamid Arandiyan is a Se nior Research Fellow within the School of Science. Prior to moving to RMIT, he was award ed a University of Sydney Se nior Research Fellowship in the School of Chemistry in 2018, and Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellowship in the School of Chemical Engineer ing from UNSW in 2015. Dr Arandiyan research spans het erogeneous catalysis, green chemistry, surface science, and chemical science. His fo cus is on the rational design of functional nanomaterials for sustainable chemical pro cesses and energy production and the development and ap plication of in-situ spectros copies for probing metal and oxide interfaces and nano structures. Interests: Cata lysts and process for hydrogen production, environmental catalysis; selective hydroge nation and reaction mecha nisms; CO2 hydrogenation.
Dr Srinivasa Reddy Telukutla obtained a PhD degree in Ap plied Biology and Biotechnol ogy from RMIT University in 2015. Since October 2015, he has been a Postdoctoral Fel low at CAMIC under the direc tion of Professor Suresh Bhar gava. He has published over 55 journal articles in prestigious journals with three cover page articles with 1929 citations an h-index of 28, 2 book chapters and filed patents. His research interests include the synthesis of bioactive small heterocyclic molecules and metal-based (gold and platinum) complex es for cancer chemotherapy and targeted drug delivery.
Dr. Ranjithkumar Jakku re ceived his Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry from RMIT Univer sity, Australia, and completed a Master of Science degree in Chemistry at Osmania Uni versity, India. Currently, he is working as a Postdoctoral Researcher under the su pervision of Prof. Suresh K Bhargava at the Centre for Advanced Materials and In dustrial Chemistry (CAMIC), RMIT. His research interests are developing organic fluoro phores for the ultra-sensitive detection of toxic metal ions. He has also explored his re search on the preparation and characterization of organo metallic complexes, focusing on their reactivity and me dicinal applications. Dr Jakku has multiple publications in international peer-reviewed journals with 1,221 reads.
at the forefront of research and innovation.
Dr Jampaiah Deshetti received his master’s degree in chemis try from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, India in 2010 before completing his PhD in Applied Chemistry un der the supervision of Dr. B. M. Reddy (Indian Institute of Chemical Technology) and Dr. Samuel Ippolito (RMIT Uni versity) in 2016. In 2014, he was awarded the Dr. Megan Clark Excellence award for being the best postgraduate research student in the field of Australian minerals and resources, science and tech nology. From 2016 to 2018, he was a post-doctoral re searcher at CAMIC, under su pervision of Professor Suresh Bhargava and Professor Vipul Bansal. More recently, he has been a visiting post-doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He re turned to CAMIC as a Research Assistant. Dr Deshetti has 61 publications in international peer-reviewed journals with 1,985 citations and an h-index of 25. His research interests include nanomaterial syn thesis and their use in a wide range of energy and environ mental applications such as elemental mercury oxidation, photo- and thermo-catalytic CO2 reduction, biomass valo rization, water-gas shift ca talysis and water-splitting.
Dr. Paramita Koley completed her PhD on 2020 in Applied Chemistry under associate professor James Tardio and Senior Lecturer Dr. Ylias Sa bri at CAMIC. After, she joined as a research assistant in Monash University, Chemi cal Engineering Department. Dr. Koley is perusing now as a post-doctoral research fellow in CAMIC under Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhargava. Dr. Koley has an expertise of synthesising various materials which include metal organic frameworks, zeolites and met al oxide for catalytic purpose as well as expert handling in strumental techniques. Now, she is working in biomass and carbon dioxide conver sion as well as a new aspect of nano-enzyme in bio-catal ysis in CAMIC. She has pub lished well-cited journal, for example ACS Applied mate rial Interface, ACS Sustainable chemistry and Engineering and Sustainable Energy and Fuel. Her research interest in cludes Conversion of biomass derived chemicals into fuel/ fuel additive, Glycerol conver sion into value added chemi cals, Photocatalytic water splitting and CO2 reduction.
Roxanne Hubesch obtained her Bachelor’s and master’s in chemistry in 2011 and 2013 from Université Libre de Brux elles, Belgium. Her Master’s thesis in the group of Prof. Norbert Kruse focused on the kinetic and spectroscop ic studies of an iron-based Fischer-Tropsch catalyst for the production of short ole fins. She pursued two years of research in Chemical Engi neering, working on kinetic modelling of biomass-derived products for Fluid Catalyt ic Cracking, in the group of Prof. Guy Marin at Universit eit Gent, Belgium. In 2017, she joined the group of Prof. Suresh Bhargava at CAMIC, as a doctoral student. Her work focused on the interaction of binders and zeolites under su percritical conditions during catalytic cracking. Recently, the functionalization of addi tive manufactured supports with zeolites and its unex pected and promising results as an application for heat management of high-speed flight vehicles has shown a lot of interest from the communi ty. Her research focuses now on the use of additive manu factured materials as cata lyst supports, their testing in catalysis and the fundamen tal understanding of AM sup port and catalyst interaction.
Dr Jampaiah Deshetti
Professor Raghunath A. Mashelkar, FRS, FREng, FAA Academy of Science and Innovative Research, India.
Professor Mashelkar is a Na tional Research Professor at the National Chemical Laboratory, India, Chairman of India’s Na tional Innovation Foundation and President of the Global Re search Alliance. He was previ ously the Director General of the Council of Scientific and In dustrial Research (1995-2006), Professor Mashelkar was the third Indian engineer elected as Fel low of the Royal Society (FRS) in the twentieth century. He was also elected Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Science (2005), Foreign Fellow of US Na tional Academy of Engineering (2003) and Fellow of US National Academy of Inventors (2017) among many others. He has won over 50 awards and medals in cluding the Material the TWASLenovo Science Prize (2018).
42 universities over the world have bestowed honorary doctorates on Dr Mashelkar. He has been a Vis iting Professor of various univer sity worldwide including Harvard University (2007-2012). The Presi dent of India has honoured him with some of the highest civilian honours in India, in recognition of his contribution to the nation.
The University of Tokyo and Shinshu, Japan
Professor Kazunari Domen is a Professor at Department of Chem ical System Engineering, Universi ty of Tokyo, where he also received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD. He is also a Professor at the Center for Ener gy & Environmental Science, Shin shu University, Nagano, Japan.
His research interests include de veloping photocatalysts for water splitting and solar hydrogen pro duction, investigating the reaction mechanisms of heterogeneous catalysis by infrared spectros copy, studying surface reaction dynamics by nonlinear laser spec troscopy and developing of new functional materials for catalysis.
He has published more than 400 research papers and 80 reviews.
Professor Domen has received numerous prizes including the Encouragement Prize, Catalysis Society of Japan (1990), Catalyst Preparation Awards (1991), Ca talysis Society of Japan Awards (2007), The Chemical Society of Japan Awards (2011), the Ja pan Petroleum Institute Award (2018), the Japanese Photo chemistry Association Lecture ship Award (2018) and the Lee Hsun Lecture Award (2018).
Dr Stephen Grocott has 40 years’ experience in minerals process ing, process development and in dustrial chemistry. He has worked on projects covering nickel lat erites and sulfides, bauxite, alu mina, uranium, titania, copper, cobalt, rare earths, shale oil and biofuels. Prior to joining QPM he was Chief Technical Development Officer with Clean TeQ, and prior to that Stephen led Rio Tinto’s, and BHP Billiton’s global mineral processing and hydrometallurgy technical development. He has also worked around the world for Alcoa, Comalco, Southern Pacific Petroleum and Worsley Alumina.
Stephen holds a BSc (Hons) and PhD in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Western Australia. He is a Fellow of the RACI and AusIMM and is a mem ber of AIChE, SME, ACS and TMS. He has jointly supervised 6 PhD students, published more than 40 refereed papers and 7 patents. He has written more than 200 tech nical industrial reports. He is an Adjunct Professor in Applied Sci ences at RMIT University. He has worked extensively with and con tinues to work with CSIRO, CRCs, and International universities.
Professor Murali Sastry, CEO, IITB-Monash Research Academy, India
Professor Murali Sastry is a materi al chemist, nanomaterial scientist and the CEO of IITB-Monash Re search Academy. He is the former chief scientist at Tata Chemicals and a former scientist at the Na tional Chemical Laboratory, India.
Professor Sastry has close to 25 years of experience in the field of materials chemistry. He is an author of over 400 international publications, 10 book chapters and an inventor of 205 Indian and US patents. According to Elsevier Scopus, Professor Sastry was one of the world’s most cited materials scientists in recent years. He has over 35,000 citations (h-index 84).
Professor Sastry has served on the International Advisory Board of seven leading chemistry journals and the advisory boards of various government departments. His cur rent research interests include de veloping new industrially-relevant renewable materials, ethical is sues in nanomaterial application, and addressing societal challeng es via cutting-edge technology.
Emeritus Professor Alan Bond, FAA, FRSC, Monash Uni versity, Australia
Emeritus Professor Alan Bond was the R. L. Martin Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Monash University from 2004-2011. He has held prestigious ARC Fed eration and Professorial Fellow ships. He was the Deputy Direc tor of the ARC Special Centre for Green Chemistry, in which he is still active. Prof Bond has an out standing track record in electro chemistry. He has published over 900 research papers, 4 books, 11 book chapters and 11 patents.
His international standing in the area has been recognised by the highest awards in the field, includ ing the Gold Medal of the Interna tional Society of Electrochemistry (2014), the Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry Elec trochemistry Group (2000) and the Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Electrochemistry (1997). In ad dition, he has obtained many na tional awards, including the Craig Medal of the Australian Academy of Science for outstanding ca reer contributions to Chemistry.
Prof. Robin Batterham is the past President of the Australian Acade my of Technological Sciences and Engineering (2007-2012), former Chief Scientist of Australia (19992006) and past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He has been named several times in Engineers Australia’s list of the 100 Most Influential Engineers. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in Chemical Engi neering in 1965 and obtained his PhD in 1969. Prof. Batterham is a Fellow by election of many presti gious academies around the world including the Australian Academy of Science, the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Roy al Academy of Engineering (UK). Prof. Batterham is the recipient of the Kernot Medal from the Univer sity of Melbourne, the President’s Medal of the Australian Sugar Cane Technologists, the Chemeca Med al and the Esso Award for Chemi cal Engineering. He is a member of the Order of Australia and has three doctorates (honoris causa).
Professor Robin Batterham, AO, FAA, FTSE , The University of Melbourne, Australia
CAMIC is driven to train the next generation of scientists to be leaders in their fields. We believe in providing a high-quality learning environment for our postgraduate students and ensuring that they have a broad professional skill set that will ensure employment in industry and academia. Since 2015, CAMIC has mentored over 140 HDR students with a focus on diversity and gender with a total of 69 graduate HDR students graduate.
As of the end of 2021, we had over 25 HDR graduate students, the largest group since
2015. Despite the difficulties and uncertainty faced in the last couple of years, the strength of our centre and the model that we have devel oped saw an exponential increase from 2019 to 2021 in the number of HDR completions. CAMIC is committed to providing a training envi ronment to people from all backgrounds with a gender balance reaching near-parity. The director has also taken it upon himself to provide HDR su pervision for disabled candidates, to ensure that disability is no barrier to excellent scholarship.
CAMIC actively promotes diversity and inclu sion within its HDR program. The Centre main tains an outstanding gender balance among its HDR students.
We are preparing students for the globalised world of work
We
work and life.
RMIT Senior Supervisor: Dr. James Tardio
IICT Senior Supervisor: Dr. Lingaiah Nakka
Being a part of IICT-RMIT joint PhD program has been a wonderful experience for me. The expertise I gained to operate a wide range of instruments at the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility (RMMF) was particularly rewarding. Access to this equipment has been highly beneficial in improving my research skills. My supervisors assisted and encouraged me throughout my candidature, and, with their guid ance and support, I successfully completed my PhD research project and developed an independent and innovative approach to solve real-world scientific problems.
National Chemical Laboratory RMIT Senior Supervisor: Dr Lathe Jones AcSIR Senior Supervisor: Dr Manjusha V. Shelke
America University of Missouri George UniversityWashington University of California University of Saskatch ewan University of Windsor
CAMIC has a long history of collab oration with experts worldwide. This includes a network of 100 researchers across 25 countries, greatly expanding CAMIC’s knowl edge base and technical capabili ties.
Some of the countries that are part of our global network are:
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRIA
BANGLADESH
BELGIUM CANADA CHINA FRANCE GERMANY INDIA ITALY
JAPAN
MALAYSIA
NEPAL
SAUDI ARABIA
SOUTH AFRICA
SPAIN
SWITZERLAND
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
EUROPE
University of Technology
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Universidad de Granada University of Geneva University of Geneva University of Berne
Cardiff Catalysis Institute University of Nottingham University of Manchester University of Bordeaux University of Cologne
TU FreibergBergakademie
Jacobs University University of Wurzburg Istituto Italiano Di Tec nologia
Fritz-Haber Institute
india ICT, IITB, CSIR Amity University Central Universityof Gujarat Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP)
Climate change and global pandemics motivate gov ernment, industry, and academia to collaboratively develop research and innovation for detecting and measuring environmental changes. CAMIC as a solu tion pioneer, has been actively collaborating for over a decade across the globe.
SOUTH AFRICA, University of Cape Town
Australia Queensland Pacific Metals Rio Tinto
Monash University Flinders University Clean TeQ Limited University of Melbourne
Australian National Uni versity University of Sydney CSIRO
Bioelektra
Regain Materials, Australia University of New SouthWales University of Queensland
ASIA
University of Hong Kong Jahangirnagar University University of Tokyo Osaka University University of Tsukuba Kyushu University University of Malaya NRLBB
King Saud University
CAMIC is highly competitive in obtaining research contracts and funding. Securing income in the form of competitive grants from government, industry and other in stitutions allows CAMIC to pursue its research goals, upskill its highly trained workforce, and continue to create cutting-edge innovation.
CAMIC’s research income re ceived in 2021 was $6,500,000 representing an exception ally positive outcome consider ing CAMIC also focuses largely on Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) students and supervisions.
Available figures show that 2021 delivered remarkable growth in research funding and interna tional income. CAMIC has per formed above and beyond expec tations, generating a significant increase of 63% from 2020 to 2021 during a global pandemic.
CAMIC is not taking this trend for granted. It has set an achievable target of a 10% growth in research funding and international income per annum in the following years. Unfortunately, travel restrictions and border closures arising from the global pandemic resulted in a decrease in international research income in 2020. Despite this, with a strong global outlook, CAMIC presented an agile increase of 76% in international research income in 2021.
External
Any figures used in this report are from the best avail able data at the time of reporting from RMIT University’s R&I’s Research Master database. It is reasonable to as sume the centre performed above the figures shown here.
Astounding collaborations and teamwork.
Back on track after 2020, a year of challenges.
Constant evaluation of our targets and objectives to hold ourselves accountable.
In 2020 CAMIC set an objective to aim for more than 85% of publications in Q1 journals. According to the fig ures provided to the centre by RMIT Research Data Analytics and Report ing, in 2021, 88% of our research out puts were featured in Q1 journals.
Despite the challenges of 2020 and 2021, CAMIC has thrived in its mis sion of being an academic platform for research relevance. This success is underpinned by its strength in re
search excellence, as demonstrated by its publication of 137 peer-re viewed articles in highly esteemed journals in 2021. Such research out puts have led to international rec ognition, including featuring on the 5 cover pages of leading journals, as is shown in this section. Partici pated in several International and National conferences within (re strictions), leading to 4 conference publications. Registered 5 new pat ents. Completed 12 book chapters.
Arandiyan, SS Mofarah, Y Wang, C. CazorlaImpact of Surface Defects on LaNiO3 Perovskite Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (Chem. Eur. J. 58/2021)Chemistry–A European Journal, 2021
Derek Hao, Yang Liu, Shuyan Gao, Hamidreza Arandiyan, et al.,Materials Today, Volume 46,2021,Page iii, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mat tod.2021.03.023.
Chem. Soc. Rev., 50, 2021
Hamidreza Arandiyan, Sajjad S. Mofarah, Yuan Wang, Zongping Shao et al., Defect engineering of oxide perovskites for catalysis and energy storage: synthesis of chemistry and materials science
1. Ana-María Pablo-Sainz-Ezquerra, Ramanathan R., Bansal, V., Chevolot, Y., Monnier, V., 2021 Gold-seeded lithium niobate nanoparticles as NanoZyme biosensors. sensors, vol. 8, p. 10.
2. Balendhran, S., Ingle, A., Yan, W., Azar, N. S., Kim, H., Ramanathan, R., Crozier, K. 2021. Longwave Infrared Photoresponse in Copper 7, 7, 8, 8-tetracyano-2, 3, 5, 6-tetraflouroquinodimethane (CuTCNQF 4). Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & Eu ropean Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC). IEEE. pp.1-1
3. Hill, D. , Williamson, T. , Lai, C. , Leary, M. , Brandt, M. & Choong, P. 2021, ‘A Novel Robot with a Toroidal Workspace for Coring Applications’, AIM 2021, Delft, Netherlands, pp. 548 - 553.
4. Tino, R. , Yeo, A. , Brandt, M. , Leary, M. & Kron, T. 2021, ‘Interlace deposition: a method for 3D printing bone-like HU values for phantom imaging studies’, Engineering and Physical Sciences in Medicine, Brisbane, Australia (VIRTUAL), pp. 963 - 963.
New Hydrogen sensor.
The high demand for H2 gas sensors is not just limited to industrial process control and leak detection applications but also extends to the food and medical industry to determine the presence of various types of bacteria or underlying medical conditions.
The technology on the patent ‘A chemiresistive substrate for a hydrogen gas sensor’ is currently being tested by Infinity Fuels who are contrac tors to NASA. The sensor is made with an electronic chip covered with photonic crystals and a titanium palladium composite.
The high performance of the sensor makes it attractive for applications that require low-level H2 gas detection.
A chemiresistive substrate for a hydrogen gas sensor04
Sabri, Y., Bhargava, S., Alenezy, E., Ippolito, S. J., Kandjani, A. E. PCT/AU2021/051274.
Bansal, V., Singh, M., Ramanathan, R., & Anderson, A. 2021. U.S. Patent Application No. 17/057,626.
Apparatus, method and system for monitoring.
Vepsäläinen, M., Chen, M., Molenaar, D. and Kilpatrick, A., Industrial Research Organiza tion CSIRO, 2021. U.S. Patent Application 16/340,744.
Brandt, M., Dietrich, J. and Kelbassa, I., Sie mens Energy Global GmbH and Co KG, 2021. U.S. Patent 11,155,502.
Kalpit, S.H.A.H., Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Ltd, 2021. U.S. Patent Application 17/058,760.
Taking research and innovation beyond the Lab.
Method for preparing an aqueous dispersion of metal oxide particles.
Method to additively manufacture a fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composite
A pyrolysis reaction system and method of pyrolysing an organic feed.
1. Arandiyan, H., Wang, Y., Parlett, C.M. and Lee, A.F., 2021. Hierarchical and Anisotropic Nanostructured Catalysts. Heterogeneous Catalysts: Advanced Design, Characterization and Applications, 1, pp.161-181.
2. Balasubramanian, V., Haque, N., Bhargava, S., Madapusi, S. and Parthasarathy, R. 2021 ‘Techno-economic evaluation of renewable hydrogen to ammonia pathway’, Chemeca 2021: Advance, Disrupt and Sustain, 1, 1, 2021, 310. Engineers Australia.
3. Balasubramanian, V., Haque, N., Bhargava, S., Madapusi, S. and Parthasarathy, R., 2021. Techno-economic evaluation methodology for hydrogen energy systems. In Bioenergy Resources and Technologies (pp. 237-260). Academic Press.
4. Bhosale, S.V., Al Kobaisi, M., Jadhav, R.W. and Jones, L.A., 2021. Flower Like Superstructures: Structural Features, Applications and Future Perspectives. The Chemical Record, 21(2), pp.257-283.
5. Daima, H.K., Kothari, S.L. and Kumar, B.S. eds., 2021. Nano toxicology: toxicity evaluation of nanomedicine applications. CRC Press.
6. Halder, P., Patel, S., Kundu, S., Pramanik, B., Parthasarathy, R. and Shah, K., 2021. Potential of ionic liquid applications in natural gas/biogas sweetening and liquid fuel cleaning process. In Bioenergy Resources and Technologies (pp. 121-154). Academic Press.
7. Islam, M. , Somerville, M. , Pownceby, M. , Tardio, J. , Haque, N. & Bhargava, S. 2021, ‘Experimental Determination of Liquidus Temperature and Phase Equilibria of the CaO–Al2O3–SiO2–Na2O Slag System Relevant to E-Waste Smelting’ in Rare Metal Technology 2021Springer Nature, USA, pp. 265 - 276.
8. Mettu, S. , Halder, P. , Patel, S. , Kundu, S. , Shah, K. , Yao, S. , Hathi, Z. , Ong, K. , Athukoralalage, S. , Roy Choudhury, N. , Dutta, N. & Lin, C. 2021, ‘Valorisation of Agricultural Waste Residues’ in Waste Valori sationJohn Wiley & Sons, United States, pp. 51 - 85.
9. Molotnikov, Andrey, Alex Kingsbury, and Milan Brandt. “Cur rent state and future trends in laser powder bed fusion technology.” Fundamentals of Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Metals. Elsevier, 2021. 621634.
10. Naveen Prasad, S., Bansal, V., & Ramanathan, R. 2021. Nanozyme-Based Sensors for Pesticide Detection. In Nanozymes for Environmental Engineering pp. Springer, Cham. 145-175.
11. Periasamy, S., Dumbre, D., Babu, L., Madapusi, S., Soni, S. K., Daima, H. K., & Bhargava, S. K. 2021. Amino Acids Functionalized Inorganic Metal Nanoparticles: Synthetic Nanozymes for Target Specific Binding, Sensing and Catalytic Applications. In Nanozymes for Environ mental Engineering. Springer, Cham.
12. Selvakannan, P.R., Hoang, L., Kumar, V.V., Dumbre, D., Jam paiah, D., Das, J. and Bhargava, S.K., 2021. Selective Hydrogenation of 1, 3-Butadiene to 1-Butene: Review on Catalysts, Selectivity, Kinetics and Reaction Mechanism. Catalysis for Clean Energy and Environmental Sustainability, pp.205-228.
1. Ainembabazi, D. , Horlyck, J. , Dolan, D. , Finn, M. , Lee, A. , Wilson, K. & Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal, A. 2021, ‘Multifunctional Cata lysts for Direct Conversion of Alcohols to Long-Chain Hydrocarbons via Deoxygenative Olefination’, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, vol. 9, no.44, pp. 14657 - 14662.
2. Ainembabazi, D., Horlyck, J., Dolan, D., Lee, A., Wilson, K. and Voutchkova-Kostal, A., 2021. Direct conversion of alcohols to long-chain hydrocarbons via tandem dehydrogenation-decarbonylative olefina tion.
3. Alghamdi, A. , Downing, D. , Tino, R. , Almalki, A. , Macon achie, T. , Lozanovski, B. , Brandt, M. , Ma, M. & Leary, M. 2021, ‘Buckling phenomena in AM lattice strut elements: A design tool applied to Ti-6Al4V LB-PBF’, Materials and Design, vol. 208, pp. 1 - 14.
4. Andrews, J., Ojha, R., Niya, S.M.R. and Seibt, S., 2021. Elec trochemical storage reactions of hydrogen in activated carbon from phenolic resin. Catalysis Today.
5. Arandiyan, H. , Wang, Y. , Deshetti, J. , Wilson, K. , Lee, A. F.& Et Al, . 2021, ‘Impact of Surface Defects on LaNiO3 Perovskite Electro catalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction’, Chemistry - A European Journal, vol. 27, no.58, pp. 14418 - 14426.
6. Arandiyan, H., Mofarah, S.S., Sorrell, C.C., Doustkhah, E., Sajjadi, B., Hao, D., Wang, Y., Sun, H., Ni, B.J., Rezaei, M. and Shao, Z., 2021. Defect engineering of oxide perovskites for catalysis and energy storage: synthesis of chemistry and materials science. Chemical Society Reviews, 50(18), pp.10116-10211.
7. Arumugam, M. , Goh, C. , Zainal, Z. , Triwahyono, S. , Lee, A. , Wilson, K. & Taufiq-Yap, Y. 2021, ‘Hierarchical hzsm 5 for catalytic crack ing of oleic acid to biofuels’, Nanomaterials, vol. 11, no.3, pp. 1 - 11.
8. Bajaj, N. , Periasamy, S. , Singh, R. , Tachibana, Y. , Daeneke, T. & Chiang, K. 2021, ‘The catalytic decomposition of carbon dioxide on zinc-exchanged Y-zeolite at low temperatures’, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, vol. 96, pp. 2675 - 2680.
9. Balapitiya Liyanage, P. , Weerathunge, P. , Singh, M. , Bansal, V. & Ramanathan, R. 2021, ‘L-cysteine as an irreversible inhibitor of the peroxidase-mimic catalytic activity of 2-dimensional ni-based nano zymes’, Nanomaterials, vol. 11, no.5, pp. 1 - 14.
10. Balendhran, S. , Hussain, Z. , Ramanathan, R. , Bansal, V.& Et Al, . 2021, ‘Copper Tetracyanoquinodimethane (CuTCNQ): A MetalOrganic Semiconductor for Room-Temperature Visible to Long-Wave Infrared Photodetection’, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 13, no.32, pp. 38544 - 38552.
RMIT University
