Research People

Dr Alice Payne is a Professor and Dean of the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT. Her research focuses on environmental and social sustainability issues throughout the life cycle of clothing. Recent work has examined labour issues in the cotton value chain, as well as technologies to address the problem of textile waste. Alice was part of the Australian Fashion Council-led consortium designing the National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme. She is author of the book Designing Fashion's Future, co-editor of Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, and is an award-winning designer and educator. 

Professor Rajiv Padhye is the Director, Centre for materials Innovation and Future Fashion (CMIFF) at the School of Fashion and Textiles. Rajiv has published 5 co-edited books, 12 book chapters and over 250 research papers in high ranked periodicals and journals and presented at the National and International refereed Conferences.  Rajiv has completed number of funded research projects worth $ 8.3 million as a chief investigator mainly with Defence Materials Technology Centre, Victorian Government, Australian Wool Innovation and other industry partners.  Rajiv was involved in designing, making and assessing various textile products for army, police and fire-fighters uniforms and sports applications to enhance performans aqnd comfort. He has worked with CSIRO nad RMIT STEM on Nano-fibre drug delivery systems, tissue engineeringb and other mediacl applications.  Rajiv has three joint Patents and a commercialisation agreement. He holds two joint patents on “Soft Ballistic fabric” and “Deployable air bags” and two commercialisation agreement one with GRT Pty ltd on Abrasion resistive fabric in sports application and second with Bruck Textiles on Application of sensors in fire fighter’s uniform. Rajiv has been honoured by RMIT University with “Research Leadership Award” “Research Excellence Team Award” and “Media Person” award. Rajiv is the Fellow of the Textile Institute (FTI) UK. He was a vice President of Textile Institute Southern Australia section and currently a member of Textile Institute (uk), Society of Dyers and Colourists for Australia and AUTEX (Association of Universities for Textiles). Rajiv has completed his undergraduate degrees from the Mumbai University, India and Doctoral (Ph D) degree from the University of Leeds, UK.

Andrea Eckersley is the Higher Degrees by Research Delegated Authority (HDR DA) in the School of Fashion and Textiles in the College of Design and Social Context. She is an artist and creative practice researcher working at the intersection of painting, fashion and design.    Grounded in contemporary social theory and creative practice, Andrea’s research and teaching emphasises the construction and exhibition of new forms (garments and paintings), as a means of interrogating the affective and embodied experience of place, identity and community. These themes are canvassed in her scholarly publications and are the focus of her exhibition practice. Andrea is the art editor at the Deleuze and Guattari Studies Journal and has exhibited at Alta Forma, Sarah Scout Presents, Mejia, Platform Public Contemporary Art Spaces, Anna Pappas Gallery, Nellie Castan Gallery, Craft Victoria, c3 and West Space in Melbourne.