People

Gary Bryant is Associate Dean (Physics) in the School of Science, and has been at RMIT since 1996. His PhD is from the UNSW (1991) and he conducted research in the USA, Germany the UK and France. His research interests are in the application of Scattering techniques to problems in biological physics and soft matter, including the biology of extreme environments; and the study of dynamics of particles and motile organisms.

Tam Greaves is a Assistant Associate Dean (Physics) at RMIT University, and has been at RMIT since 2014. Tam completed her Ph.D. in Experimental Physics in 2004 at Monash University, Australia. In 2005 she joined the group of Prof. Drummond at CSIRO as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She is a frequent user of the Australian Synchrotron SAXS/WAXS beamline, past co-chair of the Program Advisory Committee for this beamline, and member of the advisory committee for the BioSAXS beamline which is being built over the next 3 years.

Peter Daivis is a Professor in the Physics Discipline, of the School of Science at RMIT with a background in experimental, computational and theoretical soft matter physics. He began his scientific career with Masters and PhD degrees in experimental studies of diffusion in binary and ternary polymer solutions using dynamic light scattering and pulsed gradient spin echo NMR. 

Dr Martin is an Associate Professor and former Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT. He develops x-ray scattering techniques to probe the nanostructure of disordered materials in 3D, with diverse potential applications including liquid crystals, self-assembly, colloids and phase transitions.

Dr. Aaron Elbourne is a Research Fellow within the School of Science at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is currently the recipient of a Jack Brockhoff Foundation Early Career Medical Research Fellowship and an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). 

Saffron did her bachelor in biomedical science in Townsville, her PhD in chemistry in Sydney, an industry-focused post-doc in the UK, and now works in the physics department at RMIT, making her both geographically and disciplinarily ‘well-travelled’. Saffron’s main research focus is applying deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids to real world problems, including cryopreservation, antimicrobial treatments, and advanced materials synthesis. 

Philipp is an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Research Fellow at RMIT University and an associate investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics. Philipp graduated in Physics from the University of Munich (LMU) and received his PhD in Materials Engineering from Monash University, Melbourne, in 2014.

Andrew received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Montana State University, USA, and a PhD in chemistry with a focus on computational chemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK. Following postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing, China, he joined RMIT University as a research fellow in 2012.

Qi (Hank) Han obtained his PhD degree at Deakin University in 2018, and is experienced in analysing protein structure and function and developing ionic liquid solvents for proteins and biopolymers. Currently, Hank is a research fellow at RMIT, working on developing solvent systems for protein stabilization and crystallization and understanding the solvent effect. 

Dr Vaishnavi Krishnamurthi received her PhD from RMIT University, Australia, in 2021. Her PhD research focused on synthesizing large-area 2D semiconductors for optoelectronic and neuromorphic applications. She is currently a research fellow at RMIT University, focusing on understanding the fundamental aspects of liquid metals and colloidal systems through neutron-based studies. 

Peter Sherrell is a Senior Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow in the School of Science since 2023. He graduated his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wollongong in 2012. He was worked internationally at Linkoping University, Sweden (2013-2015), and as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship at Imperial College London (2015-2018). 

Dr. Tu Le is a leader in the field of Machine Learning for Materials Science and Engineering, with a focus on the development and optimization of advanced, functional materials for clean energy, environmental sustainability, and healthcare applications. Her research spans diverse domains such as metal organic frameworks for CO2 capture, liquid metal alloys for CO2 reduction, perovskites for photocatalysts, metallic materials for additive manufacturing, and polymers with antimicrobial activities. 

Charlotte Conn is a Professor of Biophysical Chemistry in the School of Science. Her research interests focus on the development and structural characterisation of advanced lipid-based nanomaterials using high-throughput experimentation, advancing our understanding of the interactions of these materials with a range of cell-types, and the application of these materials in the delivery of protein, peptide and RNA-based therapeutics.

Dr Jiali (Maggie) Zhai is an Associate Professor in School of Science, RMIT University. Her research interests focus on developing lipid and polymer nanoparticle delivery platforms for targeted delivery of bioactives and therapeutics, including mRNAs, proteins, chemotherapeutics, antimicrobials and imaging agents. She has pioneered the use of high throughput materials screening approach and synchrotron time-resolved X-ray scattering technique to elucidate the mechanisms of endosomal escape and nano-bio interactions. 

Lei Bao is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at RMIT University, Australia. She joined RMIT in late 2014 after she completed the Endeavour Fellowship in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Melbourne. 

Izabela Milogrodzka is a Research Fellow in the Soft Matter Group at RMIT University, focusing on improving cryopreservation methods for bovine oocytes and embryos. She has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Monash University and a strong background in biomaterials and soft matter science. Previously, as a Beamline Scientist at the Australian Synchrotron, she developed advanced SAXS/WAXS techniques to study structural dynamics in biological systems.

Kenny was born and raised in Sydney, NSW, and completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of New South Wales with Associate Professor Jason Harper. During his studies, Kenny investigated the physicochemical properties of novel ionic liquids and how they could be used to control chemical reactions using several analytical techniques, specialising in several nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to study these systems.

Amanda is a Research Fellow in the School of Science at RMIT University. She is a cell biologist, currently researching the cryopreservation of mammalian cells and bovine embryos. She completed her PhD at RMIT University, which focused on the long-term toxicity of silver nanoparticles on human cells. In her previous post-doctoral role with ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, she researched the use of nanodiamonds for biomedical imaging and developing “smart” wound dressings.

Shakil is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Science at RMIT University. His research focuses on antimicrobial biomaterials, nanotechnology, and soft materials for biomedical applications. He works with a range of materials, including metal–organic frameworks, gold nanoparticles, and eutectic gels.

Dr. Haitao Yu received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China) in 2013, followed by an M.Sc by Research in Chemical Engineering from University of Birmingham (U.K.) in 2015. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from RMIT University (Australia) in 2018. Since then, he has held research positions at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne. 

Brendan Dyett is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow in the School of Science at RMIT University. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Melbourne in 2016, before undertaking postdoctoral research across RMIT's Schools of Engineering and Science. His research lies at the intersection of soft matter, interface science and nanomedicine, with a particular focus on the self-assembly and interactions of lipid nanoparticles with biological membranes.