Associate Professor Paul Wright
Details
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Department: Health and Biomedical Sciences
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Campus: Bundoora West Australia
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paul.wright@rmit.edu.au
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ORCID:
0000-0002-5722-6161
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Media enquiries
About
Paul Wright is Associate Professor of Immunotoxicology in the Department of Clinical Sciences of the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University and an Adjunct of the School of Chemistry at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
He is the immediate past president of the Australasian College of Toxicology and Risk Assessment (ACTRA, 2019-23), and a Fellow of both ACTRA and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and a former elected Director of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX).
Paul is a researcher in toxicology, nanotoxicology/nanosafety, natural product development and the safety of Australian native foods, supported by external government and industry grants, and is an appointed toxicology expert on various government and university panels.
Paul teaches toxicology at several universities and institutions while based at RMIT University for over 3 decades, including for the Masters of Green Chemistry and Sustainable Technologies since it commenced in 2022 at Monash University. He was also the Program Co-ordinator of the world's first fully online Toxicology postgraduate program, hosted at RMIT. He received an ACTRA Award of Merit in 2023 in Recognition of Excellence in Toxicology Education, and contributed to Edith Cowan University’s new short course in Applied Toxicology.
Supervisor projects
- : Additively manufactured zinc alloys for biomedical applications
- 29 Jul 2025
- 3D Printing of Polylactic Acid and Zinc Oxide Nanocomposites for Biomedical Applications
- 18 Jan 2024
- Evaluating the Dietary Safety of Australian Native Foods
- 4 Mar 2020
- Investigation of Scymnol and Other Bile Natural Products in Models of Cholesterol-Related Disease
- 3 Mar 2014
- Enhancing wound repair with marine natural products and nanoparticles
- 27 Feb 2012
- An Investigation of the In Vitro Toxicity of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles in UV-irradiated Skin Cells
- 1 Mar 2010
Teaching interests
For over 30 years, Paul has been a leading Australian educational toxicologist with extensive experience in educational development and practice in the field of Toxicology at 5 Australian universities (i.e. Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Monash and RMIT Universities). Based at RMIT since 1992, this has involved planning, development, reviewing, restructuring and lecturing of new undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including the world’s first fully-online Toxicology postgraduate programs (as Program Co-ordinator between 2001-2010 of the GD103 Grad. Dip. in Toxicology; MC114 Masters of Applied Science in Toxicology, and also Co-ordinator of 8 of the 10 courses). In 2020, he also co-authored/presented the RMIT online micro-credential “Understanding Responsible Research and Innovation” based on findings of the EU Horizon GoNano project.
He is the invited toxicology lecturer for the Masters of Green Chemistry and Sustainable Technologies since it commenced in 2022 at the School of Chemistry, Monash University. In 2023, Paul received the Australasian College of Toxicology & Risk Assessment (ACTRA) Award of Merit “in recognition of excellence in toxicology education as well as outstanding dedication and exceptional service to ACTRA as President from 2019-23” – the 4th Award of Merit and only education-related award in ACTRA’s 17-year history. He is also a major contributor to the new online short course in Applied Toxicology at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia.
Paul was recently the invited international toxicology lecturer to the PhD Winter School in “Green Chemical Synthesis for Circular Economy” at the University of Padua, Italy (Feb., 2025). This followed several invited international educational-related positions and activities, including the EU “GoNano” Winter School for nanotechnologists at RMIT Europe in Barcelona, Spain (Feb. 2020, as invited speaker and panelist receiving satisfaction ratings of 4.2/5 in learning experience evaluations); invited author of the Australian chapter in “Information Resources in Toxicology” (4th & 5th Eds); member of the “Toxlearn” Working Group of U.S. Society of Toxicology (co-authoring “Toxlearn” online tutorials that were hosted at TOXNET); and invited international conference presentations on online toxicology education.
Research interests
Toxicology relating to the fields of: Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanotechnology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Condensed Matter Physics, Clinical Sciences, Public Health and Health Services.
Paul Wright has been an active researcher since commencing his PhD project in toxicology in 1984 at Adelaide University. As one of Australia’s foremost academic toxicologists, his research specializations include immuno- and biochemical toxicology, nanotoxicology, nanosafety, natural products research, food toxicology, and in vitro test systems for efficacy and safety testing.
Paul has supervised 8 postdoctoral/research/senior fellows (mainly paid from his industry and government research grants). He has been supervisor or co-supervisor of numerous research students including 20 PhD, 3 Masters by research, 35 Masters of Toxicology by coursework research projects and 35 Honours BAppSc/BBiomedSci students.
