Jiali (Maggie) Zhai

Dr Jiali (Maggie) Zhai is an Associate Professor of chemistry in School of Science, and is one of the HDR managers within the school. Prior to joining RMIT, she was awarded a CSIRO Office of the Chief Executive Postdoctoral Fellowship. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from Monash University.

A/Prof Zhai leads a multidisciplinary and diverse research group working at the interface of materials engineering, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, chemical engineering, biochemistry, colloid and surface science, and advanced synchrotron science. Her research spans polymers, soft matter, lipids, proteins, carbon-based materials, porous materials, hydrogels, microgels, 3D-printed materials and functional biomaterials, with applications in drug delivery, controlled release, tissue regeneration, health and food technologies. A/Prof Zhai has extensive expertise in synchrotron- and neutron-based techniques, including small-angle X-ray scattering, spectroscopy, circular dichroism, X-ray fluorescence microscopy, small-angle neutron scattering and neutron reflectometry, and their application across diverse materials engineering systems. Her research using high-throughput combinatorial synthesis and synchrotron SAXS has made significant contributions to understanding lipid and polymer self-assembly in complex systems, including ternary and quaternary systems of responsive ionisable lipids, block copolymers, proteins, hydrogels, phospholipids, fatty acids, ionic additives, emulsions and food materials.

A/Prof Zhai has attracted research funding of over $3m from ARC, NHMRC, ANSTO, CSIRO, mRNA Victoria, CASS Foundation, Dust Diseases Board, and a range of university and organisational schemes, as both lead Chief Investigator and co-Chief Investigator. Her international research standing is demonstrated by publications in leading journals including JACS, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Nano, Advanced Science, Advanced Functional Materials and Accounts of Chemical Research, as well as numerous invited plenary and keynote presentations at international conferences. She has published over 80 journal articles, with more than 4,000 citations and an h-index of 38. To date, she has supervised 8 PhD students to completion. She was awarded a Victoria Fellowship (2020), an Australasian Colloid and Interface Society Lectureship (2022), and an ANSTO Research Award (2023). She is also a recipient of the Australian Academy of Science European Mobility Grant 2025. 

A/Prof Zhai currently serves as the Chair of the Australian Synchrotron User Advisory Committee (UAC) and the Treasurer of the Australian Chapter of the Controlled Release Society.