Meet Paul Dastoor
MA, PhD (Cantab)
Why did you join the University Council?
I joined the University Council because I believe the University is at a pivotal moment and needs strong, informed academic voices at the governance table. My goal is to help steer the institution toward a more confident, transparent and academically grounded future.
What do you look back on most fondly when it comes to your own education?
I look back most warmly on the freedom to explore ideas deeply, to ask questions that mattered, and to discover the joy of learning alongside people who genuinely cared about knowledge. Those experiences shaped everything that followed.
Biography
Professor Paul Dastoor is Professor of Physics at the University of Newcastle in Australia. He received his B.A. degree in Natural Sciences and his PhD in Surface Physics from the University of Cambridge. He is Director of the Centre for Organic Electronics, which he established in 2007. He has been Visiting Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK, at the Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire, UK at Nanyang Technological University and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is currently the Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Fellow at Fitzwilliam College and Clare Hall College, Cambridge.
Professor Dastoor is the UON Node Director for the ANFF Materials Node, which is responsible for delivering advanced fabrication and characterisation facilities to academic and industrial researchers across Australia and overseas. His research interests encompass the growth and properties of thin films, neutral atom microscopy and organic electronic devices based on semi-conducting polymers. These exciting materials offer the tantalising prospect of paints that generate electricity directly from sunlight and sensors that can be printed as flexible arrays.
Professor Dastoor has a strong track record in research translation and commercialisation, with a substantial number of patents granted in the US and Europe (as well as in Australia). Professor Dastoor has spun out 5 companies and is the only UON academic to have had his technology listed on the NASDAQ international stock exchange.
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.