GICAN Alumni
Centre staff and researchers
Ms Natalie Downing
Deputy Director
Natalie Downing’s experience at the University of Newcastle is extensive spanning more than 20 years in various positions including Deputy Director - Global Innovation Centre for Advanced Nanomaterials (GICAN), Associate Director – Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, General Manager - Campus Life, Manager - Residential Life, Head of College - Edwards Hall and Assistant Academic Registrar in a number of faculties. Natalie has a particular interests in research support, student and staff engagement, internationalisation, and student recruitment.
T: +61 2 4921 7994
Ms Lisa Nelson
Communication Manager
The primary goal of Lisa’s role as Communication Manager for GICAN is to raise the profile of the Centre and raise awareness of the innovative work being undertaken here to address some important global challenges. With a background in communications, developing educational materials and teaching, Lisa brings her strong skills in translating and communicating technical material to laypeople to help a wider audience understand and appreciate GICAN’s work.
Alisha-Jane Laney
Executive Assistant
Working for University of Newcastle for over 7 years now, Alisha-jane is an experienced Administration and Events officer with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry, research and wider community engagements . Reporting directly to Prof. Ajayan Vinu she also offers support to current GICAN staff and students.
T: 02 49218901
Associate Professor Ajay Karakoti
Dr. Ajay Karakoti is a broad based materials researcher focused on the synthesis of novel bare and functionalized nanoparticles for applications in biology, catalysis and sensing. His research is focused on both the applications and detailed surface and bulk characterization of these materials. A significant portion of his research deals with developing a detailed understanding of the reaction of cerium oxide nanoparticles with reactive oxygen species and the consequence of size, structure, doping and surface functional groups on its enzyme like activity.
Professor Jiabao Yi
Associate Professor
Prof Jiabao Yi’s research is focusing on oxides and oxide based magnetic semiconductors, 2D materials and their magnetic properties, soft and hard magnetic materials, magnetic nanoparticles for bioapplications as well as advanced techniques, such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), neutron scattering and neutron reflectometry as well as muon spin relaxation.
T: 02 4926 1625
Dr Prashant Kumar
Senior Lecturer
He is involved in developing deeper understanding of exotic field-matter interactions and its exploitations for novel synthetic strategies for 2D materials, their controlled doping and their hybrid systems. Applications envisaged include energy generation and storage, photo/electro/microwave catalysis, SERS based molecular sensing, light sensing, straintronics, spintronics, oxidation/corrosion resistant lamination, mechanical reinforcements of polymers and soft metals.
Dr Inyoung Kim
ARC DECRA Fellow
Dr Inyoung Kim is conducting research on development of novel 2D nanohybrid materials for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction as part of her DECRA project funded by ARC in 2017. Her research interests are in exploring nanohybrid materials with unique physicochemical features and the analysis of their local atomic structure using X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) techniques.
T: +61 2 4921 8932
Dr Siddulu Naidu Talapaneni
ARC DECRA Fellow
Dr Siddulu Naidu Talapaneni’s research encompasses multifunctional nanoporous materials realised by innovative reticular chemistry to solve the grand challenges of energy and environmental related issues such as development of efficient energy storage systems. These include wearable Li-ion and post lithium batteries, capabatteries, sustainable hydrogen production, heterogeneous catalysis for organic transformations and simultaneous carbon capture and conversion. He is a recipient of the 2018 CAS Scifinder Future Leader Award and 2017 Lindau Nobel Laureate Young Scientist Award.
T: + 61 2 4033 960
Dr. Jangmee Lee
Dr Jangmee Lee received her Ph. D. degree in 2018 from Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience at Ewha Womans University under the supervision of prof. Seong-Ju Hwang. Dr Jangmee Lee is currently working on the synthesis and characterization of 2-dimensional inorganic nanosheet-based nanohybrid for diverse applications such as photocatalysis, secondary batteries, and electrocatalysis. Especially, she is interested in the in-situ analyses to demonstrate the operating mechanism based on the local structure/symmetry alteration of nano crystalline materials.
Dr Stalin Joseph
Research Associate
Dr. Stalin Joseph’s research interests are primarily focused on engineering of advanced nanomaterials for various applications. He is an expert in utilizing these novel nanomaterials in the field of supercapacitors, batteries and fuel cells.
Dr Zahra Sobhani
Research Associate
Dr. Zahra received her Ph.D. degree in environmental remediation at the University of Newcastle in 2022. Zahra’s Ph.D. was focused on the characterization and fate of micro/nano plastics in wastewater, sludge, and soil. Zahra has worked in Iran’s food administration since 2008 and contributed to national human health risk assessment projects. Zahra’s current research is focusing on the risk assessment of environmental microplastics and PFAS contaminants.
Dr Kim Tran
Research Associate
Dr. Kim Tran received her PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of Newcastle, Australia (2017). Kim begun her academic career as a lecturer at the School of Agriculture and Resources, Vinh University, Vietnam (2004). Kim’s previous and current research are interdisciplinary, utilising environmental science and molecular biology techniques to assess the impacts of environmental contaminants (EDCs, heavy metals, PAHs, PFAS and microplastics) on ecosystems and the development of bio-monitoring and remediation methods. Her expertise covers the bioaccumulation of heavy metals and EDCs in aquatic organisms and environments; risk assessment of contaminant transformation products and their metabolites; microplastics as vectors for microbes and environmental contaminants; as well as practical technologies for the remediation of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) using carbon materials in aquaculture and wastewater applications.
Dr Xinwei Guan
Research Associate
Dr. Xinwei Guan is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Newcastle. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2021 from Materials Science & Engineering department at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) under the supervision of prof. Tom Wu. During the Ph.D. period, he mainly worked on halide perovskite-based memories and optoelectronic devices. In GICAN, his current research focuses on porous carbon- and carbon nitride-based materials for energy and environmental applications.
Dr Rex Geng
Research Associate
Dr. Geng completed his doctoral degree in the school of material science and engineering, UNSW. He was working on halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs), promising photovoltaic devices, energy-saving smart windows, and optoelectronic applications. He also has senior experience in the field of 2D thermochromic material, vanadium dioxide (VO2), which is famous for its phase transition and has strong potential in the same area as QDs. In addition, Dr. Geng has strong background in the mining industry, relating to corrosion prevention of the oil storage and mining environment investigation. In GICAN, his research area includes not only nonporous carbon, but also carbon nitride and MoS2 QDs.
Dr Marjana Yeasmin
Research Associate
Marjana is currently working on improving crop nutrition through nanomaterials modification. She has been investigating the proteomics and metabolomics enhance insight on wheat response to foliar application of selenium nanoparticles. Her research interest on nutrition and productivity of crops.
T: +61449773498
Dr Sai Anand Gopalan
Dr. Saianand Gopalan’s current research focuses on the design and development of new advanced functional porous materials exploring its prospective application in clean energy technologies such as supercapacitors, fuel cells and solar cells to address the global energy demands and environmental challenges.
T: + 61 2 4033 960
Dr. Kannan Krishnan
Dr. Kannan Krishnan’s current research focus is on Nano-drug delivery for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. During his PhD, Kannan has studied Profilin’s interaction with Phosphatidylinositol(4,5)-Bisphosphate using Giant Unilamellar Vesicles model and Number & Brightness analysis technique. Kannan has applied these techniques to understand the interaction of Benzo(a) pyrene with algae. He has used transcriptome analysis to understand the sub-lethal toxic effects of pollutants such as PFOS, PFOA, BaP and Pyrene. His research interest is to apply fluorescence fluctuation correlation spectroscopy techniques to understand molecular interaction mechanisms related to Nano-drug delivery.
T: +61 2 4913 8732
Dr Gopalakrishnan Kothandam
Dr. Gopalakrishnan’s current research interests include 2D carbon-based supercapacitors, oxygen reduction reaction catalyst for fuel cells, and batteries to tackle ongoing global energy demand.
Dr. Venkata Dasireddy
Dr. Venkata D. B. C. Dasireddy received his Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry in 2013 at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He worked at the National Institute of Chemistry for 4 years (a member of the National Institute of Chemistry since May 2015). He is actively involved in projects like EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) United Kingdom, Hydrogen South Africa, C Change South Africa, and National Research Foundation, South Africa during his tenure in South Africa. He worked as a researcher in the work package partner of Horizon 2020 Projects MefCO2, FResME, and ADREM. In addition to this, He is a principal investigator in two Slovenian Research Agency bilateral projects with the USA and China. He worked at various international institutes as an exchange student namely, Cardiff Catalysis Institute, UK, Politecho di Milano-Itlay and CERN, Switzerland and R and D departments at Johnson Matthey and SASOL. In 2018, he received an “Outstanding Contribution Award” from Applied Catalysis B; Environmental. His expertise lies mainly in Green Chemistry and Heterogeneous nanocatalysis. During his Ph.D. years, his research is focused on activating C-H bonds through heterogeneous catalysis. After Ph.D., his research is focused on heterogeneous catalysis for green chemistry applications, chemical (process) engineering and reactor design.
T: +61 2 4921 6196
Dr Steffi Tiburcius
Her current research focus includes developing new types of smart multifunctional drug delivery systems for prostate cancer. Before moving to Australia, Steffi completed her Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Biotechnology from Anna University, India and worked as a Research Fellow.
Dr. Fatemeh Hashemi (Tia)
Tia earned her Ph.D in pharmaceutical nanotechnology at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. With her background as a doctor of pharmacy, she is familiar with main clinical challenges; and her aim is having a role in improving global health. Tia is experienced in novel drug delivery systems, and has worked on overlooked factors in nano-bio interactions, nanotoxicology, protein corona, and plasmonic heating. Her current interests in nanomedicine, are “filling the gap of toxicological issues of nanomaterials”, and “fabricating nano-biosensors for early detection of catastrophic diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancers”.
Research Students
Wangsoo Cha
PhD candidate
Wangsoo Cha’s current research interests mainly focus on design of multi-functional nanostructured materials including highly ordered nanoporous carbon and carbon nitride, and hetero atom doped functionalised carbon nitride materials for energy storage applications such as Li-ion, Na-ion battery as well as supercapacitor.
Sungho Kim
PhD Student
Sungho Kim has previously worked on synthesis and characterisation of layered double hydroxide and the use of it as a stabilizing agent of plastics within industry. Currently, he is pursuing research at GICAN, with his research interests mainly focused on the hybridisation of nanomaterials and their applications in energy storage.
Trung Hoang Trinh
PhD Student
Trung Hoang Trinh is interested in the application of nanomaterials in medical fields, especially the drug delivery carriers. Trung graduated from the Department of Biomedicine and Drug development at the University of Montpellier in France. He is currently completing his PhD in order to search for further achievement within nanomaterials and their application in combating against cancer diseases.
Harpreet Singh Gujral
PhD Student
Harpreet’s research interests are to develop photocatalysts that can decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen by sunlight. Apart from this, he is also interested in infrastructure and project management of the manufacturing industries
Deepika Radhakrishnan
PhD Student
Deepika Radhakrishnan is a PhD Research Scholar, mainly researching in the field of drug delivery and nanotechnology. Her area of interests include development of innovative coreshell and layered double hydroxide nanoparticles as a drug carrier. In time, Deepika’s studies will extend to invitro and invivo carcinogenic studies. She completed her Bachelors and Master’s degrees in India, and has two years of experience in invivo carcinogenic studies in mice and rats using natural plant extracts.
Xueze Chu
PhD Student
Xueze CHu studied mechanical engineering at Beijing university of technology and electrical engineering at the university of Sydney. Now he is focusing on developing nanoporous metal oxide semiconductor materials for flammable and toxic gas detaction.
Maddison Carbery
PhD Student
Maddison is currently researching the interaction of Microplastics (MPs) and chemical contaminants in the Australian marine environment to understand the impacts of plastic pollution on marine food webs and human health. Since 2017, she has been surveying the surface waters and sediments of multiple locations in NSW and QLD to build the knowledge base of the occurrence, spatial distribution and chemical fingerprint of MPs in Australian aquatic environments. Her research is supported by The City of Newcastle, NSW Fisheries, EPA Victoria and The University of Newcastle.
Shan Mohanan
PhD Student
Shan Mohanan, joined GICAN in 2019 and pursuing his PhD in Engineering. His current research focussing on development of novel targeted theranostic nanomaterial systems for cancer. Before moving to Australia he was working as senior lecturer in India. He has completed his Bachelor of Pharmacy from University of Calicut and Master of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutics) from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. He has done research works in Nano particulate drug delivery systems (Dendrimer drug delivery, Solid lipid or polymer based nanoparticles, Copper nanoparticle, PEG-PLGA nanoparticle), Transdermal and non-invasive drug delivery (Liposomes, Neosomes, Proneosomes), Drug delivery systems using isolated and characterized natural polymers.
Sujanya Maria Ruban
PhD Student
Sujanya Maria Ruban is a visiting research scholar at GICAN, under the guidance of Prof. Ajayan Vinu. In GICAN, Sujanya’s main research focus is on the utilisation and conversion of naturally occurring Halloysite into multi-functional nanomaterials.
Vaishwik Patel
PhD Student
Vaishwik Patel's research area is mainly focussed on the synthesis of bare and functionalized metal, metal oxide and lipid nanoparticles. His work also includes an assessment of the biological properties of synthesized nanoparticles as well as their application in drug delivery.
Nethaji “Subash” Chandra Bose Raju
PhD Student
Subash Raju is currently pursuing his final year PhD in Materials Science and Engineering under the guidance of Dr.Thava Palanisami and supported by the Hunter Water Corporation and The University of Newcastle, Australia through the Industry-University Engagement Scholarship (2017-21). His PhD research focuses on the emerging threat- fate and behaviour of microplastics in the wastewater treatment plants and its implications for wastewater reuse and biosolids for agriculture. The recognition of his research achievements, over the years, as well as his Ph.D. research led to the award of an Association Commonwealth Universities Blue Charter Fellowship in January 2019. He worked with Eminent Prof. Richard Thompson (renowned microplastics Researcher) at the University of Plymouth, UK and interacted with industry experts, research fellows and investigated effluent and biosolid microplastic profiles of wastewater plants.
Sania Afrose
PhD Student
Sania is currently working to generate baseline data on the sorption behaviour of different sizes of MPs and NPs in freshwater environments. Her research will contribute towards the risk assessment of MPs and NPs in freshwater environments, including drinking water sources, which represent one of the most important routes of MPs and NPs to the human body. Her research is supported by NSW Fisheries and The University of Newcastle.
Vijayakumar Manavalan
PhD Student
Vijayakumar completed his B.Tech and M.Tech from Pondicherry University, India. After spending a few years of research at the Center of Nanomaterials, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyberabad, India, he joined for the PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at GICAN. His research is focussed on the design and the development of MXene hybrids for the li-ion capacitors.
Prasanthi Sooriyakumar
Visiting Researcher
Ms. Prasanthi Sooriyakumar completed her Master of Environmental Management in 2019 from the University of Queensland and attained her Bachelor of Science with a major in Environmental & Landscape Science and a minor in Water Science and Policy from the Australian National University in 2013. Ms. Sooriyakumar has gained a diverse skillset in research, field work, laboratory analysis and environmental data analysis from her internships at the Australian National University and the University of Technology Sydney. Ms. Sooriyakumar has recently joined GICAN as a research assistant and is currently working on coconut shell based porous carbon for CO2 adsorption.
Belinda Oliveira Fontinha
PhD Student
Belinda Oliveira Fontinha has a Master in Biological Engineering with leadership training and experience with academic training at University of Minho. She has industrial work experience where she has successfully delivered a number of highly complex projects to private customers and Governmental Institutions, as well as managing the implementation of a large number of complex organizational change programs. Some of her achievements are selling her company, winning Public Tenders, publishing a research paper and implementing environmental procedures in pollutant companies. Currently, she is enrolled in a High Degree by Research Program at the University of Newcastle. Supervised by Prof. Ajayan Vinu, her research is focused on the "Novel Design of Controlled Drug Delivery System Based on Nanoporous Materials for Cancer Therapy".
Dhanush Shanbhag
PhD candidate
Dhanush Shanbhag’s research interests are primarily focused on developing new electrode materials for Sodium Ion Batteries and supercapacitors. Apart from this, he is also interested in Electron Microscopy.
Lakshmi Vandana Daggubati
PhD Student
Lakshmi Vandana Daggubati currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Material Sciences and Engineering, under the guidance of Dr. Thava Palanisami. Her current research focus on the Risk Assessment of Plastics. She completed her Bachelors in Environmental Management and Master’s degrees in Environmental Studies from Andhra University and also worked as a senior research associate in India
Zhihao Lei
PhD Student
Zhihao Lei obtained his dual bachelor degree in Mechanical engineering from Deakin University and Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Now, his research interests mainly focus on the ferromagnetism in 2D nanomaterials and synthesis of 2D transition metal oxides and dichalcogenides for electrocatalyst, next-generation rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors.
Aathira Sadanandan
PhD Student
Aathira completed her Bachelors and Masters in chemistry from the University of Calicut. She just joined for the PhD programme at GICAN. Prior to joining for the PhD programme, she was working as a research assistant at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehradun, India. Her research project is on the design of advanced porous carbon nitrides for CO2 conversion through the photocatalytic approach
Jolitta John
PhD Student
Jolitta obtained her Master of Philosophy from Manonmanium Sundarnar University, Trinelveli, India. She also completed her post graduate diploma in Criminology and forensic science from Annamalai University, Chidambaram. Her research is related on the design of advanced nanomaterials and the naturally available nanostructures for bio-sensing applications.
Arsh Ismaili
PhD Student
Arsh Ismaili is PhD scholar at GICAN, mainly working on CO2 capture and conversion, catalysis and developing continuous technology to accelerate the conventional batch processes under the supervision of Prof. Ajayan Vinu and Dr. Ajay Karakoti. His area of interests includes development of novel catalyst and transfer conventional batch processes into continuous by applying process intensification fundamentals.
Kala Senathirajah
PhD Student
As an experienced water industry engineer, the significance of the provision of a safe water supply cycle underpins Kala’s research focus on the development of strategies to reduce and remove microplastics from the water supply (from catchment to discharge). The outcomes of Kala’s research will provide water utilities and other “microplastics waste generators” with a toolkit of management options to reduce and remove microplastics from various pathways and sources. Kala’s research is supported by Water Research Australia, Water Corporation of WA and The University of Newcastle, and she is in collaboration with Shinshu University and the National University of Singapore.
Malelili Naulivou Rokomatu
PhD Student
Malelili is currently investigating the occurrence and distribution of microplastic in the Fiji environment and its various sources. The proposed project will also include chemical analysis to observe the fate of these plastic pollutants and spatial patterns of aged microplastic in aquatic environments, to determine the direct and indirect implications to human health. WWF Pacific has partnered on this topic with UoN in the attempt to work together and investigate the extent of plastic impacts to the human health system in Fiji and the South Pacific.
Juan Jeffery
PhD Student
Juan Jeffery has extensive global Fintech, IIOT, mining, resources and oil & gas, M&A and management consulting expertise. Experienced in resources, investment, development, operations, corporate and board governance, Australian accredited finance advisor, KYC, AML. Juan is a PHD Scholar working on commercialising the sustainable manufacturing of Functionalised Porous Biocarbons from biomass at an industrial scale for Energy and Environmental Applications. Juan’s research interests lie in utilising functionalised porous biocarbons as an industrial product for downstream integration into super capacitors, specialist filtration and hydrogen generation applications. Before entering the resources industry Juan was a research fellow working on digital optical identification of coal maserals in industrial applications such as carbon electrodes in furnaces.
Visiting Researchers
Prof DD Sarma
Visiting Professor
Prof Dipankar Das Sarma, popularly known as D.D. Sarma, is an Indian scientistand structural chemist, known for his researches in the fields of Solid State Chemistry, Spectroscopy, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, and Nanoscience. He is a former MLS Chair Professor of Physics and Chairman of the Centre for Advanced Materials and the GAST Professor of Uppsala University, Sweden, A recipient of TWAS Physics Prize and the UNESCO Biennial Javed Husain Prize, Sarma was honored by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, in 1994, with the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology.
Prof. Yoshihiro Sugi
Visiting professor
Prof Sugi focuses his research on the catalysis by solid catalysts. His interests are in solid acid and base catalyses for energy scenes. Particularly, he is interested in the rein zeolite catalysis for petrochemical and fine-chemical applications.
Dr. Sudip Chakraborthy
Visiting Researcher
Prof. Sudip Chakraborty is leading Materials Theory for Energy Scavenging (MATES Lab) group (http://www.hri.res.in/~sudipchakraborty/) in India’s premier theoretical research Institute Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) Allahabad (Prayagraj), Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India. After completing his Ph.D. in collaboration between Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and University of Pune, India, he moved to Max Planck Institute, Düsseldorf, Germany in March 2011 as a Max Planck Postdoctoral Fellow. In February 2013, he joined Materials Theory Division, Uppsala University, Sweden as a Førskare (Senior Researcher). His works are appeared in PNAS, Materials Today, ACS Energy Letters, JACS, ACS Nano, ACS Catalysis, AngewChemie, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Chemistry of Materials etc. Till now, he has 160 International publications with total impact factor of 1300 and 5450 citations with 41 h-index.
Dr. Tisita Das
Visiting Researcher
Biodata: Dr. Tisita Das is a DST INSPIRE Faculty in Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad, under Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Govt. of India. Her main area of research is Computational Materials Science with a focus on Energy Materials, particularly in the field of catalysis, next generation battery and solar cells. Her published work could be found here in the following website:
Dr. Premkumar Selvarajan
Visiting Researcher
Dr. Premkumar’s expertise is in the area of first principal calculation and molecular dynamics on material science. He also has research interest in synthesis of perovskite based materials for solar cell applications.
Dr. Amirtham Dhamodarasamy
Visiting Research AssociateProfessor
Dr. D. Amirtham is a Visiting Associate Professor (Biochemistry) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India in Dr. Thava Palanisami’s Group at Global Innovative Center for Advanced Nanomaterials (GICAN), The University of Newcastle, Australia. She has completed Ph.D in Biochemistry specialized in “Phytoremediation of heavy metals” at Bharathiar University ,Coimbatore ,Tamil Nadu ,India and awarded with ICAR-Post Doctoral Fellowship at the premier national Institute ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 2021. She has 24 years teaching experience and received Best Women Scientist award of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University for the year 2021. Her field of research specialization is “Nutritional enhancement through the production of high value functional nano biomolecules from Agro food wastes” and Post-harvest Biochemistry.
Dr. Chhinder S Bilen
Visiting Researcher
Dr. Chhinder's current research in GICAN focuses on pelletizing various forms of nanoporous carbons and testing various properties of those pellets. Some of the other research intersts are CO2 adsorption, conversion of CO2 into value added hydrocarbon, degradation and stability testing of OPV devices.
Dipti Wagh
Visiting Student
Dipti Wagh is a visiting student at GICAN, University of Newcastle. She is currently pursuing Doctoral degree at Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. Her area of research is synthesis of novel heterogeneous catalyst and its application in fine chemicals. She is also currently focusing on synthesis of mesoporous carbon nitrides (MCN) and metal nanoparticles over MCN as catalyst for various green processes.
Deepak Kumar
Visiting Researcher
Deepak graduated from Anna University, Chennai-India with Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and a Masters in Environmental Engineering & Pollution Control from Griffith University, Brisbane-Australia. He has three years of industrial experience in India in the field of Environmental Engineering and Microalgal Technology. He has hands-on experience working in sewage and industrial wastewater treatment plants using an organic flocculation technology. Additionally, he also has experience dealing with both freshwater microalgae and beneficial marine microalgae. Under the supervision of Dr. Thava Palanisami, he is now working as a Research Assistant in an industry collaborative project at the University of Newcastle.
Xiangwei Zhang
Visiting Student
Xiangwei Zhang is currently pursuing his PhD program. His main focus is on synthesizing nanoporous carbon nitride for the application of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction.
Anjana Mundathodu Peruvampurath
Visiting Student
Anjana M P competed her M.Phil from St. Therese's college, Kerala, India and joined as PhD scholar in Bishop Moore college, Mavelikara, Kerala India. She joined GICAN in 2023 as a visiting PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Ajayan Vinu. Currently, she is working on developing ordered mesoporous boron carbon nitrides using a hard templating method for the energy storage applications.
Nithya Satheesh George
Visiting Student
Nithya S George is a Visiting Ph.D. student at GICAN, under the guidance of Prof. Ajayan Vinu. She completed her Masters' from Catholicate college, Kerala, India and currently the holder of Inspire Fellowship for her Ph.D. program at Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara, affiliated to Kerala University, India. In GICAN, Nithya’s main research focus is on converting industrial coal waste into Functionalized Nanoporous Carbon for energy storage applications.
Navneeth Matharoo
Visiting Student
Navneeth Matharoo is a visiting PhD student at GICAN under the guidance of Prof. Ajayan Vinu. She completed her Master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, and is currently pursuing her PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in the field of novel porous phosphates for catalytic and biomedical applications. Her current research at GICAN focuses on working with metal phosphates embedded in a carbon matrix synthesized via a single-source molecular precursor method for electrochemical applications.
Masters Students
Linta Jose
Masters Student
Linta Jose is pursuing her master’s degree in materials science and engineering, at University of Newcastle. Along with studies, she is also working as a part-time research assistant working in the research of developing nanomaterials for chemotherapeutic drug delivery. She also researches on the synthesis of metal oxide nano particles and its application in sensing.
Ian Chirchir Bargoria
Masters Student
Ian is currently studying Master of Materials science in engineering. He received a Bachelor of Chemical and Process engineering in 2015 at Moi University – Kenya. He is working as a casual research assistant at the University of Newcastle, focusing on developing novel hybrid electrode materials for energy storage and conversion devices. The current research focus is on developing bimetallic sulphides decorated on carbon nitride electrodes for Lithium and Sodium-ion batteries.
Brodie Morrison
Masters Student
Brodie is currently researching on novel nanoporous carbon nitride materials for oxidase and peroxidase activity as well as exfoliation of bulk carbon nitride into nanosheets and analyzing their properties. These nanosheets will then be incorporated with precious metals and molecular beacons into a sensor for prostate cancer detection.
Lavanya Maria Ruban
Masters Student
Lavanya Ruban is currently pursuing Master of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Newcastle, NSW. She has completed her Bachelors of Technology in Biotechnology from Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu. She is currently working on synthesis of novel functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles for anti-microbial activities.
Mukul M Morey
Masters Student
Mukul Morey is currently pursuing Master of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Newcastle, NSW and working as a Research Assistant at GICAN. He has completed his Graduation (Bachelors of Technology) in Fibres and Textiles Processing Technology from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. (UDCT). His Current research interests are Synthesis of 2D materials and their Hybrids, (Borophene, Graphene, Carbon Nitride, MoS2, etc.) and Synthesis of Biomass derived porous Carbonaceous materials and their Hybrids/ hetrostructures for Energy storage and Generation Applications.
Abel Eldho Jose
Visiting Researcher
Abel Eldho Jose completed his bachelor's in mechanical engineering at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore in 2021 and is currently doing his master's in Material Science and engineering at the University of Newcastle. His current research interest is focused on synthesis of biomass derived nanoporous carbon for energy storage and conversion applications.
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.