The University of Sydney

Professor Bilek is an ARC Laureate Fellow. She is Professor of Applied Physics and Surface Engineering at the University of Sydney and heads the Applied Physics and Surface Engineering Research Group within the School of Physics and the School of Biomedical Engineering. She also serves as associate editor for the Journal of Applied Physics. She is internationally recognised for her work on environmentally-friendly plasma-based processes that create new materials and surface modifications. Professor Marcela Bilek holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, a BSc from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. Prior appointments include visiting Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, USA, visiting Professor at the Technische Universitat Hamburg-Harburg in Germany and Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, UK.

The University of Sydney

Professor Cullen received his bachelor's and PhD degrees from University College Dublin, Ireland. Prior to joining the University of Sydney in 2019, he was a professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK. He has also held academic positions at UNSW Sydney and the Technological University Dublin. He has published over 300 journal articles and is designated as a highly cited author by Clarivate Analytics for 2017 - 2023. He is co-founder of PlasmaLeap Technologies.

The University of Adelaide

Prof. Dr. Volker Hessel studied chemistry at Mainz University (PhD in organic chemistry, 1993). In 1994 he entered the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH. In 2002, Prof. Hessel was appointed Vice Director R&D at IMM and in 2007 as Director R&D. In 2005 and 2011, Prof. Hessel was appointed as part-time and full professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, respectively. In 2018, he was appointed at the University of Adelaide, Australia; Deputy Dean (Research) at ECMS Faculty until March 2022, and now professor in the School of Chemical Engineering. He was honorary professor at TU Darmstadt, Germany. Prof. Hessel is (co-)author of > 680 peer-reviewed (h index 87). He received the AIChE Award “Excellence in Process Development Research” in 2007, EU’s research excellence grants (ERC Advanced/Proof of Concept/Synergy, FET OPEN) in 2010-2018, and the IUPAC ThalesNano Prize in Flow Chemistry in 2016. He is program lead and CI in the ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space (P4S), and Research Director of the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources. He is CI in an ARC Discovery Grant, and three ARC LIEF Grants. From 2014-2016, Prof. Hessel was authority in the 35-man teamed Enquete Commission "Future of the Chemical Industry" in Germany’s State Parliament in Nordrhine-Westfalia.

Australian National University

Katia is Professor of Engineering at the Australian National University. She currently holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to develop new electric propulsion devices, and the ANU Futures Fellowship in the area of plasma medicine and biotechnology. Previously, Katia was a recepient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2013 – 2015) to conduct research on functional nanobio coatings to enhance the biological performance of implantable materials. She received her PhD cum laude in 2012, MBA in 2009, and MEng in 2005.

The Universiy of Sydney

Member of The Applied and Plasma Physics research group. Research projects in these areas are a stimulating mix of fundamental physics and practical applications, in areas which include materials physics, plasma deposition and processing, thin film materials, vacuum glazing, renewable and sustainable energy and cross-disciplinary research in the areas of biointerfaces and interactions of biosystems for medicine.

CSIRO

Tony Murphy has been a research scientist with CSIRO since 1989. He is currently a Chief Research Scientist, and leads the Materials and Process Modelling Team. He has worked mainly on the physics, chemistry and applications of thermal plasmas such as welding arcs. His work has included computational fluid dynamic modelling, calculation of the thermophysical properties of plasmas, and optical diagnostics. He developed the ArcWeld software, which predicts weld depth and shape, and other properties of the arc and weld pool, for arc welding of aluminium alloys and steels. He was part of the team that developed the PLASCON plasma waste destruction process; at least twelve PLASCON plants have been built around the world, destroying ozone-depleting substances, greenhouse gases and toxic organic chemicals. Tony has also worked on the use of solar energy to produce hydrogen from water, and on the optical and thermal properties of nanoparticles and nanostructured films.

Flinders University

I am currently a Matthew Flinders Professor and a Professor in Biomedical Nanotechnology, and a NHMRC Leadership Fellow. I completed my PhD at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany in 2004. After a short postdoctoral stay as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute of Genomics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Strasbourg, France, in 2005, I accepted a research position at the University of South Australia. I was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in March 2009. In 2010, I was awarded the prestigious Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. I was promoted to Associate Professor in January 2012. I have held positions such as Associate Head of School-Research (2012-2013) and Research Education Portfolio Leader (2014-2015). In 2016, I was awarded two prestigious fellowships i.e. the Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Humboldt Foundation and a Research Fellowship from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). I was promoted to Full Professor on 1st of January 2017.

The University of New South Wales

She is a researcher in the Particles and Catalysis (PartCat) Research Group. Her research focuses on developing novel catalysts for a range of applications; with a particular focus on energy and environmental catalysis. Emma completed her PhD in 2016 at UNSW developing catalysts for carbon dioxide conversion (with a research exchange at the University of Bremen). She was the recipient of the Women in Engineering Scholarship for the duration of her studies. Her PhD work focused on developing nickel based catalysts for the carbon dioxide (dry) reforming of methane.

Currently, her research focuses on developing catalytic materials for a range of different energy inputs. This includes developing catalysts for the photo/plasmon-enhanced thermal catalytic carbon dioxide methanation and the plasma-catalytic carbon dioxide methanation and nitrogen fixation as well as developing defective electrocatalysis for hydrogen evolution reaction as well as carbon dioxide reduction reactions.

The University of New South Wales

A/Prof Jason Scott is a Deputy Leader of the Particle and Catalysis Research Group. He joined PartCat in 2002 and has extensive experience in particle fabrication, photocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis and heterogeneous catalysis. He also has a strong interest in developing sustainable technologies to address the challenges in securing national and international energy resources as well as tackle environmental pollution. His research focused on developing new materials, heterogeneous catalysis, and photo(electro)catalysis for environmental remediation and sustainable energy applications.

A/Prof Scott has successfully supervised/co-supervised 29 PhD students and 7 Masters students in the field of catalysis and photo(electro)catalysis . Currently he has supervises/co-supervises 11 PhD students. He has also supervised 60+ undergraduate students (Honors thesis projects) while with PartCat. He is regularly invited to examine PhD theses in photocatalysis and catalysis and has reviewed over 180 manuscripts for various international journals including Nature Catalysis, Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Catalysis, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Journal of Materials Chemistry: A, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Catalysis, Chemical Engineering Journal and others pertaining to materials, catalysis and photocatalysis. He has also been an ARC International Reader over the period 2007 - 2021. He has an H-index of 44, has published 1 book chapter and co-authored 163 refereed journal articles with his work cited over 6000 times.

Cormac Corr obtained an honours degree in Applied Physics (1999) and a PhD (2003) titled "A study of instabilities in electronegative rf-driven discharges" from Queens University Belfast (Belfast, Northern Ireland). After his PhD, Cormac spent three years working at the Laboratoire de Physique et Technologie des Plasmas (LPTP), Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. He commenced work at the ANU in 2006. Cormac was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship in November 2010.

His main research field is plasma physics and plasma processing. Cormac has undertaken a wide variety of laboratory plasma research with particular emphasis on combined experimental/modelling studies. Current and previous research activities are radio-frequency plasma discharges, plasma-surface interactions, negative ion plasmas, plasma stability, plasma waves, plasma double layers, plasma processing, and plasma diagnostics.

The University of Sydney

Dr. Zhang holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Wuhan University (WHU) and earned his Ph.D. from The University of Sydney (USYD). As an emerging researcher, his work focuses on plasma chemistry and plasma engineering, with a particular emphasis on the use of non-thermal plasma for energy and environmental applications. Dr. Zhang is also the recipient of the prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA) for 2025.

CSIRO

Dr Yang is a Senior Research Scientist in CSIRO Energy Business Unit and is an area leader for CO2 utilisation in the organization. She has more than 10 years of experience in materials synthesis and catalysis processes, with particular expertise in materials design and catalyst synthesis for CO2 hydrogenation. She received a CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Fellowship in 2021 on a Plasma-enhanced CO2 Methanation (360K, AUD), CERC Fellowship in 2023 on Plasma enhanced CO2 methanol synthesis (360K, AUD), a CSIRO H2 Future Science Platform Postdoc Fellowship in 2024 on Plasma Liquid Phase CO2 Reduction (240K, AUD), and a commercial project on Plasma Enhanced Biogas Methanation (2.05M, AUD).

The University of Sydney

Dr. Jungmi Hong is a research fellow in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Melbourne in 2017 and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at CSIRO before joining the University of Sydney. Throughout her academic and professional journey, she has specialized in various plasma applications such as surface modification, deposition, ashing, plasma catalysis, and plasma printing using atmospheric-pressure discharge.

During her PhD studies, Jungmi conducted modelling work on plasma catalysis of ammonia. Building on this foundation, she continues to develop different plasma chemistry models to support various gas conversion applications within her group and among collaborators both in Australia and overseas.

Her primary research interest lies in improving the understanding of the important role of plasma-surface interaction in different plasma catalysis applications using zero-dimensional plasma chemistry modelling and plasma fluid modelling.

The University of Newcastle

A surface engineer, Dr Behnam Akhavan leads the Plasma Bio-Engineering Lab which aims to push the boundaries of biomedical engineering and deliver innovative solutions to grand challenges in medicine, water purification and the environment. Behnam’s lab develops technologies that can be used for biomechanical bone implants, multifunctional nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery and cancer therapy, highly efficient absorbents for cleaning water, and smart coatings for windows to save energy.

The University of Sydney

Joy completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry from USyd, developing nanomaterials and functional ionic solvents. Joy then moved to Harvard University with a postdoctoral fellowship in the group of Prof. George M. Whitesides, in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, where she worked at the intersection of chemistry, materials science, and engineering. Joy also held a joint appointment in the group of Prof. Dimitar D. Sasselov, at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where she worked on the chemical origin of life. Joy returned to USyd in 2024, as a Sydney Horizon Fellow in the School of Chemistry. Her group uses plasma electrochemistry, magneto-electrochemistry, and low-carbon polymers to develop sustainable solutions to energy and climate challenges.