Associate Professor Rona Chandrawati

Scientia Associate Professor and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow

UNSW School of Chemical Engineering

Dr Rona Chandrawati graduated with a BSc (Biotechnology) from Monash University and obtained her PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from The University of Melbourne in 2012. She was then a Marie Curie Fellow at Imperial College London before returning to Australia in 2015 to establish her research group. She completed an Executive Leadership Program at the University of Oxford in 2020.

• PhD, The University of Melbourne, 2012
• Marie Curie Fellow, Imperial College London, 2012-2015
• Lecturer, The University of Sydney, 2015-2017
• ARC DECRA Fellow, The University of Sydney and UNSW, 2017-2020
• Scientia Senior Lecturer, UNSW, 2018-2020
• NHMRC Emerging Leadership EL2 Fellow, UNSW, 2020-
• Scientia Associate Professor, UNSW, 2020-

Dr Chandrawati heads the Nanotechnology for Food and Medicine (NanoFAM) Laboratory and her research interests include:

• colorimetric nanosensors for disease diagnosis, food safety and environmental monitoring
• enzyme-like catalysts for the delivery of drugs (nitric oxide) and cell signaling molecules
• nanocoatings on implantable medical devices

Since 2012, she has successfully attracted over AUD 4M in competitive funding as a Lead Chief Investigator + AUD 6M in funding as a co-Chief Investigator. She published in prominent journals including Science, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Chem, Angewandte Chemie, Nano Letters, ACS Nano with >2800 citations.

Dr Chandrawati serves in the World Economic Forum Global Future Council in Biotechnology, World Economic Forum's Expert Network, and MIT Technology Review Global Panel.

Awards and Honors:

2020 Derek Hart Memorial Award

2020 Australia's Most Innovative Engineers, Engineers Australia

2020 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator, Royal Society of Chemistry

2020 Engineering Goldstar Award, UNSW Sydney

2020 NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship

2018 Outstanding Postgraduate Research Supervisor Award, UNSW Sydney

2018 World Economic Forum 40 Young Scientists Under 40

2018 World Economic Forum Global Future Council in Biotechnology

2018 Top 1% reviewers for Chemistry of Materials

2017 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Early Career Research, The University of Sydney

2017 Engineering Dean’s Research Award, The University of Sydney

2017 ARC DECRA Fellowship

2017 NSW Fresh Scientists

2017 30 Stars of Sunway, Jeffrey Cheah Foundation

2015 Elsevier Woman in Chemical Engineering Award

2015 Monash Engineering Women’s Leadership Award

2013 Young Persons’ Lecture Competition Finalist, IOM3

2012 Marie Curie Fellowship

2011 Young Scientist Research Prize Finalist, Royal Society of Victoria

2007 Monash University Dean’s List Fellowship Award

2007 Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Award for Excellence in Chemistry

Grants:

2021 ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities LE210100156 (co-CI)

2021-2023 Ramaciotti Health Investment Grant

2020-2025 NHMRC Emerging Leadership EL2 Fellowship APP1173428

2018-2023 ARC Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering IC170100022 (co-CI)

2017-2020 ARC Linkage Project LP160100988 (co-CI)

2017-2020 ARC DECRA Fellowship DE170100068

Editorial Activities:

Editor - Nature Communications Materials

Editorial Advisory Board - JACS Au

Guest Editor - Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Guest Editor - Sensors Special Issue "Biennial State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Australia 2019-2020"

Chandrawati NanoFAMily Lab members:

1. Dr Fabio Lisi (2020 - present)

2. Dr Tao Yang (2017 - present)

3. Dr Max Weston (2017 - present)

4. Federico Mazur (PhD candidate, 2017 - present) - Liposome sensors for disease diagnosis

5. Yingzhu Zhou (PhD candidate, 2019 - present) - Metal-organic frameworks for nitric oxide delivery

6. Yuan Gao (PhD candidate, 2019 - present) - Nano-immunoassays for disease diagnosis

7. Zijie Luo (PhD candidate, 2019 - present) - Nanozymes for nitric oxide delivery

8. Viet Tung Nguyen (PhD candidate, 2019 - present) - Biomaterials for vaccine delivery

9. Angie Davina Tjandra (PhD candidate, 2020 - present) - Colorimetric sensors for disease diagnosis

10. Shu Geng (PhD candidate, 2021 - present)

11. Theatin van Leeuwen (PhD candidate, 2019 - present, primary supervisors: Prof P Zetterlund/Prof M Knoth Tate)

12. Vina Putra (PhD candidate, 2020 - present, primary supervisors: Prof M Knoth Tate/Prof P Zetterlund)

13. Andy-Hoai Pham (Undergraduate research student, 2020 - 2021)

14. Xinyang Li (Undergraduate research student, 2020 - 2021)

15. Xiaodan Yuan (Undergraduate research student, 2021)

16. Zhuoxuan Si (Undergraduate research student, 2021)

17. Jennessa Tubman (Undergraduate research student, 2021)

18. Mintao Du (Undergraduate research student, 2021)

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Teaching:

CHEN6703 Advanced Particle Systems Engineering (2018 - present)

CEIC4951, CEIC4952, CEIC4953 Research Thesis (2018 - present)

CEIC9951, CEIC9952, CEIC9953 Advanced Research Thesis (2018 - present)

BMET5931 Nanomaterials in Medicine (2017 - present)
 

To prospective students and postdoctoral fellows, please contact rona.chandrawati@unsw.edu.au for more info.