Professor and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow

UNSW School of Chemical Engineering

Co-Director of Australian Centre for Nanomedicine

Prof 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 was promoted to Professor in 2025.

• 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, 2020-2025
• Scientia Associate Professor, UNSW, 2021-2024
• Professor, UNSW, 2025-present

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

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

Since 2015, she has successfully attracted over AUD 8M in competitive funding as a Lead Chief Investigator + AUD 8M in funding as a co-Chief Investigator. She published in prominent journals including Science, Nature Reviews Bioengineering, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Small, Angewandte Chemie, Nano Letters, ACS Nano with >6500 citations.

Awards and Honors:

2023 Le Fèvre Medal, Australian Academy of Science

2023 Eureka Prize for Innovative Research in Sustainability Finalist

2022 Materials Today Rising Star Award

2022 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Award, Science & Medicine Category Winner

2022 UNSW Engineering Research Supervisor Award Honourable Mention

2021 NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (Physical Sciences), NSW Premier's Prizes for Science and Engineering

2021 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher Finalist

2020 Australia's Most Innovative Engineers, Engineers Australia

2020 Derek Hart Memorial Award

2020 Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator, Royal Society of Chemistry

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

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 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:

2025-2028 ARC Linkage Project LP240100507 (co-CI)

2024 ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities LE240100091 (co-CI)

2023-2026 Cooperative Research Centre Project Grant (Lead CI)

2022-2025 Cooperative Research Centre Project Grant (Lead CI)

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

2021-2023 Ramaciotti Health Investment Grant (Lead CI)

2020-2025 NHMRC Emerging Leadership EL2 Fellowship APP1173428 (Lead CI)

2017-2022 ARC Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering IC170100022 (co-CI)

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

2017-2020 ARC DECRA Fellowship DE170100068 (Lead CI)

Editorial Activities:

Editor - Nature Communications Materials

Editor - Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

Editorial Advisory Board - Advanced Sensor Research

Editorial Advisory Board - JACS Au

Guest Editor - Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Guest Editor - Nanoscale Advances

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

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)

Chandrawati NanoFAMily Lab Members:

1. Dr Federico Mazur (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016 - present)

2. Dr Zifei Han (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023 - present)

3. Dr Kang Lin (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024 - present)

4. Dr Franco Centurion (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024 - present)

5. Theatin van Leeuwen (PhD candidate, 2019 - present, primary supervisor: Per Zetterlund)

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

7. Qingqing Fan (PhD candidate, 2021 - present)

8. Annabelle Jiann Huey Lee (PhD candidate, 2021 - present, joint supervision with Alice Lee)

9. Gustavo Sant'Anna (PhD candidate, 2021 - present, joint supervision with Nick Bedford)

10. Siti Nur Asyura Adzlan (PhD candidate, 2023 - present)

11. Yiyi Yin (PhD candidate, 2024 - present)

12. Xinyang Li (PhD candidate, 2024 - present)

Chandrawati NanoFAMily Lab Alumni:

Dr Fabio Lisi - The University of Tokyo

Dr Zijie Luo - Monash University

Dr Yuan Gao - APCO

Dr Yulong Alex Sun - UNSW

Dr Angie Davina Tjandra - AB Mauri

Dr Max Weston - Combined Energy

Dr Tao Yang - University of Oxford

Dr Yingzhu Zhou - Maccura Biotechnology

Sanna Deano - BE Campbell

Paulaena Franco - Ecolab

Linyang Liu - The University of Sydney

Aileen Lu - Amazon Web Services

Andy Pham

Eliza Otton - Nestle

Larissa Reihberg-Laaksonen - City Water Technology

Junwei Tang - vivoPharm

Jennessa Tubman - Goodman Fielder

Andy Wang - Boston Consulting Group

Jonson Zhou - Macquarie Group

Chandrawati NanoFAMily Lab Awards and Honors:

2024 RSC Applied Polymers Best Oral Presentation Prize (Zifei Han)

2024 Poster Award at the World Biomaterials Congress (Shu Geng)

2024 Poster Award at the World Biomaterials Congress (Qingqing Fan)

2024 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Qingqing Fan)

2024 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Shu Geng)

2023 Poster Presentation Prize at the International Nanomedicine Conference (Qingqing Fan)

2023 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Qingqing Fan)

2023 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Shu Geng)

2022 UNSW Academic Excellence Award (Federico Mazur)

2022 Winner UNSW Founders New Wave Program (Angie Tjandra)

2022 Winner JCEC NSW Annual Postgraduate Championship (Angie Tjandra)

2022 NSW International Student of the Year - Higher Education Finalist (Angie Tjandra)

2022 UNSW Engineering Research Candidate Award (Angie Tjandra)

2022 Best Oral Presentation at the International Nanomedicine Conference (Angie Tjandra)

2022 Best Poster Presentation at the RACI PolyNSW Symposium (Yuan Gao)

2022 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Yuan Gao)

2022 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Yingzhu Zhou)

2022 Lyceum Club Thesis Prize (Andy Pham)

2021 Dean's Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis (Tao Yang)

2021 Innovyz Commercialisation Poster Prize (Tao Yang)

2021 UNSW Student Award (Angie Tjandra)

2020 Nature Communications Materials Training Grant for Early Career Researchers (Fabio Lisi)

2020 UNSW Early Career Academic Seed Funding (Fabio Lisi)

2020 Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre Image of the Month (Yingzhu Zhou)

2019 Australian Nanotechnology Network Overseas Travel Fellowship (Tao Yang)

2019 Australian Centre for Nanomedicine Travel Award (Tao Yang)

2019 Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre Image of the Month (Tao Yang)

2019 Australian Nanotechnology Network Travel Bursary (Federico Mazur)

2018 Royal Society of Chemistry Materials Horizon Oral Presentation Prize (Federico Mazur)

2018 UNSW Student Award (Federico Mazur)

2017 Best Postgraduate Thesis from the IChemE Joint Chemical Engineering Committee (JCEC) NSW (Federico Mazur)

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