Confirmed Speakers - 2023

Alex Bissember received his PhD in Chemistry in 2010 from the ANU working with Prof. Martin Banwell. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral research with Prof. Greg Fu at MIT and Caltech (2010–2013). In 2013, Alex commenced his independent career at the University of Tasmania where he is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry and ARC Future Fellow.  His current research investigates broad aspects of metal-based catalysis, electrosynthesis, target-oriented synthesis, and natural products isolation chemistry.

https://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/chemistry/alex-bissember

Professor Sally Brooker (MNZM, FRSNZ, FNZIC, FRSC) studied at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand [BSc(Hons) first class; PhD with Professor Vickie McKee]. After postdoctoral research at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, with Professor George M. Sheldrick, she took up a Lectureship at the University of Otago where she is now a full Professor and Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair, and co-leader of the German NZ Green Hydrogen alliance / He Honoka Hauwai. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, most recently including a 2017 Queens Birthday Honour for services to science (MNZM), the 2017 Hector Medal (RSNZ) and 2017 Burrows Award (RACI). Her research interests concern the design, synthesis and full characterisation of, primarily paramagnetic, di- and poly-metallic complexes of transition metal and lanthanide ions with polydentate acyclic and macrocyclic ligands, as these have interesting redox, magnetic, catalytic and photophysical properties (otago.ac.nz/brooker).

Professor Mark Blaskovich is an ‘antibiotic hunter’ and Director of Translation for the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland. A medicinal chemist with 15 years of industrial drug development experience, since 2010 he has been developing new antibiotics, non-antibiotic therapies and diagnostics to detect and treat resistant bacterial and fungal infections. He cofounded the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD), a global ‘crowdsourcing’ antibiotic discovery initiative, and has led multiple industry collaborations focused on antibiotic development. He recently secured funding to establish an ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance.

https://imb.uq.edu.au/research-groups/blaskovich

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Currently the new 'Professor of Disruptive Chemistries' at Loughborough University, Anna started her scientific career in Adelaide, completing her PhD at the ANU looking at radicals in amino acids, and moving to an EU-funded postdoc at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to create models for coenzyme B12 reactions. Since then she has worked at both Bangor University and University of Nottingham on a wide variety of interests, ranging from synthetic biology (with two recently filed patents), to reaction mechanisms of radical SAM enzymes, to reactions in ionic liquids and more recently in 3D-printing.

Albert is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales and the current Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. Albert received his PhD from Northwestern University in Organic Chemistry in 2013 with Professor Fraser Stoddart investigating artificial molecular switches and machines. Albert then moved to Boston to carry out origins-of-life research with Professor Jack Szostak at Harvard University as well as the Tokyo Institute of Technology with the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) before moving to UNSW. Albert’s research group focuses on prebiotic systems chemistry and autocatalytic reaction networks.

https://www.fahrenbachresearch.com/

Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy received his B.Sc. in chemistry from Vivekananda College (Chennai) and M.Sc. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) in India. He obtained his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, with David Hart and did his postdoctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich with Albert Eschenmoser. He was a NASA-NSCORT fellow with Gustaf Arrhenius at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and rejoined Eschenmoser at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, resulting in a 13-year collaborative partnership. He is currently Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute.

Ram Krishnamurthy was a scientific collaborator with the Center for Chemical Evolution and a PI with Simons Collaboration on the Origins of life. And is one of the founding co-leads of the Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3) Consortium, a Research Coordination Network within the NASA Astrobiology Program.

Web-address: https://www.scripps.edu/krishnamurthy/

Dr Lauren Macreadie is an ARC DECRA fellow and a UNSW Scientia Fellow at the University of New South Wales and investigates how porous materials can be used to solve our key energy questions around hydrogen storage and transport, and chemical separations. Following the completion of her PhD at the CSIRO and Monash University in 2016, she worked at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, on water splitting MOF systems, followed by research with the CSIRO in Melbourne on MOFs as adsorbents for respiratory canisters with the Defense Science and Technology group. Lauren then transitioned to independent research at the CSIRO, followed by a move to Massey University in New Zealand as a Chemistry Lecturer. In 2021 she began her DECRA fellowship at the University of Sydney and moved to UNSW in 2022 as a Senior Lecturer and UNSW Scientia Fellow.

Dr Daniel Priebbenow completed his PhD at Deakin University exploring palladium-catalysed domino reactions, followed by an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. After several years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Monash University), Dan started his independent career at the University of Melbourne as an ARC DECRA Fellow in 2020. Dan has since returned to Monash University as a Lecturer in Chemistry, where his research is currently focused on the use of advanced synthetic technologies to accelerate the discovery of novel bioactive molecules. He was recently awarded the 2022 Athel Beckwith Lectureship from the RACI Organic Division.

Webpage: https://www.monash.edu/pharm/research/themes/medicinal-chemistry/priebbenow-group

Dr Tristan Reekie completed his PhD at ANU before undertaking postdoctoral positions at ETH Zurich and the University of Sydney. He began his independent career at ANU, which he has continued at the University of New South Wales Canberra where he is currently based. Alongside his academic role, Tristan works as the Head of Chemistry for spinout company Kinoxis Therapeutics. Tristan’s research is focused on small molecule organic chemistry with application to materials, plant science and medicinal chemistry.

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Group Website: reekiegroup.com