ACIS 2026
Conference Purpose and Networking: The Australasian Colloid and Interface Symposium (ACIS) 2026 brings together colloid, surface/interface and materials scientists from around the world to share research findings, discuss recent advancements, and engage in scientific discourse. The symposium provides an excellent platform for establishing new collaborations, reconnecting with colleagues, and exploring diverse research perspectives. ACIS 2026 fosters a welcoming environment where informal interactions and structured sessions contribute to knowledge exchange and professional relationships that extend beyond the conference.
Interdisciplinary Nature and Applications: Colloid, surface, and interface science spans numerous applications across diverse industries and everyday technologies. This field contributes to developments ranging from food science and pharmaceutical formulations to personal care products, advanced biomaterials, paint technologies, and mineral processing. The research presented at ACIS 2026 illustrates how fundamental scientific principles translate into practical solutions that benefit both industry and society.
Diverse Participation and Career Stages: ACIS 2026 welcomes participants from all career stages and professional backgrounds, creating a comprehensive scientific program. The symposium features contributions from PhD students presenting emerging research, early career researchers developing their expertise, established academics sharing their knowledge, and industry professionals bridging fundamental science with commercial applications. This diverse participation, including end users interested in technological developments, ensures broad representation across the research spectrum from fundamental discovery to practical implementation.
AE Alexander recipient: Professor Ben Boyd
Ben is a colloid and physical chemist with PhD from the University of Melbourne. After industry experience in the explosives and pharmaceutical industries, he commenced an academic position at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) at Monash University in Australia in 2004. His research is at the intersection of colloid science and pharmaceutical science, and focuses on colloidal and structural aspects of lipids and lipid self-assembly during digestion, colloidal drug delivery and his group is active in developing new synchrotron and spectroscopy-based characterization approaches for lipid and solid-state systems. He held an ARC Future Fellowship from 2014 to 2018 and moved (temporarily) to University of Copenhagen in 2021 after being awarded a prestigious Novo Nordisk Foundation Laureate Research Fellowship. He has recently returned as an ARC Laureate Research Fellow based at MOnash University in collaboration with Fonterra and ANSTO, investigating the impact of interfacial structuring on lipid digestion and absorption under the project title of 'Precision Nutrition'.
He has supervised/cosupervised over 50 PhD students, and was the recipient of the 2021 Monash-wide Vice-Chancellor's award for Excellence in Postgraduate Supervision. He is also the recipient of the 2021 Lifetime Contribution Award from the Australian Synchrotron, the 2020 Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology, and the 2024 Dale E Wurster Research in Pharmaceutics award from the American association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (AAPS) among others. He is an elected Fellows of AAPS and the Controlled Release Society, and was President of the CRS (representing over 5000 drug delivery scientists globally) from 2021-2022. Locally, he was Secretary then President for ACIS from 2014-2021, and was President of the Australian Chapter of CRS from 2010-2015. He was Co-Editor for Journal of Colloid and Interface Science and Editor for Asia for Drug Delivery and Translational Research.
He is currently a Professor and ARC Industry Laureate Research Fellow, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. He maintains an affiliate Professor position at Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen and is an adjunct Research Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Monash University.
Plenary Speaker: Professor Lilo Pozzo
Prof. Pozzo’s research interests are in the area of colloids, polymers and soft-matter systems. Her research group focuses on controlling and manipulating materials structure for applications in healthcare, alternative energy and sustainability. Her group also develops and utilizes laboratory automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate the development time-scales of new materials and applies advanced techniques based on neutron and x-ray scattering to characterize their nanostructure. Prof. Pozzo obtained her B.S. from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA. She also worked at the NIST Center for Neutron Research as a post-doctoral fellow and is currently the Boeing-Roundhill Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington where she has served since 2007. She has been recognized with awards such as the Early Career Award from the Department of Energy, the Clean Energy Empowerment and Education Award (C3E) from DOE, and the Anne Mayes Award from the Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA). In addition to her research activities, she is also dedicated to improving engineering education with course development in areas of entrepreneurship and service-oriented global engagement.