Australia Japan Colloids Symposium 2020

Confirmed Keynote Presenters

Tam Greaves is an Associate Professor within Physics at RMIT University, and has been at RMIT since 2014. She completed her Ph.D. in Experimental Physics in 2004 at Monash University, Australia. In 2005 she joined CSIRO as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and worked there for nearly 10 years. She is a frequent user of the Australian Synchrotron SAXS/WAXS beamline, and member of the advisory committee for the BioSAXS beamline which is being built over the next 3 years. Tam conducts research into understanding the fundamental physicochemical and thermal properties of ionic liquids, their mixtures, liquid nanostructure and the solvophobic effect. She is currently developing ionic liquid solvents for use with biological molecules in a broad range of applications, including protein solubility, stability and crystallization. A key focus of her research is the development of high throughput methodologies for the experimental design, sample synthesis, characterisation and data analysis.

Kiyoshi Kanie is a Professor in the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials at Tohoku University in Sendai. He received his PhD from Kyoto University in 2000. He held research associate positions at the University of Tokyo and Tohokhu University before being appointed an Associate Professor at Tohokhu University in 2008 and a Full Professor in 2019. His research interests encompass, the design and synthesis of functional materials, liquid phase synthesis of functional inorganic nanoparticles with controlled size and shape and the development of organic-inorganic hybrid materials with dynamic functions. He was the recipient of the Science Award of the division of colloid and surface chemistry of the Chemical Society of Japan in 2010 and received the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials meritorious award in 2014.

Naoyuki Ishida is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology at Okayama University. He received his Ph.D. degree form Kyoto University in 2000. From 2000 to 2012, he worked at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) as a research scientist and moved to Okayama University in 2012. He also spent one year at University of Leeds in 2006 and eight months at the Australian National University in 2017 and 2018 as Visiting Fellow. His research is aimed at understanding of surface forces by direct measurement and he has made significant contributions to our understanding of the forces between hydrophobic surfaces. His research also focuses on interaction forces in non-aqueous liquids, interactions of biomolecules and surface functionalisation with stimuli-responsive polymers.

Catherine Whitby was awarded her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2001. She held research associate positions at the University of Hull (United Kingdom) and the University of Sydney (Aust.) before being appointed as an ARC Future Fellow and Senior Research Fellow in the Ian Wark Research Institute at the University of South Australia. In 2014 she was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry in the School of Fundamental Sciences at Massey University in New Zealand. She is a physical chemist with expertise in colloid and surface chemistry. She uses nanomaterials to modify the chemistry of drop and bubble surfaces. This strategy enables her to control the structure, stability and flow of soft materials. Her findings have been applied in food and pharmaceutical products and in drilling fluids.