Patrick Spicer, Vice-President

UNSW

Patrick Spicer is an Associate Professor in UNSW’s School of Chemical Engineering. He is Research Director for Chemical Engineering and is the lead of the new Chemical Product Engineering stream as well as the Fluids Foundry Chemical Engineering Makerspace.

He directs the Complex Fluids group, a team that works with industry and academic partners to design smart fluids with unique response and flow behaviour linked directly to product and material performance. His lab at UNSW combines broad microscopy, microfluidic, and rheology capability that can be used to understand the behaviour of fluid coatings, films, and other complex products.

Before UNSW, Pat ran a central engineering research department for the Procter & Gamble Company in the US for 15 years. His group developed new product and process technology there for all of P&G’s billion-dollar brands. He is co-inventor of P&G’s $30 million cubosome patent portfolio that Children’s Hospital Cincinnati used to develop the first product to prevent life-threatening infections in premature infants. He is also the inventor of P&G's recently-patented responsive droplet technology.

Alister Page, Honorary Treasurer

University of Newcastle

Alister's research focuses on the investigation of chemical phenomena using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics and quantum chemical methods. Alister's research has resulted in more than $3.8M in competitive research funding and the publication of 2 books, 2 book chapters and more than 120 internationally peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Alister has received awards including the Australian Academy of Sciences Rod Rickard Fellowship, the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering Young Scientists Exchange Award and the University of Newcastle NewStar award. Alister's research has been featured on the cover of Accounts of Chemical Research, Chemical Science, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Physical Chemistry A/C, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics,  ChemPhysChem, ChemNanoMat, and Journal of Computational Chemistry. Alister currently serves on the editorial board for Chemical Data Collections (Elsevier) and has previously been on the editorial board for Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group)

Livia Salvati Manni, Equity and Diversity

ANSTO Australian Synchrotron

I am a beamline scientist on the SAXS/WAXS beamline at the Australian Synchrotron.

I am interested in design and characterisation of lipidic materials tailored to applications, and in lipid behaviour in extreme environments, for example non aqueous solvents and at extreme temperature. I employ x-ray and neutron scattering techniques to address fundamental and applied questions about lipidic self-assembly.

Prior to working at the Australian Synchrotron, I worked as a postdoc at Monash University, the University of Sydney and ETH Zurich.

Jitendra Mata, Awards and Prizes

ANSTO Australian Centre of Neutron Scattering

As the principal instrument scientist for the Kookaburra, an Ultra Small Angle Neutron Scattering (USANS) instrument since March 2017, and as an instrument associate for the Quokka, a Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) instrument since July 2018 at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS), Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), Australia, I bring over 21 years of extensive expertise in soft matter science. Additionally, I hold an adjunct associate professor position with the School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, since August 2023.

My research focuses on complex soft materials and has been of industrial relevance since my PhD. I have explored various areas of soft condensed matter science, including surfactant and block copolymer solutions, emulsions, food proteins, hydrogels, and minerals. I have co-authored more than 125 peer-reviewed articles, including two book chapters, all published in high-impact international journals. My proficiency extends to various analytical techniques, including USANS, SANS, USAXS, SAXS (Ultra-Small and Small Angle X-ray and Neutron Scattering techniques), as well as classical and advanced colloid science techniques.

Asaph Widmer-Cooper, Communications

The University of Sydney

I am an Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney and a member of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. My research focuses on the development and application of computational methods for understanding how nanomaterials form and behave. This includes work on the colloidal properties of nanoparticles, molecular and nanoparticle assembly, the structure and dynamics of complex fluids, crystal nucleation and growth, and the design of new materials for harnessing solar energy. I became an ARC Future Fellow at USyd in 2014, following a Visiting Fellowship at the ETH Zurich and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.

I have attended every ACIS Symposium since 2013 and co-chaired the Nanoparticle themes at the 2019 and 2024 meetings. 

Nhiem Tran, Membership

RMIT University

I am a Senior Lecturer in Applied Chemistry at RMIT University. My research interests lie in nanomedicine and the interfaces between biomaterials and biology. Recently, my focus has been on controlling the interaction between self-assembled lipid nanoparticles and cells to deliver bioactive compounds, including chemotherapeutic drugs, antimicrobial agents, and RNA. I am also interested in developing medical implant surfaces capable of altering cellular and bacterial responses. I earned a PhD degree in Physics from Brown University in the US in 2012. Following two years as a postdoc at a Trauma Research Centre in Rhode Island Hospital, I relocated to Australia to work on lipid self-assembly and their biomedical applications at CSIRO and Australian Synchrotron. I have been at RMIT since late 2015, initially as a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow and later as a Senior Lecturer.