Plenary Speakers

Dr Kimberley Callaghan

Dr Kimberley Callaghan is a postdoctoral research associate working in Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Her current work focuses on ‘the Synthesis of DNA-Polymer Hybrid Materials for Reconfigurable DNA-Origami Nanostructures’. It is a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary project which aligns with Kimberley’s interest in biophysical chemistry which has guided her previous work, including ‘the Optimisation of the Non-Enzymatic Primer Extension of DNA’, also completed at the University of Melbourne, and her PhD project on ‘the Thermodynamic Characterisation of Amyloid Fibrils’ at Cambridge University. Throughout her research career Kimberley has been very passionate about science communication, and she strongly believes that communication is one of the most important skills a scientist can develop. This devotion resulted in Kimberley completing the course ‘Improvisation for science communication’ during her PhD, thinking it would be focused on science communication, when it ended up being an improvised comedy course instead! The course ended up being an extremely valuable experience!

Dr Samuel Cheeseman

Dr Samuel Cheeseman is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, working in the Laboratory of Advanced Biomaterials. He completed his PhD at RMIT University in 2022, where he was jointly awarded the ACIS Best PhD Thesis Award. His PhD involved the design of nanomaterials for antimicrobial applications and investigating bio-nano interactions, focusing on gallium-based liquid metals (LMs). Sam previously spent 6 months at North Carolina State University as a Future Fulbright Scholar and more recently was awarded a Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellowship. In addition to his academic work, since 2023 Sam has acted as the lead product engineer with the startup company NanoStratus. In his current work, he develops nanomaterials for antifouling, antimicrobial and drug delivery applications.