Senior academics
Professor Gary Bryant
Gary Bryant is Associate Dean (Physics) in the School of Science, and has been at RMIT since 1996. His PhD is from the UNSW (1991) and he conducted research in the USA, Germany the UK and France. His research interests are in the application of Scattering techniques to problems in biological physics and soft matter, including the biology of extreme environments; and the study of dynamics of particles and motile organisms.
Professor Tamar Greaves
Tam Greaves is a Professor within Physics at RMIT University, and has been at RMIT since 2014. Tam completed her Ph.D. in Experimental Physics in 2004 at Monash University, Australia. In 2005 she joined the group of Prof. Drummond at CSIRO as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She is a frequent user of the Australian Synchrotron SAXS/WAXS beamline, past co-chair of the Program Advisory Committee for this beamline, and member of the advisory committee for the BioSAXS beamline which is being built over the next 3 years.
Associate Professor Andrew Martin
Dr Martin is an Associate Professor and former Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT. He develops x-ray scattering techniques to probe the nanostructure of disordered materials in 3D, with diverse potential applications including liquid crystals, self-assembly, colloids and phase transitions.
Professor Peter Daivis
Peter Daivis is a Professor in the Physics Discipline, of the School of Science at RMIT with a background in experimental, computational and theoretical soft matter physics. He began his scientific career with Masters and PhD degrees in experimental studies of diffusion in binary and ternary polymer solutions using dynamic light scattering and pulsed gradient spin echo NMR. As a postdoc, he switched fields to non-equilibrium molecular dynamics studies of molecular rheology and transport processes at ANU in the group of Prof Denis Evans, later co-authoring “Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics: Theory, Algorithms and Applications” with collaborator Prof Billy Todd. His current research interests include molecular rheology and slip, coupled nonlinear transport processes, phase transition dynamics and the fundamentals of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.
Early career researchers
Dr Saffron Bryant
Saffron did her bachelor in biomedical science in Townsville, her PhD in chemistry in Sydney, an industry-focused post-doc in the UK, and now works in the physics department at RMIT, making her both geographically and disciplinarily ‘well-travelled’. Saffron’s main research focus is applying deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids to real world problems, including cryopreservation, antimicrobial treatments, and advanced materials synthesis. Saffron has experience in a range of techniques including cell culture and small angle scattering.
Associate Professor Aaron Elbourne
Dr. Aaron Elbourne is a Research Fellow within the School of Science at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is currently the recipient of a Jack Brockhoff Foundation Early Career Medical Research Fellowship and an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2017 from The University of Newcastle, Australia under the supervision of Professor Erica J. Wanless. He began his postdoctoral fellowship in February of 2017. His research interests involve high-resolution atomic force microscopy, ion adsorption, solid-liquid interfaces, bio-interfaces, nanomaterials, liquid metals, and antimicrobial technologies.
Currently seeking PhD students.
Research Interests: Interfacial Nanostructure, Solid-liquid interfaces, Bio-Interfaces, Antibacterial and Antifgunal Agents, Atomic Force Microscopy, Nanoparticles, Nano-theraputics, Exosomes, Synthetic Biology
Dr Philipp Reineck
Philipp is an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Research Fellow at RMIT University and an associate investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics. Philipp graduated in Physics from the University of Munich (LMU) and received his PhD in Materials Engineering from Monash University, Melbourne, in 2014. His research interests span many areas including fluorescent nanomaterials, plasmonics, nanoparticle chemistry and self-assembly, nano-photonics and bioimaging and sensing. His current focus is the development of fluorescent nanomaterials - particularly nanodiamonds - for imaging and sensing applications.
Dr Andrew Christofferson
Andrew received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Montana State University, USA, and a PhD in chemistry with a focus on computational chemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK. Following postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing, China, he joined RMIT University as a research fellow in 2012. In his current position at RMIT he uses molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemical calculations to complement the experimental data of his collaborators to determine atomistic models of self-assembled materials, polymers, biomaterial interactions, liquid metals, ionic liquids, and deep eutectic solvents.
Dr Hank (Qi) Han
Qi (Hank) Han obtained his PhD degree at Deakin University in 2018, and is experienced in analysing protein structure and function and developing ionic liquid solvents for proteins and biopolymers. Currently, Hank is a research fellow at RMIT, working on developing solvent systems for protein stabilization and crystallization and understanding the solvent effect. He has extensive experiences in spectroscopies, small angle scattering and protein crystallography.
Dr Vaishnavi Krishnamurthi, Research Fellow
Project title: Understanding the fundamentals of liquid metal colloidal systems through neutrons.
Dr Vaishnavi Krishnamurthi received her PhD from RMIT University, Australia, in 2021. Her PhD research focused on synthesizing large-area 2D semiconductors for optoelectronic and neuromorphic applications. She is currently a research fellow at RMIT University, focusing on understanding the fundamental aspects of liquid metals and colloidal systems through neutron-based studies.
