Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows

The Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowships is a competitive scheme for researchers within five years post PhD.

Awardees are selected on the basis of their emerging track record and potential to develop into independent researchers who can undertake high quality research in one of RMIT's research priority areas.

2023 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral, Indigenous Postdoctoral, and Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellows

2023 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr Simone De Luca

School of Health and Biomedical Sciences | STEM College

Dr Simone De Luca is a recipient of Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, STEM College. Their research is driven by the aspiration to establish reliable biomarkers and develop therapeutic strategies for cognitive decline during chronic inflammation (caused by neonatal overfeeding, cigarette smoke exposure) and to understand how chronic inflammation primes the neuroimmune responses to cause cognitive decline. In 2020, she was the sole recipient of the highly prestigious Lung Foundation Australia / Boehringer Ingelheim COPD Fellowship. Their VC Postdoctoral project (Living Well with COPD –Everybody, Everywhere) will identify the underlying mechanisms of COPD-induced mental health.

Dr Qiang Derek Hao

School of Science | STEM College

Dr. Derek Hao is currently a Humboldt Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and he will join RMIT on July 2023. He has been working on novel catalysts in energy and environmental areas for about 9 years. At RMIT, he will focus on the development of new photo/electrocatalysts for future energy and fertilizer synthesis, which will help the Australian government meet the net-zero target, contributing to agriculture, environment, and economy.

Dr Amanda Alderton

School of Global, Urban and Social Sciences | DSC

Dr Amanda Alderton is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the College of Design and Social Context. Drawing on her experience as a classroom teacher, Amanda works across disciplines including public health, urban studies, and developmental psychology. She holds a PhD in Global, Urban and Social Studies (RMIT University) and a Master of Public Health (University of Melbourne).

Dr Alderton’s research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of mental health inequities: disparities in mental health between population groups that arise not through biology, but due to unequal living conditions, and are therefore preventable and unjust. Her research interests also include the study of neighbourhood effects, the built environment, place-based interventions, and positive mental health. As part of her fellowship, she will develop spatial neighbourhood indicators that can address mental health inequities during critical windows of child development (e.g., early childhood, adolescence) which set the foundations for mental health across the life course.

Dr Louise Dorignon

School of Global, Urban and Social Sciences | DSC

Dr Louise Dorignon is a geographer and a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, DSC College. She specialises in the production, lived experience and urban outcomes of apartment housing. Louise has collaborated with a wide range of stakeholders, from material manufacturers and builders, to architects, developers, policymakers, regulators and householders in Australia and internationally, including in Europe. Louise's VC Fellowship project ('Factory-built homes: Investigating industry prospects and lived outcomes of modular apartment construction in Australia') focuses on modular apartment prefabrication to analyse how it can enable the production of more sustainable and affordable homes and support everyday experiences of post-carbon housing in Australia.

Dr Kirsty Wilson

School of Health and Biomedical Sciences | STEM College

2023 Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow

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Dr Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch

School of Engineering | STEM College

2023 Fulbright Fellowship

Dr Pooria Lesani

School of Science | STEM College

Pooria is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Science, STEM College. Having been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship (2023-2024) at the renowned Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Pooria facilitates collaborative research endeavours between RMIT and MIT, fuelling the creation of new levels of innovation. Pooria holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Sydney (2022), along with master's and bachelor's degrees in the field of materials science and engineering.

Pooria's research is centred around the development of the next generation of fluorescent nanoparticles for medical applications, such as biosensing, bioimaging, targeted drug delivery and antibacterial approaches. His interdisciplinary research integrates a wide range of disciplines, including materials science and engineering, nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, and cell biology, with a primary objective of developing nanoparticle-based theranostic systems for early and accurate detection and treatment of diseases. In addition to his research, Pooria actively engages in teaching and outreach activities, passionately sharing knowledge, inspiring young individuals, and mentoring aspiring students in the field.

2022 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral and Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellows

2022 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr Hardik Bhimani

Dr Bhimani is the Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management, COBL. Focused on micro-foundations of management, his fellowship at RMIT targets the Healthy Ageing Challenge, addressing how the purposeful management of digital health innovations can help reduce social stratification. Currently, he is working with academic and industry partners to understand cognitive, social, and ecological determinants of digital health innovations and their impact on design, user experience and sustained use of data-driven health technologies. The impact of this work is intended at how we imagine, develop, and promote health innovations for the self-management of health and wellbeing goals in an increasingly digital world.

Dr Mohammad Saberian Boroujeni

Dr Mohammad Saberian Boroujeni is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Engineering, STEM College. His research interests include geotechnics, pavements, concrete and infrastructures, artificial neural network, circular economy and sustainability, waste management, applications of waste materials in civil engineering, soil stabilisations, foundations, tailings, earthworks, slope stability, dry mix, cementitious compounds, construction materials, binders, and the chemistry of materials.

For his fellowship, his focus is on developing a novel low-carbon pavement stabilisation technology utilising waste materials.

Dr David Kelly

Dr David Kelly is a geographer and ethnographer specialising in the expansion, intensification and lived experience of precarious dwelling. He has collaborated with First Nations people, people with disability, public and community housing tenants, homeless households and communities affected by urban renewal. His scholarship specifically attends to the social and spatial life of policy, and how it shapes housing adequacy, security and justice. His VC Postdoctoral project (Deep mapping the hidden experiences of inadequacy in low-income dwelling infrastructures) will map how the experience of precarious dwelling infrastructures are mediated by policy frameworks to better understand the endurance and resistance strategies of affected communities.

Dr Shruti Nirantar

Dr Shruti Nirantar is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Engineering, STEM College. Her research interests are silicon-free empty-state nanoelectronic, device micro and nanofabrication, and science communication. Currently, she is associated with the Functional Materials and Microsystems (FMM) group at RMIT University.

By introducing vacuum-like empty-states at the nanoscale, Dr Nirantar addresses two challenges in current electronics –computational speed being limited by scattering in materials and radiations changing material properties leading to chip failures. This has enormous benefits to the distinctive challenges raised by Space electronics, crypto-currencies, and internet-of-things demanding extreme chip performance.

Dr Amy Spiers

Dr Amy Spiers is an artist, curator and researcher in the field of public and socially engaged art based in Narrm (Melbourne). Dr Spiers recently co-convened with Genevieve Grieves the symposium, Counter-monuments: Indigenous settler relations in Australian contemporary art and memorial practices, hosted by the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA) in March 2021. She also co-edited Let's Go Outside: Art in Public with Charlotte Day and Callum Morton for Monash University Museum of Art (Monash University Publishing 2022) and co-authored Art/Work: Social Enterprise, Young Creatives & the Forces of Marginalisation with Dr Grace McQuilten, Associate Professor Kim Humphery and Professor Peter Kelly (Palgrave Pivot, forthcoming 2022).

Dr Joel Stern

Joel Stern is a curator, researcher and artist living in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Stern’s work investigates social, political, cultural, and other dimensions of sound and listening, focusing on how emerging technical infrastructures are transforming our sonic worlds, for better or worse.

From 2013 to 2022, Joel was Artistic Director at Liquid Architecture, a leading Australian organisation specialising in sonic art.

With James Parker, Stern curated Eavesdropping (2018) at Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne and City Gallery, Wellington. This project formed the basis of Stern’s PhD ‘Eavesdropping: The Politics, Ethics, and Art of Listening’ at Monash University.

In 2020, with Parker and Sean Dockray, Stern initiated Machine Listening, a platform for critical experimentation and research on ‘listening’ in the context of automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Dr Ellen van Holstein

Dr Ellen van Holstein is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, DSC College. Her research analyses who get to be included in different spaces and networks of 'community'. Where community organisations respond to social problems, she analyses the equity issues that emerge as responsibility for those problems shifts from governments and individuals to collectives, service organisations and volunteers. Currently, Ellen is working on research on Australian community centres (also known as neighbourhood houses) to analyse who are finding access and inclusion in Australian society through these organisations and who are at risk of exclusion as funding for centres changes.

Dr Bao Yue Zhang

Dr Bao Yue Zhang is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Schools of Engineering, STEM College. Bao Yue has been focusing on exploring two-dimensional functional nanomaterials through various syntheses, nanoscale optical and electronic devices, and intelligence-driven sensors.

Dr Zhang has demonstrated the prototyped optical-based probes for circulating tumour cell detection, which is underway for the proof-of-concept study of early cancer diagnostic in clinical practice. She also led the discovery of high-quality hexagonal monolayered nanomaterials from the metal-gas interface with the potential of scalable production, opening great opportunities for developing innovative optoelectronic devices. Dr Zhang has been very active in industry engagement, dedicating herself to achieving research-based technology translation

Dr Tariq Nazir

Dr Tariq Nazir is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Fulbright Fellow in the School of Engineering, STEM College. His track record is multidisciplinary which covers high voltage engineering, condition monitoring of power system equipment, electrical insulation, life cycle management of electrical assets, fire-retardant materials, and fire safety engineering.

The severity of wildfires is increasing with the significant changes in climate conditions globally. One of the major contributors to the ignition of wildfires is the catastrophic failure of overhead powerlines and wood poles' top fires. In his VC fellow project, he aims to develop an innovative far-reaching electrical insulating material solution to protect powerlines and critical infrastructure from bushfires.

2022 Vice Chancellor's Indigenous Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Dr Jodi Edwards

School of Art | DSC College

Dr Eugenia Flynn

Dr Eugenia Flynn is a Vice Chancellor's Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Media and Communication, DSC College. Her research interests include Indigenous literature and storytelling and Indigenous knowledges.

Eugenia's doctoral research aims to advance the writing of Australian Indigenous women and non-binary people, through Indigenous-centred approaches to reading. Across the next four years of her fellowship, Eugenia will extend this work, using Indigenous research paradigms as a theoretical framework for studying Indigenous storytelling and literature.

2020 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows

Rafael Alexander

Dr Rafael Alexander researches quantum information science, which is the study of quantum mechanics and its application to technology. His research interests lie at the intersection of quantum optics and quantum computing, focusing on studying the noise and scalability issues that arise in near-term quantum technologies. This work includes investigating the generation of highly-entangled states of light, as well as exploring their uses for sensing, communication, and information processing purposes.

Dr Alexander completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2017 and was a postdoctoral fellow from 2017-2020.

Rafael is aligned to the RMIT Information and Systems (Engineering) ECP.

Find out more about Rafael

David Chesworth

David Chesworth is an internationally recognised artist and composer with an experimental background, He has created innovative artworks in music, film, performance and installation for major museums, festivals, artist-run initiatives and the public domain.

Recent artworks with collaborator Sonia Leber were exhibited in the main programs of the Venice and Sydney Biennale’s and the satellite program of Moscow Biennale. His sound works have been presented internationally, including Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, The Bang on a Can Marathon in New York, and Ars Electronica in Austria (Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention).

His recent award-winning PhD investigation into ontologies of listening within visual arts practice interrogated artworks at Dia: Beacon in upstate New York. He is currently Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH). His postdoctoral research investigates how the world is experienced and understood through different ontologies, which can coexist, resonate, and converge in surprising ways.

David is aligned to the RMIT Design and Creative Practice ECP.

Find out more about David

Nigel Goodman

Dr Nigel Goodman is a Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He is investigating indoor air quality as well as strategies and technologies to create healthier indoor environments.
Nigel completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2018. His research identified primary indoor air pollutants and understudied locations, such as educational environments. He evaluated indoor air quality at a major university, finding that green-certified and renovated buildings had among the highest levels of indoor pollutants.
Prior to his PhD studies, Nigel was employed as a scientist at CSIRO where he delivered scientific solutions for Australian and international partners.

Nigel is aligned to the RMIT Urban Futures ECP.

Find out more about Nigel

Natalie Hendry

Natalie Hendry is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Media and Communications. Her research explores everyday social media and digital technology practices in the context of critical approaches to education, mental health, media, wellbeing, youth studies and policy. This brings together her experience prior to academia, working in community education, secondary schools and hospital settings, and consulting for health organisations. Using digital ethnography and creative workshop methods, her postdoctoral research explores emerging and potential online opportunities to enhance digital outreach and media-based support for young people whose parents or adult family members are experiencing mental ill-health.

Natalie is aligned to the RMIT Design and Creative Practice ECP.

Find out more about Natalie

Yi Ju

Dr Yi Ju is a recipient of Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Health and Biomedical Science. His research expertise is in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, with a particular focus on understanding the interactions between nanomaterials and biological systems. Since 2017, he has been working as a co-leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology Signature Project ‘Mediating Protein Interactions’. Through collaboration with multiple research groups, he has published 31 papers (80% of his overall publication count) over the last 3 years of his post-doctoral research career. His research was recognised by multiple national and international talks, grants, and awards. He is a regular reviewer for major international journals and was awarded ‘Reviewer Excellence Award’ for ACS journal Chemistry of Materials, as a recognition of his significant contribution (top 1% reviewers) to the journal.

Yi is aligned to the RMIT Biomedical and Health Innnovation ECP.

Find out more about Yi

Cathal O'Connell

Dr Cathal O'Connell is a VC Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering, recruited through the Advanced Manufacturing ECP. His research at RMIT will focus on developing new technologies for additive fabrication of soft materials for biomedical applications

Dr O’Connell is early-career biomaterials scientist with a background in nanoscience. His research has covered a range of topics including biomaterials, fabrication and cell delivery mechanisms for applications including cartilage regeneration, muscle regeneration and 3D neuronal culture. Dr O’Connell has worked extensively in multidisciplinary teams in translational research settings.

Dr O’Connell was the inaugural Centre Manager of BioFab3D, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, the first hospital based biofabrication laboratory in Australia. He has also worked as a science communicator and freelance science writer.

Find out more about Cathal

Blanca del Rosal Rabes

Blanca del Rosal has pioneered research in the application of fluorescent nanoparticles for deep-tissue temperature sensing in small animal models. During her PhD in Physics, completed at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) in 2017, she used an innovative approach to measure for the first time the temperature of a subcutaneous tumour during photothermal therapy.

Her research interests include other areas related to fluorescence imaging and sensing, such as near-infrared autofluorescence for diagnostic applications and imaging of electric fields with luminescent nanoparticles.

She currently holds ARC DECRA fellowship and her research aims to develop a system for based on near-infrared fluorescence to map the temperature of the nervous system.

Blanca is aligned to the RMIT Advanced Materials ECP.

Find out more about Blanca

Ruth De Souza

Dr Ruth De Souza’s research with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is based on her long investigation of and advocacy for cultural safety, an approach to addressing inequities in health. Ruth’s mission is to develop research with communities that translates to improved outcomes for marginalised groups, with a particular focus on consumer participation and health literacy. She has held a wide range of academic, clinical, consulting and governance roles, including Senior Lecturer in Nursing at Monash University, Melbourne and AUT University, Auckland where she coordinated the Centre for Asian and Migrant Health Research. Ruth is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing (ACN), and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health at the University of Melbourne.

Ruth is aligned to the RMIT Design and Creative Practice ECP.

Find out more about Ruth

Gemma Sou

Gemma's research sits at the intersection of disaster studies, development studies and media sociology. She is interested in the media representations of human vulnerability; the everyday lived experiences of people affected by disasters; and disaster risk policy-making processes in postcolonial societies. She regularly collaborates with artists to communicate her research in creative, thoughtful and socially responsible ways.

She is on the editorial board for the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs and is Secretary for the Developing Areas Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society. She is also a Fellow of the Humanitarian Innovation Initiative at Brown University, U.S.A.

Gemma is aligned to the RMIT Social Change ECP.

Find out more about Gemma

Natalya Turkina

Dr Natalya Turkina is a Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at RMIT, Graduate School of Business and Law. Natalya completed her PhD from the University of Melbourne, Department of Management and Marketing. In her PhD project, Natalya looked at how national institutions condition the ways mining MNCs and their stakeholders contest corporate responsibility toward communities in Australia and Mongolia. In her other projects, Natalya has also researched the environmental and social responsibilities of mining companies in Russia and Botswana. In her current projects – “Towards Inclusive Cities Through Emotion- and Value-Driven Multi-Stakeholder Innovation”, “How Social Enterprises Can Create Value in the Post-Pandemic World?” and “Caring Design Approach to Corporate Responsibility Toward Small Businesses” – she examines how international and national institutional contexts condition the ways organisations and individuals understand, co-create and practice sustainability, inclusion and responsibility.

Natalya is aligned to the RMIT Global Business Innovation ECP.

Find out more about Natalya

2019 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr Belen Zapata-Diomendi

Dr Belen Zapata-Diomendi is a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT University. Her current research is on the health implications of city planning.

For her fellowship, her focus is on expanding her research to investigate the intangibles of city planning to create healthy and liveable cities. She is working on developing methods for the health and economic evaluation of urban and transport scenarios aiming at supporting active living.

Dr Cesar Sanchez Huertas

Dr Cesar Sanchez Huertas is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre (InPAC), in the School of Engineering where he has a leading position in the Biomedical Applications team.

His current research focuses on the development of biosensor technology aiming to make an impact in the field of diagnostics by offering advanced analytical tests. His goal is to foster the development of individually tailored therapies for more personalized medicine.

Justyna Dabrowska

Dr Jacinthe Flore

Dr Jacinthe Flore is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Her research interrogates the intersections of emerging technologies, design and user experience, and mental health.

She is particularly interested in the uptake of wearable devices, wellbeing apps, artificial intelligence and fourth generation pharmaceuticals and her research interrogates growing reliance on ‘data-driven’ mental health care.

Julie Currie

Julie Currie is a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at RMIT. Her research is about understanding the ionosphere, the charged upper region of the atmosphere, and the effect on the radio waves that we use for satellite communication, and surveillance.

Currently, Julie is working with others at RMIT and externally to understand the occurrence of equatorial plasma bubbles, which are large scale irregularities in the post-sunset ionosphere. Improving forecasts of these plasma bubbles will help inform when satellite communication may be hindered in the equatorial region.

Dr Linda Varadi

Dr Linda Varadi is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering. She is jointly hosted by the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering discipline and the Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Fabrication EIP.

During the next three years of her appointment, she will be developing and evaluating novel materials and methods for the on-demand delivery and release of therapeutic agents.

Dr Nasir Mahmood

Dr Nasir Mahmood is a Vice-Chancellor Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering at RMIT University. His research interests include chemical designing and synthesis of advanced materials and their heterostructures for sustainable society, especially in energy (storage and conversion), environment (wastewater treatment and microwave absorption) and health (early disease detection and drug delivery).

Mahmood’s team initiated the development of 2D heterostructures to integrate nanoscale and microscale features in one structure, boosting surface reactions for catalytic water-splitting, supercapacitors and diffusion limits in batteries.

Clancy Wilmott

Andrew Guy

2018 Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr Stella Liong

Dr Stella Liong focuses on the mechanisms driving adverse maternal and foetal consequences associated with influenza during pregnancy to improve the health outcomes of pregnant women and their babies.

Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows