Background Information: 

Dr. Zhaojun Han joined Eastern Institute of Technology as the Founding Professor in 2025. Prior to that, he was the Principal Research Scientist and the Custodian of the Nanomaterials Laboratory at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, Associate Professor at University of New South Wales (UNSW), and the Capacity Building Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He graduated with Bachelor of Engineering and PhD degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, both were from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research focuses on developing functional materials to tackle the grand challenges in renewable energy utilization, environmental science and net-zero emissions. He has so far published ~180 peer-reviewed papers with a total citation of >10,000. He has also supervised/co-supervised 30 postgraduate students and 10 postdoctoral fellows. He is the recipient of multiple awards and honors, including Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow, the inaugural 40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian, Australia-China Young Scientists Exchange Program Award, ATSE Priming Grant Award, Julius Career Award, and ARC Discovery Early-Career Researcher Award (DECRA).

Research Field:

Research fields are in functional nanomaterials, chemical engineering, catalysis, energy storage and plasma functionalization. Specific topics include: 

1. Green hydrogen, where the use of noble metal-based catalysts is reduce or totally replaced by transition metals with high efficiency and low cost; 

2. Decarbonisation, where highly-efficiency catalysts are designed with balanced three-phase mass and ion transport to increase the efficiency and selectivity in carbon capture and utilisation; 

3. Multifunctional energy storage devices, such as structural supercapacitor, water-based batteries, and moisture-enabled electricity generation (MEG).  

Educational Background:

2005-2009: PhD, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Supervisor: Prof. Tay Beng Kang)

2000-2004: B. Eng., Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (1st Class; full scholarship with stipend)

Work Experience:

2023-2025: Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO

2023-2025: Capacity Building Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology

2019-2023: Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales

2015-2023: Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO

2012-2015: Research Scientist, CSIRO

2009-2012: Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) Postdoctoral Fellow at CSIRO

Academic Experience:

2023-Present: Visiting Senior Fellow, University of New South Wales

2016: Visiting Scientist, University of Oxford

Academic Part-time Jobs (Partial):

2025-Present: Editorial Board Member, Carbon Innovation (Wiley)

2025-Present: Editorial Board Member, AI for Energy and Environment (SciLight)

2024-Present: Editor, Results in Engineering (Elsevier)

2024-Present: Co-Editor in Chief, Journal of Energy and Sustainability

2024: Reference for Australian Prime Minister’s Sciences Prize

2024: Co-Chair of International Symposium on Advanced Materials & Sustainable Technology (AM&ST)

2023-Present: Official Nominator, VinFuture Prize (major prize at the level of Nobel, Millenium, and Turing)

2023: Geust Editor, Nanoscale Advances (RSC)

2023: College of Assessors, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), New Zealand

2016-Present: Editorial Board Member, Scientific Reports (Springer Nature)

2013-2018: Editorial Board Member, Edorium Journal of Nanomedicine

2015-Present: Assessor, ARC Future Fellowship, DECRA, Discovery Projects, Linkage Projects, and LIEF Schemes

Awards and Honors:

2022: Future Fellow, ARC

2019: Inaugural 40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian (only 5 awardees in the Science & Medicine category; I was the only one from Physical Science)

2018: CSIRO Corporate Citizen Award (for support and commitment to CSIRO)

2017: Australia-China Young Scientists Exchange Program Award, ATSE (awarded to 16 Australian researchers with the potential to become leaders in the research collaboration between the two countries)

2016: Global Connection Fund Priming Grant Award, ATSE

2016: CSIRO Corporate Citizen Award (for support and commitment to CSIRO)

2015: Finalist team member, The Australian Innovation Challenge (TAIC)

2014: Julius Career Award, CSIRO

2013: Discovery Early-Career Researcher Award (DECRA), ARC

2013: Advanced Acceleration Reward, CSIRO

2009: CSIRO Chief Executive (OCE) Postdoctoral Fellowship 

2007: Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards, Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES)

Representative Works:

10 patents, 2 book chapters and ~180 peer-reviewed articles published in prestigious journals such as Chemical Society Reviews, Energy & Environmental Science, Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Google Scholar: 

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qE6UcI4AAAAJ&hl=en

Scopus: 

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=25960078400

ORCID: 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2437-319X  

10 Representative Works (* refers to the corresponding author)

1. C. Liu, Z. Feng, T. Yin, T. Wan,* P. Guan, M. Li,* L. Hu, C.-H. Lin, Z. Han,* H. Xu, W. Chen, T. Wu, G. Liu, Y. Zhou, S. Peng, C. Wang, D. Chu,* Adv. Mater., 42, 240791 (2024).

2. D. Zhang, E. Mitchell, X. Lu, D. Chu, L. Shang, T. Zhang, R. Amal, Z. Han,* Mater. Today, 63, 339 (2023).

3. R. Zhu, Y. Zhu, L. Hu,* P. Guan, D. Su, S. Zhang, C. Liu, Z. Feng, G. Hu, F. Chen, T. Wan,* X. Guan, T. Wu, R. Joshi, M. Li, C. Cazorla,* Y. Lu, Z. Han,* H. Xu, D, Chu, Energy Environ. Sci., 16, 2238 (2023).

4. Z. Ma, T. Wan, D. Zhang, J. Yuwono, C. Tsounis, J. Jiang, Y.-H. Chou, X. Lu, P. V. Kumar, Y. H. Ng, D. Chu,* C. Y. Toe,* Z. Han,* R. Amal, ACS Nano, 17, 2387 (2023).

5. Y. Zhao, X. Tan, X. Lu, X. Zhu, J. Jiang, J. Pan, S. Xi, H. Y. Yang, Z. Ma, T. Wan, D. Chu, W. Jiang, S. Smith, R. Amal, Z. Han*, X. Lu*, Nat. Comm., 13, 2430 (2022).

6. Z. Ma, C. Tsounis, C. Y. Toe, P. V. Kumar, B. Subhash, S. Xi, H. Y. Yang, S. Zhou, Z. Lin, K.-H. Wu, R. J. Wong, L. Thomsen, N. M. Bedford, X. Lu, Y. H. Ng, Z. Han,* R. Amal,* ACS Catal., 12, 4792 (2022).

7. Y. Zhao, W. Jiang, J. Zhang, E. Lovell, R. Amal, Z. Han,* X. Lu,* Adv. Mater., 33, 2102801 (2021).

8. Y. Zhou, H. Qi, J. Yang, Z. Bo,* F. Huang, M. S. Islam, X. Lu, L. Dai, R. Amal, C. H. Wang,* Z. J. Han,* Energy Environ. Sci., 14, 1854 (2021). 

9. C. Tsounis, X. Lu, N. M. Bedford,* B. Subhash, L. Thomsen, Q. Zhang, Z. Ma, K. Ostrikov, A. Bendavid, J. A. Scott, R. Amal, Z. J. Han,* ACS Nano, 14, 11327 (2020).

10. D. H. Seo, S. Pineda, J. H. Fang, Y. Gozukara, S. Yick, A. Bendavid, S. K. H. Lim, A. T. Murdock, A. B. Murphy, Z. J. Han*, and K. Ostrikov, Nat. Comm., 8, 14217 (2017).