OUR TEAM

Dr. Nicholas Bedford
Prior to arriving at UNSW, Nick was a staff member of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (2017-2018), where he also served as a contractor (2016-2017), National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Associate (2012-2014) and a Dayton Area Graduate Studies Scholar during his PhD (2009-2011). He obtained his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Cincinnati (2011) and his BS in Chemistry and Physics from Central Michigan University (2007).
Dr. N. Bedford CV
OUR TEAM

Dr. Nicholas Bedford
Prior to arriving at UNSW, Nick was a staff member of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (2017-2018), where he also served as a contractor (2016-2017), National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Associate (2012-2014) and a Dayton Area Graduate Studies Scholar during his PhD (2009-2011). He obtained his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Cincinnati (2011) and his BS in Chemistry and Physics from Central Michigan University (2007).
Dr. N. Bedford CV

Interested in joining our team?
Research associates

Dr. Stephanie Chua
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
University of New South Wales
Master of Science, Chemistry, University of Santo Tomas
Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, University of Santo Tomas

Dr. Yuwei Yang
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
University of New South Wales
MPhil, University of New South Wales, Chemical Engineering
B.Eng., Qingdao University of Science and Technology
Graduate students

Haira Gabriela Hackbarth
Ph.D. Student
Chemical Engineering
TFS Scholarship
B. Eng, University of Joinville and Region (Brazil)

Kshitij Srivastava
Ph.D. Student (Primary Supervisor: Prof Aguey-Zinsou)
Chemical Engineering
RTP Scholarship
MS, Purdue University, Chemical Engineering
BEng, Delhi Technological University, Applied Chemistry

Jhair Andres Peña Prada
Ph.D. Student
Chemical Engineering
TFS Scholarship
MS, Tianjin University, Chemical Engineering
BS, Universidad Industrial de Santader (cum laude)

Gustavo Sant'Anna
Ph.D. Student
Chemical Engineering
TFS Scholarship
MPhil, Rio De Janeiro State University, Chemical Engineering
Chem. Lic., Rio De Janeiro State University

Taren Cataldo
Ph.D. Student (Co-supervised with Dr Jessica Veliscek-Carolan)
Chemical Engineering
RTP Scholarship
BS (Honours), Swinburne University of Technology, Chemistry
BA/BS, Swinburne University of Technology, Professional Writing and Editing

Tanveer Ahmad
Ph.D. Student
Chemical Engineering
UIPA Scholarship
MS, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia), Engineering Research
B. Eng, University of Engineering and Technology (Pakistan), Chemical Engineering
Undergraduate students
Thanuskan Indrakumar
Honours Thesis 2023-24
Aaron Prasad
Honours Thesis 2023-2024
Yan Fu Ho
Visiting Student from the City University of Hong Kong
Ho Yin Lok
Visiting Student from the City University of Hong Kong
Group alumni

Dr. William Hadinata Lie
“Prussian blue analogue thin-films for electroreforming of biomass-derived alcohols”, PhD 2022 (Current- Postdoctoral Associate at UNSW, School of Chemical Engineering)

Dr. Junjie Jiang
“Highly Reactive Metal Oxides Through Biomineralisation-Driven Defect Formation”, PhD 2022 (Current – Scientist – NSW Department of Planning and Environment)

Dr. Bijil Subhash
“Understanding the Structure-Function Relationship in Peptide-Enabled High Entropy Alloy Nanocatalysts” (Current – Data Engineer at Mantel Group)

Dr. Muhammad Zubair
“Defect Engineered Layered Double Hydroxide Based Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy Systems”, PhD 2024.

Dr. Yuwei Yang
“Structure-Activity Relationship Understanding of Layered-double Hydroxides as Electrocatalysts for Efficient Nucleophile Oxidation and Stimulated Hydrogen Production”, PhD 2024. (Current – Postdoctoral Research Associate – ARC CoE in Carbon Science and Innovation – University of New South Wales)

Dr. Bing Song
Visiting Researcher: Scientist, Project Leader, Scion Research Institute.
Undergraduate alumni
Mubing Diao
Visiting undergraduate from City University of Hong Kong, 2023
Sunny Huang
Honours Thesis 2023
Kere Muiruri
Honours Thesis 2022-2023
William Salim
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Kirana Pratama
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Abbey Last
Biotic H2 VIP, 2022
Keerti Sai
Biotic H2 VIP, 2022
Laureen Amariss
Biotic H2 VIP, 2022
Rooma Shailaj
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021-2022
Elke Leamon
Biotic H2 VIP, 2022
Cameron Suen
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021-2022
Benjamin Howard
Biotic H2 VIP, 2022
Luke Van Vreumingen
Biotic H2 VIP, 2022
Ricky Lu
Honours Thesis 2022
Kate Rangan
Honours Thesis 2022
Joanne Trieu
Honours Thesis 2022
Tina Ventoura
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021-2022
Tracy Liu
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Carmen Zhou
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Brian Hu
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Matthew Brittain
Honours Thesis, 2020-2021
Mohammed Alruwali
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Ashley Eng
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Ziyue Feng
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Valencia Suwarno
Honours Thesis, 2020 – 2021
Hayden Ou
Taste of Research 2018, Honours Thesis 2020
Felita Najaya
Honours Thesis 2019
Liyana Hasnan Effendi
Honours Thesis 2019
Adam Inchley
Honours Thesis 2019
Natalie Kerry
Taste of Research, 2020 – 2021
Asin Tasnim Zainuzzaman
Honours Thesis, 2020 – 2021
Fatin Nazirah Mohd Fadzil
Honours Thesis 2021-2022
Georgie Oag
Biotic H2 VIP, 2021
Busy week! 😁😎🥸. Up first, a quick stop to the ATL for NAM29 to present research on biomass electroconversion processes 🧪⚡️⚡️🌲😎🦅. Up second, experiments at ALS…. Except not👎🙈. Unfortunately there was an equipment issue and we could not do experiments. These things happen, what can you do ?🤷♂️. We’ll take another shot next cycle 👍#nam29 #atl #biomass #catalyst #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #cantstopwontstop #dataordie

Busy week! 😁😎🥸. Up first, a quick stop to the ATL for NAM29 to present research on biomass electroconversion processes 🧪⚡️⚡️🌲😎🦅. Up second, experiments at ALS…. Except not👎🙈. Unfortunately there was an equipment issue and we could not do experiments. These things happen, what can you do ?🤷♂️. We’ll take another shot next cycle 👍#nam29 #atl #biomass #catalyst #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
A little bit of a late post… @yuweii77vv and colleagues recently performed in-situ XAS awards at Spring-8 🩻💥⚡️🇯🇵🗾🍣🍱. Work was done one some recently developed catalysts for electrocatalytic chemical processes ⚡️⛽️🐪🫧🧐. Great work all, keep an eye out for the upcoming work 😎. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #catalyst #catalysis #insitu #xas #theycantstopwontstop #dataordie

A little bit of a late post… @yuweii77vv and colleagues recently performed in-situ XAS awards at Spring-8 🩻💥⚡️🇯🇵🗾🍣🍱. Work was done one some recently developed catalysts for electrocatalytic chemical processes ⚡️⛽️🐪🫧🧐. Great work all, keep an eye out for the upcoming work 😎. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #catalyst #catalysis #insitu #xas #theycantstopwontstop #dataordie
Just wrapped with experiments at BESSY-II 😎🇩🇪🍻🧑🔬👩🔬👨🔬🐮🐄. Using the Energy Materials In-Situ Laboratory (EMIL) and the OAESE beamline, we examined metal oxides catalyst under operando conditions during biomass conversion reactions 🤯🙂↔️😱😸. Awesome datasets collected for sure, and very supportive staff. We’ll be back 🤖for sure. thanks to @yuweii77vv for the assist and being excellent at opening doors 🙂 #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #bessy #softxrays #copper #cobalt #biomass #carbonnanotubes #cantstopwontstop💪 #dataordie

Just wrapped with experiments at BESSY-II 😎🇩🇪🍻🧑🔬👩🔬👨🔬🐮🐄. Using the Energy Materials In-Situ Laboratory (EMIL) and the OAESE beamline, we examined metal oxides catalyst under operando conditions during biomass conversion reactions 🤯🙂↔️😱😸. Awesome datasets collected for sure, and very supportive staff. We’ll be back 🤖for sure. thanks to @yuweii77vv for the assist and being excellent at opening doors 🙂 #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #bessy #softxrays #copper #cobalt #biomass #carbonnanotubes #cantstopwontstop💪 #dataordie
Feels good to be….😊😁😀☺️😎…after a two year hiatus for upgrades, we just wrapped on XAS experiments at the Advanced Photon Source 🩻⭕️☠️. Lots of great data across a lot of collaborative work. Thanks to @darastrix354 for keeping 10-ID-B pumping 🐈🐈⬛, and our collabs from INL 🥔☢️🐈⬛⚡️ for the help. Looking forward to more beam time at the APS in the future 🙂😀. #welcomeback #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #criticalmaterials #rareearthelements #nitride #borides #electrocatalysis #cantstopwontstop #dataordie

Feels good to be….😊😁😀☺️😎…after a two year hiatus for upgrades, we just wrapped on XAS experiments at the Advanced Photon Source 🩻⭕️☠️. Lots of great data across a lot of collaborative work. Thanks to @darastrix354 for keeping 10-ID-B pumping 🐈🐈⬛, and our collabs from INL 🥔☢️🐈⬛⚡️ for the help. Looking forward to more beam time at the APS in the future 🙂😀. #welcomeback #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #criticalmaterials #rareearthelements #nitride #borides #electrocatalysis #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
New paper out in ACS Omega 🇺🇸🧪🏘️♎️. In partnership with the our friends at AFRL🛩️, we examine the local structure of polymer derived SiOC, an industrially relevant material that is poorly understood 😎. Here, we use a range of synchrotron techniques (at APS 🇺🇸, CLS 🇨🇦, and Aussitron 🇦🇺) to show how this material isn’t simply a mix of carbon, oxides, and/or carbides, but demonstrates local Si-O and Si-C coordination in a disordered environment. Cool new insights 👍. Thanks to our colleagues at the synchrotron facilities, and @yuweii77vv @haihackbarth for their efforts. Read the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c09094 #sioc #carbides #oxides #oxycarbides #polymerderivedceramics #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie

New paper out in ACS Omega 🇺🇸🧪🏘️♎️. In partnership with the our friends at AFRL🛩️, we examine the local structure of polymer derived SiOC, an industrially relevant material that is poorly understood 😎. Here, we use a range of synchrotron techniques (at APS 🇺🇸, CLS 🇨🇦, and Aussitron 🇦🇺) to show how this material isn’t simply a mix of carbon, oxides, and/or carbides, but demonstrates local Si-O and Si-C coordination in a disordered environment. Cool new insights 👍. Thanks to our colleagues at the synchrotron facilities, and @yuweii77vv @haihackbarth for their efforts. Read the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c09094 #sioc #carbides #oxides #oxycarbides #polymerderivedceramics #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
Congrats to @gug_rj for receiving his PhD in Chemical Engineering 🍾🙌🎉🥳🎊🥂🕺💃🪩🇧🇷📚😺👍😎🧪⚗️🥼‼️!!! Great work, and some novel approaches for looking at biotic/abiotic interfaces for functional biosensors 🧬🔬🧫🩻. Great accomplishment! #phd #phlife #missionaccomplished✔️ #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #peptides #graphene #sensors #vocs #ontothenextone #dataordie

Congrats to @gug_rj for receiving his PhD in Chemical Engineering 🍾🙌🎉🥳🎊🥂🕺💃🪩🇧🇷📚😺👍😎🧪⚗️🥼‼️!!! Great work, and some novel approaches for looking at biotic/abiotic interfaces for functional biosensors 🧬🔬🧫🩻. Great accomplishment! #phd #phlife #missionaccomplished✔️ #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #peptides #graphene #sensors #vocs #ontothenextone #dataordie
New paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition 🇩🇪🧪🌎🗞️😎👍😁🧐! In partnership with @ale.fraca and his team at the Universidad de Cordoba 🇦🇷, metal organic frameworks were used to selectively degrade glyphosate, one of the most commonly used pesticides, to far less harmful chemicals in water 🌱 🌾🧑🌾👩🌾👨🌾💧🦆. The trick is to engineering catalyst sites with liable ligands to form defects. Great work by all, especially Jhair and Tatiana for co-leading the work, @steeephch for helping with data collection, and our mates at the Australian Synchrotron 🇦🇺, Taiwan Photon Source 🇹🇼, and PETRA-III 🇩🇪 for keeping the X-rays humming 🩻🐦🔥. Read the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.202424540 #pesticidefree #glyphosate #organophosphate #mofs #zirconium #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie

New paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition 🇩🇪🧪🌎🗞️😎👍😁🧐! In partnership with @ale.fraca and his team at the Universidad de Cordoba 🇦🇷, metal organic frameworks were used to selectively degrade glyphosate, one of the most commonly used pesticides, to far less harmful chemicals in water 🌱 🌾🧑🌾👩🌾👨🌾💧🦆. The trick is to engineering catalyst sites with liable ligands to form defects. Great work by all, especially Jhair and Tatiana for co-leading the work, @steeephch for helping with data collection, and our mates at the Australian Synchrotron 🇦🇺, Taiwan Photon Source 🇹🇼, and PETRA-III 🇩🇪 for keeping the X-rays humming 🩻🐦🔥. Read the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.202424540 #pesticidefree #glyphosate #organophosphate #mofs #zirconium #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
The team just wrapped on back to back experiments at MEX-1 and MEX-2 beamlines of the Australian Synchrotron 🦘🐨🕷️🕸️⭕️💪📈📊. Great work by @maryam.jamshidi93 and the rest of the team 👍, where we looked at a range of catalysts, ceramics and sorbent materials ⚡️🧱🧽. Keep an eye out for upcoming papers soon 😎. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #catalyst #ceramics #mofs #rocks #theycantstopwontstop #dataordie

The team just wrapped on back to back experiments at MEX-1 and MEX-2 beamlines of the Australian Synchrotron 🦘🐨🕷️🕸️⭕️💪📈📊. Great work by @maryam.jamshidi93 and the rest of the team 👍, where we looked at a range of catalysts, ceramics and sorbent materials ⚡️🧱🧽. Keep an eye out for upcoming papers soon 😎. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #catalyst #ceramics #mofs #rocks #theycantstopwontstop #dataordie
New paper out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A 📓🧱🧪🅰️🧪🇬🇧👍. In collaboration with ANSTO 🦘☢️and CEA 🥖☢️, Zr based sorbent materials for minor actinides were evaluated using a range of analytical techniques to probe their radiation tolerance 🙅🙅♀️🙅♂️. Great work to all….. read the paper here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/ta/d4ta08221d/unauth #nuclearfuel #actinides #americium #europium #phosphonates #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #dataordie

New paper out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A 📓🧱🧪🅰️🧪🇬🇧👍. In collaboration with ANSTO 🦘☢️and CEA 🥖☢️, Zr based sorbent materials for minor actinides were evaluated using a range of analytical techniques to probe their radiation tolerance 🙅🙅♀️🙅♂️. Great work to all….. read the paper here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/ta/d4ta08221d/unauth #nuclearfuel #actinides #americium #europium #phosphonates #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #dataordie
New paper in ACS Applied Energy Materials 🇺🇸🧪👥⚡️🧱😊🎉. In this work led by our colleagues at the University of Sydney, computational studies 💻🤖were performed on a Na transport on class of borohydrides, important materials for future battery technologies 🔋. These efforts showcase the important in borohydride phase in ion conductivity, and what anion pairing is important for transport. 😎. Read to the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsaem.4c02634 #computionalchemistry #sodium #sodiumionbattery #borohydrides #dataordie

New paper in ACS Applied Energy Materials 🇺🇸🧪👥⚡️🧱😊🎉. In this work led by our colleagues at the University of Sydney, computational studies 💻🤖were performed on a Na transport on class of borohydrides, important materials for future battery technologies 🔋. These efforts showcase the important in borohydride phase in ion conductivity, and what anion pairing is important for transport. 😎. Read to the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsaem.4c02634 #computionalchemistry #sodium #sodiumionbattery #borohydrides #dataordie
Just wrapped on some nice XAS experiments at Diamond 💍💎🔷🔶💠🤓! During this beam time sleepy 🥱 (@yuweii77vv ) go some excellent looking data on a range of new catalysts 🐈⬛ and advanced ceramics 🧱. Also, holy HERFD Batman 🔬🦇. We’ll be back for sure 🏃🏃♀️🏃♂️🚀🏊🏊♀️🏊♂️. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #herfd #biomass #catalyst #ceramics #iron #nickel #cobalt #manganese #zirconium #niobium #cantstopwontstop #dataordie

Just wrapped on some nice XAS experiments at Diamond 💍💎🔷🔶💠🤓! During this beam time sleepy 🥱 (@yuweii77vv ) go some excellent looking data on a range of new catalysts 🐈⬛ and advanced ceramics 🧱. Also, holy HERFD Batman 🔬🦇. We’ll be back for sure 🏃🏃♀️🏃♂️🚀🏊🏊♀️🏊♂️. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #herfd #biomass #catalyst #ceramics #iron #nickel #cobalt #manganese #zirconium #niobium #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
Busy week last week… so busy there arent a lot of photos 🫠. First, I was thrilled to visit INL 🥔☢️ for an invited seminar and to discuss future collaborative efforts 😎. The latter half of the week consisted of coalition building between the DoD labs at Colorado 🏔️research entities. Exciting times again yall 😁 #seminar #famouspotatoes #collabs #newstuffcomingsoon #cantstopwontstop #dataordie

Busy week last week… so busy there arent a lot of photos 🫠. First, I was thrilled to visit INL 🥔☢️ for an invited seminar and to discuss future collaborative efforts 😎. The latter half of the week consisted of coalition building between the DoD labs at Colorado 🏔️research entities. Exciting times again yall 😁 #seminar #famouspotatoes #collabs #newstuffcomingsoon #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
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