Dr Yen Theng (Alicia) Cheng

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Alicia graduated from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), with a Bachelor of Medicinal Chemistry (Hons) in 2017. During her Honours year, she undertook a research project under the supervisor of Dr Robert Chapman, with a focus on enzyme  stabilisation in glycopolymer-based polyion complex micelles. In July 2018, Alicia joined the PNG group as a PhD student to develop functional polymer systems that can be used to structure anode materials in lithium-ion batteries. Alicia's studies were supported by a postgraduate scholarship from the University of Sydney. She is now working as a postdoc in PNG.

Yining Du

Honours student

Yining graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science in 2021. She then transferred to the University of Sydney to do an Honours degree in the School of Chemistry under the cosupervision of A/Prof. Markus Muellner and Prof. Liz New. The project that she is currently undertaking involves the development of functionalized polymers as fluorescent sensors for drug detection.

Simran Kerai

PhD candidate

Simran graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science Advanced (Honours) from Monash University in 2021. During her Honours year, she worked under the supervision of Dr Kristian Kempe at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (MIPS). Her project focused on novel functionalised poly(2-oxazolines) based nanoparticles for drug delivery. In 2022, she decided to continue in the field of polymer chemistry and joined the PNG group as a PhD candidate to work on the self-assembly of molecular polymer brushes into polymer nanodiscs.

Daniel Khaziran

Honours student

Daniel is currently studying a Bachelor of Science at The University of Sydney, with majors in Chemistry and Mathematics. His Honours project focusses on the synthesis of biocompatible cyclic polymer brushes for use in nanomedicine.

Karun Mishra

PhD candidate

Karun Mishra completed Bachelor of Technology (Chemical Engineering) degree in 2017 from North Maharashtra University, India and completed his undergraduate research thesis in DIAT in India while working under the guidance of Prof. Prashant Kulkarni on Ionic Liquids. He has 4.5+ years of industrial research experience, with an emphasis on polymer chemistry, and his most recent position was as Scale-Up Engineer at Daramic LLC. His Research within the PNG group focus on the development of molecular polymer brushes for the imitation of proteoglycan aggregates.

Assoc. Prof. Markus Müllner

Group leader

Markus started the Polymer Nanostructures Group (@PolymerNano on Twitter) within the Key Centre for Polymers and Colloids after joining the  School  of  Chemistry  in 2015. He is currently an Associate Professor and an ARC Future Fellow (2021-2025).

Markus studied polymer and colloid chemistry at  the  University  of  Bayreuth,  Germany.  He had research  visits  to  the  University of Lund (Sweden) and The University of Melbourne (Australia), before receiving  his  PhD in  polymer  chemistry  (2012) under  the  supervision  of  Prof.  Axel  H.E.  Müller.  Subsequently, he joined  the University of Melbourne as a postdoctoral researcher, where he was awarded a McKenzie Postdoctoral  Fellowship, and worked within Prof. Frank Caruso's group. Markus serves on the Advisory boards for Polymer Chemistry, Macromolecular Rapid Communications and Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics . Since 2019, he is the Chair of the RACI NSW Polymer group.

Parathan Ramamurthi

PhD student

Parathan began his undergraduate degree in a Bachelor of Medical Science at University of Sydney in 2015, but transferred to a Bachelor of Science in 2016 to pursue a major in chemistry. He decided to continue ongoing investigations as part of his Honours project into the synthesis of polymer structures capable of penetrating cancer tissues for the purpose of drug delivery. Parathan is a PhD student researching the role of amphiphilicity in drug carrier design. He is supported by an RTP stipend.

Jennifer Wesley

Honours student

Jennifer is a chemistry honours student who is finishing her Bachelor of Science degree with majors in Chemistry and Applied medical science. Her passion for polymers and sustainability stems from her undergraduate chemistry classes. The current project she is undertaking involves an investigation into synthesising cyclic polymers by a new method of photocatalysis. She plans to implement her drive within sustainable chemistry into her future with what ever career path she takes.

Dr Max Worthington

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Max received his PhD from Flinders University in 2020 (with A/Prof. Justin Chalker). Max developed a new polymer from abundant renewable and waste materials and showed its capacity to remediate mercury from water, air and soil, and crude oil from the surface of seawater. The IP for this polymer has been purchased by Clean Earth Technology whom Max has worked with to develop and commercialise new techniques and devices for environmental remediation, controlled-release fertilisers, and green mining. Max is now working to realise nanoscale polymer discs via directing the self-assembly of molecular polymer brushes.

Hoaxiang Zeng

PhD student

Haoxiang received his B.Sc. in Polymer Materials and Engineering from Taiyuan University of Technology in 2016 and M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry from the National University of Singapore (with Prof. Li Jun) in 2018. He then worked at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research as a research assistant (with Prof. Tanja Weil) in 2019. In 2021, he started his PhD at the University of Sydney co-supervised by A/Prof. Muellner and Dr Derrick Roberts, studying controlled shape-transformations of stimuli-responsive polymer self-assemblies.

Chenyou Zhang

PhD candidate

Chenyou graduated with a combined Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical) (Hons I) and Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from the University of Sydney in 2021. During his Honours year, he worked under the supervision of Prof. Marcela Bilek in a collaboration with Dr. Markus Muellner, and focussed on producing an antibiofouling surface combining an ion assisted plasma polymerised coating and molecular polymer brushes. He then joined the PNG as a PhD candidate to develop molecular polymer brushes as part of advanced functional materials. Chenyou’s studies are supported by a postgraduate scholarship from the University of Sydney.

Xinyi (Sophia) Zhang

PhD candidate

Xinyi graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China with a Bachelor of Engineering in Applied Chemistry in 2018. During her senior year she studied the synthesis and properties of polyethylene glycol-b-polybenzyl threonine polymers under the supervision of Prof. Jianyuan Hao. Having an interest in organic and polymer chemistry, she joined the PNG as a Master of Philosophy student to work on new carborane-containing polymers. Her project is in collaboration with Prof. Lou Rendina's group.