University researchers named as nation leading

In the 2025 Research magazine published by The Australian newspaper today, seven University of Adelaide researchers have been named as leaders in fields such as chemical kinetics and catalysis, combustion and propulsion, and geometry.

The University has also been named as leading Australia’s research in three categories: Chemical and Material Sciences (general), Chemical Kinetics and Catalysis, and Thermal Sciences.

“I congratulate our researchers who have been recognised for their world-class research which has direct long-term benefit to society,” said Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research), University of Adelaide.

“The University of Adelaide’s internationally recognised researchers make history with each new discovery accelerating human progress and making our world a better place.”

Professor Shaobin Wang from the School of Chemical Engineering has been named as leading the nation and the world in chemical kinetics and catalysis research.

Professor Wang works on nanomaterial synthesis and its application for adsorption and catalysis, fuel and energy conversion, and environmental remediation. He has published more than 800 refereed journal papers with over 90,000 citations and H-index of 169. As an ARC Laureate Fellow, he is developing non-metallic catalysts that have the potential to replace current technology that uses toxic and/or rare metals.

Dr Zhiwei Sun from the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering is leading the nation’s research into combustion and propulsion. Dr Sun works on advanced and new experiments in combustion and multiphase flows like particle-laden flows, fluidised beds and bubble flows.

“The University of Adelaide’s internationally recognised researchers make history with each new discovery accelerating human progress and making our world a better place.”Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research), University of Adelaide

In the field of automation and control theory, Professor Peng Shi has been named as the nation’s leader. During his career he has built significant fundamental pillars of advanced control theory and demonstrated their feasibility in numerous interdisciplinary applications such as cyber-physical systems, human-machine collaboration, network systems, autonomous and robotic systems, and artificial intelligence systems.

Higher degree by research candidate, Behrouz Karami from the School of Mechanical Engineering, has been named as leading the nation’s research in mechanical engineering. His research areas are computational mechanics, structural dynamics, nanomechanics, fluid-structural interaction, biomechanics, optimisation algorithms and artificial intelligence.

Dr David Baraglia from the School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences leads in the field of geometry. His work focuses on differential geometry, complex geometry, gauge theory and mathematical physics.

The nation’s research in high energy and nuclear physics is led by Professor Paul Jackson from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences. Professor Jackson and his team test the fundamental forces of nature and search for new particles and phenomena.

Dr Kunsheng Hu from the School of Chemical Engineering has been named as a rising star in the discipline of chemical and material sciences.

Every year since 2018, The Australian’s annual Research magazine has presented a comprehensive picture of Australia’s best research, naming the top performers in each of 250 fields of research across eight major disciplines. The top 250 lists are created using an impact score that takes into account the quality and quantity of research.