Prof Xiaoguang Duan (He/Him)
ARC Externally-Funded Research Professor

Organisation unit

College of Engineering and Information Technology School of Chemical Engineering

Location

Adelaide University, Engineering Annex, 1 Room: A103
Profile of Prof Xiaoguang Duan

About me

Dr. Xiaoguang Duan is a full Professor and ARC Future Fellow (2024–2028) in the School of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Duan’s research spans environmental science, green catalysis, functional (nano)materials,  advanced water purification technologies, C1 chemistry, solar fuels, waste management and upgrading, and theoretical computational sciences. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed research papers, including 80 ESI Highly Cited Papers (top 1%), in leading journals such as Nature Water (6), Nature Sustainability, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews (2), Accounts of Chemical Research, Advanced Materials (5), Angewandte Chemie (9), PNAS, Matter, Nature Communications (7), Environmental Science & Technology (30). His publications have accrued over 50,000 citations with an h-index of 118 (Web of Science), and over 50,000 citations with an h-index of 124 (Google Scholar). Dr. Duan is on the editorial board of Applied Catalysis B: Environment & Energy (Elsevier), Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Elsevier), Cleaner Chemical Engineering (Elsevier), npj Materials Sustainability (Nature Springer), AI Agent, and Biochar (Springer), as well as Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ACS ES&T Engineering, Environmental Science & Technology, Next Sustainability, Chemical Engineering Journal, Chinese Chemical Letters, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Materials Today Energy, EcoMat etc. He has secured over AUD 3 million in research funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and other sources, including an ARC DECRA Fellowship (DE21), an ARC Future Fellowship (Level 2, FT23), Discovery Projects (DP21, DP23), ARC LIEF grant, Linkage Project(LP25), 17 merit beamline grants from the Australian Synchrotron, and four allocations from Australia's National Computational Infrastructure (NCI). Dr. Duan’s contributions have been recognized by numerous accolades, including the ACS Catalysis ECR Award and the Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigator Award. He was named one of The Australian newspaper’s Top 40 Rising Stars (2018–2021), a MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 (Asia Pacific) in 2021, the ES&T James J. Morgan Award recipient in 2023, and an AIPS Young Tall Poppy Award recipient in 2024. Since 2020, he has been recognized as a Global Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics in multiple categories (Environment/Ecology, Chemistry, and Cross-Field from 2019-2023).
Dr. Xiaoguang Duan is a full Professor and ARC Future Fellow (2024–2028) in the School of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Duan’s research spans environmental science, green catalysis, functional (nano)materials, advanced water purification technologies, C1 chemistry, solar fuels, waste management and upgrading, and theoretical computational sciences. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed research papers, including 80 ESI Highly Cited Papers (top 1%), in leading journals such as Nature Water (6), Nature Sustainability, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews (2), Accounts of Chemical Research, Advanced Materials (5), Angewandte Chemie (9), PNAS, Matter, Nature Communications (7), Environmental Science & Technology (30). His publications have accrued over 50,000 citations with an h-index of 118 (Web of Science), and over 50,000 citations with an h-index of 124 (Google Scholar). Dr. Duan is on the editorial board of Applied Catalysis B: Environment & Energy (Elsevier), Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Elsevier), Cleaner Chemical Engineering (Elsevier), npj Materials Sustainability (Nature Springer), AI Agent, and Biochar (Springer), as well as Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ACS ES&T Engineering, Environmental Science & Technology, Next Sustainability, Chemical Engineering Journal, Chinese Chemical Letters, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Materials Today Energy, EcoMat etc. He has secured over AUD 3 million in research funding from the Australian Research ...
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  • Finalist of SA Science Excellence and Innovation Awards Mid-Career Professional of the Year, 2025 
  • The Young Tall Poppy Science Award, 2024. 
  • Highly Cited Researcher in 2020-2023. 
  • Best Rising Stars of Science Award – Research.com 2022-2025 
  • World’s Top 2% Scientists, 2021-2025 (Stanford University)
  • James J. Morgan Award from Environmental Science & Technology, 2023 
  • MIT Technology Review - Innovators Under 35, 2021
  • The Australian Research Magazine: Top 40 Rising Stars, 2018-2021. 
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry A – Emerging Investigators, 2019
  • ACS Catalysis Early Career Researcher Award, 2018

  • 2026 – ongoing Professor. School of Chemical Engineering, Adelaide University 
  • 2024 – 2028   ARC Future Fellow. School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide 
  • 2023 – 2025   Associate Professor. The University of Adelaide
  • 2023 – 2025   Discipline Lead of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide
  • 2021 – 2025   Deputy Head of School (Research), The University of Adelaide
  •  2021 – 2023   Lecturer (ongoing) / Senior Lecturer, The University of Adelaide 
  •  2021 – 2024   ARC DECRA Fellow, The University of Adelaide

  • CHEM ENG 3036: Unit Operations Laboratory (Tutor) 2019-2020 CHEM ENG 7110: 
  • Fundamentals of Materials (Tutor) 2021-2021 CHEM ENG 7105: 
  • Materials Engineering for Catalysis (Course coordinator) 2021- CHEM ENG 7109 
  • Advanced Engineering of Biomaterials (Tutor) 2023-2024 
  •  CHEM4005 Research Project, course coordinator, 2025-

Associate Editor: Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy (IF 21.1, Q1) ·        
Editor: Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (IF 7.2, Q1) from 2024 ·        
Associate Editor: Cleaner Chemical Engineering (Elsevier) from 2024 ·        
Associate Editor: Biochar (IF 13.5, Q1) from 2024 ·        
Associate Editor: npj Materials Sustainability (Springer Nature) from 2024    
Academic Editor: Explorations (IF=22.5, Q1) from 2021 
Advisory Board: Journal of Materials Chemistry A (IF 9.5, Q1) from 2023       
Editorial Board: Journal of Hazardous Materials (IF 11.3) from 2021     
Editorial Board: Chemical Engineering Journal (IF 13.2) from 2024   
Editorial Board: Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology (IF 8.2) from 2025        
Editorial Board: Chinese Chemical Letters (IF 8.9) from 2021       
Editorial Board: Frontiers in Chemistry (IF 4.2) from 2022         
Editorial Board: Environmental Functional Materials from 2022       

Last updated on 24/03/2026 by Xiaoguang Duan