Mr Naras Hanumanth Rao

ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Research Associate at the Algae & Organic Matter Lab (AOM Lab) within the Enviro Lab Cluster in the School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW.

Naras graduated with a BE in Chemical Engineering (India and USA at UW-Madison) and obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, in 2018. Following his PhD, he was a Research Associate at UNSW and then moved to Belgium where he was a Marie Curie Fellow at KU Leuven, Belgium. He returned to Australia in 2024 as an ARC DECRA Fellow at UNSW.

Naras' research interests focus on improving resource management and reuse and are tailored towards optimising particle separation in the water treatment, mining and biotechnology fields. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and technical reports for the industry on polymer and nanomaterial design for efficient algae and cyanobacteria separation, advanced characterisation of algae, cyanobacteria and natural organic matter from engineered and environmental systems, climate change impacts on catchment dynamics, and the improved understanding of existing online monitoring tools and the development of novel adaptations to push boundaries in these technologies for monitoring different contaminants.

GRANTS

Naras has attracted >$1 million in competitive funding as the Lead Chief Investigator on several projects from premier Australian and European funding agencies and the Australian water industry.

Major Research Grants

1. 2023: ARC DECRA (DE240100987) - Multifunctional polymers for simultaneous cyanobacterial inactivation and flocculation
2. 2021: Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (101029353) - AlgaeFLOAT: Developing recyclable nanocellulose-based flocculants for algal flotation
3. 2020: Water RA RFF Grant (1125) - Cost of algae to the Australian water industry

Research Travel Grants

1. 2023: Belgian Research Foundation - Flanders Grant
2. 2016: UNSW Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme

AWARDS & HONOURS

1. 2023: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
2. 2023: FWO Grant Belgium
3. 2021: Marie Curie Individual Fellowship
4. 2019: Reviewer Award from Journal of Environmental Management
5. 2018: Outstanding Reviewer Award from Water Research (No.1 journal in the water field)
6. 2018: Dean's List for Outstanding PhD Thesis
7. 2016: UNSW PRSS Award
8. 2014-2017: Australian Postgraduate Award
9. 2014-2017: UNSW TFS Scholarship

RESEARCH SUPERVISION

PhD

1. 2023-2024: Xuan Wei (co-supervisor/mentor) (visiting PhD)
2. 2022-present: Sakshi Tyagi (co-supervisor/mentor)
3. 2021-present: Angelina (co-supervisor)
4. 2020-2024: Taye Kazeem (co-supervisor)
5. 2020-2024: Dr Xiaoran (Daisy) Chu (co-supervisor)
6. 2018-2022: Dr Zainab Mustafa (mentor)

Undergraduate and Masters

1. 2024-2024: Laurine Courcier
2. 2022-2023: Guillaume Vandamme (co-supervisor)
3. 2022-2023: Marlon van Oost (co-supervisor)
4. 2022-2023: Christian Debou (co-supervisor)
5. 2021-2021: Ashley Phung (co-supervisor)
6. 2021-2021: Alexander Babkenian (co-supervisor)
7. 2020-2021: Worawan Prasoprat
8. 2020-2020: James Preziosa (co-supervisor)
9. 2019-2020: Angelina
10. 2018-2019: Simon McGrillen
11. 2018-2019: Yu Chun Chow
12. 2018-2019: Xiaoran (Daisy) Chu (co-supervisor)

INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT

Naras has worked with several water and chemical industry partners including Sydney Water, Melbourne Water, Water NSW, SPARC Technologies Ltd - Harrison Manufacturing Company. As a part of his industry work, he has had a strong focus on process improvements and optimisation. He has a track record of identifying process deficiencies by thoroughly reviewing existing processes and suggesting impactful improvements to drive operational efficiencies and innovation. 

TEACHING ENGAGEMENT

Introduction to Chemistry

Transport Phenomena (Fundamentals to Advanced)

Introduction to Engineering

Chemical Engineering Design

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

In Europe, Naras serves as a Marie Curie Ambassador with the primary goal of motivating female students to embrace a career in research. As a part of his ambassadorial duties, he organised the ‘Summer School - Let’s Talk Science’ event at Leuven where he conducted a workshop for 50 female middle school students. He has also chaired the Industry Engagement Chapter of the YouReCa Center at KU Leuven Belgium in 2023. During this time, he established a pathway for translating academic research to industrial practice with GreenCoLab, Algarve, Portugal.

In Australia, he was on the organising committees of two international conferences ‘6^th Australia and New Zealand Cyanobacteria workshop 2018’ and the International Water Association’s ‘13^th Wastewater Ponds and Algal Technologies Conference 2022’. Prior to these, he was a regular contributor to the UNSW Early Career Network and co-organised and hosted the Australian Water Association’s Water Industry Career Night in 2018. Naras is also a regular part of UNSW HDR progress reviews since 2019.

To prospective students and postdoctoral fellows, please contact n.hanumanthrao@unsw.edu.au for more info.