THE RASTON LAB - Key Persons
Proffesor Colin L Raston is the lead inventor and developer of the Vortex Fluidic Technology and has been responsible for driving the research underpinning the technology and various related collaborative research programs. Prof. Raston FRACI CChem FRSC is a South Australia Premier's Professorial Research Fellow in Clean Technology. He completed a PhD under the guidance of Professor Allan White, and after postdoctoral studies with Professor Michael Lappert at the University of Sussex, he was appointed a lecturer at The University of Western Australia (1981) then to Chairs of Chemistry at Griffith University (1988), Monash University (1995), The University of Leeds (2001), and The University of Western Australia (2003). He is a former President, Queensland Branch President, and Chair of the Inorganic Division, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. His current research covers clean technology and green chemistry, process intensification, nanotechnology and self-assembly, and is currently on the editorial advisory editorial boards of the journals Green Chemistry and RSC Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry), and on the editorial boards of Crystal Growth and Design(American Chemical Society) and Polyhedron.
Professor Colin Raston has published over 550 peer reviewed articles and continues to add to this remarkable contribution with over 30 new articles a year.
Awards
Australian Research Council (ARC) Senior Research Fellowship (1993 and 1998)
Burrows Award Inorganic Division Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) (1994)
Citation Queensland Branch RACI (1994)
HG Smith Award RACI (1996)
Green Chemistry Challenge Award RACI (2002)
Pacific Northwestern Inorganic Lecturer Award (2004)
ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship (2005 and 2010)
Leighton Memorial Medal RACI (2006)
Living Luminary, RACI (2011)
South Australia Premier's Professorial Research Fellow in Clean Technology (2013)
IG Nobel prize recipient (2015)
Appointed officer of the Order of Australia (AO) (2016)
SA Science Exc ellence and Innovation Winner (2020)
Kasturi Vimalanathan completed a BSc (Chemistry) at Curtin University of Technology and thereafter a MSc (Chemistry) at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of Professor Colin Raston. Upon achievement of a privately funded scholarship (2013), she is currently completing a PhD (Chemistry) under the guidance of Professor Colin Raston at Flinders University. Her PhD focuses on the fabrication and self-assembly of novel carbon materials and their applications.
Dr Xuan Luo (PhD MedBiotech and Nanotech, M MedBiotech) received her PhD from Flinders University-2019. For her thesis on fabrication of biomedical nano-materials using Vortex Fluidic Devices (VFD) she was awarded the Flinders University PhD award. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher on vortex-fluidic-mediated processing on biomaterial composites for biocatalysis. Since 2019, her research has resulted in a number of awards, funding and fellowships, including the award of Overseas Travel Fellowship from Australian Nanotechnology Network in 2019, Flinders University Research Investment Fund in 2022 and Emerging Research Leader Early Career Researcher Award in 2022. Her current research program includes multiple projects to develop biosensor platforms with novel immobilisation and membrane fabrication technology for the environmental and diagnostic industries.
Miss Zoe Gardner received a Bachelor of Science (Clean Technology) from Flinders University in 2019, during which she received a New Columbo Plan scholarship to research at the Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone research in Shandong, China. She was awarded a university medal for her outstanding academic results through her undergraduate degree. In 2020 she completed her Honours degree under the supervision of Professor Colin Raston, researching into Indium and Gallium Nanomaterials processing under high shear for which she achieved a first-class honours degree. Now undertaking her PhD, her field of research is in small molecular synthesis under flow and understanding the fluid flow at sub-micron dimensions.
Mr. Gemedi Wako graduated with Bachelor of science in 2020 at Flinders University. He is really passionate about how organic reaction works in both nature and synthetic form, so he shifted studied more organic chemistry than others in science and engineering department at Flinders University. However, he easily engaged with other chemistry through time, so study chemistry gives him more fun and passionate in life. After finished with his bachelor's degree, he decided to continue with Master of science to understand atomic level, but this time start with new plans and new strategies to make a difference, so he decide to join Green Chemistry. In 2021, he studied VFD processing with 2020 and 2021 red wines, which was so interesting how mechanical energy applied centrifugally during VFD processing to change the chemistry of wines, e.g., aroma, flavours of the wine to get more expensive in the market, so he had best time for four months in total at Raston lab. However, this year he is doing completely different things, reducing sugars (glucose/fructose) into nano carbons- this needs more understanding chemistry basic and advanced level in order to achieve- fun and challenges.
Khamaael Fayyadh is a PhD student at Flinders University in South Australia under the supervision of a Professor Colin Raston. She completed a master's in the preparation of organic compounds and their biological applications and the study of their evaluation of Bacterial Activity. She has an interest in academic research and have also received many awards as a result of her interest in scientific research. She worked at Tikrit university then After her master's degree, she worked as a chemical researcher in the laboratories of Tikrit University. Part of her project in PhD is about preparing Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their multiple applications in your vortex Fluidic device (VFD) using non-toxic materials and environmentally friendly solvents for a sustainable green environment.
Area of Research: nanotechnology, green chemistry into MOFs and its application biochemistry.
Mrs. Safira Moura Barros received a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil in 2016. During this period, she was an exchange research student for one year at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK in 2014. Following on from this, she worked in the private sector on Process Safety and then Business Innovation. Now undertaking her PhD under the supervision of Professor Colin Raston and Youhong Tang, her field of research is organic/inorganic chemical reaction and catalysis under continuous flow for the biofuel industry.
Ms. Xuejiao Cao received a Bachelor of Food Quality and Safety from Yangtze University, China in 2014. Upon completion of her bachelor's, she completed her Master's degree, with a major in Food Storage and Processing at Guangzhou University, China. She visited Raton's lab for 6 months at Flinders University, Australia, to focus on bio-material fabrication using a Vortex Fluid Device (VFD) and had published 3 papers in an international journal during her master's study period. She is currently undertaking her PhD project under the supervision of Professor Colin Raston and Youhong Tang, where her field of research is in relation to the fabrication of bio-safe materials using vortex fluidics for the cosmetic industry.