Committee Members 2024
Executive Committee Members
Dr. Victor Olet
Chair of the Australian ACS Chapter
Dr. Victor Olet completed his PhD in the Discipline of Chemical Engineering at Curtin University in Western Australia. His research focuses on biomass valorisation for transport fuels and as precursors for green plastics and other essential molecules that drive the global economy. In this context, Victor’s current research is in bio-oil upgrading through catalytic esterification with crude glycerol. With a recent focus on computational chemistry, Victor is enhancing his skillset in High Performance Computing for more efficient computational chemistry and general computational science workflows.
Dr. Danny Wong
Chair-Elect of the ACS Australia Chapter
Danny Wong completed a PhD in electrochemistry at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, before taking up a two-year stint as a postdoctoral research associate at Penn State University, USA. It was during this time that Danny became a member of ACS. He returned to Australia to begin his independent research career at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Danny's main research interests cover electroanalytical chemistry and electrochemical sensors. Danny regularly publishes and actively serves as a reviewer for many peer-reviewed international journals. He is a member of The Royal Society of NSW and a Fellow of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). Within RACI, he served as the Secretary for the Division of Division of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry (1999-2010), the Chair of the Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Group of the NSW Branch (2011-2017), and as the President of the NSW Branch (2018 -2021). Danny remains as an active committee member of the NSW Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Group. Danny received a Citation Award from the Division of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry in 2017, and also a Citation Award from the NSW Branch of RACI in 2011. In 2024, Danny was also a member of a committee that reviews analytical chemistry education program throughout the world, after the initiative was funded by IUPAC. Danny is excited to be elected as the Chair-Elect of the Australian Chapter of ACS in 2025 and looks forward to be involved in activities that benefit both ACS and RACI.
Dr. David J. Leaver
Treasurer of the ACS Australia Chapter
Dr. David J. Leaver is a Lecturer in Biochemistry at Charles Sturt University and he graduated from La Trobe University with a Bachelor of Science with Honours (2008) and a PhD in Organic Chemistry (2012). David worked as a postdoctoral researcher in medicinal chemistry at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) from 2012-2013 and then he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in chemical biology at Texas Tech University from 2013-2014. In 2014 David accepted an academic position at Sul Ross State University (TX, USA), where he worked for seven years before returning to Australia in 2022. David has been an active ACS member since 2014.
Mr. Fankai (Darren) Peng
Secretary of the ACS Australia Chapter
Fankai (Darren) is a current Ph.D. candidate, senior tutor, as well as a lab demonstrator at the University of Sydney. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Sydney in 2021. During that time, Darren was recognized as a student leader within the university, which involves in many mentoring programs, and showed up in university official website and Instagram many times. Nowadays, Darren’s research interests include rheology and tribology, interfacial science, soft matter, molecular simulations. Darren is currently forcing on research related to multi-phase interfacial problems via both simulations and experiments. He has a comprehensive knowledge of interdisciplinary subjects.
Dr. Stephen Clarke
Immediate Past Chair of the ACS Australia Chapter
Dr. Stephen Clarke is recently elected as Chair of the Australian ACS Chapter (2023- 2024). He graduated as an Applied Chemist (1978) working for 17 years, with specialist building products, and obtained a Master’s degree in Applied Chemistry (1983). In the Ian Wark Research Institute (IWRI – University of South Australia – UniSA), he undertook an industry/Australian Government funded PhD (1996-2000), with Dow Corning Corporation – and received the IWRI medal (2001) for best PhD thesis. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the IWRI for 2 years then in 2002 was offered an academic role at Flinders University, leading his Materials & BioEnergy group. In mid-2012, he transferred to the Mawson Institute (UniSA), leading his Clarke Laboratories, until 2016. He generated $14.5 million dollars AUD (cash) funds, supporting his research in academia. After leaving academia, in 2016, Dr. Clarke worked briefly as an industry consultant, then as Research Team Manager for COOE Pty. Ltd., before being appointed as Chief Scientist for Change Climate Pty. Ltd. in April 2019.
Committee Members
Dr. David Kehoe
Industry Division of the ACS Australia Chapter
Dr David Kehoe has been a practicing Industrial Chemist for over 40 years, with almost 30 years focused on industrial R&D. He completed a PhD in Applied Science (Polymer Science and Surface Analysis), having previously completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Chemistry (organometallic synthesis). He has worked in a variety of industries with Australian and major global companies, including automotive component manufacturers (polyurethane and plastic interior components), the oil industry (aftermarket fuel and lubricant additives, automotive coolants, fuel, automotive and industrial lubricants and re-refined base oils), and also with an Australian University to promote Industry-University collaborative research in the areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology. He has been active with the ACS since 2018, joining the committee of the Australian Chapter of the ACS in January 2024, to promote Industry ACS membership.
Dr. Cong Vu
Outreach Officer of the ACS Australia Chapter
Dr. Cong Vu received the Scientia PhD scholarship- the most prestigious UNSW PhD scholarship in 2017. He was part of a world-leading nanomedicine team that to use nanoparticle to deliver anticancer drug to cancer cells whilst leaving the healthy cells alone. One afternoon when he was searching for an anticancer drug called mitotane; he noticed mitotane was a metabolite of the banned insecticide DDT. And it got him thinking why we don’t do the same for pesticides to reduce the harmful effects to environment. He received $100,000 cash investment to develop the nano-pesticide prototype in 2021 and founded his startup company NanoSoils Bio whilst he was still in the third year PhD candidate in nanomedicine without any experience or trial results with agriculture yet. Two patents are in preparation with the support of UNSW Industry & Innovation team and will be assigned to NanoSoils Bio to commercialise the technology.
Acknowledgement
American Chemical Society (Australia Chapter) would like to acknowledge the traditional owner of the land on which we work. We would like to pay respect to elders past, present and emerging and any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.
