The RACI Polymer Division is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2025 ECR Lectureship is Dr Cheng Zhang from the University of Queensland.

Dr Zhang is a Group Leader and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (former NHMRC Fellow) at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland (UQ). His research focuses on the development of advanced polymerization, purification and characterization techniques to prepare well-defined functional polymer sorbents for PFAS remediation. He has published over 90 journal articles, including Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Reviews Materials, Chemical Reviews, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Macromolecules and etc. As lead Chief Investigator, he has successfully secured a number of competitive research grants from Australian Government, Advanced Queensland and UQ (>$10 million AUD), regularly receives invitations to speak at national/international conferences (>30 to date), and has received numerous awards, including the most recent ACS PMSE Early Investigator, Young Tall Poppy Award, Queensland Fresh Scientist, and UQ Industry Engagement Award.

You can read more about Cheng’s research here.

The Division ECR Lectureship is awarded to an outstanding early career researcher in polymer science in Australia, allowing the recipient to conduct a national lecture tour presenting their research. You can read more about this award here.

Congratulations Cheng!