Professor Colin Raston

Professor of Clean Technology

College of Science and Engineering

+61 8 82017958

colin.raston@flinders.edu.au

Physical Sciences (2005)

GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Professor Colin 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 board of Crystal Growth and Design (American Chemical Society).

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) The University of Western Australia
PhD The University of Western Australia
DSc Griffith University

Honours, awards and grants

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)
SAPremier's Professorial Research Fellow in Clean Technology (2013-2018)
2015 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Appointment to the Office of the Order of Australia, 2016
Elected Fellow of the Australian Aacedemy of Science, 2018
2018 RACI Applied Research Award
2020 SA Scientist of the Year

Current and recent grants

ARCDiscovery, 2010-2014, C. L. Raston and F. Rosie (INRS, Montreal), 'Integrated approach to functional carbon based materials'.
NHMRC, L. Y. Lim and C. L.Raston, 2012-2014, ‘Phosphonatedcalixarenes for the targeted intracellular delivery of anticancer agents’.
ARC Linkage, C. L. Rastonand K. S. Iyer (UWA), 2012-2014, ‘Application of microfluidics in engineering functional noble-metal nano-materials’, with The Perth Mint.
ARC Linkage, C. L. Raston, C. Bond, S. Dunlop, K. S. Iyer (UWA), and F. Wood (Royal Perth Hospital), 2011-2013, ‘Processing pearl nacre for bio-nano-technology’, with Pearl Technologies.
ARC Discovery, C. L.Raston and K. Stubbs (UWA), 2013-2015 (UWA), ‘Controlling the organization of matterusing vortex fluidics’.
SA Premier’s ProfessorialResearch Fellow in Clean Technology, 2013-2018.
ARC Linkage, Wei Zhnag and C. L. Raston, (2015-2019) 'Application of Vortex Fluidics in Macroalgal Biorefinery'.
ARC Discovery, C. L. Raston (2017-2019) 'Structural diverse nanocarbon using continuous flow thin film microfluidics'.
ARC Discovery, C. L. Raston, J. Chalker, K. Stubbs and G. A. Weiss (2017-2019), 'Vortex fluidic mediated chemical transformations'.

Key responsibilities

Research and research training, and teaching
Advancing clean technology

Teaching interests

Clean technology, green chemistry, materials chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, spectrosopic techniques.

Topic lecturer

CHEM3702 Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry

Supervisory interests

Chemistry

Clean technology

Interdisciplinary engineering and technology

Local drug delivery

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Solar cells

Higher degree by research supervision

Current

Principal supervisor: Clean technolgy and green chemistry, materials chemistry, process intensification, microfluidics, supramolecular chemistry, drug delivery (5)

Completion

Principal supervisor: Clean technolgy and green chemistry, materials chemistry, process intensification, microfluidics, supramolecular chemistry, drug delivery, organometallic chemistry, main group chemistry (40)

Professional engagement

Past member, NICNAS Nanotechnology Advisory Group, for advising on strategic approaches to address regulatory and safety impacts of industrial nano-materials.
Member, Advisory Board, RSC Advances journal, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Member, Advisory Board, Green Chemistry journal, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Crystal Growth & Design journal, published by the American Chemical Society.
Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute
Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry
Fellow, Australian Academy of Science
Member, American Chemical Society
Officer of the Order of Australia

Expert for media contact

Chemistry

Sustainability

Green chemistry and clean technology

Available for contact via

+61 8 82017958

colin.raston@flinders.edu.au

Or contact the media team

newsdesk@flinders.edu.au

0466 527 875

Edit profile

Media expert

Phone

Media expertise

Chemistry
Sustainability

Interests

Green chemistry and clean technology

Further information

Earlier publications

See Scopus for C. L. Raston

Recent Patents

Processes for the Preparation of Phosphonated Calixarene Derivatives [Calixarene derivatives and process for the preparation thereof involving a high yielding protocol]. M. Makha, T. Clark, J. L. Atwood and C. L. Raston, US 2010/0185022. National Phase
Methods for Selectively Separating Carbon Nanotubes [Methods for selectively separating carbon nanotubes and calixarene complexes with carbon nanotubes, using phosphonated and sulfonated calixarenes]. C. L. Raston and L. J. Hubble, US 2010/0166624. National Phase
A Device and Methods for Fabrication and Use of Said Device [A drop casting technique is used to self-assemble material across as IDE, using an electrical response for then detecting gases]. C.L. Raston, K.S. Iyer, J. Watling, J. Zou. L.J. Hubble. PCT/AU/2010/000958 PCT.
Thin Film Tube Reactor [A variable angle rotating tube processor operating under continuous flow or batch conditions while maintaining turbulent flow]. C. L. Raston, PCT/AU2011/001168 National Phase patent WO2012034164 A3. US 2013/0289282.
Process for Producing Hydrogen from Hydrocarbons[Process for producing hydrogen from hydrocarbons, in particular for methane cracking]. H. T. Chua, L. Gao, C. L. Raston and A. Cornejo US 20120258374 US9783416B2.
A method for improving protein functionality using vortexing fluid shear forces. G. A. Weiss, C. L. Raston, T. Z. Yuan, C. Ormonde, and S. T. Kudlacek. PCT filed August 2014. US Provisional Patent 61/873,718 filed on September 4, 2013. PCT 2016-12-08US20160355545A1
Accelerating enzymatic catalysis using vortex fluidic processing. G. A. Weiss, J. Britton and C. L. Raston. Provisional Patent August, 2015. PCT/US2016/048437, 2016 WO2017035253A1.
Processes for controlling structure and/or properties of carbon and boron nanomaterials, C. L. Raston and K. Vimalanthan, Xuan Luo, B. S. B. Al Harbi, T. M. D. Alharbi, PCT Patent Application No. PCT/AU2017/00023.
Thin film vortex fluidic fabrication of liposomes C. L. Raston, Nikita Joseph and Michael Michael, Provisional paternt July 14^th2017.