Senior Lecturer and National Intelligence Fellow in the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering

Dr Vipul Agarwal graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Delhi, India in 2005, MApplSc in Chemistry from University of Tasmania, Australia in 2010, and PhD in Chemistry from The University of Western Australia, Australia in 2015. In 2016, he joined the Indian Institute of Science, India on the SERB-DST Postdoctoral Fellowship. He returned to Australia in 2018 on NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship and joined the Cluster for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) within the School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW Sydney. Vipul’s current research interest is in materials chemistry especially in developing multifunctional two-dimensional coatings and three-dimensional foams for a range of applications including in neuronal tissue regeneration. He is an elected Fellow of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI).

• PhD, The University of Western Australia, 2015
• SERB-DST National Postdoctoral Fellow, Indian Institute of Science, 2016-2017
• NHMRC Peter Doherty Biomedical Research Fellow, The University of New South Wales, 2018-2022
• Lecturer, University of New South Wales, 2020-2024
• UNSW Safety Net Fellow, University of New South Wales, 2022-2024 
• Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, 2024-present

Dr Agarwal’s current research projects include:

• Controlling filler arrangement in polymer nanocomposites coatings
• Nanocomposite foams with tuneable physiochemical properties
• Self-healing composite coatings
• Electrically responsive nanocomposite implants for neuronal regeneration 

Since 2015, he has successfully attracted a total of AUD $19M in competitive funding including AUD $17.5M as a Lead Chief Investigator. He has contributed 1 book chapter, >60 journal publications, 3 patents and >25 invited presentations, which received >2300 citations with an H-index of 28 (Google Scholar).

Awards and Honors:

2025    Fellow of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI)

2025    MRS Communications: Early Career Materials Researcher

2024    NSW Young Tall Poppy

2024    Journal of Materials Chemistry B Emerging Investigator

2023    ACS Polymer Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Future Faculty Fellow

2022-2023 NSW Nyholm Youth Lectureship (The Royal Australian Chemical Institute)

2021-2023 Young Professional Editorial Board – Journal: Particuology (Elsevier)

2013    Australian Academy of Science Lindau Fellowship

2010    Tasmanian state AusBiotech-GSK Student Research Excellence Award

Selected Grants:

2025-2027 National Intelligence Fellowship (Lead CI)

2025-2027 Australia's Economic Accelerator Innovate Grant (Lead CI)

2022-2025 AusIndustry Advance Finding and Cooperative Research Centre Project Grant (Lead CI)

2022-2025 ARC National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants Program (co-CI)

2022 Research Contract – Nitto Belgium NV (co-CI)

2022-2023 Research Contract – Kinaltek Pvt Ltd (co-CI)

2022-2024 UNSW Safety Net Fellowship (Lead CI)

2019-2020 Lincoln Centre Seed Grant (Lead CI)

2018-2019 Neurotrauma Research Program Grant (co-CI)

2018-2022 NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (Lead CI)

2016-2018 Science Engineering Research Board-DST National Postdoctoral Fellowship (Lead CI, India)

2016-2018 DST Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nano Science and Technology (Lead CI, India)

Editorial Activities:

Editor – Frontiers of Neuroscience

Young Professional Advisory Board – Particuology

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Teaching:

DESN1000 Introduction to Engineering Design and Innovation (2025- present)

CEIC4951, CEIC4952, CEIC4953 Research Thesis (2018 - present)

CEIC9951, CEIC9952, CEIC9953 Advanced Research Thesis (2018 - present)

GSOE9011-Eng PGCW Research Skills (2021-2022)

CEIC2005 Chemical Reaction Engineering (2021)

CEIC2004 Industrial Chemistry for Chemical Engineering (2019)

Current members:

1. Dr Lulu Xu (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024 - present)

2. Dr Le Ngoc Minh Dinh (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023 - present)

3. Dr Lutful Amin (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023 - present)

4. Yue Zhang (PhD candidate, 2024 - present, primary supervisor: Per Zetterlund)

5. Yuan Xien Lee (PhD candidate, 2025 - present)

6. Jiachen Yan (PhD candidate, 2025 - present) 

7. Yu Lei (PhD candidate, 2025 - present)

8. Siti Humairah Binti Harun (PhD candidate, 2022 - present, primary supervisor: Per Zetterlund)

9. Nasera Rizwana (PhD candidate, 2021 - present, primary supervisor: Manasa Nune (MAHE, India))

Graduated students:

Dr Yasemin Fadil – Postdoctoral Fellow at University of New South Wales

Dr Rabiatul 'Adawiah Mat Noor – Era Polymer

Dr Le Ngoc Minh Dinh – Postdoctoral Fellow at University of New South Wales

Dr Bich Ngoc Tran – Era Polymer

Dr Apeksha Goswami 

Namrata Maslekar (MEng) - PhD candidate at The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Yiting Cai (MPhil)

Sushma Indrakumar (MSc) – PhD from Indian Institute of Science (India)

Neethu Varghese (MSc) – PhD candidate at University of Genova (Italy)

Rishav Prasad (Honours)

Sayedamin Mohseni (Honours)

Yue Zhang (Honours)

Nurul Nas Alia Binti Azman (Honours)

Amal Fakhira Walid (Honours)

Nicholas Simon (Honours)

Runyu Shi (Honours)

Alice Wan (Honours)

Monique O. Y. Yap (Honours)

Le Ngoc Minh Dinh (Honours) - Postdoc at UNSW

Previous research staff:

Dr Tuan Sang Tran (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023 - 2024) - Postdoc at Griffith University

Dr Maricruz Saborio (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020 - 2021) - ERA Polymers

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