Rate My Professor 't Hag

Dr. Leonie van 't Hag is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University. She earned her MSc degree in Molecular Life Sciences, specializing in Physical Chemistry, from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands in 2012. Following this, she completed an industrial traineeship at CSIRO in Clayton, Australia, and pursued a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, awarded in 2017. Her doctoral thesis, titled 'Improving success rates for in meso crystallization using integral membrane proteins and membrane protein mimetics in the bicontinuous cubic phase,' received the 2017 ANSTO Australian Synchrotron Stephen Wilkins Medal. Subsequently, van 't Hag held a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at ETH Zurich in Switzerland for several years, contributing to a World Food System Center project on preserving African leafy vegetables and a commercial initiative on the self-assembly of organic/inorganic colloidal hybrids. In October 2019, she joined Monash University as a Lecturer and founded the Hybrid Assembly Group.

Van 't Hag's research integrates physical chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry, and cell biology to explore structure-property relationships in soft nanostructured materials for pharmaceutical, food, and biomedical applications. Her work employs advanced small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, along with microscopy techniques, to study self-assembly phenomena, including bicontinuous cubic phases, lipid bilayers, vesicles, and hybrid protein-lipid systems for encapsulating membrane proteins, therapeutic peptides, and bioactive components. She leads projects such as Macromolecular design of sustainable polymeric materials, Plastic Degrading Enzymes Encapsulates in Bioplastics, and the ARC Research Hub for Value-Added Processing of Underutilised Carbon Waste. Notable publications include 'Lyotropic liquid crystal engineering moving beyond binary compositional space–ordered nanostructured amphiphile self-assembly materials by design' (Chemical Society Reviews, 2017), 'Lupin proteins: Structure, isolation and application' (Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2021), 'Lentil and Mungbean protein isolates: Processing, functional properties, and potential food applications' (Food Hydrocolloids, 2023), and 'Comparative study on molecular and higher-order structures of legume seed protein isolates: Lentil, mungbean and yellow pea' (Food Chemistry, 2023). Her contributions align with UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, and Responsible Consumption and Production.