Rate My Professor Alison Funston

Associate Professor Alison Funston is an academic in the School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science at Monash University, serving as a chief investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2002, followed by postdoctoral appointments at Brookhaven National Laboratory with Dr John Miller from 2002 to 2005, and at the University of Melbourne with Professor Paul Mulvaney from 2006 to 2010. Funston joined Monash University in 2010, where she was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship in 2011. Her career encompasses research into the synthesis, assembly, and spectroscopy of nanoscale systems, with a focus on energy and electron transfer processes.

Funston's research investigates fundamental aspects of energy and electron transfer in nanoscale systems, including metal nanocrystals, semiconductor quantum dots, nanowires, nanoplates, conjugated polymers, and donor-acceptor systems. She studies optical properties at ensemble and single-particle levels, nanocrystal growth mechanisms particularly asymmetry formation, self-assembly of discrete nanocrystal superstructures, and light-matter interactions using spectroscopy with high spatial and temporal resolution. Applications span energy harvesting for solar technologies, smart optical films, sensing, security, and functional optoelectronics. Leading the Funston Group, she advances metal-semiconductor hybrid nanoparticles and DNA-based assemblies. Key publications include "Copper assisted symmetry and size control of gold nanobars" (Li et al., 2023), "Blinking of CdSe/Cd₀.₃₃Zn₀.₆₇S semiconductor nanoplatelets" (Frazer et al., 2023), "Anion-Directed Synthesis of Core–Shell and Janus Hybrid Nanoparticles" (Anchal et al., 2022), and the influential "Direct observation of chemical reactions on single gold nanocrystals using surface plasmon spectroscopy" (Novo, Funston & Mulvaney, 2007). She supervises PhD projects on quantum dot-organic structures, light-responsive films, and nanocrystal facets. Her contributions support UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 7, and she participates in ARC projects like OPTEXC and the ARC Training Centre for Green Chemistry in Manufacturing.