Rate My Professor Andrew Whittaker

Professor Andrew Whittaker is a Senior Group Leader and founder member of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland, where he serves as Deputy Director International and Affiliated Professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. He earned a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland in 1987, with his PhD thesis on the radiation chemistry of polyolefins. Whittaker joined the University of Queensland around 1991, was promoted to full professor in 2004, and became an inaugural Group Leader at AIBN in 2005. He directs research funded through more than $62.5 million in competitive grants since 2000 from sources including the ARC, NHMRC, Intel, Sematech, Dow Chemical Company, and DuPont. He has held visiting professor positions at Hubei University, INSA Lyon, Nagoya Institute of Technology, and served as DICE Chair at the University of Nottingham.

Whittaker's research focuses on polymer chemistry for health and nanotechnology challenges, encompassing synthesis and characterisation of polymeric materials for photolithography—such as novel high-index resists for 193 nm immersion lithography, non-chemically amplified resists for EUV lithography, and block copolymer self-assembly—and biomaterials science, including novel 19F polymeric MRI imaging agents, responsive polymers for nanomedicine, anti-fouling materials for medical devices, and polymeric hydrogels. He is renowned for expertise in diffusion processes in complex solids and NMR/MRI of polymeric systems. His achievements include over 350 peer-reviewed publications, such as 'Biological Utility of Fluorinated Compounds: from Materials Design to Molecular Imaging, Therapeutics and Environmental Remediation' (Chemical Reviews, 2022) and 'Ultra-stable all-solid-state sodium metal batteries enabled by perfluoropolyether-based electrolytes' (Nature Materials, 2022). Awards encompass the Paul J. Flory Polymer Research Prize (2014), ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship (2011), RACI Polymer Division Citation (1998) and Achievement Award (2000), UQ Excellence in Higher Degree by Research Supervision Award (2019), and Indonesian Polymer Association Achievement Award (2019). Whittaker has led the Pacific Polymer Federation as President (2019-2022), chaired the RACI Polymer Division, and served on the Australian Research Council College of Experts, fostering international collaborations across the USA, China, Japan, UK, and Europe.