Rate My Professor Arash Tahmasebi

Associate Professor Arash Tahmasebi serves as Co-Director of the BHP Centre for Sustainable Steelmaking Research within the University of Newcastle's School of Engineering. His research focuses on cokemaking, bio-coke production, sustainable and low-carbon ironmaking technologies, biomass utilisation, hydrogen production, and thermochemical conversion of solid fuels. Research interests include biomass utilisation, clean coal technology, clean energy, coal chemistry, hydrogen energy, low-carbon ironmaking, metallurgical coke, pyrolysis, and combustion. Previously, he held the position of Research Fellow at the University of Science and Technology Liaoning School of Chemical Engineering in China from September 2012 to June 2018. Tahmasebi leads a dynamic team of postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and research professionals, and collaborates actively with Australian and international resources, steel, and power sectors to develop solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Tahmasebi has earned several prestigious awards, including the 2024 Celebrating Success Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Research Funding from the University of Newcastle, the 2024 NIER Best-Practice Team Industry Collaboration for the BHP Centre for Sustainable Steelmaking Research, the 2020 NIER Health, Safety & Environment Award for Excellence in Team HSE Systems and Practice, the 2020 Australasian Association for Engineering Education award from the Institution of Engineers Australia, and the 2019 Engineers Australia accredited Professional Mining Engineer status. He has secured 59 research grants totaling $14,972,194, such as leading the BHP Centre for Sustainable Steelmaking Research - Modified Blast Furnace Research project worth $4,235,000 from 2026-2027. Key publications include 'Factors Underpinning the Gasification Reactivity of Coke RMDC and IMDC with CO2' in ISIJ International (2026), 'Reaction-diffusion Kinetics Modelling of Coke Gasification in Simulated H2 Reduction Blast Furnace' in ISIJ International (2025), 'Chemical characterization of microtexture transformation during plastic layer formation via synchrotron macro ATR-FTIR microspectroscopy' in Fuel (2025), and 'Microstructural and microtextural evolution of metallurgical coke during reaction with CO2 and H2O' in Fuel (2025). His contributions advance sustainable steelmaking and coke quality optimization.