David Wang

David Wang is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney. He joined the University in March 2017 in a faculty position and advanced to Senior Lecturer in 2020. He currently serves as Associate Head of School (Research Education). Wang holds a PhD in Bioengineering. His academic career includes prior roles at the University of Queensland, where he was awarded the UQ Early Career Researcher Award in November 2013 for the project 'Designing Robust Photocatalytic Titania Carbon Hollow Fibers for Water Purification and Separation'. He also received the Australian Postgraduate Award and AIBN Top-Up Scholarship in 2006, and the UQ UnIChe Undergraduate Summer School Scholarship in 2005.

Wang's research specializations encompass water and wastewater treatment, sol-gel synthesis, material characterization, polymeric biomaterials, polymer chemistry, materials engineering, materials chemistry, and spectroscopy. His work centers on developing advanced membrane technologies for gas separations, carbon dioxide and methane separation, desalination, ammonia removal, and heterogeneous Fenton-like degradation of organic pollutants using perovskite catalysts and single-atom cobalt catalysts. He has produced 116 publications garnering over 3,000 citations. Key publications include 'Highly dispersed, single-atom cobalt, Fenton-like catalyst on microporous silica for efficient advanced oxidation process' (2025), 'The polyetherimide composite alumina membranes for carbon dioxide and methane separations' (2025), 'Ultramicroporous carbon molecular sieve membranes via co-pyrolysis of cobalt-2,6-bis(2-benzimidazolyl) pyridine and polyetherimide for enhanced gas separations' (2025), 'Predicted kinetic behaviour of the oxidative degradation of organic pollutant using substituted MeCuFeO3 (Me = Ca, Sr, CaSr) perovskite catalysts' (2024), 'Iron nanoparticle coating and plasma-activated water cleaning as a biofouling removal method for reverse osmosis membranes suitable for desalination' (2024), and 'Functional role of B-site substitution on the reactivity of CaMFeO3 (M = Cu, Mo, Co) perovskite catalysts in heterogeneous Fenton-like degradation of organic pollutant' (2023). Wang has secured major awards and fellowships, including the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship (2015-2019) for 'Nanostructure Tailoring of Inorganic Membranes by Rapid Thermal Processing', American Australian Association Chevron Fellowship (2016-2017), and European Membrane Society Young Academics Award (2016).

Professional Email: david.wang1@sydney.edu.au