Rate My Professor Kris Kilian

Professor Kris Kilian holds a joint appointment across the School of Chemistry and the School of Materials Science and Engineering in the Faculty of Science at the University of New South Wales, serving as Director of the Laboratory for Advanced Biomaterials and Matrix Engineering (LAB&ME). He is also co-Director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, Theme Lead of the Biomedical and Health theme in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and a full member of the Adult Cancer Program in the Prince of Wales Clinical School. Kilian obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1999 and 2003, respectively. From 2000 to 2004, he worked in the Methods Development group at Merck Research Labs. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at UNSW in 2007, followed by a NIH postdoctoral fellowship in Milan Mrksich's laboratory at the University of Chicago from 2007 to 2010, where he investigated methods for directing stem cell differentiation. Subsequently, he was Assistant Professor from 2011 to 2017 and Associate Professor from 2017 to 2018 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Bioengineering, before returning to UNSW in 2018 as a Scientia Fellow.

Kilian's research specializes in the design and development of model extracellular matrices and dynamic hydrogels for cell and tissue engineering, alongside fundamental investigations into cell plasticity to unravel matrix structure-cell function relationships. He has authored over 130 journal articles, including highly influential works such as 'Geometric cues for directing the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010), 'Interfacial geometry dictates cancer cell tumorigenicity' (Nature Materials, 2016), 'Bridging the gap: from 2D cell culture to 3D microengineered extracellular matrices' (Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2015), 'Materials control of the epigenetics underlying cell plasticity' (Nature Reviews Materials, 2021), and 'Capillary constrictions prime cancer cell tumorigenicity through PIEZO1' (Nature Communications, 2025). His contributions have earned prestigious awards, including the Cornforth Medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (2008), NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award (2008), Kavli Fellow of the 19th German-American Frontiers of Science (2014), National Science Foundation CAREER award (2015), Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (2017), Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2018), Dean's Award for Research Excellence (2020), and Eureka Prize finalist for Innovative Use of Technology (2023).