Rate My Professor Logeshwaran Panneerselvan

Dr. Logeshwaran Panneerselvan is a Research Fellow at the Environmental Plastic and Innovation Cluster (EPIC) in the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He manages the ISO and DIN CERTCO-certified lab for biomaterial testing and analysis. His research examines microbiome changes in terrestrial environments and organisms exposed to contaminants, including microplastics, and develops plastic-alternative biopolymers. As co-investigator in a Cotton Research and Development Corporation-funded project, 'Closing the Loop: textile waste composting for improved carbon footprint and sustainability,' his team has developed eco-friendly textile recycling strategies. During his PhD at the University of South Australia, he studied enzymatic detoxification of organophosphorus pesticides, identifying bacterial enzymes that detoxify organophosphate neurotoxins with potential against 'V-type' nerve agents. Post-PhD, as Research Associate, he worked on eco- and genotoxicity of firefighting compounds, remediation of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated groundwater, distillery effluent impacts on soil and crops, and cry proteins in genetically modified eggplants. He holds a PhD from University of South Australia, MSc and BSc in Agriculture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, and Graduate Diploma from Life Science Foundation, Karnataka, India. Previously, from 2013-2015, he was Research Assistant at University of South Australia conducting ecotoxicological studies on fluorinated firefighting compounds affecting soil microbes, earthworms, aquatic invertebrates, plants, and fish.

Dr. Panneerselvan has over ten years' expertise in environmental microbiology, molecular toxicology, molecular biology, and proteomics. He collaborates internationally with teams in the US, South Africa, India, China, and Fiji on biodegradable polymers, risk assessment, remediation, algal biotechnology, plastic pollution, and human health. His work has an h-index of 24 and over 1,900 citations on Google Scholar. Key publications include 'Upcycling polyester from post-consumer blended textile waste into hydrogel for dye removal' (Chemical Engineering Science, 2026), 'Polymer-specific microplastic risks and microbial community shifts in a freshwater ecosystem: Field evidence from the Hunter River, Australia' (Science of the Total Environment, 2025), 'Eco-innovative approaches for recycling non-polyester/cotton blended textiles' (Waste Management Bulletin, 2025), and chapters 'Microbial Production of Biopolymers: Recent Advancements and Their Applications' (2024) and 'Bioplastics from microbial and agricultural biomass' (2023).