Ranjith Rajasekharan Unnithan

Associate Professor Ranjith Rajasekharan Unnithan serves in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. His research centers on sensor engineering, encompassing image and spectral sensors, machine learning applications on sensors, augmented reality displays, drone-based sensor technologies for precision agriculture, electronic sensors for biomedical applications, new thermal spectral cameras, and nanophotonic engineering. Unnithan obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, developing a voltage-reconfigurable nanophotonic phase modulator technology featuring more than one million phase-modulating elements in silicon. His professional journey began as a Scientist and Engineer at the Indian Space Research Organization in Bangalore, where he contributed to India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission and received the Young Scientist Award from the President of India in 2007. Following his PhD, he worked at Cambridge on a Samsung project before joining the University of Melbourne as a Lecturer in 2014, later becoming an Associate Professor and Research Group Leader.

Unnithan holds several leadership roles, including Director of Sensor Research at Hort-Eye Pty Ltd, which he co-founded; Topical Editor of Optics Letters; Lead Scientific Advisor of KDH Design Co Ltd; and Director of Teaching in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He has earned notable awards such as the Dean’s Research Excellence Award in 2019, EMI Emerging Leader Award in 2020, FEIT Excellence Award in Engagement for Industry Research in 2024, CambridgeSens Innovation Awards in 2009 and 2010, Transurban Innovation Competition win in 2017, and Cambridge University Entrepreneurs competitions in 2011. Key publications include "Development of a low-cost e-nose to assess aroma profiles: An artificial intelligence application to assess beer quality" (Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2020), "Carbon nanotube based high resolution holograms" (Advanced Materials, 2012), "Lifetime reduction and enhanced emission of single photon color centers in nanodiamond via surrounding refractive index modification" (Scientific Reports, 2015), "Filling schemes at submicron scale: Development of submicron sized plasmonic colour filters" (Scientific Reports, 2014), and "A Silk Fibroin Bio-Transient Solution Processable Memristor" (Scientific Reports, 2017). With 13 patents, including US patents, his contributions extend to ARC Centres like TMOS and industry partnerships, influencing advancements in sensor technologies.

Professional Email: r.ranjith@unimelb.edu.au