Rate My Professor Suresh Thennadil

Professor Suresh Thennadil serves as Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Charles Darwin University, where he is affiliated with Engineering. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida in Tampa, USA, between 1991 and 1996. With more than 20 years of experience in chemical engineering gained in the United Kingdom and United States, Thennadil previously held the position of senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He joined Charles Darwin University as Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the North Australian Centre for Oil and Gas in 2014, advancing to his current leadership role. Earlier in his career, he was an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow at Newcastle University from 2002 to 2008.

Thennadil's research specializations encompass waste-to-energy and value-added products, developing processes to convert bio and plastic wastes into energy, fuels like hydrogen, and other products via anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis. He focuses on control and optimization of renewable energy systems for grid stability and high renewable integration, as well as AI and data analytics for automation and optimization in chemical processes and power systems. He has led 16 research projects, including active ones such as the 2021 SURF 3 Renewable Energy Microgrid Hub for Applied Research and Training, 2021 Rainmaker Start-up on ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre for Advanced Manufacturing, and 2022 IAS Rainmaker Start-up on Viability of Carbon Capture in the NT. His contributions align with UN Sustainable Development Goals including affordable and clean energy, climate action, and industry innovation. Thennadil has produced 53 research outputs, featuring recent publications like 'Advancing Bromine Recovery: Solid-Phase Fixation During Calcium-Assisted Pyrolysis of TTBP–TAZ and TBBPA' (Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2026), 'A Review of Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Anomaly Detection in Smart Grid' (Artificial Intelligence Review, 2026), 'Cyber Attack Detection in Smart Grids: A Survey of Methods, Challenges and Future Directions' (Computer Science Review, 2026), and 'Development and Safety Evaluation of Sugar Painting Candies with Maltitol as a Sugar Substitute' (International Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2026). He is co-inventor of 10 patents on chemical process monitoring and medical diagnostics and delivered the 2015 Charles Darwin University Professorial Lecture on spectroscopy for process monitoring. His work has garnered 54 media items on green energy and fuel research.