Rate My Professor Thava Palanisami

Professor Thava Palanisami is a Professor in the School of Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He completed his PhD in 2010 from the University of South Australia on the risk assessment and remediation of mixed contaminants. Prior to joining the University of Newcastle, he held positions as Research Associate from 2009 to 2014 and Research Fellow from 2014 to 2015 at the Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia. Post-PhD, his work focused on translating fundamental research to field-level remediation technologies for mixed contaminated sites. Since 2015, his team has led plastics research at the University of Newcastle, with Palanisami serving as Director of the Environmental Plastics Innovation Cluster (EPIC) and Team Leader of the Australian Plastic Research and Innovation Lab.

His research interests center on environmental risk assessment and remediation of emerging contaminants, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heavy metals. Key findings include higher toxicity and bioavailability of contaminant mixtures compared to individual compounds, and investigations into contaminant transformation products using in vitro and in vivo tools to assess environmental fate and human health impacts. Additional areas encompass biodegradable plastics development, soil genomics, toxicity and bioavailability studies, mine site reclamation, and end-user-driven technologies for microplastics and PFAS remediation in wastewater and solids. Palanisami has published over 100 papers, supervised 18 PhD students to completion and more than 10 ongoing, and obtained 41 grants totaling $11,605,983, leading major projects such as biomass optimisation for compostable bioplastics ($1,309,294, 2022) and microplastics removal using halloysite nanocomposites (ARC, $371,380, 2021). Select publications include Venkateswarlu K et al., 'Abandoned metalliferous mines: ecological impacts and potential approaches for reclamation' (Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology, 2016, 94 Web of Science citations); Kuppusamy S et al., 'Biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by novel bacterial consortia tolerant to diverse physical settings' (International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, 2016, 76 citations); Thavamani P et al., 'Multivariate analysis of mixed contaminants (PAHs and heavy metals) at manufactured gas plant site soils' (Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2012, 70 citations); and Sobhani Z, Palanisami T, 'Emerging contaminants in organic recycling: Role of paper and pulp packaging' (Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2025). Awards include the Science Meets Parliament Ambassador Award from SETAC Australasia (2016) and Adjunct Faculty at Tamilnadu Agricultural University (2018). His impact includes the first Australian field implementation of Risk-Based Land Management for contaminated soils and leadership in NHMRC Healthy Environments and Lives research on pollution and human health.