Wallace Wong

Associate Professor Wallace Wong holds a position in the School of Chemistry within the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne, where he serves as Engagement Chair. He is also the Program Leader for Energy Materials at the Melbourne Energy Institute and a Chief Investigator and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science. Wong obtained his Bachelor of Science with Honours and Master of Science in Chemistry from the University of Sydney between 1997 and 2001. He completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Oxford from 2001 to 2004. Following his doctorate, he undertook postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich and then at the University of Melbourne under Professor Andrew Holmes, joining the institution as a research fellow in 2006. He progressed to Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor roles within the School of Chemistry, holding an ARENA Research Fellowship from 2011 to 2014 and an ARC Future Fellowship from 2014 to 2018.

The research of Wong's group centers on the design and synthesis of organic materials, including dyes, conjugated polymers, and fluorophores, for applications in energy conversion such as organic photovoltaics and luminescent solar concentrators, as well as electronics, chemical sensing, and biological imaging. His contributions include work on fully-printed large-area flexible solar cells and supramolecular interactions in organic electronics. Notable publications encompass 'A molecular nematic liquid crystalline material for high-performance organic photovoltaics' in Nature Communications (2015, 700 citations), 'Organic solar cells using a high-molecular-weight benzodithiophene-benzothiadiazole copolymer with an efficiency of 9.4%' in Advanced Materials (2015, 218 citations), 'Highly fluorescent molecularly insulated perylene diimides: Effect of concentration on photophysical properties' in Chemistry of Materials (2017, 176 citations), and 'Emissive molecular aggregates and energy migration in luminescent solar concentrators' in Accounts of Chemical Research (2017, 142 citations). With over 6,000 citations on Google Scholar, his work has advanced understanding in molecular design for light harvesting and solar energy technologies. Wong has collaborated internationally, including with the University of Ulm and Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, and served as Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery Projects for next-generation organic photovoltaic devices.

Professional Email: wwhwong@unimelb.edu.au