Professor Lianzhou Wang named UQ's first ever ARC Industry Laureate Fellow

Professor Lianzhou Wang has been named The University of Queensland’s first ever ARC Industry Laureate Fellow, winning $3.6 million to help position Australia as a leading supplier of superior batteries for electric vehicles.

Professor Wang is a senior group leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and UQ School of Chemical Engineering, where he is focussed on the clean energy sector, and developing new functional materials for solar energy conversion and storage systems.

His Industry Laureate Fellowship, in collaboration with industry partners Pure Battery Technologies and Lithium Australia, will allow him to drive a step-change by designing new robust single-crystal microstructures to overcome the challenges currently hindering state-of-the-art lithium metal oxide cathode materials.

Professor Wang said Australia was at the forefront of raw materials extraction globally and had enormous potential to capitalise on the battery value chain.

“Through this Industry Laureate program we will support our local industry partners to move up the battery value chain and position Australia as the global leading battery market supplier while also reducing environmental impact from battery waste,” he said.

Professor Wang is the inventor or co-inventor on 19 patents for the design of innovative materials and technologies that underpin photocatalytic water purification, low-cost solar cells, new electrode electrodes, and UV-protection coatings. 

His work in renewable energy applications earned him an ARC Laureate Fellowship in 2019, shortly after his lab set the world record for efficiency in quantum dot solar cells.

Professor Wang is also routinely named among the Clarion Highly Cited Researchers, which acknowledges the top 1 per cent of researchers in the world. 

The ARC Industry Laureate Fellowships were first awarded in 2023. Lianzhou is the first Queensland based researcher to be named a recipient.