CRC-P PhD students – where are they now?
Johann van Hensbergen from the School of Chemical Engineering at The University of New South Wales has recently submitted his PhD thesis on Ring-opening and acyclic diene metathesis: Polymerisation, thiol click modification and organic-inorganic composite preparation.
After completing a BEng (Hons) in industrial chemistry at UNSW, he joined Orica’s graduate program and commenced work as a Development Chemist with Selleys in Padstow, NSW. No stranger to working in industry, as a recipient of UNSW’s Co-op scholarship program for high achieving students, Johann had already undertaken a total of 18 months of diverse experience at Unilever in food science, Tooheys in beer manufacturing, Bluescope Steel in coatings research as well as in product development at Selleys.
However, it was his interest in working at the cutting edge of technology, together with his supervisor Professor
Robert Burford, which lured him back to further studies. Johann was awarded the CRC-P Chairman’s scholarship – which when combined with the University Medal Research Excellence award, enabled him to leave a management career path and commit to full time scientific study.
In Johann’s words “Doing my PhD with the CRC-P afforded me a number of advantages – the financial independence to study and conduct research without having to work part time, and the additional bench fee allowance meant I could purchase the very best in research materials. The early career exposure and networking opportunities I received from local meetings and international conferences were also invaluable. In particular, the CRC-P sent me to France to present my work at a large symposium. I spoke in front of the leading authorities in my field, including Nobel Laureates, and that opportunity directly led to me visiting the University of Florida for a research exchange and a co-authorship on a paper.”
Scholarships and networking aside, the intangible benefits of his PhD work have been immense. “Learning to independently plan and manage a research workload, solving abstract problems, presenting to large and critical audiences, overcoming personal challenges, fatigue and setbacks. All these things are transferrable and have
helped to build my resilience and self-confidence.”
Now that he’s submitted his PhD thesis, Johann isn’t sure whether it will be a career pathway in academia or a return to a technical role in the global chemical industry. Either way, success will surely find him.
