Naras Hanumanth Rao

Dr. Naras Hanumanth Rao is a Senior Research Associate and ARC DECRA Fellow at the Algae & Organic Matter Lab (AOM Lab) within the Enviro Lab Cluster at the School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from UNSW and has previously worked as a Marie Curie Fellow at KU Leuven, Belgium.

• Education: BE in Chemical Engineering (UW-Madison, India), PhD in Chemical Engineering (UNSW, 2018)
• Current Position: ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Research Associate at UNSW
• Previous Role: Marie Curie Fellow at KU Leuven, Belgium (2021-2024)

Rao’s research focuses on optimizing resource reuse through advanced particle separation techniques in water treatment, mining, and biotechnology. His work addresses polymer/nanomaterial design for algal separation, DOM characterization, climate impacts on catchments, and novel online monitoring tools. He has attracted over $1.5 million in competitive funding and authored numerous peer-reviewed articles.

His recent publications emphasize flocculation, dissolved air flotation (DAF), and plasma-activated water for algal/cyanobacterial separation. Grant highlights include the 2024 UNSW Research Infrastructure Grant for FlowCAM Nano and the 2023 ARC DECRA project on multifunctional polymers.

• Key Awards:
  • 2023 ARC DECRA
  • 2021 Marie Curie Fellowship
  • 2018 Dean's List for Outstanding PhD Thesis
  • 2016 UNSW PRSS Award

Rao has co-supervised 12 PhD, undergraduate, and master’s students, including Dr. Xiaoran Chu and Angelina. He collaborates with water industry partners like Sydney Water and SPARC Technologies and serves as a Marie Curie Ambassador for female researchers in Europe. Teaching includes Transport Phenomena and Chemical Engineering Design.