Tanja Junkers

Tanja Junkers is a full Professor in the School of Chemistry at Monash University, Australia, where she leads research on continuous flow polymerizations, nanoparticle design, and precision polymers. She also holds a guest professorship at Hasselt University, Belgium.

Education: PhD in Physical Chemistry from Georg-August University (Göttingen, Germany, 2006); Diplom (Master) in Chemistry from the same institution (2002). Prior roles include research associate at UNSW Sydney and senior scientist at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Research focuses on controlled radical polymerizations, flow chemistry, and applying machine learning to polymer synthesis. Key interests include degradable polymers, self-assembly of block copolymers, and sustainable materials development. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to sustainable industry and innovation.

Current projects include the ARC-funded 'Sustainable Reversible Polymerisation' and 'Data Driven Polymer Synthesis'. She serves as Associate Editor for Polymmer Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry).

Advising: Actively supervising PhD students in areas like continuous flow reactor polymerization and peptidomimetic synthesis. Her research teams collaborate internationally, with recent projects involving universities in Australia, Germany, and Belgium.

Lab/Teams: Leads the Monash group focused on precision polymer design, integrating automation and high-throughput experimentation. Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams on chemical manufacturing and energy materials.