Professor Andrew Harris
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Professor Andrew Harris

PhD (Chemical Engineering) University of Cambridge, 2001
Director of the Centre for Translational Research
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Professor Andrew Harris

Andrew is interested in developing cutting edge technologies to assist with the transition to sustainability. He joined the University of Sydney at the start of 2004 from Cambridge University in the UK where he worked for almost six years in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His research typically occurs at the interface between established scientific disciplines, i.e. chemistry, physics, biology, engineering and materials science. Because of this in his work Andrew adopt's a multi-scale, multi-disciplinary approach which enables him and his colleagues to bring a wide range of skills to bear on pressing environmental and sustainable development problems. In 2006 Andrew received the Shedden Uhde Medal and Prize as the leading early career chemical engineer in Australia and New Zealand.

In a world of finite resources and an ever-growing population, Professor Andrew Harris is developing technologies that will provide sustainable sources of clean water, renewable energy and environmentally benign food and mineral resources - everything we need to live our lives, but in a way that doesn't compromise the ability of future generations to live their own lives.

"We have a responsibility to future generations to leave them with a planet that is in a better state than the one we inherited from our own parents.

"The major challenges for humankind in the future will be providing sufficient clean energy, water, food and health care. I am working to develop sustainable technologies that will do this, while also offering superior economic and environmental performance.

"For example, my colleagues and I have already developed a process of making paper from straw rather than wood pulp, a low-cost means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from underground coal mines by 90 percent, and a process of 'farming' minerals using plants.

"Among my current research interests are growing gold on trees, reverse-engineering beetles to capture water from the atmosphere, and using butterfly wings as templates to produce hydrogen for use in fuels cells.

"Being an academic at the University of Sydney gives me the intellectual freedom to carry out the research to resolve such problems."

  • Chartered Engineer, CEng (UK), CPEng (Aust)
  • Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, FIChemE
  • Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, FIEAust

Publications

Selected Grants

2021

  • Better Responses to Gender-based Violence in Cambodia's Construction Sector, Ramos F, Harris A, Origin Energy Upstream Operator Pty Ltd/Client Commissioned Research

2014

  • Micropatterned polymer film coatings for the capture of water directly from the atmosphere, Neto C, Harris A, Thickett S, Porter B, Minett A, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Linkage Projects (LP)