Chiara Neto

Chiara Neto is an Italian Australian chemist and Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Sydney. Her research considers functional nanostructures and the design of new materials for sustainable technologies. She is the former President of the Australasian Colloid and Interface Society and was selected as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in 2018.

Early life and education Neto studied chemistry at the University of Florence. She remained there for her doctoral studies.

Research and career In 2007 Neto was appointed a Lecturer at the University of Sydney, where was promoted to Full Professor in 2020.

She has created superhydrophobic surfaces that, imitating a lotus leaf, repel water and keep clean. Such nanostructured materials can be used in situations where repelling liquids and preventing fouling is advantageous, for example, the food industry. By engineering the topography of solid surfaces, Neto can precisely control and study the flow of fluids that interact with them. This allowed Neto to design surfaces layers that allow ships to move efficiently through water, reducing power consumption. 2018 Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellowship

Select publications