Debbie Silvester-Dean

Debbie Sue Silvester-Dean is a British-Australian chemist who is a professor at Curtin University. Her research considers electrochemical processes and sensing. She has explored room-temperature ionic liquids. In 2021, she was awarded the Australian Academy of Science Le Fèvre Medal.

Early life and education Silvester was born in Essex in the United Kingdom. She was an undergraduate student at the University of Bristol, where she earned a master's degree in 2005. She competed her third year project with Royce W. Murray at the University of North Carolina, USA. She moved to the University of Oxford for graduate studies, where she studied room temperature ionic liquids using electrochemistry. Her doctoral research was supervised by Richard G. Compton. After a two-month internship Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre, Silvester joined Curtin University as a postdoctoral scholar. Redox active explosive compounds including TNT can be detected using electrochemistry by monitoring the reduction of the nitro groups. She showed that the reaction mechanisms are different in ionic liquids to how they behave in water. In ionic liquids, the nitro groups undergo a 1 electron reduction, whilst in water they undergo a 6 electron reduction at every nitro group. To enhance the sensitivity of the devices, Silvester has proposed surface-modified electrodes (including platinum nanoparticles and electrodeposited porous nanostructures ). This patterning improves the radial diffusion, allowing for sub ppm gas sensing. 2017 Royal Australian Chemical Institute analytical & environmental division Peter W Alexander Medal 2019 Royal Australian Chemical Institute Rennie Memorial Medal 2020 Analytical Scientist Power List 2020 Elected Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute 2021 Australian Academy of Science Le Fèvre Medal 2021 Royal Australian Chemical Institute Physical Chemistry Lectureship 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Analyst Emerging Investigator Lectureship