Professor Elena Ivanova is a Distinguished Professor at RMIT’s School of Science. Worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, Japan; Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland; Visiting Professor at Hokkaido University, Japan; Cambridge University, UK and Institut Charles, Sadron, CNRS, France; she joined Swinburne University of Technology in 2001 and moved to RMIT University in 2018.

• GradDip in Legal Practice, Law Institute of Victoria; Juris Doctor, University of Melbourne, Law School; ScD, Pacific Institute of Bio-organic Chemistry, Russian Federation; PhD, Institute of Microbiology and Virology, Ukraine); BSc, MSc (Honours), Vladivostok State University, Russian Federation
• Research interests:
  • Surface science, surface chemistry, removal of heavy metals from aqueous environments
  • Investigation of the ways in which biological organisms interact with solid substrate surfaces, particularly those used in the construction of medical implants, with a view to developing implant surfaces that resist or prevent bacterial attachment

• Recent research project examples:

• • Biointerfaces: micro/nano-structured surfaces
  • Design, fabrication and operation of planar micro-devices
  • Immobilization of bio-molecules and micro-organisms in micro/nano/environments
  • Biomimetic antibacterial surfaces
  • Biological effects of electromagnetic field

• Recent awards:

• • 2019 Distinguished Professor Medal, RMIT University
  • 2017 Australian Museum Eureka 2017 for Scientific Research
  • 2016 Nano-Micro Letters (NML) Researcher Award
  • 2015 Distinguished Nanoscience Research Leader Award 2015, Publishing Division of Cognizure
  • 2013 Molecules Best Review Paper Award for the paper entitled “Bacterial Extracellular Polysaccharides Involved in Biofilm Formation”, Molecules 2009, 14(7), 2535-2554
  • 2013 Witec Paper Award for the paper entitled “Air-Directed Attachment of Coccoid Bacteria to the Surface of Superhydrophobic Lotus-like Titanium”, Biofouling, 28(6), 2012, 539 – 550

• Link to Publications
• Memberships:
  • Australian Biophysics Society, 2018
  • Royal Society Victoria, 2018
  • FASM since 2014, the Australian Society for Microbiology, 2001
  • Biofouling Management Expert Group (BMEG), 2013
  • The American Chemical Society, since 2012
  • Life member of Bergey’s International Society for Microbial Systematics (BISMiS), 2011
  • AUSBiotech, 2008
  • Law Institute of Victoria, 2008
  • The American Society for Microbiology, since 1999
  • NHMRC Advisory Panel Early Career Fellowship Peer Review Panels (2012/13), Postgraduate Scholarships – Electromagnetic Energy, panel member (2013) and NHMRC Project Grant Panel member (2015)
  • AINSE Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences Committee member (since 2014); Chair (since 2018)
  • ANSTO Scientific Review Committee (SRC) member for Biological, Medical & Health Sciences (BMHS) (since 2015)