University of Melbourne

The Goerigk group is one of three groups the Melbourne Centre of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry located in the School of Chemistry at The University of Melbourne. Our main focus is the method development and evaluation of Density Functional Theory methods for electronic ground and excited states. We also work closely together with experimentalists to provide computational input in areas such as synthesis, materials design and the development of organic molecules to be used in photovoltaics or sensing.

A/Prof Jones is currently a Research Group Leader developing high performance organic electronic materials for large area printed solar cells and their translation to large area printed solar cells. He has developed new classes of high-performance materials with a high temperature nematic liquid crystalline phase with exceptional materials properties. His research collaborations include USA (NIST, Georgia Tech, Princeton, NREL), KAUST, Germany (KIT, MPIP, Ulm, Merck, Bayreuth), and UK (Imperial, Cambridge, Swansea) along with extensive collaborations within Australia.

Dr. Mitchell’s research strives to understand and control the morphological development of organic photovoltaic active layers in order to optimize excitonic harvesting and device efficiency. Current work focuses on using synchrotron techniques to understand the relationship between material design, processing and performance of advanced organic materials. High-performance polymers are of special interest as a bottom-up approach to achieve morphological control.

Prof Mulvaney is a materials chemist who focuses on the use of semiconductor nanocrystals as excitonic materials for solar energy conversion, sensors and security labelling. He is interested in exciton transport in nanocrystal systems and self-assembly of nanocrystals.

Prof. Smith’s primary interests are the development of super-resolution optical imaging methods and the use of ultrafast laser spectroscopy and time-resolved microscopy to study fast chemical processes, including energy transfer, electron transfer and excitons in polymers, nanocrystals and other materials.

The research group of Associate Professor Wallace Wong works on functional materials design, synthesis, and applications. The focus is on dyes, polymers, and organic semiconductors with applications in light harvesting, energy conversion, chemical sensing, and biological imaging. The fundamental scientific challenge underpinning these materials and technology areas is how to tune molecular structure and properties to achieve precise control over bulk materials properties and function. As part of the IRTG, we will design new organic solar cells materials, investigate their photophysical and semiconducting properties, and study their device performance.

Dr Lukas Zeininger’s group is excited about exploring the unique optical properties of complex soft matter systems, including emulsions and polymer-based colloids. By tailoring the chemical and morphological structure of these waveguiding materials, we enable precise control over light-matter interactions, with applications in sensing, imaging, and display technologies.
As part of the IRTG, we will explore energy transfer across liquid–liquid interfaces, and how the formation of charge-separated states upon photoexcitation can be tuned in response to droplet morphological changes and optical input.