Wich Lab

19/02/2026

Although many close colleagues already know, I’m pleased to share more broadly that I’ve been promoted to Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney.

Since joining , I’ve built and expanded our research program in functional biopolymers and nanomedicine, contributed to curriculum development and large-scale teaching, and taken on leadership roles within the School, Faculty and discipline. I’m especially pleased that this new chapter coincides with being awarded a 2025 ARC Future Fellowship, supporting the next phase of our work on enzyme-based nanomaterials and sustainable biomaterials.

I’m deeply grateful to my team, collaborators and colleagues (both in Australia and internationally) for their creativity, dedication and trust. Thank you also to my mentors, friends and family for their continued support.
I look forward to growing our research, strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations, and continuing to invest in research training and educational leadership.

Proud of what we’ve built so far, and genuinely excited for what comes next!

02/02/2026

End of last year, we had a fantastic week in Canberra at by the Polymer Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Thanks to Luke Connal and the entire organising team for a fantastic, well-run meeting and a brilliant few days of polymer science and community.

In addition to all brilliant talks, we had a fantastic new session “Rising Stars in Oz Polymers” with cutting-edge talks from Yasemin Fadıl, Valentin Bobrin, Edwin Johnson and Thomas Nicholls on polymers for nanomedicine, polymer brushes, light-responsive trisulfide polymers and degradable copolymers

Congratulations to all prize winners across poster (Tom Roads), rapid-fire (Bailey Richardson) and oral presentations (Brett Pollard), and to all recipients of the RACI awards (Martina Stenzel, Stuart Thickett, Kristian Kempe).
As Craig Hawker highlighted in his final plenary talk, Australasia punches above its weight, with a strong and creative hashtag community.

Looking forward to the next in 2027 in Alice Springs with Tanja Junkers at the helm!

30/01/2026

Fantastic month of science communication for Saluo Lai, PhD student in our team! 🎉

At Drug Delivery Australia (DDA) 2025 in Sydney, Saluo was awarded the Best/1st Poster Prize! On top of that, he also delivered an excellent presentation at the 39th Australasian Polymer Symposium (39APS) in Canberra this week, organised by the Polymer Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

Very proud of Saluo’s hard work and expertise at the interface of polymers, biomaterials, drug delivery, and nanomedicine, excited to see what comes next!

Congratulations, Saluo! 👏

12/12/2025

We had a fantastic week at by the Polymer Division of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Thanks to Luke Connal and the entire organising team for a fantastic, well-run meeting and a brilliant few days of polymer science and community.

Congratulations to all prize winners across poster (Tom Roads), rapid-fire (Bailey Richardson) and oral presentations (Brett Pollard), and to all recipients of the RACI awards (Martina Stenzel, Stuart Thickett, Kristian Kempe).
As Craig Hawker highlighted in his final plenary talk, Australasia punches above its weight, with a strong and creative community.

Looking forward to the next in 2027 in Alice Springs with Tanja Junkers at the helm!


www.auspolymersymposium.org.au

Treloar Prize Oral - Brett Pollard, Australian National University, for oral titled "Polymers from Cellulosic Waste: Direct Polymerization using DBU as a Catalyst".

Treloar Prize Poster - Tom Roads, University of Melbourne, for poster titled "Investigating the Role of Hydrophobicity in the Antimicrobial Peptide Star Polymers".

Best Rapid Fire Presentation - Bailey Richardson, Queensland University of Technology, for rapid fire titled "Peptide Self-Assembly Controlled Photoligation of Polymers”.

20/11/2025

And that’s a wrap of this year's Drug Delivery Australia (DDA) Conference hosted by us in Sydney!

It was an absolute pleasure to help organise this fantastic meeting under the lead of Tushar Kumeria, together with Andrew Care, Lifeng Kang, Zi Sophia Gu, and Vipul Agarwal. Huge thanks to everyone who made this possible, and a big shoutout to the volunteer team for creating such a smooth and welcoming experience for all.

The program was packed with inspiring science, featuring plenaries from Maria Kavallaris AM and Zhen Gu, and keynotes by Juliana Hamzah, Clive Prestidge, Kristian Kempe, ANUPAMA MITTAL, Pall Thordarson, and Ben Boyd, covering everything from biomaterials and nanomedicine to the latest advances in nucleotide and RNA delivery.

It was wonderful to interact with so many friends and colleagues over the two days, sharing ideas, catching up, and enjoying so many great talks and posters. Congratulations to all presenters and award winners!

Congrats also to Khay Fong for the election as the new President of the Australian Chapter of the Controlled Release Society ( )

Already looking forward to next year’s meeting in Brisbane, led by Amirali Popat and team!

11/11/2025

We recently said goodbye to Sophie (pictured in the middle), who joined us from for three months through a RISE Scholarship.
During her stay, she worked on a range of , , and , bringing great energy and curiosity to the lab.
We hope you had fun and learned a lot, Sophie! The will miss you - all the best for your continued studies and future adventures!

08/09/2025

Fantastic day at UNSW Open Day 2025! Always a packed and fun day on campus! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our School, asked questions, and showed such enthusiasm for the future of engineering.
Looking forward to seeing some of you on campus soon!
A huge thank you goes out to the entire team behind the scenes and to those who joined us during the day, who helped make this possible!

22/08/2025

Abhishek joins our Team as a PhD student – Abhishek will work on polysaccharide-based nanosystems for therapeutic applications.
Welcome to our labs, and good luck with your experiments!

16/07/2025

Thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded a 2025 ARC Future Fellowship! ✨

I’m very grateful and honoured to receive this recognition from the Australian Research Council (ARC), which supports mid-career researchers working on projects of national and international significance. This Fellowship allows me to focus on advancing our biomaterial research over the next years, a unique opportunity to deepen our work and drive meaningful innovation. Excited about the possibilities: more to build, more to contribute!

Backed by $1.13 million in funding, this project will help to engineer biocatalytic nanostructures that can operate inside living cells; tailor-made biotechnological nanomaterials that are tools, capable of driving complex chemical reactions in highly targeted environments. The implications extend beyond biomedicine, with exciting potential in sustainable food production, agriculture, and biomanufacturing. Our goal is to establish a versatile, cell-compatible nanotechnology platform that enhances the sustainable production of high-value biotechnological products such as therapeutic proteins, antibodies and biofuels.

Although this Fellowship is awarded to me, it reflects the collective efforts of so many over the last years! Most importantly, I would like to thank my team, past and present, for dedicating all those long hours in the lab/office on translating our ideas into reality. Thanks also to my collaborators, mentors, and colleagues, as well as my School, Faculty, and the broader UNSW community, for their continued support and encouragement.

Congratulations also to my UNSW Engineering colleagues Xin Cao and Meead Saberi on receiving Future Fellowships, as well as to all other colleagues across Australia, whose work was recognised in this year’s round. 👏

https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/07/seven-unsw-researchers-recognised-with-arc-future-fellowships
https://www.arc.gov.au/news-publications/media/media-releases/1146-million-awarded-support-australias-outstanding-research-talent


UNSW UNSW Engineering UNSW School of Chemical Engineering Australian Centre for Nanomedicine The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering

Connect with us here:
https://www.wichlab.com
https://www.instagram.com/peterwich
https://bsky.app/profile/peterwich.bsky.social

Congratulations to Dr Peter Wich (Wich Lab) from UNSW Chemical Engineering on receiving an ARC Future Fellowship for his work on enzyme nanoparticles.

Peter’s research will develop tiny tools that can work inside living cells to perform complex chemical reactions with exciting potential across medicine, agriculture, biomanufacturing and more.

Backed by $1.13M in funding, this project is set to support the sustainable production of high-value products like antibodies and biofuels, and help strengthen Australia’s leadership in nanotechnology.

Fantastic recognition for important work!


UNSW Engineering UNSW UNSW School of Chemical Engineering