ProfessorDeanna D'Alessandro

PROFESSIONAL & CIVILIAN ROLES

2025-present, Research Committee, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Sydney
2022 Australian Academy of Science Expert Panel for Roundtable on Novel Negative Emissions Approaches
2022, Carbon Removals project lead, Net Zero Initiative, University of Sydney
2020-2024, Local and Central Promotions Committee Member, Level C-D
2017-2018, Elected committee member RACI Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
2015, President of Sydney University Chemical Society
2012-2015, Foundation for Inorganic Chemistry Honorary Secretary and High School Outreach Coordinator
2003-present, Justice of the Peace (Qualified) (Queensland)

ADVISORY AND BOARD ROLES

2026-present, Australia-Japan Business Co-operation Committee (AJBCC) Clean Energy Transition Advisory Committee
2024-present, Energy Research Institutes Council of Australia (ERICA) Board member
2023-2024, International Green Chemistry Advisory Committee, Estée Lauder Companies
2018-2024, Elected committee member of International Zeolite Association (MOFs Division)

EDITORIAL ROLES & REFEREEING

Associate Editor, Chemical Communications (Royal Society of Chemistry) (Sept. 2023-present)
Associate Editor, Australian Journal of Chemistry (CSIRO Publishing) (Apr. 2018-present). In addition to reviewing tasks, led special issue of Journal (with A/Prof Brendan Abrahams and Prof Stuart Batten) in honour of pioneer in coordination polymer chemistry Prof. Richard Robson on the occasion of his 80th Birthday).
Guest Editor (with Prof Brendan Abrahams and Prof Stuart Batten), Special Edition of honour of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Australian Professor Richard Robson for the discovery of Metal-Organic Frameworks with Professors O. Yaghi and S. Kitagawa
Guest Editor (with Prof. Stefan Kaskel) for Special Edition of Chemistry-A European Journal in honour of MOF2020web
Editorial Board Membership: Chem (Cell Press) (2019-present); Coordination Chemistry Reviews (Elsevier) (2020-present)
Guest Editor (with A/Prof Brendan Abrahams and Prof Stuart Batten), Special Edition of Chemical Communications on Functional Coordination Frameworks (RSC Publishing) (2020)
Guest Editor (with A/Prof Ognjen Miljanic), Special Edition of Supramolecular Chemistry (Taylor & Francis) for ISMSC (2017)
Regular Journal Referee for American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley, Elsevier and Nature family series of journals, approximately 2/month except during maternity leave
Regular Referee for Australian Research Council Grants, 10-15/year (2012-present), American-Australian Association Fellowships (2018-2019) and PhD thesis examinations

MEMBERSHIPS

Royal Australian Chemical Institute (Fellow CChem) 
Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Association of Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Declarations

SELECTED PUBLIC LECTURES, COMMENTARY & MEDIA

Parliamentary Enquiries: Public Accountability and Works Committee Enquiry into Data Centres, May 8 2026, Evidence provided to the Legislative Council. 
Media: “Women to watch: The leaders driving science innovation in Australia” Women’s Agenda, February 11 2026; “Deanna D’Alessandro is our leading researcher in inorganic chemistry” The Australian Research Magazine 2026. “Direct air capture machines suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Are they part of the solution to climate change” ABC Science News, January 28 2022; “New life injected into ambition of capturing CO2 from air” Ethical Corp, March 22 2022; “Australian company secures $700,000 deal for carbon capture and storage machine” The Guardian, July 2 2022.
Contributor to The Conversation (total ~180,000 reads): D.M. D’Alessandro “An Australian chemist just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry” The Conversation, November 2025. D.M. D’Alessandro, K. Harrison-Brennan, “The federal government wants to boost productivity. Science has the answer?” The Conversation, June 2025. S. Wenger, D. M. D’Alessandro, “On top of drastic emissions cuts, IPCC finds large-scale CO2 removal from air will be “essential” to meeting targets” The Conversation, April 6 2022; and “Engineers have built machines to scrub CO2 from the air. But will it halt climate change?” The Conversation, January 21 2021. 
Contributor to Podcasts: The Solutionists (with Mark Scott), Net Zero check-up – Will Australia make it? (Season 3, Episode 3), 1 October 2024; Track Changes – chats with climate change and sustainability experts (with Murray Griffin & Julian Turecek, CEO of AspiraDAC), Direct air capture of CO₂ – a new global role for Australia?, 12 March 2025; Sydney Ideas Podcast, Critical minerals: The global race for resources, 20 May 2025.
2023 Raising the Bar, City of Sydney/The University of Sydney, Carbon dioxide removal – the path to net zero?, available as Podcast
2023 Australian Academy of Science e-interview for The Scientific Effort to Remove Greenhouse Gases
2023 Australian National University Climate Update, Negative Emissions Agenda, February 6 2023
2022 Invited Interview for e-book: D. M. D'Alessandro in “Metal-Organic Frameworks in Perspective,” Lars Öhrström and Francoise M. Amombo Noa Eds., American Chemical Society (DOI: 10.1021/acs.infocus.7e4004). 
2015, Alumni speaker for the National Youth Science Forum Launch of “Science 50:50” with Prof. Veena Sahajwalla, Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra
2015, Sydney Science Forum Public Lecture “Catch CO2”, University of Sydney
2014, COSMOS Magazine “Crystalising a New Vision”, Vo. 54, pp 24.
2011, ORICA Black Tie Dinner Speaker, International Year of Chemistry Launch, Great Hall, Parliament House, Canberra
2011, Ruby Payne Scott Memorial Lecture, Danebank Anglican Girls High School
2011, Occasional Speaker, Faculty of Science Graduation Ceremony, University of Sydney
2010, Australian Federation of Graduate Women End of Year Lecture, Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts
2007, Alumni speaker for the National Youth Science Forum Rotary Dinner, Australian National University
2003, Runner-up Channel 7 Queensland Young Achiever Awards
2004, Peter Milras Award for contribution to the John Flynn College community as a Residential Tutor

FORMAL MENTORING

2025-2026, Mentor for Horizon Fellows Retreats
2017-present, University of Sydney Mentor and Academic Promotions & Development Advisor; Mentor for Strategic Promotion Advice and Mentoring program for promotion of Women to Levels C and D; Faculty of Science Mentoring program and Sydney Women’s Mentoring program. Approximately 3-4 mentees each year as part of these programs.
2021, Mentor for Franklin Women’s Mentoring Program; Panel Discussion member for Workshop and contributor to promotions advice 
2017-2019, Mentor, L’Oreal-UNESCO Australia For Women in Science Mentoring Program (see Marie Claire, November 2018, for impact story shared by Dr Mary Woessner)

COORDINATION & REVIEWING

2022, International Advisory Board member for 8th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Open Framework Materials
2022, Co-chair (with Prof. Hoi Ri Moon) for AsCA 2022 Asian Crystallographic Association (AsCA) for microsymposium “Structures and Properties of Functional Materials”
2020, Organising committee member (with Prof. Jeff Reimers (chair)) for Symposium “From Electron Transfer: From Electrochemistry to Mixed-valence Molecules to Photosynthesis: In memory of the late Prof. Noel Hush”, The International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem 2020)
2020, Pacifichem2020 Symposium Reviewer (Chemistry of Energy Australia Topic reviewer)
018, Organising committee member (with Prof. Shane Telfer (chair)) for 6th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Open Framework Materials in Auckland, NZ (MOF2018)
2018, Co-organiser (with Assist/Prof Hiroaki Iguchi (Tohoku University, Japan), A/Prof Mircea Dinca (MIT, USA), A/Prof Hoi Ri Moon (UNIST, Korea), A/Prof Yumi Yakiyama (Osaka University, Japan), Assist/Prof Wataru Kosaka (Tohoku University, Japan), Assist/Prof Kazuya Otsubo (Kyoto University, Japan), and Assist/Prof Zhongyue Zhang (Nagoya University, Japan) of the session titled "Electron-Conductive/Redox-Active Coordination Polymers" in the 43rd International Conference on Coordination Chemistry, Sendai, Japan (ICCC) 
2014, Co-organiser (with Drs Tony Keene, Suzanne Neville and Jon Kitchen) of the Inaugural Southampton-Australia-New Zealand Magnetism Symposium (SANZMAG) 
2012, Organiser of the Inaugural RACI One-Day Student Symposium in Inorganic Chemistry for NSW/ACT, Guest of Honour, Professor Harry B. Gray (Caltech)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INDUSTRY & COMMERCIAL OUTCOMES

Our industry work with Southern Green Gas (https://www.southerngreengas.com.au/) on Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology resulted in a commercial contract with AspiraDAC to supply Australia’s first solar powered DAC systems. Our work is also developing Social License to Operate for this technology and is supported by the following IP:

“Carbon Dioxide Capture via Alkylamine Functionalized Metal-Organic Frameworks,” J.R. Long, D. M. D'Alessandro, T. McDonald, PCT WO 2013059527, 25 April 2013; US 10,137,430 B2, 27 November 2018. This patent led to spin-out Mosaic Materials in 2012 which was acquired by Baker Hughes in 2025.

“Method of Producing a Modified Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Framework,” D. M. D’Alessandro, R. Gillespie (PCT WO2023115099A1) ceased, pending “Method of Modifying a Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Framework” (AU2024264683A1)

“Process and Apparatus for Capturing CO₂” S. Wenger, D. M. D’Alessandro (pending WO2025091085A1/AU2023903525A0). This patent led to start-up DAC labs which spun out of The University of Sydney in 2025.