DrNatalie Holmes

BSci (Hons I) 2007, UON; PhD (Chemistry) 2016, UON

Dr Holmes is one of Australia's leading specialists in developing atom probe tomography for studying the atomic-scale structure of biological materials and medical devices. Over her career she has focused on materials engineering and advanced microscopy development for electronics (Advanced Energy Materials 2023, Nanoscale 2023, ACS Nano 2021, Nano Energy 2016) and medical device applications (Acta Biomaterialia 2023). Her work has involved accessing international synchrotron facilities to measure the precise nanostructure of functional materials using X-ray microscopy beamlines.

Dr Holmes holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Newcastle (2016), and is an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) PhD scholar. Following her PhD she held post-doc positions at Karlstad University (Sweden) and the University of Newcastle (Australia). In these positions she led research projects in nanostructuring materials for eco-friendly coated solar cells (Karlstad University) and developing nanostructured thin-film devices for electronic biosensors and solar cells (University of Newcastle). The research developing electronic biosensor medical device technologies was predominantly industry and venture capital funded through PepsiCo and GBS Inc (The iQ Group Global). In 2020, Dr Holmes joined the University of Sydney as a Microscopy Australia Research Fellow, extending her research on structure-function relationships in nanostructured materials utilising the advanced atom probe tomography suite. Shortly after joining the University of Sydney she became the key nanomaterials expert in a CI team receiving an NHMRC grant to develop nanoengineered bioelectronic systems for neural interfacing. In 2022, Dr Holmes completed an invited International Fellowship at the University of Tokyo - Institute of Industrial Science, Laboratory for Integrated Micro-Mechatronic Systems (LIMMS). LIMMS is a CNRS International Research Laboratory, jointly operated by France (CNRS, Institute for Sciences of Engineering and Systems), and Japan (University of Tokyo, Institute of Industrial Science).

Dr Holmes has published 57 internationally-peer-reviewed journal articles and secured over $5M in competitive grant funding (as lead, co- and partner CI) since completing her PhD. Dr Holmes has supervised 6 postgraduate students to completion, including 2 PhD candidates. Dr Holmes has built a career in materials engineering, a key component of her research involves accessing X-ray microscopy and tomography beamlines at synchrotron facilities around the world. She has conducted synchrotron experiments at the listed international facilities following successful beamtime proposals: 1) Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA (as lead and co-CI); 2) Swiss Light Source, Villigen, Switzerland (as lead and co-CI); 3) MAX IV, Lund, Sweden (as co-CI); 4) Australian Synchrotron, Melbourne, Australia (as co-CI), securing ongoing ANSTO grants to fund these endeavours. 

In 2024 Dr Holmes was awarded the University of Sydney Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence as a Sydney Leader for her contribution to the training of ECRs in STEMM through the ECWW workshop series (Early Career Women in STEMM Committee - Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Health).

X/Twitter: @DrNatalieHolmes