ProfessorPeter Rutledge

Peter is a researcher and educator in the School of Chemistry, where he is Professor of Chemistry and Head of School. His research focuses on the chemistry and chemical biology of antibiotics and antifungal agents, chemical sensing, and communicating science. Peter is passionate about the potential of chemistry as a force for good in our world and sharing this potential with others.

 

He completed his undergraduate and Honours degrees at the University of Auckland and his doctorate in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then continued in Oxford as a postdoctoral fellow and college lecturer at Magdalen and Somerville Colleges, before taking up a lectureship in chemical biology at University College Dublin in 2003. Peter and his research group moved to Sydney in 2006.

 

Peter has held the RACI Athel Beckwith Lectureship and Nyholm Lectureship and an AIPS Young Tall Poppy Award. He has won three Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Outstanding Teaching and Support of the Student Experience, Australian Learning and Teaching Council Program Award and Citation for Teaching Excellence, the RACI Chemistry Educator of the Year Award, and SUPRA Supervisor of the Year. 

 

Peter's research uses the tools of organic chemistry and chemical biology to develop new antimicrobial agents, molecular sensors to study biological systems, and biocatalysts for making new molecules. His team is working to create new antibiotics and antifungal agents from natural products and synthetic sources, build fluorescent probes to illuminate biomolecular targets, and enhance science teaching and learning through citizen science.