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Our Research Group

Philip Nakashima

Associate Professor

Philip is passionate about atomic bonding and electronic structure. Read more about Philip's scientific background and research. In his spare time Philip enjoys the company of his wife Kate (who designed this website - thanks Kate!), time with family and friends, gardening, reading contemporary and classical fiction, music of all genres, the arts, handiwork around the house, going for walks in the neighbourhood and in the country, long drives, travelling, movies and fishing.

Bikas Aryal

Postdoctoral Fellow

Bikas is interested in the study of the ferroelectric phase transformations in perovskite-type materials. He investigates the crystal structure and chemical bonding states of these materials using convergent-beam electron diffraction. He likes listening to music, travelling, playing football, and cycling.

Neil Street

PhD Candidate

Neil is researching the high frequency magnetic properties of hexagonal ferrites for use in electromagnetic wave absorbers. This involves understanding the effect of chemical doping on the electromagnetic absorption of ferrites, the interplay between chemical substitutions and the crystallographic, morphological and magnetic properties. He is supervised by Prof. Kiyonori Suzuki and A/Prof. Philip Nakashima. Neil has an interest in the sol-gel synthesis of ceramics and electron microscopy. He enjoys bushwalking and photography on weekends away.

Marzie Ghorbani

PhD Candidate

Marzie is investigating the accelerated computational design and development of new magnesium alloys through machine learning. She is focusing on mechanical properties of Mg alloys to model the composition-processing-microstructure-property relationships. She is supervised by A/Prof. Philip Nakashima (Monash University), Prof. Nick Birbilis (ANU) and Dr. Mario Boley (Monash University). Marzie enjoys workouts, reading, cooking and travelling.

Yu Zhang

PhD Candidate

Yu is researching the characterisation of newly developed magnesium-lithium alloys which is a part of an ARC Discovery Project. He is particularly focusing on the aspect of lithium characterisation in this alloy system using electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). He is supervised by A/Prof. Philip Nakashima (Monash University), A/Prof. Laure Bourgeois (Monash University), Prof. Nick Birbilis (ANU) and Dr. Zhuoran Zeng (ANU). In his spare time, Yu enjoys playing games and assembling models.

Loreibelle N. Abian

PhD Candidate

Loreibelle is investigating the chemical bonding information within and around the nanoprecipitates of aluminium alloys through quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction (QCBED). She is supervised by A/Prof. Philip Nakashima and A/Prof. Laure Bourgeois. She enjoys cooking, reading and going for walks.

Past Students

Where are they now?

Dr Yueming Guo obtained his PhD in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Joanne Etheridge and A/Prof. Philip Nakashima. He is working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.


Dr Tianyu Liu obtained his PhD in 2019 and is working as a post-doctoral fellow at Monash University, utilising his expertise in software programming and high performance computing. His PhD was supervised by A/Prof. Philip Nakashima and A/Prof. Laure Bourgeois.


Dr Ding Peng is working in Trondheim, Norway, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He obtained his PhD in 2020 at Monash University under the supervision of A/Prof. Philip Nakashima and Prof. Joanne Etheridge.


Dr Xiaofen Tan has returned to China after obtaining her PhD in 2021 under the supervision of A/Prof. Philip Nakashima and A/Prof. Laure Bourgeois.

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