Our Team
Dr Cong Vu- Nanosoils Founder
I grew up in the rice bowl in Southern Vietnam, part of the Mekong Delta where just about everyone worked in the rice industry. After completing a PhD in nano-medicine at UNSW, Sydney I was part of a team that discovered a way to use nanoparticles to deliver anticancer drugs to target cancer cells whilst leaving the good cells alone.
One afternoon in the lab researching the history of cancer drugs in humans to select a drug to use in an experiment, I come to realise anticancer drugs and pesticide share many characteristics such poor water solubility and off-target toxicity. It got me thinking. If we are developing nanoparticles to promote chemicals to targeted cancer cells in the human body, why can't we do the same for agrochemicals and reduce the effects of harmful chemicals to our environment. With the support of Prof Justin Gooding and UNSW, I founded the start-up company called “Nanosoils”.
Nanosoils is incubated by Department of Primary Industries, the GATE program and accelerated by Sparklabs Cultiv8.
Email: cong@nanosoils.com
Professor Justin Gooding
Scientia Professor J. Justin Gooding
Editor-in-Chief, ACS Sensors
ARC Australian Laureate Fellow
Founding Co-Director, New South Wales Smart Sensing Network
Founding Co-Director, The Australian Centre for NanoMedicine
School of Chemistry
UNSW Australia
Professor Brajesh Singh (Western Sydney University)
Professor Brajesh Singh is an internationally recognised expert and has advanced critical areas of ecosystem science, particularly linking soil biodiversity to key ecosystem functions and services. He works with multiple United Nations agencies including the Food and Agriculture Authority to increase the resilience of farming systems and ensure food security. He received numerous awards including a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, Clarivate Highly Cited (HiCi) Researcher ranked in the top 1% of researchers globally – identifying them as the world’s most influential scientists. He was awarded the JA Prescott Medal of Soil Science Australia awards and Humboldt Research award.
Jasper Chin
Jasper specialises in accounting, finance and management. He is involved in determining the commercial viability of NanoSoils’ products and assists Dr Cong Vu with the financial and accounting matters of the company. He had management experience from different organisations across the past 6 years, the most recent role was President of 160 members in the Residents’ Society of International House (UNSW) and Chairman of 125 members in the Executive Council of 12th Kuala Lumpur Boys’ Brigade Company. Jasper is about to finish his Commerce degree at the University of New South Wales, Australia by this year.