Sally Gras

Professor & Director, ARC Digital Bioprocess Development Hub University of Melbourne

Professor Sally Gras is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at The University of Melbourne and currently Director of the ARC Digital Bioprocess Development Hub (2022 – 2027, $18 mil), Dairy Innovation Hub (2020 – 2023, $3.8 mil) and the Faster, Smarter Pharma & Food Manufacturing Program (2021 – 2023, $2.8 mil) at The University of Melbourne. Professor Sally Gras is also Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space (2023 – 2030, $90 mil), led by the University of Adelaide.

Sally Gras is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Melbourne, where she leads the Food and Agribusiness research theme within the University’s Melbourne School of Engineering and is Associate Director of the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, where her multi-disciplinary research group is based. Sally trained as a Chemical Engineer and Molecular Biologist and received her PhD in protein biophysics from Cambridge University, U.K. She was elected to the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) in 2020 and on International Women’s Day in March 2023 was named by Cosmos Magazine as one of 50 Women at the Cutting Edge of Science in Australia.

Sally’s research is focussed on a broad range of bioengineering research problems from the nano to the large scale and spanning fundamental through to applied research that aims to translate research findings to a range of industries. Current research activities include dairy and plant-based science and engineering, biotransformations and biopharmaceutical engineering including digital bioprocessing, nano and biomolecular engineering, nanostructured materials, tailored biomaterials and emulsions, and fermentation processes and scale-up.