Dr Phong Vo

Dr Phong Vo is a Research Fellow in the Climate Change Cluster (Faculty of Science) with a keen interest in water/wastewater treatment and resource recovery. His primary focus concerns applying environmentally friendly bioprocess and green technology for trace pollutants remediation, precious rare earth elements; and understanding the fate and transformation of pollutants from the contaminated sites.

Dr Vo has published widely in top-tier journals and books. He has spoken at several conferences, including the Asia-Pacific Conference on Algal Biotechnology in China in 2019, and the BioRestech in 2018 in Spain, which are both internationally recognized in the field of environmental engineering and science.

Phong’s research has had concrete, real-world positive outcomes. To date, Phong has secured over $600k in funding for his research through various funding bodies, including the Australian Research Council, The University of Technology Sydney, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Incredibly passionate about his research work, Phong’s ultimate aim is to use the principles of engineering, biology, and chemistry to develop solutions to environmental problems. He works to improve recycling, waste disposal, public health, and water pollution control. His work contributes to climate change mitigation by recovering precious materials from mining waste for producing electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Since 2021, Phong has been working with QAEHS on several projects. For example, during the peak of COVID-19, he assisted the Queensland Government in a surveillance project to detect the presence of COVID-19 in wastewater. He was also part of projects to assess the fate and transport of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from contaminated sites; and overview current technologies in Australia for PFAS remediation.