Long overdue welcomes!

The team has been growing rapidly over the last 18 months. Indeed, we currently have 59 team members and expect to grow a bit more in 2021.

We like to give a warm welcome to the new members of the Curtin Corrosion family.

Sheila Omar

Sheila just joined the group as a Research Fellow in part to work within the QEERI-Curtin alliance. Sheila is driven by the idea of bridging the gap between Academia Research and Industry Research needs. Her background includes a Materials Engineering Degree and a PhD in Materials Science, both from the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina. She received prestigious awards as scholarships during her studies. Sheila also has industry experience as an Inspection Engineer for YPF SPA (La Pata, Argentina). At YPF, she was responsible for coordinating six units within the Refining area. In each of those units, her team faced the challenge of designing proper inspection procedures to assure the integrity and reliability of the static equipment for safe operation. She also participated in numerous turnarounds to provide technological solutions to corrosion problems. Sheila enjoys practising yoga, cycling and doing outdoor activities with family and friends.

Sara Mosallanejad

Sara joined the Curtin Corrosion Centre as a Research Associate. Sara earned her PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Newcastle, Australia, in 2016 and her master in Gas processing and transmission engineering from the Petroleum University of Technology in her native country, Iran, in 2007. Before joining us, Sara worked as a Research Fellow/Associate at Murdoch University and the University of Newcastle for 5 years. Her research, technical expertise, and interests include materials characterization, heterogeneous reactions, molecular dynamics, density functional theory and reaction modelling. She is presently working on industrial projects covering several aspects of corrosion, focusing on corrosion monitoring and modelling and coating performance evaluation in the oil and gas and mining sectors.

Nadia Leinecker

Nadia Leinecker joined the team as a Research Officer. She is a Biochemist from the National University of Cordoba (Argentina), where she has discovered her passion for research. She completed a PhD in Food Science from The National University of Jujuy (Argentina) and a Master in Animal Husbandry from The Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). 

Nadia has many years of experience working in clinical microbiology and as a researcher in the food field, searching for bacteria's technological properties and preventing microbial contamination and pathogens from ensuring food safety. Furthermore, she has studied the influence of bacteria and their metabolites in the process of ripening and fermentation in different food and the inclusion of probiotics. Currently, she works supporting various projects related to Microbiologically influenced corrosion which involves activities focused on set up corrosion experiments based on clients and companies´ needs.

Veena Nagaraj

Veena Nagaraj joined us as a Research Officer within our world-class Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) group. Veena is a microbiologist and molecular biologist with seven years of experience in the field of environmental and industrial biotechnology. She specialises in biofilm research and the control of biofouling in marine environments. Her previous research was associated with membrane biofouling of seawater reverse osmosis systems in the desalination industry.  Veena is also a qualified veterinarian with a specialisation in veterinary microbiology.

Veena earned her PhD degree in 2017 from the School of Engineering and Information Technology, Murdoch University. She was the recipient of the Murdoch University Research Scholarship (MURS)  and the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA) supplementary scholarship.  Her research work on biofilms and microbial communities in a full-scale desalination system was recognised as a ground-breaking discovery that opened the way to solve membrane biofouling problems worldwide, and was featured as ‘Murdoch research that grabbed the world’s attention in 2017’. 

Before joining the Corrosion Centre, Veena worked at the School of Agriculture and Environment, University of Western Australia, and was a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Marshall Centre. She has also served as a research associate at Murdoch University and as a veterinary microbiologist at DDLS, Animal Pathology Laboratory Services, Perth.

Veena is passionate about photography, travel, and Indian classical dance. She enjoys spending time with her family.

Nicolás Rodríguez

Nico has also joined us as a Research Officer. He has an Industrial Engineering degree from The National University of Tucuman and a Master of Business Administration from The National University of Cuyo, where he gained technical and financial skills to manage projects. He has developed his career in Maintenance in the mining industry for open cut and underground mines in Argentina. Working with high demanded and continual operational equipment, he became Head of Maintenance Planning. He knows how important it is to anticipate problems to avoid failures in the company’s main assets. He currently supports a diverse range of projects, such as electrical degradation, mechanical tests, localised corrosion, and others, where he applies his planning and technical and economic skills to cover the project’s objectives thoroughly.

New students

Please also take a look at the updated list of HDR students.