SFT is pleased to announce the hire of Prof. Wang Xungai, the newly appointed Chair Professor of Fibre Science and Technology. Before joining SFT, Prof. Wang held the position of an Alfred Deakin Professor, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Future Fibres), and Director of the ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres at Deakin University in Australia.
Prof. Wang obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Fibre Science and Technology and Graduate Diploma of Higher Education from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1992 and 1996 respectively. He worked as Senior Lecturer at the UNSW before he joined Deakin to start research on fibre/textile materials there in 1998. He held a Personal Chair at Deakin and was the Director of Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation from 2008 to 2010. Between 2011 and 2017, Prof Wang served as Deputy Director and then Director of the largest research institute at Deakin, the Institute for Frontier Materials, which enjoys the highest ERA ranking score of 5 in Australia.
Prof. Wang received the Fiber Society Award for Distinguished Achievement in Fiber Science and the H&M Foundation Global Change Award in 2005 and 2017 respectively. In 2019, the ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres led by Professor Wang received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Industry and Employer Partnerships.
Prof. Wang's research interests are primarily in sustainable fibres and textiles. He is Editor-in-Chief of a premier journal in the textile field, the Journal of the Textile Institute (UK).
