Media releases

Federation University Australia civil engineering researcher Dr Amin Soltani will progress his work into improving the quality and sustainability of Australian roads, after receiving a prestigious Victoria Fellowship.

Dr Soltani will use the veski Fellowship grant to travel to Canada in 2023, visiting the University of Ottawa and the world-renowned GeoEngineering Centre at Queen’s University to research the use of biopolymers in stabilizing soils.

Since 2017, Dr Soltani has researched ground improvement, working towards minimizing reliance on carbon and energy-intensive materials.

His work looks at how soils could be transformed into smart, reliable engineering materials with no cement or lime needed.

Through cross-disciplinary research using a combination of microbiology, organic chemistry and geotechnical engineering, Dr Soltani said biopolymer technology was showing great promise to achieve this goal.

Biopolymers are polymers derived from natural resources, namely micro-organisms, plants or animals.

Delivered in partnership with the Victorian Government, the veski Victoria Fellowships are worth $18,000 each and are awarded to 10 early-career researchers to support them in international study to advance their work in global settings, which will contribute to longer term growth of Victoria’s research and innovation capabilities.

Dr Soltani will spend up to four months in Canada and hopes his research will go beyond solving road engineering problems and can also be applied to other areas, such as supporting vegetation growth by increasing water retention of soils and groundwater control.

Quotes attributable to Federation University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Duncan Bentley

“Congratulations to Amin on receiving this prestigious Fellowship. Amin’s innovative research is yet another example of Federation’s ongoing commitment to deliver impactful research that enables people and communities to prosper locally, regionally and globally.”

Quotes attributable to Federation University researcher Dr Amin Soltani

“Biopolymer technology is the next exciting chapter of my research journey and through this study mission, I aim to progress this initiative with pioneers of my discipline.”

“I hope to close the gaps in knowledge, translate biopolymer research to practice, and champion this sustainable geoengineering solution with Federation University.”

“I would like to thank the Victorian Government and veski for these important awards.”