Professor Amir Karton
Founding Director, Institute for Strategic AI | Associate Dean of Research | Professor of Materials Chemistry - Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law; School of Science and Technology
Biography
Professor Amir Karton is the Founding Director of the Institute for Strategic AI (ISA), Associate Dean of Research, and Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of New England (UNE), as well as a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research (AI4Science).
At UNE, Professor Karton leads an AI-native research institute dedicated to applying artificial intelligence to large-scale challenges across the physical sciences, advanced manufacturing, and the circular economy. By integrating generative, predictive, and agentic AI, his team builds autonomous workflows that overcome traditional research bottlenecks and dramatically accelerate both academic discovery and industrial innovation. As a flagship application of AI in materials chemistry, ISA connects these agentic workflows directly to an ARC-funded robotic synthesis platform, establishing a precision-guided, closed-loop system for the autonomous discovery of novel nanomaterials, scalable e-waste recycling technologies, and sustainable energy solutions (aligning with UN SDGs 6, 7, 9, and 13).
Professor Karton’s foundational contributions to chemistry have been recognised by prestigious ARC Fellowships (APD, DECRA, Future Fellowship), the Le Fèvre Medal from the Australian Academy of Science, the American Chemical Society (ACS) PHYS Division Lectureship Award, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Physical Chemistry Lectureship and Citation Award, and the UNE Research Collaboration Leadership Award. As former Chair of UNE's Research Committee of the Academic Board, he also plays a central role in shaping institutional research governance. He serves as an editor for Chemical Physics Letters and the Australian Journal of Chemistry.
