Drew Evans
Dean Research, EIT
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College of Engineering and Information Technology Office of Engineering and Information Technology
Profile of Drew Evans

About me

Professor Drew Evans is the Dean of Research within the Colletge of Engineering & IT at Adelaide University.  His research group is based within the Future Industries Institute focussing on enhancing the performance and manufacturability of materials for application in industry. He is a former Future Fellow - Australian Research Council ("Revolution through evolution - new conducting polymer materials" 2017 - 2020) focused on fundamental materials physics and chemistry, complemented by a significant proportion of industry-engaged projects (multiple CRC's and CRC-P).

In 2006 he received his PhD in interfacial science from the Department of Applied Mathematics at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. During this time he worked under the Cooperative Research Centre for Functional Communication Surfaces, working with some of the leading international paper making companies.  After time spent in the private sector, Drew joined UniSA in 2010 and transitioned to the new Adelaide University in 2025.  To date Drew has secured over $24M in research funding since 2011, for both fundamental and applied studies in the materials science field. He has supervised over 70 international intern students from leading universities (ETH, Bath, Aachen, etc), 10 PhD students to completion, and is currently involved in supervising 5 full time PhD and 2 Masters students. 

As a result of his research achievements, he was awarded the 2013 SA Tall Poppy of the Year prize and the 2019 Ralston Medal for Excellence in Physical Chemistry. In 2022 Drew was part of the SIGWater project in the SmartSatCRC that was awarded the Environment and Sustainability prize at the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards.  Following on from this, he was a member of the South Australian Science Council upon invitation from SA's Chief Scientist from 2014 - 2018. In 2016 Drew was the recipient of the BioSA Young Achiever Award for his contribution to industry in South Australia.

Drew spent 4 years in the private sector in Adelaide. He was involved with the commercialisation of a new liquid toner printing technology. Drew was an integral part of the small R&D team developing a world leading technology in collaboration with companies in Europe, Asia and America. In late 2010 he joined UniSA under the AutoCRC. This project has seen the development of a light-weight shatter-proof plastic mirror for cars, in partnership with a leading international automotive OEM supplier, SMR-Technologies. After a further Automotive Australia 2020 CRC project with SMR (2012-2017), new decorative products for the interior of vehicles were commercialised - first integrated into a (confidential) UK supercar brand. Drew is leading efforts to commercialise new conducting polymer tech in energy storage devices - through the ARC storEnergy (2019-2024), the IRN FACES (2019 onwards), into novel energy devices with EntX Limited and their GenX technology. 

Drew was a member of the Early- and Mid-Career Research Forum Executive under the Australian Academy of Science (2018 chair, 2019 deputy chair).  In 2019, Drew was invited to the Australian Academy of Science's National Committee for Materials Science and Engineering (2019-2025). He is a current member of the executive for the Australian Materials Research Society. 
Last updated on 19/01/2026 by Drew Evans