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For Rachel Caruso, a materials scientist at the University of Melbourne, chemistry is like a game. “I play in the lab,” she says. “I enjoy the challenge of trying to solve a puzzle.”

That playfulness, which she attributes in part to spending time with her two young children, has led to an amazingly productive early research career, and an international reputation as a leader in her field.

Caruso specialises in developing new techniques to fabricate nanomaterials. These can be used for a startling array of applications, from manufacturing solar panels to building substances that help degrade contaminants. Her ultimate goal is to help minimise human impacts on the environment. “When you have children, your priorities change,” she explains. “You start thinking more about what life will be like in the future.”

Using nano-sized scaffolds, Caruso and her research group create inorganic structures that are highly porous. The premise, she says, is quite simple: “you’re increasing the total surface area, and the more surface area you have, the more reactions will occur and the better your material will perform.”

At the moment her group is working to enhance the activity of electrodes used in solar cells. They’re also developing porous materials that absorb light to break down toxins in industrial wastewater streams.

Another project, run in collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), is exploring the use of these porous
structures as sponges to soak up radioactive elements, with obvious potential applications in the nuclear industry.

Despite her prodigious research output, Caruso regularly takes time to discuss her work with high school students and science teachers at summer schools and seminars.

“I’d like to inspire young people to think beyond just pushing numbers or elements on paper. Through research you can change the world around you, and that’s exciting,” she says with a smile.

So what is the key to creativity? “The people I work with,” she says. “You can’t do research on your own – you play on a team.”

For a full list of the winners of Cosmos Bright Sparks – the country's top 10 scientists under 40 as selected by COSMOS magazine – click here.