Professor Muthupandian Ashokkumar (Ashok) is a Physical Chemist who specializes in Sonochemistry, teaches undergraduate and postgraduate Chemistry and is a senior academic staff member of the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne. He is currently the Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor International at the University of Melbourne.

Ashok is a renowned sonochemist, with more than 20 years of experience in this field, and has developed a number of novel techniques to characterize acoustic cavitation bubbles and has made major contributions of applied sonochemistry to the Materials, Food and Dairy industry. His research team has developed a novel ultrasonic processing technology for improving the functional properties of dairy ingredients. Recent research also involves the ultrasonic synthesis of functional nano- and biomaterials that can be used in energy production, environmental remediation and diagnostic and therapeutic medicine. He is the Deputy Director of an Australian Research Council Funded Industry Transformation Research Hub (ITRH; http://foodvaluechain.unimelb.edu.au/#research; Industry Partner: Mondelez International) and leading the Encapsulation project (http://foodvaluechain.unimelb.edu.au/research/ultrasonic-encapsulation). He has received about $ 15 million research grants to support his research work that includes several industry projects. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, an international journal devoted to sonochemistry research with a Journal Impact Factor of 6.0). He has edited/co-edited several books and special issues for journals; published ~385 refereed papers (H-Index: 57) in high impact international journals and books; and delivered over 150 invited/keynote/plenary lectures at international conferences and academic institutions. Ashok has successfully organised 10 national/international scientific conferences/workshops and managed a number of national and international competitive research grants. He has served on a number of University of Melbourne management committees and scientific advisory boards of external scientific organizations. Ashok is the recipient of several prizes, awards and fellowships, including the Grimwade Prize in Industrial Chemistry. He is a Fellow of the RACI since 2007.