Joanne Tanner’s current research sits in the general area of sustainability and bio-refinery. Replacing traditional fossil fuel-based fuel and chemical production processes with analogous plants using sustainable biomass as the primary feed-stock. She has industrial experience in the Process Control and industrial R&D sectors and a research background in thermo-chemistry and reaction engineering. She is interested in process design and optimisation, with a focus on the underlying chemistry of the process. Most of her projects are very hands on, and trying to involve industry partners as much as possible to make sure that her research is addressing real world problems. She is typically looking for projects that utilize an existing waste stream in order to add value to an existing process, create a new revenue stream, and increase the sustainability of our fuels and chemicals industry.

As well as her technical research, Joanne is pursuing engineering education research in the area of experiential learning to develop systems thinking. She is the Director of the Monash Membrane Pilot Plant, which is scaffolded throughout the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum and enables students to build up their experience of a complex, interconnected system and apply their prior knowledge to undertake open-ended, problem-based learning activities.