Rate My Professor Vicki Keast

Associate Professor Vicki Keast is a physicist in the School of Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia, within the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. She earned her PhD and Master of Science from Lehigh University in the USA, and a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Sydney. Her academic career spans prestigious institutions: Research Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge from 1998 to 2001, Lecturer from 2002 to 2005 and Senior Lecturer from 2005 to 2006 at the University of Sydney Electron Microscope Unit, and Secretary of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society from 2002 to 2006. Since joining the University of Newcastle, she has served as Associate Professor in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and now the School of Science. As the first female academic appointed in the university's physics discipline, Keast has contributed to its distinction as the only physics department in Australia with equal male-female academic representation.

Keast employs advanced electron microscopy and quantum mechanical simulations to probe the fundamentals of materials properties, focusing on plasmonic materials, the corrosion of silver nanoparticles, and solid-state physics. Her research unravels atomic-scale structures, bonding, and electron energy-loss spectra to explain phenomena like the vibrant colors of metals—such as the purple hue of gold-aluminum alloys arising from plasmons—and develops tunable sodium tungsten bronzes spanning blue to yellow. These plasmonic materials hold promise for applications including ultra-sensitive chemical and bio-sensing, enhanced solar cell efficiency, water splitting for hydrogen production, infrared shielding, and tumor therapy. Her expertise spans condensed matter modelling and density functional theory, nanoscale characterisation, and gender studies in physics. Key publications include the chapter 'Calculating EELS' (2016); journal articles such as 'Beyond the random phase approximation (RPA): First principles calculation of the valence EELS spectrum for KBr' (2025), 'Accurate and Efficient Computation of the Fundamental Bandgap of the Vacancy-Ordered Double Perovskite Cs2TiBr6' (2024), 'A Review of Alkali Tungsten Bronze Nanoparticles for Applications in Plasmonics' (2023), 'Atmospheric Corrosion of Silver and Silver Nanoparticles' (2022), 'Gender Bias in New South Wales Higher School Certificate (HSC) Physics' (2021), and 'The Quest for Zero Loss: Unconventional Materials for Plasmonics' (2019). Keast also explores public perceptions of physics and gender dynamics in the field.