Igor Novak has obtained his PhD in Chemistry at University of Zagreb (Croatia) studying halomethanes/freons using UV photoelectron spectroscopy. After obtaing PhD he spent four years as a postdoc at King's College London (UK) and two years as research fellow at University of Birmingham (UK). Subsequently he was associate professor of chemistry at National University of Singapore for 16 years before joining CSU in 2005.

His research involved study of molecular photoionization dynamics using synchrotron radiation and of molecular electronic structure using quantum chemistry/computational chemistry. He is also well published in the area of chemical education.

He is currently involved in research at Charles Sturt University studying electronic structures of radicals, carbenes, biomolecules, porphyrinoids, zwitterionic liquids, mesoionics and energetic materials.

Membership of learned societies:

Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) FRSC

Fellow of The Institute of Physics (London) FInstP