Distinguished Professor Rachel Caruso completed her PhD in the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. She moved to Germany and worked in Berlin at the Hahn-Meitner Institute, and then in Potsdam at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. She returned to the University of Melbourne, where she held Australian Research Council-funded research fellowships and a 50% secondment at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

In 2017, she moved to RMIT University as Director of the Advanced Materials Enabling Capability Platform and is now a Distinguished Professor in the Applied Chemistry and Environmental Science discipline within the School of Science, as well as Deputy Director of an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence on the Green Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide.

Her research group has investigated approaches to control the morphology and composition of inorganic materials, with potential applications in areas such as photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and batteries.