Phil completed his PhD at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow and joined Monash as a Research Fellow in 1995 and was subsequently successful in being awarded a five-year ARC QEII Fellowship in 1997. He was appointed as a lecturer in the School in 2004. Prior to joining Monash Professor Andrews was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, at the Philipps Universität, Marburg, Germany, and he held a Royal Society Fellowship, at Griffith University in Queensland.

The highly esteemed chemist is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Phil is currently Professor and Interim Head of the School of Chemistry. 

In 2020, Phil joined the Monash Centre to Impact AMR as a founding member and is helping drive the Centre's industry engagement strategy.

Discovering new bioactive metal compounds as anti-inflammatory, antitumour and antimicrobial agents, development of new antimicrobial materials, synthesis of homo- and hetero-bimetallic metal cages and materials for medical imaging and therapeutics, and exploring metal-mediated anion rearrangements in main group organometallic complexes.

His main research areas of interest are:

• Main Group Organometallic Chemistry: Synthesis, Structure and Application
  Novel chiral main group metal organometallic and amido complexes in asymmetric synthesis.
  Synthesis and structural studies of homo- and hetero-bimetallic main group metal complexes.
  Investigations into the synthesis, structure and stability of novel heavy p-block metal complexes.
• Medical Imaging
  New bismuth and rare-earth based contrast media for optical and radiographic imaging.
• Medicinal Chemistry
  Development of new bioactive bismuth compounds as anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour and anti-microbial 
  agents.
  Development of new metallo-drugs for combating Leishmania.
  Cellular uptake and bio-distribution of Bi(III).
• Green and Sustainable Chemistry
  Solvent-free and microwave assisted metal mediated syntheses.
  New catalysts for sustainable chemistry.