QMUL Department of Engineering News

2009 Macromolecular Runner-up Cover of the Year

c.a.jones@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A front cover highlighting the research of a paper by Hua Deng, Rui Zhang, Chris Reynolds, Emiliano Bilotti and Ton Peijs came runner up among all selected front and back covers within the six journals of the Macromolecular Journals family of Wiley-VCH. In 2009, a total of 109 such covers were published. At the end of the year, nine of these covers were chosen as finalists after considering esthetics and innovation in graphically presented scientific research. In order to determine the 2009 Cover of the Year, the materials science community was then called in to vote for their favourite among the nine finalists at materialsviews.com.

Shima Toorani successfully defends PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Shima Toorani who successfully defended her PhD research on "The influence of microstructure on the mechanical behaviour of tendons" Shima's research was supervised by Dr Hazel Screen.

Girish Pattappa successfully defends PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Girish Pattappa who successfully defended his PhD research on "Characterisation of human mesenchymal stem cell metabolism during proliferation and differentiation" Girish's research was supervised by Professor David Lee.

Chris Lawn wins the Best paper Award

c.j.lawn@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that Chris Lawn has won the Professional Engineering Publishing Best Paper Award for papers published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science in 2009 for a a paper entitled, "Technologies for tomorrow's electric power generation"
Proc. IMechE Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science, 223(C12), 2717-2742

Royal Society supporting a Sino-British project on conductive polymers

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the British Royal Society (RS) will support a joint Sino-British project on “Multi-Component Polymer Conductive Fiber”. The project proposed by Prof. Fu Qiang of Sichuan University in Chengdu and Prof. Ton Peijs is one of 19 projects awarded in the 2010 round. The project is co-ordinated by Dr. Hua Deng, a former PhD of Queen Mary and now at Sichuan University. The project’s specific aim is to develop conductive polymer composite fibres based on carbon nanotubes for applications such as smart textiles. At the same time it also intends to develop strong polymer research links between the QMUL/Nanoforce team and the College of Polymer Science and Engineering, and the State Key Laboratory for Polymer Materials at Sichuan University.

Shoufeng Yang’s EPSRC grant highlighted by the Times High Education Supplement

s.yang@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Shoufeng Yang’s EPSRC grant has been highlighted on the Times Higher Education website, which reports an £81,014 grant awarded in support of his research on pharmaceutical dry powder dispensing collaborating with industrial partner Huxley Bertram Engineering Ltd. Queen Mary Innovation provided support during the application process and helped develop the collaborative framework between the parties.

ApaTech acquired by Baxter International Inc. for $330 million

k.a.hing@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Baxter International Inc. a global, diversified healthcare company have announced a definitive agreement whereby Baxter will acquire all of the outstanding equity of ApaTech for a total consideration of up to $330 million. Formed in 2001, ApaTech is a spin-out company, founded on technology invented at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials at QMUL.

Rui Liao successfully defends PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Rui Liao who successfully defended her PhD research on "Transmission Power Control in Wireless Networks" supervised by Dr Henri Huijberts and Prof David Arrowsmith.
Rui has secured a Research Fellowship at Brunel University.

Jan Girman achieves third place in the IoM3 Young Persons' Lecture Competition

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulation to Jan who is currently in the final year of his BEng Dental Materials degree and is working in the research group of Dr Asa Barber. Jan was the only undergraduate finalist in the competition and did extremely well to compete for this place in the final.

Nutthanun Suphadon successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Nutthanun Suphadon (Mac) who successfully defended his PhD research on "The Viscoelastic Properties of Rubber Under A Complex Loading" supervised by James Busfield. Mac will return to Thailand shorty to take up a Research Position at MTec. Mac has the distinction of having four journal papers on his work in print prior to submitting his thesis.

Md Amzari Md Zhahir defends PhD Thesis

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Md Amzari Md Zhahir who successfully defended his PhD research on Adaptive Filtering Applications to Satellite Navigation. Md Amzari's work was supervised by Dr Ranjan Vepa.

Prof Gleb Sukhorukov co-authors a Nature Materials Review

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Prof Gleb Sukhorukov co-authored a Nature Materials Review on emerging application of stimuli-responsive polymer materials. His contribution outlines the significance of multilayer polyelectrolyte based micro- and nanocapsules where different functions can be tailored on a molecular level in single entity. Envisaged applications range from sensitive surfaces to sophisticated drug delivery systems (see Nature Materials, 2010, 9(2), 101-113)
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v9/n2/abs/nmat2614.html

SEMS Alumni Event

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

As part of the programme of helping improve graduate attributes, 6 alumni returned to give talks recently on how they found their first job and to describe what they now do. The students included Osman Bawa (EADS Astrium), Gerard Ward (Ford), Nada Hanafi (FDA) , Lara Starr (AFC Energy) all pictured as well as Syed Aheed (St. Thomas’ Hosp.) and Ireneos Drakos (PhD @ UCL). We would like to thank all six of them for participating and making this such an enjoyable and stimulating event.

Shuangwu Li defends PhD Research Thesis

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Shuangwu Li who successfully defended her PhD research on "Surface properties of Electrospun Nanofibres". Shuangwu's work was supervised by Dr Asa Barber.

Oluwamayokun Adetoro defends PhD successfully

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Oluwamayokun Adetoro who successfully defended his PhD research on "Numerical Simulation for Milling Processes of Thin Wall Strutures". Oluwamayokun's work was supervised by Dr Pihua Wen.

Sakaleshpur Chetan successfully defends PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Sakaleshpur Chetan who successfully defended his PhD research on 'Dynamics of Vortex Shedding from Slender Cones'. Sakaleshpur's work was supervised by Prof Mike Gaster.

Yi Ming Zhang successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Yi Ming (Charlie) Zhang who successfully defended his PhD research on “Application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNS) in Several Different Materials Research Fields”. Charlie's work was supervised by Shoufeng Yang.

Manabu Kuwata defends PhD Thesis

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Manabu Kuwata who successfully defended hisPhD research on "Mechanisams of Interlaminar Fracture Toughness Using Non-Woven Veils as Interleaf Materials". Manabu's work was supervised by Prof Paul Hogg and Prof Ton Peijs.

Peppe Viola successfully defends his PhD thesis

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Giuseppe Viola successfully defended his PhD thesis on the the "Dynamics of Ferroelectric and Ferroelastic Switching in Ceramics. He is to be commended for completing his PhD within three years from the start of his three year EPSRC funded project. Peppe will be continuing at QMUL for another to six months to work on a collaborative project with Nanoforce.

Raheleh Ahmadi successfully defends her PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Raheleh Ahmadi who successfully defended her PhD research on 'Injectable Cell-Based Tissue Engineered Bone Formulations'. Raheleh’s work was supervised by Prof Joost de Bruijn. Raheleh currently holds the position of Doctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Gastroenterology and Nutrition at University College London.

Macromolecular Journals Cover Competition 2009

t.peijs@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The November issue of Macromolecular Materials & Engineering, whose front cover features a a paper by Hua Deng, Rui Zhang, Chris Reynolds, Emiliano Bilotti and Ton Peijs, has been short-listed for a competition for the best cover of the year, among all Macromolecular Journals. The cover picture is now to be subjected to a public voting system, at http://tinyurl.com/ybsswyn.

The paper describes a new technology for the creation of multifunctional polymer nanocomposite fibres. The concept is based on a bicomponent fibre construction consisting of a highly oriented polymer core and a conductive polymer composite (CPC) skin based on carbon nanotubes and a polymer with a lower melting temperature than the core, enabling thermal annealing of these skins to improve conductivity through a dynamic percolation process.

Shoufeng Yang Secures EPSRC Collaboration Fund Grant

[s.yang@qmul.ac.uk] — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Shoufeng Yang has been awarded an EPSRC Collaboration Fund award of £100k (with £26.5k contributed from collaborating partners) in support of his research on pharmaceutical dry powder dispensing. The lead industrial partner on the project is an established engineering company who design, build and install, production and test customised automation equipment for the pharmaceutical industry.
Queen Mary Innovation provided support during the application process and helped develop the commercial framework between the parties. The technology was developed and funded through previous EPSRC grants. Shoufeng has demonstrated this technology widely over the last 2 years at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2007, the 21st World Scout Jamboree, the Brighton Science festival 2008 and National Science and Engineering Week 2008.

Visiting Student Receives Platinum Crest Award

e.g.dimascio@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Boitumelo Maboitshego from Sir George Monoux College visited SEMS in July 2009 and complete a project on 'The Analysis of the aerodynamics of a family car to suggest improvements to reduce its drag'. She successfully completed the project and has been awarded both a gold and platinum crest award. Her project has also been chosen to exhibit at the science fair at Imperial university.

Nuffield Foundation Science Bursaries offer up to 1000 bursaries a year, for students to work alongside practising scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. Projects take place during the summer holidays, giving students an insight into the world of scientific research and development.

Theodosios Alexander quoted on Channel 4 news website

t.alexander@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Ten ideas to save the planet’ is an article covered by the Channel 4 News. In this discussion about climate change, biofuels are considered but are regarded by some as one of the most controversial technologies. Scientists are researching biofuels as green alternatives to fuels including petroleum. First generation biofuels are derived from food stocks, such as corn, or sugar cane; but second generation biofuels use the lignocellulitic part of inedible plants grown on marginal non-arable lands. Scientists agree that second and higher generation biofuels must be used so that the food supply is not affected in the process. Theo is quoted saying “Second and higher generation biofuels (not competing with the food supply) can provide the fuel needed for power-dense long-distance transportation needs that cannot be met with electric propulsion.”

Jianmin Zhang successfully defends her PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Jianmin Zhang who successfully defended her PhD research on “A study on All-Polymer Composites: All-PET and All-Aramid”. Jianmin's work was supervised by Prof Ton Peijs.

Andrew Sheldon successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Andrew Sheldon who successfully defended his PhD research titled 'Visualization of fluid motions inside Taylor cones using dye tracer'. Andrew's work was supervised by Prof John Stark and Dr Kate Smith.

Lei Guo successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Lei Guo who successfully defended his PhD research on 'Novel biosensors and Their application in Mass Transport'. Lei's work was supervised by Prof Wen Wang and Prof Pankaj Vadgama.

Zanyar Movasaghi successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Zanyar Movasaghi has successfully defended his PhD entitled, "Spectroscopic Investigation of Cancerous Tissues". His work was supervised by Dr Ihtesham ur Rehman. Zanyar has capably defended his thesis and presented his work clearly to the examiners.

Fianti Noor successfully defends her PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Fianti Noor who successfully defended her PhD research on 'Going Against the Grain: the De-maturity of the European Textile Industry'. Fianti's work was supervised by Dr Stuart Peters and Dr Natalie Stingelin.

Ruzhen Li successfully defends her PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Ruzhen Li who successfully defended her PhD research on "Molecular dynamic simulations of Biointerfaces". Ruzhen’s work was supervised by Prof Xiao Guo.

Jianmin Ma successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Jianmin Ma who successfully defended his PhD research on 'Numerical Analysis of Flow Structures and Bed Entrainment in Turbulent Open-Channel Flow', which was supervised by Prof John Williams. Jianmin has published his findings on the international journals, e.g. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (ASCE), and was also awarded the Best Paper Award during the 16th International Congress of IAHR-APD last year.

Dual success for 2009 Materials Graduates

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday after a rigorous selection process, our graduates secured two of the three national prizes awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals for graduates of accredited materials courses. These awards are given to students based upon their academic performance assessed in combination with other qualities and achievements which suggest a promising professional career.
Nanayaa Hughes-Brittain, who has stayed at QM after graduation to study for a PhD in materials, was awarded the R H Craven Award for being the best graduate with excellence in polymer materials. Her final year project was supervised by Kees Bastiaansen, Chris Reynolds and Ton Peijs. Lovoni Rahman, who is currently studying for a masters degree in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, was awarded the A T Green Award for being the best graduate with excellence in ceramic materials. Her final year project was supervised by Ihtesham Rehman.
James Busfield comments, “It is 8 years since a graduate from QM won any of these national awards and so it is particularly pleasing that we have won two this year. Both Nanayaa and Lovoni fully deserve their prizes. It just goes to show the high calibre of our materials programme graduates from last year.”

HRH, The Princess Royal opens new ApaTech headquarters

k.a.hing@qmul.ac.uk — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal was guest of honour at the formal opening of the new international headquarters of ApaTech. The company was spun out of the Department of Materials in 2001 and our own Karin Hing is one of the founding scientists. Princess Anne was given a guided tour of the Company’s facilities and met members of staff of the Company from around the world. Her Royal Highness was especially interested in Actifuse® the synthetic bone graft substitute which ApaTech produces in Elstree and met a number of leading surgeons who undertake the life-restoring surgery that utilises Actifuse.

Julia Shelton and Tina Chowdhury win Drapers Prizes

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The School has been successful in getting two out of the 6 Drapers Prizes for Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Julia Shelton and Teresa McConlogue from the Thinking Writing Initiative won for their project on “Peer and collaborative assessment of written coursework”. Tina Chowdhury with Peter McOwan from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science won for their initiative to launch the www.virtualmechanobiology.com website that teaches students interdisciplinary topics in engineering and biology via 3D interactives

James Busfield awarded the Sparks-Thomas Prize of the American Chemical Society for 2010

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Dr James Busfield has been awarded the Sparks-Thomas Award of the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 2010. He has also agreed to give the Sparks-Thomas presentation on his work at the American Chemical Societies spring Rubber Division meeting in Akron OH (Tuesday, April 27, 2010) and attend the S&T Awards Banquet (luncheon) that same day to receive the award.
This award is to recognise and encourage outstanding scientific contributions and innovations in the field of elastomers by scientists, technologists and engineers. The award consists of $4,000, an engraved plaque, and $500 for travel expenses incurred in attending the award ceremony meeting. ExxonMobil Chemical Company sponsors the award.

Apatech - one of the fastest growing companies in the UK

k.a.hing@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Apatech has come second in the Sunday Times Tech Track league table for the fastest growing technology companies in the UK. The synthetic bone-graft materials developed by this Hertfordshire company are used in a range of orthopaedic applications, including spinal fusion and trauma repair. The success of its products Actifuse and Apapore secured £23m in private equity from 3i and the New York hedge fund HealthCor in June 2008. This enabled the company to almost treble its staff, quadruple manufacturing capacity, and develop new products including a next-generation ceramic material that stimulates bones to grow more rapidly. Apatech was spun out of the Department of Materials in 2001. Its sales have grown 180% a year from £1m in 2006 to £22.8m in 2009.

Colin Langdown is recognised for his long service

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

On the just his second day in office the new Principal, Prof. Simon Gaskell had the pleasure of presenting a gift to Colin Langdown to recognise his long service at QMUL. Colin has worked as a technician primarily in the composites fabrication and testing area for the last 28 years, formerly in the Department of Materials and most recently in SEMS. Over this time Colin has supported hundreds of students to undertake their PhD and masters degrees.

Marjan Zahedi successfully defends her PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Marjan Zahedi who successfully defended her PhD research on "Novel Binary Calcia-Alumina Systems for Dvice Applications". Marjan’s work was supervised by Prof A Ray.

Prize Day in SEMS

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

This year Prize day was a fantastic celebration of the success of our students in SEMS. Prizes and certificates were presented by Prof. Simon Gaskell to a total of 23 students were recognised for academic excellence. The prizes are sponsored by a range of different companies including DuPuy, ARTIS, Apatech, Corus and Rolls Royce. Our warmest congratulations are extended to all the students who were recognised on the day.

Matthieu Bedard completes his PhD

m.j.reece@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Matthieu Bedard has successfully defended his thesis on "Light Addressable Capsules". His work was supervised by Prof Gleb Sukhorukov, and has generated considerable academic and industrial interest because it has produced a break through in drug delivery - http://www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/news/?action=display&eid=1795.

James Busfield is awarded his National Teaching Fellowship

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

On the 23rd September 2009, James Busfield was awarded his National Teaching Fellowship at a black tie reception at Middle Temple Hall. This is the 10th anniversary of the fellowships and James joins a very exclusive club of just five others at QMUL, he is only the second fellow in the Materials subject area in the UK and the first ever in the Polymer field. The reception was held at Middle Temple Hall and he was accompanied for the evening by his wife, Rachael and Vice Principal Morag Shiach.
As a result of his innovative work on developing Problem Based Learning in Materials James has also recently been appointed as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

'Micro shuttle' drug delivery could mean an end to regular dosing

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

PhD student Matthieu Bédard and Professor Gleb Sukhorukov have developed a new technique that can deliver drugs safely into living cells using micrometer-sized capsules that are buried under the skin or into the body. The ‘micro shuttles’ contain a dose of medication and can be released remotely via a biological trigger or manual activation. Queen Mary PhD student Matthieu Bédard said: “The main advantage of using such microcapsules is that they can be designed to be very stable inside the body, protecting their contents. This is particularly important for the many medications that are rapidly degraded or altered by the body.”

The QM news release for this story can be viewed here:
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/19445.html#

Payam Jamshidi successfully defends his PhD

j.hills@qmul.ac.uk — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Mohammad (Payam) Jamshidi who successfully defended his PhD research on "A Process for Recycling Thermosetting Foams and the Incorporation of Recycled Foams into Structural Composite Panels". His project was supervised by Prof Paul Hogg. Payam now works for the Northwest Composites Centre in Manchester.

Isaiah Adekanmbi leaves QMUL

c.a.jones@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Please join us in wishing Isaiah Adekanmbi farewell when he leaves Nanoforce on Friday, 11th September 2009. Isaiah, formerly a Biomedical Materials and Engineering student with us, is leaving to complete a DPhil in Orthopaedic Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford. Isaiah will be having a farewell drink in the Forest Bar [Senior common room bar] this Friday from 5pm.

Best Paper Award at the World Congress on Engineering (WCE) London, 2009

p.h.wen@qmul.ac.uk — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The best student paper award was awarded to Oluwamayokun Adetoro for the paper titled ‘Stability Lobes Prediction in Thin Wall Machining’, which he presented during the three day conference. The paper was jointly written with Dr P H Wen, Dr W-M Sim (Airbus) and Dr RJ Vepa. The WCE 2009 is composed of 15 conferences, with a total of 869 submitted papers and 493 accepted papers.

The paper was presented in the International Conference of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management, which had a total of 46 accepted papers. The candidate’s papers have been judged based on originality, significance, correctness and clarity by the conference committee members.
A copy of the paper is available at:
http://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCE2009/WCE2009_pp520-525.pdf

Taster course success

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

We have now come to the end of the SEMS taster course programme for 2009. This year the programme has been coordinated by Rachel Sinkins. We ran a total of 26 events for a total of 847 students. 66% of whom have stated that they are now likely to apply to university to study Engineering or Materials. This is a remarkable success and we thank all the TAs, staff and ambassadors who have worked hard to make this a reality this year.

SEMS Announces Eight Staff Promotions

c.a.jones@qmul.ac.uk — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Please join us in congratulating the following members of staff on their recent promotion, effective from 1 October 2009:

Michael Reece - Professor of Functional Ceramics
James Busfield - Reader in Materials
Dongsheng Wen - Reader in Future Energy
Pihua Wen - Reader in Computational Solid and Fluid Mechanics
Asa Barber - Senior Lecturer
Graham Dorrington - Senior Lecturer
Jens Mueller - Senior Lecturer
Shoufeng Yang - Senior Lecturer

Central Research Fund awarded to a PhD student

c.a.jones@qmul.ac.uk — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Shahrzad Nayebossadri, a 2nd year PhD student, has won a University of London Central Research Fund. Shahrzad works on human nasal aerodynamics with Dr Avital and Professor Motallebi, looking at the effects of nasal blockage and ways of detection using computational and experimental aerodynamics means. This award will support the purchase of nasal cavity models which will be used in her experimental research. Shahrzad graduated the Department of Engineering with a first class MEng honour degree in 2007 and she is fully funded through the college research student fund.

Gleb h-index breaks the 50 barrier!

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

If you're an academic and you have not checked your h-index, it is about time you do so. If you do not know what the h-index is, it is about time you found out.

The h-index, or Hirsch index, is a sort of personal impact factor, based on citations of published work. It’s an attempt to measure both the scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications. The index was suggested by Jorge E. Hirsch, a physicist at UCSD, as a tool for determining relative quality and is therefore sometimes called the Hirsch index. Hirsch analyzed many different metrics for evaluating scientific impact and proposed the number h, where h papers have been cited at least h times as a useful metric of the cumulative impact of an individual scientist’s work. The h-index squashes the effects of a few jackpot papers, as well as the effects of large numbers of uncited publications, compared to more simple metrics such as number of citations or number of papers. A sustained quality effort is required to make your h-index grow.

Gleb’s h-index means that he has 50 papers that now have been cited for at least 50 times. In materials science or physics a good scientist tends to have an h–index equal to his number of publishing years. Gleb’s has been publishing only for 16 years. In other words, he outperforms the average materials scientist by more than a factor of three!

If you are interested to find out what your h-index is go to http://wok.mimas.ac.uk

Prof. Kees Bastiaansen's research published in Nature Materials

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Kees his paper entitled 'Printed artificial cilia from liquid-crystal network actuators modularly driven by light’ will be published in the next issue of Nature Materials. The work is co-authored by researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands and presents the development of polymeric microactuators.

Polymeric micro-actuators are potentially useful in micro mechanical systems and lab-on-a-chip systems. However, manufacturing of miniature polymeric actuators has been complicated due to the necessity of including electrodes for actuation or using lithographic techniques for patterning. Here we demonstrate that all-polymer microdevices can be fabricated using inkjet printing technology in combination with self-organizing liquid crystal network actuators. We exploit the self-assembling properties of the liquid crystal to create large strain gradients, and light-driven actuation is chosen to allow simple and remote addressing. By using multiple inks, microactuators with different sub-units are created that can be selectively addressed by changing the wavelength of the light. The actuators mimic the motion of natural cilia. These artificial cilia have the potential to create flow and mixing in wet environments such as lab-on-a-chip applications. The process is easily adapted for roll-to-roll fabrication, allowing for large-scale and low-cost production of miniaturized active polymer systems.

EPSRC Research Grant - Condensation Processes in Microchannels

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The School of Engineering and Materials Science is pleased to announce that Professor John Rose and Dr Huasheng Wang have been awarded an EPSRC research grant of £ 375,550 in support of their ongoing research into condensation processes in microchannels.

PhD awarded to Xiaopeng Chi in Materials

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Mr. Xiaopeng Chi for successfully completing his PhD degree, on the project of "Micro-Extrusion of Fine Ceramic Latticework", under the supervision of Professor J.R.G. Evans and Dr. S. Yang. He has been awarded Best Poster Presentation Award in the Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium and published 4 peer reviewed journal publications during his PhD. He is now continuing as Research Assistant at SEMS.

EPSRC supporting the next UK Turbulence consortium

e.avital@qmul.ac.uk — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:00:00 GMT

EPSRC will support the next UK turbulence consortium where Dr Eldad Avital will serve as a member in the management team and Prof John Williams is one of the founding members. Prof Mike Gaster will join as a member of the consortium’s advisory board. The aim of the consortium is to provide access to the UK national computing facilities and support needed for turbulent flow research. The enlarged consortium will run for three years, consist of 35 academics from 13 UK universities and co-ordinated by Dr Coleman from the University of Southampton. The SEMS group will work on projects in aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, water wakes, channel flow and bio fluids. The consortium will conduct annual workshops to promote its research.

PhD awarded to Fawad Inam in Materials

c.a.jones@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Fawad Inam who successfully defended his PhD research on 5th May 2009. His PhD, titled "Development of Ceramic-Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Nanocomposites", was supervised by Professor Ton Peijs and Dr Michael J. Reece.

Dr Inam is continuing as Research Associate at Nanoforce Technology Limited (QMUL's spin-out company) developing structural ceramics and nanocomposites.

James Busfield awarded the Colwyn Medal.

t.peijs@qmul.ac.uk — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The school would like to warmly congratulate Dr James Busfield on his award of the Colwyn medal by the Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals. This is awarded to an individual for outstanding services to the rubber industry of a scientific, technical or engineering character. It is interesting to note that James is the fourth person associated with QM to receive the prize, as former recipients include Sir Harry Melville FRS (the former Principal), Alan Thomas (Honorary Fellow) and Alan Gent (former staff member). James comments that, “It is a tremendous honour to be the recipient of prize that has in the past been awarded to the most famous names in rubber research including JD Ferry, L Mullins, AR Payne, CL Bateman, LRG Treloar, PJ Flory and G Gee.”

Materials Undergraduate Programme Accredited

c.a.jones@qmul.ac.uk — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The following BEng and MEng Materials Programmes have been accredited by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3) for the maximum period of 5 years: Materials; Materials in Medicine; Dental Materials; Biomaterials; Materials with Business

The Taught Masters Programme will also be accredited.

Particular thanks go to Ray Smith and Vicky Wells who pulled everything together for the visit.