Personal statement
Miguel Jorge was born in Ovar, Portugal. In 1998 he completed his Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Porto, followed by a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 2003. He has since held full time researcher positions at the University of Massachusetts (USA) and at the University of Porto (Faculty of Sciences and Faculty of Engineering). He joined Strathclyde in 2013, and is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Process Engineering since December 2020.
Miguel’s research applies molecular modelling techniques, such as Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics, to understand systems that are important in chemical engineering applications, with the long-term goal of turning molecular simulation into a widely used industrial tool. His research spans areas as diverse as adsorption, material synthesis and characterisation, thermodynamics and phase equilibrium, physics of interfaces and nanotechnology. He has published over 80 articles in international scientific journals and delivered over 30 invited seminars and conference presentations. Miguel is currently the Regional Editor for Europe of Molecular Simulation. He is also strongly interested in research policy, having been a founding member and former President of the Portuguese National Association of Science and Technology Researchers (ANICT), as well as Director of the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations (ICoRSA), and a Science Policy advisor for the European Commission.
Teaching
I currently teach the following courses in the Chemical Engineering BEng/MEng:
- Thermodynamics (second year)
- Molecular Simulation in Chemical Engineering (fifth year)
- Chemical Engineering Design (fourth year)
- Chemical Engineering Project (fifth year)
I have received the following awards for my teaching activities:
- Shortlisted for Best Teacher in Faculty – Engineering, Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards, 2019.
- Winner of Best Teacher in Faculty – Engineering, Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards, 2015.
- Nominated for Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Strathclyde (“Most Enthusiastic” and “Most Supportive” categories), 2014.
- Nominated for Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Strathclyde (“Most Enthusiastic” and “Most Supportive” categories), 2013.
Research interests
Understanding phenomena at the molecular level is progressively gaining importance in Chemical Engineering, not only at the fundamental level, but also in the context of property predictions and material/process design. Our research group applies molecular modelling techniques, such as Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics, to understand systems that are important in chemical engineering applications, with the long-term goal of turning molecular simulation into a widely used industrial tool.
Specific topics under study include:
i) computational design of new nanoporous materials for adsorptive separations, using a multiscale approach from the quantum to the mesoscale level, and based on detailed knowledge of the relationships between synthesis conditions, material properties and performance;
ii) developing new models for adsorption in nanoporous materials, including crystalline materials (e.g., zeolites), amorphous materials (e.g., activated carbons) and hybrid organic-inorganic materials (e.g., metal-organic frameworks or mesoporous organosilicas);
iii) understanding how molecules self-assemble in solution to yield supra-molecular aggregates like micelles and liquid crystals;
iv) gaining an in-depth understanding of interfaces between two fluids (gas-liquid or liquid-liquid), with particular application to ionic liquids;
v) developing new methods and molecular models for calculating the solubility of complex molecules, including pharmaceuticals and pollutants.
Accepting PhD Student Applications in the following topics:
- Computational design of bio-inspired silica materials for carbon capture
- Predicting drug solubility in different solvents using molecular simulation and machine learning
- Adsorption of water-containing mixtures in Metal-Organic Framework materials
Professional activities
- Molecular Simulation (Journal)
- Editorial board member
- 2015
- European/Japanese Molecular Liquids Group Annual Meeting
- Keynote/plenary speaker
- 9/2012
- CHEMPOR – 12th International Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference
- Keynote/plenary speaker
- 10/9/2014
- International Consortium or Research Staff Associations (External organisation)
- Member
- 1/10/2012
- Voice of Researchers (External organisation)
- Member
- 23/4/2012
- 1st Workshop on Computational Approaches to Materials Design
- Keynote/plenary speaker
- 6/2015
More professional activities
Projects
- Computational modelling and design of nanoporous silica materials
- Jorge, Miguel (Principal Investigator) Centi, Alessia (Researcher) Ferreiro-Rangel, Carlos Augusto (Researcher)
- "Nanoporous materials, like zeolites or activated carbon, are used in a wide range of applications, from gas separations in the petrochemical industry, to air or water purification, to medical uses like controlled drug delivery. Indeed, the market for nanoporous materials is estimated at ~£1.5 billion, and set to rise to ~£1.8 billion in 2017. Despite their tremendous potential, further developments are limited by our lack of fundamental understanding and control over their synthesis processes, with most discoveries arising from the application of exhaustive searches or heuristic approaches. It is clearly necessary to change this paradigm to enable targeted design of these materials, and computational models are ideally suited for this purpose. Computational design of nanoporous materials would allow us to save time and money by reducing the number of necessary experiments in the path to material discovery, and, more importantly, would enable us to tune the properties of a new material for a specific target application (for example, maximising the affinity of the material towards a given pollutant present in an industrial effluent). The main aim of this research is to develop a multiscale modelling strategy that can describe the entire synthesis process of a nanoporous material, from the precursor solution to the final porous solid. We will use periodic mesoporous silicas (PMS) as a prototype system, because they have been widely studied experimentally, they are made using a templated synthesis process (the structure of the solid is determined by silica/surfactant liquid crystals), and their final structure is particularly amenable to tuning by changing the synthesis conditions.
We will build upon previous groundbreaking research in the PI's group to establish a hierarchy of models of decreasing degree of complexity (and thus increasing computational efficiency), ranging from the quantum-mechanical level, to the classical atomistic level, to the mesoscale level. Ler-level models will be validated against higher-level models and experimental data, maintaining the necessary accuracy while expanding the accessible range of length and time scales. The idea is that using the final model we will be able to generate a complete virtual model of a PMS material based only on knowledge of the initial synthesis conditions - essentially mimicking an actual experiment on the computer. Crucially, this goal relies on developing a model that can cope with chemical reactions of silica in these complex environments, which in itself will constitute a major innovation in the field of computational material science." - 12-Jan-2014 - 11-Jan-2015
- Screening Metal-Organic Frameworks for Natural Gas Upgrading Using Molecular Simulation
- Jorge, Miguel (Principal Investigator) Campbell, Christopher (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2014 - 31-Jan-2018
- Rational Design of Nanoporous Silica Materials Through Advanced Monte Carlo Modelling
- Jorge, Miguel (Principal Investigator) Milne, Andrew (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2015 - 31-Jan-2019
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Stavert, Tom
- Jorge, Miguel (Principal Investigator) Cardona Amengual, Javier (Co-investigator) Stavert, Tom (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2024
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2018-19 University of Strathclyde | McCready, Connaire
- Jorge, Miguel (Principal Investigator) Fletcher, Ashleigh (Co-investigator) McCready, Connaire (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2019 - 01-Jan-2024
- Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Sladekova, Kristina
- Jorge, Miguel (Principal Investigator) Fletcher, Ashleigh (Co-investigator) Sladekova, Kristina (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2017 - 01-Jan-2021
More projects
Address
Chemical and Process Engineering
James Weir Building
James Weir Building
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