Personal statement

My research interests lie in modelling and understanding nucleation and growth of nanostructures, and I aim to control these to engineer new technologies. For example, I research the growth of nanoporous gels that have various applications such as adsorbents for water purification. I also research how biomolecules such as anti-bodies interact with various materials to create bio-medical devices. I was educated as a Theoretical Physicist at both undergraduate and doctoral level, and use my experience to develop a strong analytical ethos in my teaching activities, which include programming and problem solving skills. I am the Director of Archie-West, Strathclyde’s High Performance Computing Centre that caters for the local community of industry and universities.

Expertise

Has expertise in:

My expertise and capabilities include:

Classical Molecular Dynamics simulations;
Long time-scale simulations using saddle-point searches and Temperature Accelerated Dynamics;
Materials modelling for oxides such as titania, silica, ZnO;
Theory of nucleation and growth at surfaces (e.g. rate equations, distribution fixed point equations and scaling);
Monte Carlo simulation

Publications

Chitin and chitosan binding to the α-chitin crystal; a molecular dynamics study: Hudek Magdalena, Kubiak-Ossowska Karina, Johnston Karen, Ferro Valerie A, Mulheran Paul A; ACS Omega (2023); https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c07495
Polyhydroxybutyrate : a review of experimental and simulation studies of the effect of fillers on crystallinity and mechanical properties: Majerczak Katarzyna, Wadkin-Snaith Dominic, Magueijo Vitor, Mulheran Paul, Liggat John, Johnston Karen; Polymer International Vol 71, pp. 1398-1408 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1002/pi.6402
Modelling multi-scale material growth and erosion under energetic atomic deposition: Bell Andrew M, Mulheran Paul A; Molecular Simulation Vol 48, pp. 1445-1455 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1080/08927022.2022.2097282
Tuning interfacial concentration enhancement through dispersion interactions to facilitate heterogeneous nucleation: McKechnie David, Mulheran Paul A, Sefcik Jan, Johnston Karen; Journal of Physical Chemistry C Vol 126, pp. 16387-16400 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c04410
The role of antibodies in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, and evaluating their contribution to antibody-dependent enhancement of infection: Farouq Mohammed A H, Acevedo Reinaldo, Ferro Valerie A, Mulheran Paul A, Al Qaraghuli Mohammed M; International Journal of Molecular Sciences Vol 23 (2022); https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23116078
Controlling urea crystallisation via heterogeneous nucleation: Anker Samira, McKechnie David, Mulheran Paul A, Sefcik Jan, Johnston Karen; CMAC Annual Open Day 2022, pp. 51-51 (2022)

More publications

Teaching

I currently teach the following classes:

CP409 Problem Solving, including dimensional analysis and modelling;

CP529 Programming and Optimisation, using Visual Basic with Excel to provide a versatile platform for engineering applications;

CP407 Design;

18530 Project, including research projects within my group as well industrial and Erasmus placements.

Research interests

Self-funded PhD projects available:

Optimising the washing and drying of filter cakes: modelling and applications

https://bit.ly/3MIFjFq

Protein adsoprtion in gel structures: simulation, experiment and applications

https://bit.ly/37h6BCp

My research interests lie in the domain of materials modelling, including biomolecular interactions with inorganic materials, where a lot of my work is performed in close collaboration with Dr Karina Kubiak-Ossowska from the Department of Physics at Strathclyde. My current funded projects include:

Designing vaccines to create antibodies that can be used for cancer therapies; Designing new strategies to conjugate antibodies to nanoparticles to create novel diagnostics and therapeutics; Designing heavy-metal adsorbents using chitosan. All of these projects are funded by the BBSRC as part of the IBioIC-CTP.
Modelling particulate drying processes, relevant to the crucial isolation of pharmaceuticals. This project is funded by an EPSRC iCASE award.
A NERC-funded project to design compostable bio-composite plastic films for food packaging, as part of the drive to replace oil-derived plastics and reduce land-fill.
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership project working on the design and automation of an algae production process.

I have extensive collaboration with colleagues through Strathclyde, including Ashleigh Fletcher, Karen Johnston, Jan Sefcik, Chris Price, Yi-Chieh Chen from CPE, and Val Ferro (SIPBS), Michael Grinfeld (Mathematics and Statistics), Olaf Rolinski (Physics). My external research collaborators include Dr Barbara Jachimska at the Jerzy Haber Institute, Cracow, part of the Polish Academy of Science, with whom we exchange PhD students to collaborate on theranostic systems. I also work closely with a number of SMEs including The Antibody Company and Cuantec, as well as large organisations including Astra Zeneca.

Further details of my research can be found in my publications, a full list is available on: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/E-3999-2012

Professional activities

Scientific Reports (Journal): Editorial board member; 8/8/2022
PhD Examination: Examiner; 9/3/2022
UK-V4 Frontiers of Science Meeting 2021: Speaker; 11/6/2021
Invited seminar at CNR Institute of Nanoscience, Modena, Italy: Speaker; 9/6/2021
International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Journal): Peer reviewer; 31/5/2021
PhD Viva at King's College London: Examiner; 25/11/2019

More professional activities

Projects

IBioIC CTP PhD studentship Optimisation of alginate films for sustainable food packaging applications: Johnston, Karen (Principal Investigator) Mulheran, Paul (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2025
EPSRC Core Equipment: Henrich, Oliver (Co-investigator) Mulheran, Paul (Principal Investigator) Martin, Richard (Co-investigator); Extension of ARCHIE-WeSt £60,000; 01-Jan-2020
KTP - ScotBio. Intensifying production requires sophisticated monitoring and control solutions. The project will deliver expertise in chemical and process engineering and will shorten time to market and help automate key processes.: Chen, Yi-Chieh (Principal Investigator) Mulheran, Paul (Co-investigator); 09-Jan-2020 - 08-Jan-2023
ISCF - Biocomposite design for food packaging: Johnston, Karen (Principal Investigator) Liggat, John (Co-investigator) Mulheran, Paul (Co-investigator) Magueijo, Vitor (Researcher); 01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2024
Design of functional chitosan films: antimicrobial and heavy metal capture applications: Mulheran, Paul (Principal Investigator) Ferro, Valerie (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2024
Therapeutic Design for Nasal Powder Delivery (IBioIC CTP): Mulheran, Paul (Principal Investigator) Ferro, Valerie (Co-investigator); Design of peptide-adjuvant systems for enhance immunogenicity; 01-Jan-2020 - 31-Jan-2024

More projects

Address

Chemical and Process Engineering
James Weir

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Dr Paul Mulheran

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Chemical and Process Engineering