Dr Paul Mulheran
Reader
Chemical and Process Engineering
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.
Area of Expertise
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
Research Interests
Self-funded PhD projects available:
Optimising the washing and drying of filter cakes: modelling and applications
Protein adsoprtion in gel structures: simulation, experiment and applications
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
Projects
Contact
Dr
Paul
Mulheran
Reader
Chemical and Process Engineering
Email: paul.mulheran@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 2385