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.

Expertise

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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

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Publications

Molecular dynamics study of chitosan adsorption at a silica surface: Hudek Magdalena, Johnston Karen, Kubiak-Ossowska Karina, Ferro Valerie A, Mulheran Paul A; The Journal of Physical Chemistry C Vol 128, pp. 21531-21538 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c05821
Exploiting the Fc base of IgG antibodies to create functional nanoparticle conjugates: Al Qaraghuli Mohammed M, Kubiak-Ossowska Karina, Ferro Valerie A, Mulheran Paul A; Scientific Reports Vol 14 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65822-7
The impact of plasticisers on crystal nucleation, growth and melting in linear polymers: Wadkin-Snaith Dominic, Mulheran Paul A, Johnston Karen; Polymer Vol 304 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2024.127095
Vaccination, asymptomatics and public health information in COVID-19: Grinfeld Michael, Mulheran Paul A; Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical Vol 57 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ad242f
Assessment of GAFF and OPLS force fields for urea : crystal and aqueous solution properties: Anker Samira, McKechnie David, Mulheran Paul, Sefcik Jan, Johnston Karen; Crystal Growth and Design Vol 24, pp. 143–158 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.3c00785
Recent advances in photothermal therapies against cancer and the role of membrane transporter modulators on the efficacy of this approach: Abdulhussein Al-Ali Ahmed A, Al Ward Nameer, Obeid Mohammad A, Nielsen Carsten Uhd, Mulheran Paul A, Al Qaraghuli Mohammed M; Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment Vol 22, pp. 1-14 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1177/15330338231168016

More publications

Teaching

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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

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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