Personal statement

I am a Reader and a UKRI Future Leader Fellow (FLF). I joined University of Strathclyde in July 2019 as a Senior Lecturer (Chancellor's Fellow) under Strathclyde Global Talent Programme. I was promoted to Reader in February 2024. I received a Ph.D. degree from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, and previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Alberta, Canada. From January 2015 to June 2019, I worked at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) as a Lecturer before joining University of Strathclyde.

I have secured approximately £4.5 million in research funding from a range of sources, including UKRI, EPSRC, BBSRC, the Leverhulme Trust, and industry partners. Currently, as a UKRI Future Leader Fellow (FLF), I lead a £2 million project focused on accelerating the transition to net-zero by developing a pioneering Carbon Measuring Framework, a key step toward ensuring a fossil-free supply of carbon-based engineering materials. Additionally, I lead a team at the University of Strathclyde that is part of the Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts (GCSB), one of six newly established centers dedicated to addressing the challenge of creating environmentally and economically sustainable bio-derived composites and plastics. GCSB unites expertise from the U.S., Canada, South Korea, and the U.K., and collaborates with global industry partners to drive innovative approaches in converting waste biomass into bioplastics.

My vision is to lead world-class research group in Sustainability and Decarbonisation, to solve macroscopic engineering challenges in this area by finding ways of valorising the wastes into valuable products (e.g., fuels and chemicals). The pathways to achieve circular economy and zero emissions are complex and requires the combined effort from academia, industry, and society. My research is centred on fundamental development of innovative waste valorising technologies using scientifically-proven principles such as Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics. The technologies include (a). converting organic solid wastes, such as biomass, into liquid transportation fuels and value-added chemicals; (b). recycling waste plastics and composites; and (c). advancing carbon materials such as carbon-nanotubes, meso-porous carbon, and biochar.

I am currently on the editorial board of two international journals and I am an academic member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), a member of the Energy Institute (EI) and a member of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). I am a Fellow of Higher Education Academy in the UK, and have taught core Engineering courses include Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, and Heat Transfer.