Members of the Nanofunctional Materials Group
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Group photo (30/11/2018), Location: Graphene Engineering & Innovation Centre (GEIC) foyer.
Opportunities
Interested in a Ph.D. or PDRA position in low-dimensional nano-materials, including graphene and other 2-d materials, carbon nanotubes and molecular electronics?
We offer Ph.D. studentships through the President's Doctoral Scholar Awards (all nationalities) and in the Graphene Doctoral Training Center and BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) (UK/EU only). Other funding opportunities for international students includes the China Scholrship Council (CSC) and Commonwealth Scholarship.
We support early career researchers applying for Newton, EPSRC and other fellowships.
Contact me for details.
(Please don't email me large attachments! Just your CV including qualifications, marks/class, publications and research experience. Thanks.)
Post-doctoral research associates
Dr. Nadiim Domun ORCID: 0000-0001-6590-4826
Nadiim joined my group in Jan. 2018 as a KTP Associate, in partnership with Inov-8. He is currently a Visiting Researcher, working on the development of graphene enhanced materials for sportswear. He was awarded his MEng (2014) and PhD (2018) in Aerospace engineering from Kingston University, London.
Dr. Monica Alberto ORCID: 0000-0002-1059-3837
Monica joined my group as a PDRA in Sept 2021, working on the development of graphene enhanced composite foams. She was awarded an MEng (2014) and PhD (2018) from the University of Manchester.
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Dr. Maria Iliut ORCID: 0000-0003-0786-6408
Maria joined the group in Jan 2014 as a PDRA. Her research involves the development of graphene-enhanced composite materials. She is the also the CTO of Grafine Ltd., a group spin-out company. She obtained her PhD from Babeș-Bolyai University in 2013. Google Scholar
Dr. Daniel Melendrez ORCID 0000-0002-5532-2360
Daniel continues in my group as a PDRA, after completing his his PhD in 2019. His research involves graphene pressure sensors and microphones. He was previously awarded his MSc in Electrical Engineering and Bioelectronics (2012) by the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico.

Post-graduate students (as main supervisor)

Wentao Zou ORCID 0000-0002-5078-5585
Wentao started his PhD in the group in Sept 2015. He was previously an MPhil student in the group. His research involves graphene reinforced fiber composites. He is co-supervised by Prof. Micahel Turner. He was awarded his BSc in Textile Science (2015) from The University of Manchester.
Natalie Parsons ORCID 0000-0001-8704-9963
Natalie joined the group in April 2017 as part of the Graphene NOWNANO CDT. She was awarded a MChem (2016) in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield. Her research involves biopolymer-graphene hydrogels for biomedical applications. She is co-supervised by Prof. Alberto Saiani.
Robert McMaster ORCID 0000-0001-9275-1167
Bob joined the group in Sept. 2017 as part of the  Graphene NOWNANO CDT. His research involves development of printed graphene sensors. Bob was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Pure and Applied Physics from the University of Salford in 2017.
Katherine Smith ORCID 0000-0002-0617-3899
Kate joined the group in Sept 2018 as a PhD student in the Next Generation Nuclear CDT. Her research involves graphene-based temperature and pressure sensors. She was awarded an MSci (2013) in Physics from Imperial College London.
Dai Luan ORCID 0000-0003-2145-7352
Dai started her PhD in the group in Feb 2017. Her research involves graphene formulations and composites. She was awarded an MSc (2016) in Polymer Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Manchester. She is co-supervised by Dr. Steve Edmondson.
Piramon Hampitak ORCID 0000-0003-1364-051X
Piramon started her PhD in January 2018, funded by Thai Royal Government. Her research involves graphene bio- and chemical-sensors. Her co-supervisor is Dr Thomas Jowitt.  She was awarded her MSc in Advanced Engineering Materials in 2017 from the University of Manchester.
Kaiwen Nie ORCID 0000-0002-8035-652X
Kaiwen joined the group in Sept 2018 as a PhD student and she is co-supervised by Prof Steve Yeates. Her research involves graphene formulatoins and composites. She was awarded her BSc (2017) in Materials Chemistry from Shaanxi Normal University, China.
Lucy McElhone
Lucy joined the group in Sept. 2021, on the Manchester-Melbourne dual-award PhD programme . Her research involves graphene based energy storage materials. Lucy was awarded an MChem (Hons) in Chemistry from Newcastle University in 2020. She is co-supervised by Dr Patricia Gorgojo.  

Post-graduate students (as co-supervisor)

Aidan Retallick ORCID: 0000-0001-8072-8875
Aidan joined the group in Sept. 2020 as a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics. He was awarded his MMath (2020) from The University of Manchester. His research involves mathematical modeling for graphene MEMS membranes. His primary supervisor is Prof. Matthias Heil.

Project students

Alumni

Dr. Kostas Despotelis ORCID: 0000-0002-2490-7868
Kostas is currently a Higher Research Scientist at National Physical Laboratory (NPL). He was a PDRA in my group from 2019 - 2021.
Dr. Nicky Savjani ORCID: 0000-0002-9945-5341
Nicky is currently a PDRA at UoM. He was a PDRA in my group from 2018-20.
Pietro Steiner ORCID 0000-0002-9171-3828
Pietro is currently a PhD student at UoM. He was a MPhil student in my group in 2017-18
Dr. Michelle Vaqueiro
ORCID 0000-0002-6770-5780
Michelle is currently a post-doc at UNSW, Sydney. She was a PhD student in my group in 2015-18.
Dr. Jacek Wychowaniec
ORCID 0000-0002-6597-5242
Jacek is currently a PDRA at University College, Dublin. He was a PhD student in my group in 2013-17.
Dr. Nick Clark
ORCID 0000-0003-3351-5628
Nick is currently a post-doc at UoM. He was a PhD student in my group in 2012-16.
Dr. Sarah Varey
Sarah was a PhD student in my group in 2011-15.
Dr. Mohan Pitchan ORCID: 0000-0002-3639-9370
Mohan was a PDRA in my group from 2019 - 22.
Yizhen Shao ORCID 0000-0002-0371-4290
Yizhen was PhD student in my group from 2017-22.
Dr. Cian Bartlam ORCID 0000-0001-6633-1687
Cian is currently a post-doc at BU Munich. He was a post-doc and PhD student in my group from 2015-19.
Dr. Steffan Llewellyn ORCID 0000-0003-2747-1593
Steffan is currently a PDRA at UoM. He was a PhD student in my group from 2016-19.
Dr. Sebastian Heeg
ORCID 0000-0002-6485-3083
Sebastian is currently a post-doc at ETH Zurich. He was part of my group in 2014-16 as a PDRA.
Dr. Claudio Silva
ORCID 0000-0003-4331-3755
Claudio is currently an Assistant Professor at the Federal University of Bahia. He was part of the group in 2014-15 as a PDRA.
Dr. Antonios Oikonomou
Antonios is now a RA in the NGI. He was a PhD student in my group in 2011-14.
Dr. Patricia Gorgojo
Patricia is now a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at UoM. She was part of my group in 2013-14 as a PDRA.
Rory Phillips ORCID 0000-0002-9447-4543
Rory was a PhD student in my group from 2016 - 22.
Cosimo Ligorio ORCID 0000-0001-5917-4652
Cosimo is a PDRA at Uni. Nottingham. He was PhD student in my group from 2017-21.
Dr. Nutthanun Suphadon ORCID: 0000-0003-1368-570X
Nutthanun was a PDRA in my group from July 2019 - July 2020.
Dr. Christian Berger ORCID 0000-0001-5252-6328
Chris was a PhD student in my group from 2014 -18. He is currently the founder and CTO of Atomic Mechanics.
Dr. Andrea Verre
Andrea was a PhD student in my group in 2013-16 and a post-doc in 2017.
Dr. Lan Nguyen
Lan was a PhD student in my group in 2013-17.
Dr. Wagner Anacleto
Wagner is currently a Professor at Instituto Militar de Engenharia, Brazil. He was part of my group in 2015 as a PDRA.
Dr. Zachary Coldrick
Zac is now a RA at UoM. He was part of my group in 2013-14 as a PDRA.
Project students
2019/20
MSc
Zhichao Lu
Qingyi Yang
2018/19
BSc
Alexander Proudler
Xiang Fu
MSc
Cong Zhao
Dongni Zhao
Shu Xu
Zhuolun Zhang
2017/18
BSc
Chao Zhu
MSc
Tianhe Zhang
Siwei Cheng
Junyan Wang
Bowen Shi
2016/17
BSc
Yujie Peng
Yun Xiao
MSc
Da Zhao
Shengjie Pang
Mengdi Shao
Like Ma
Szymon Doszczeczko
2015/16
BSc
Riley Bramley-Dymond
Hugo CHan
MSc
Junyi Ma
Gokhan Hekimoglu
Adil Butt
Peter Sono-Asomani
2014/15
MEng
Rory Phillips
Seb Leaper
MSc
Minhao Shi
Kaustav Dhar
Jiayu Wang
2013/14
MSc
Monica Alberto
Martin Kroll
BSc
Patrick Neill