The experienced bunch
Dr Zhenyu Jason Zhang
Professor of Soft Matter Engineering
With twenty years’ research experience and expertise in investigating soft matter at surfaces and interfaces, he leads multiple large research programmes funded by UK Research & Innovation, EU Horizon Europe, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and forms strategic partnership with industrial collaborators from chemical sector. He is heavily involved in the Centre for Formulation Engineering, and coordinates several European consortia, including SUPREME and BLUECOAT.
Dr Ke Ren
Research Fellow (2023 - present)
Following a Master degree in Material Science and Engineering, Ke received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) in 2022, focussing on ex vivo cartilage damage model. Ke moved to Birmingham working on the development of bio-based sustainable coatings as part of the Sustainable Nanoparticles Enabled Antimicrobial Surface Coatings (SUPREME) Horizon Europe project.
Dr Daisy Rabbitt
Research Fellow (2025 - present)
Daisy finished her undergraduate study in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham before pursuing a PhD in antimicrobial design for medical device with Dr Sophie Cox in Chemical Engineering. Working on the SUPREME project as a Research Fellow, Daisy focusses on the development of polyurethane coating with antimicrobial actives embedded.
Dr Jitao Zhang
Research Fellow (2026 - present)
Jitao completed his PhD in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, where his doctoral research focussed on the development of biomimetic water-repellent nanopillar surfaces for antibiofouling applications. He joined the group as a Research Fellow contributing to the BLUECOAT project, working on bio-based coatings for sustainable applications under harsh service conditions.
The ones seeing light at the end of the tunnel
Pablo del Pozo Lorenzale
EngD candidate (2021 - present)
Pablo completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry in 2019 at the University of Leeds. During his MChem he had the opportunity to spend one year at GSK where he discovered his love for research and the collaborative role of academia and industry. He joined the group in 2021 to work in collaboration with Procter & Gamble to gain an understanding of the processes that affect deposition onto/into fabrics of fragrances in their range of dry detergent products.
Daniele Remoli
EngD candidate (2021 - present)
Daniele
Qianrong (Royee) Liu
PhD candidate (2022 - present)
Qianrong received her MEng degree from Xi'an University of Science and Technology, followed by a MSc with Distinction in Operational Research and Applied Statistics from Cardiff University, With an ambition of using Bayesian optimisation for complex formulated products, she started her PhD in October 2022. Her project involve the cross-disciplinary research of formulation science, surface properties, microfluidics, automation, single-objective and multi-objective Bayesian optimisation algorithms and evolutionary algorithms, etc.
Mrunmayee Joshi
EngD candidate (2022 - present)
MJ graduated with a MS in Food Science and Technology from The Ohio State University, USA where she completed a research project investigating the fouling and cleaning of plant-based beverage. She started at University of Birmingham in 2022 pursuing an EngD in Formulation Engineering. She will be working on designing innovative oral care products by establishing a mechanistic understanding of physico-chemical properties of dental plaque, its formation, growing and hardening process, which underpins the development of superior new technologies in prevention/removing the plaque.
The ones making progress with their research
Lucie Hlubinková
EngD candidate (2023 - present)
Lucie, from Buš, Czech Republic, came for a MSci Chemistry with Industrial Experience at the University of Birmingham (graduated July 2023). And she spent my third year on placement at DuPont Teijin Films, where Jason had an Industrial Fellowship. Her project, in collaboration with P&G, investigates the coating formulations for solid fabric enhancer, translating film characterization into product performance attributes. Although AFM is primarily used in her project to evaluate the nano mechanical and structural characteristics of the soft solids, other material characterisation techniques such as DVS, DSC, are regularly deployed.
Matthew Moore
EngD candidate (2023 - present)
Matthew is from Merseyside and completed a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester, during which he spent a year in industry as a process research engineer at Unilever, which piqued his interest in a career in industrial R&D. His project, began in September 2023, in collaboration with Innospec, is focused on understanding and quantifying the physical transformations that occur during the cleaning of complex food soils. Matty uses a range of techniques including SWIR Hyperspectral Imaging, micro-manipulation, X-ray tomography, laser confocal microscopy, to investigate food soils.
Thanmaya Arunkumar
EngD candidate (2024 - present)
Thanmaya (Maya), from Karnataka, India, came to pursue a MSc in Advanced Formulation Engineering in University of Birmingham. Following her research project with the SME group, Maya decided to continue with an Eng.D. in developing sustainable hair conditioning technologies. Her research project in collaboration with P&G integrates tribology, wetting, and interfacial science to build a performance model for silicone oils that links fundamental material properties to real-world hair care results, with the goal of creating environmentally friendly conditioners that deliver the same smooth, tangle-free performance as conventional products.
The ones in the early stage of their project
Millie Turner
EngD candidate (2025 - present)
Millie is from London and completed her Msci Chemistry with industrial experience from the University of Birmingham in 2025, during which she spent her year in industry within the flavour research team at Mondelez. From this she discovered a love for research and focused on ultrafast spectroscopy during her masters. Her EngD project, in collaboration with P&G, investigates dishwasher residues and their impact on shine (arguably the most common issue one would anticipate from dishwasher!). Millie uses a range of spectrographic techniques to characterise these residues including Raman, XPS, AFM and SEM.
The moved away ones
Dr Laura Buccoli
Research Fellow (2023 - 2025)
After graduating in Chemistry at the University of Cagliari, Laura pursued a Ph.D. degree at the University of Birmingham under Prof Paula Mendes. Her thesis focused on the development of surface-confined fluorescence boronic acid-based sensors for saccharide detection. During her time with us, Laura was actively engaged in various industrially relevant projects and an invaluable part of the SUPREME project. Additionally, Laura supports the group by mentoring PhD students and assisting master's students with their laboratory projects. Laura moved to CRODA in 2025.
Dr Tuğçe Çaykara
Research Fellow (2021 - 2023)
Tugce started her journey with a Bachelor’s degree in Science at Istanbul University, followed by a Joint European Master’s Degree in Tribology of Surfaces and Interfaces with a thesis in self-lubricating coatings. She further completed her PhD in Biological and Chemical Engineering from the University of Minho as a Marie-Curie ITN Fellow. Since joining us in 2021, Tugce collaborated various P&G teams while actively engaging in multiple projects. Her research focuses on topics such as surface interfacial chemistry, soft matter, tribology, formulation design, antifouling, antimicrobial, and film-forming properties. Tuğçe works at Seagate Technology as a Senior Engineer.
Dr Alejandro Avila-Sierra
PhD Researcher (2017 - 2020)
Alejandro (Alex) came to Birmingham for a PhD on surface cleaning technology after finishing a Master degree at the University of Granada on Cleaning-In-Place (CIP). Alex used a range of surface characterisation tools to understand the milk fouling process on stainless steel surfaces for his PhD, during which he spent spent a few months at the Ohio State University in collaboration with the late Professor Dennis Heldman.
Dr Katarzyna Majerczak
PhD Researcher (2017 - 2020)
Upon completion of her Master of Science with First Class honours from Warsaw University of Technology, Kasia decided to come to Birmingham for a PhD study that was part of the Molecular Migration in Complex Matrix project funded by the EPSRC, in collaboration with several academic and industrial partners. The primary focus of Kasia's project was to investigate how small molecules migrate in PVA film and the corresponding physics-chemical properties of the surface, in collaboration with P&G. After a few years' at the University of Strathclyde as Research Associate, Kasia moved to P&G Brussels Innovation Centre as a Scientist.
Dr Konstantina Simou
PhD Researcher (2016 - 2019)
Nina finished her MEng in Chemical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2016 before starting her PhD that summer. Inspired by the concept of nanolubricants, Nina's project was to develop novel viscosupplementation formulations as effective intervention for early stage osteoarthritis, jointly supervised with Prof. Jon Preece. We worked extensively with Prof. Simon Jones and Prof. Ed Davis for both animal and human cartilage samples.
Dr Maryam Derkani
PhD Researcher
Maryam came to Strathclyde for MSc in Chemical Engineering, during which she did her research project on low salinity waterflooding. Following that, she continued the work in a PhD project funded by the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) in collaboration with Schlumberger Dhahran Carbonate Research (SDCR) Center from 2015. Colloidal and interface science underpins this work. Maryam is a Research Manager at Unilever responsible for formulation, microstructure.
Dr Dorin Simionesie
PhD Researcher (2013 - 2017)
After his BSc at "POLITEHNICA" University of Bucharest, Dorin went to University of Sheffield for a MSc in Nanoscience, where he met Jason. It did not take long before he was convinced to start a PhD. Dorin's research project was to use both experimental and computational methods in investigating the aggregation behaviour of asphaltenes, which was a classical challenge. In collaboration with Dr Paul Mulheran, Prof. Jon Preece, Dr Rob Evans, Dorin produced several publications using polyaromatic compounds as model asphaltenes before taking a job at ASML.
Dr Evangelos Liamas
PhD Researcher (2013 - 2017)
From Thessaloniki, Evan was awarded his BSc in Materials Science & Engineering by the University of Crete in 2010 before moving to the University of Sheffield for the MSc in Nanoscience in 2012. With a great interest in biomaterials, Evan wanted to focus on bio-interface for his PhD that started in Sep 2013. Both experimental and computational approaches were deployed, in collaboration with Dr Paul Mulheran, Dr Anna Neus Igual Muñoz. Protein-surface interaction was the key theme for Evan's project, which lays the foundation for his current role as a Measurement Scientist at Unilever.