Current Group Members
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
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
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
Jitao completed his PhD at the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham.
Pablo del Pozo Lorenzale
Engineering Doctoral candidate
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
Engineering Doctoral candidate
Daniele
Mrunmayee Joshi
Engineering Doctoral candidate
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.
Matthew Moore
Engineering Doctoral candidate
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.
Lucie Hlubinkova
Engineering Doctoral candidate
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.
Past Group Members
Dr Laura Buccoli
Research Fellow
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 (2023 - 2025), 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
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.