There are always many things that are underway. Multi-disciplinary research environments always gives me a great opportunity to work on many things at once.

Because I like playing with big toys and enjoy maths, my research interests are are grouped around nanoscale processes with an emphasis on mathematical descriptions of these systems.

The motivations for doing research, however, are much more than just playing with expensive toys or solving differential equations. I, along with many other chemists today, am working to improve the sustainability of modern chemistry and the broader chemical and manufacturing industries. In particular, given the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels for use as petrochemical feedstocks and the social and environmental problems associated with landfill disposal of waste, I am interested in substitutes for the raw materials that are used for current chemistry and the utilisation of both industrial and post-consumer "waste" streams.

Based on my research experience, I am being drawn to the study of polymers made from renewable materials (e.g., biopolymers) which may be substituted for current petrochemical polymers in both high-value-added and commodity applications.

At present, I'm only working slowly towards these goals, but in the future, my research interests will focus on:

My current research projects (below) and previous projects probably gives a better picture of what that means in reality.

Some of the things that I am currently working on are:

Making "stable" emulsions Microfluidic emulsions Emulsions can be prepared by microfluidics that are stable on the lab bench for years. With a bit of extra chemistry, can they also be made stable to heating and mechanical agitation? more »
Miniature NMR instrumentation Miniature NMRs Solvent relaxation NMR with custom, miniaturised instrumentation to look at the surface chemistry and structure of near-surface layers. more »
Surface structures of polymer solutions in confined geometries Surface structures Measurements of the inter-surface and near surface structures of polymer gels under compressive forces have been made using a new neutron compression cell. more »
Light scattering of non-spherical particles Light scattering Light scattering cross-sections are calculated numerically for a variety of nanoparticles using the Discrete Dipole Approximation. more »
Bumblebee instrument management system Bumblebee Instruments and equipment are booked and shared between users through a free, web-based management system. more »

Last edited: Tuesday September 9, 2008

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