CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham are thrilled to announce the recipients of the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement, and Education (BRIDGE) Seed Fund Grant for the 2025-2026 Academic Year.
The BRIDGE Seed Fund is a joint initiative designed to stimulate collaboration and research between Illinois and Birmingham. It provides funding to support faculty-led projects that foster academic engagement, research development, and educational exchange.
Fourteen projects will receive funding this year to pursue joint research on a variety of topics.
The recipients and their projects are:
- Ruthann E. Mowry, curator of rare books and manuscripts at the Illinois Rare Book & Manuscript Library, will collaborate with Hazel Wilkinson, an associate professor (senior lecturer) in the English Department at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Emblems, Ornaments, and the Early Modern Reading Experience.”
- Dr. Japhia Ramkumar, an internist and associate professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, will collaborate with Helen Onyeaka, an industrial microbiologist and associate professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham on a project titled, “Train the Trainer: Building Sustainable Food Systems and Promoting Microbiome-Friendly Practices in Healthcare.”
- Adam Steel, an assistant professor in psychology, and Caterina Gratton, an associate professor in psychology, both from Illinois, will collaborate with Andrew Bagshaw, a professor in imaging neuroscience at Birmingham, on a project titled, “The BRIDGE Brain Network.”
- Elisa Frühauf Garcia, a visiting distinguished scholar at the Illinois Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, and Emily E. LB. Twarog, co-director of the Regina V. Polk Women’s Labor Leadership Programs at Illinois, will collaborate with Courtney J. Campbell, co-director of Birmingham’s Brazil Institute, on a project titled, “Women's Bodies, the State and Resistance: A Transnational History.”
- Bruno Nunes, an associate professor in the Illinois Department of Health and Kinesiology, will collaborate with Tom Marshall, professor of public health and primary care at Birmingham, on a project titled, “A collaborative network to leap the hurdles of continuity of care in Brazil, England, and the United States.”
- Jonathan Dunn, an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics at Illinois, will collaborate with Jack Grieve, a professor of Corpus Linguistics at Birmingham, on a project title, “Computational Sociolinguistics and the Impacts of Language Models.”
- Ryan L. Sriver and Zhuo Wang, both professors in the Illinois Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences, will collaborate with Gregor Leckebusch, a professor of Meteorology and Climatology at Birmingham, on a project titled, “AI Predictability of Extremes on Both Sides of the Atlantic (PEBSA).”
- Erol Tutumluer, an Abel Bliss Professor in the Illinois Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will collaborate with Sakdirat Kaewunruen, reader in Railway and Civil Engineering at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Re4Rail2.0: AI and digital twin-based automated technology to real-time repair, reuse, recycle, and repurpose railway infrastructure.”
- Don Casler, an assistant professor in the Illinois Department of Political Science, will collaborate with Robert Ralston, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Decline and Threat Credibility.”
- Tuyet Mai (Mai) Hoang, an assistant professor in the Illinois School of Social Work will collaborate with Soha Sobhy, an associate clinical professor in the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science at Birmingham, on a project titled, “A Stakeholder-Informed Approach to Develop a Global Maternal Mental Health Conceptual Framework.”
- Ricardo Constante-Amores, an assistant professor in the Illinois Department of Mechanical Science & Engineering, will collaborate with Thomas Abadie, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Surfactant Transport in Wave Breaking: Implications for Jet Droplet Ejection and Air-Sea Exchange.”
- Ngoc Nguyen, a staff research scientist at the Illinois Applied Research Institute, will collaborate with Atif Shahzad, an assistant professor of Medical Technologies and program lead for the MSc Biomedical Innovation Program in the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Development of Renewable Biocompatible Wearable Pressure Sensors for Healthcare Applications.”
- Carla Cáceres, director of the Illinois School of Integrative Biology, will collaborate with Iseult Lynch, deputy director of the Facility for Environmental Nanomaterials Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC) at Birmingham, and Katie Reilly, a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Evolution of Environmental Science Engagement.”
- Rosa Maria Espinosa-Marzal, a professor in the Illinois Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, will collaborate with Iestyn Stead, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Seeding Innovation in Responsive Biologically Inspired Multiphase Surfaces: A Foundation for Future Center Research.”
BRIDGE Seed Fund Recipient Bios by Analicia Haynes
Illinois Faculty Biographies
Ruthann E. Mowry is a curator of rare books and manuscripts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Mowry holds a Master of Library Science (MLS) degree with a specialization in rare books and manuscripts from Indiana University. Their MLS is complemented by a master's degree in ancient history language acquisition.
Their scholarly pursuits encompass a diverse range of interests, spanning from Western European medieval magical practices to contemporary issues in library outreach and engagement.
Additionally, their research examines strategies for democratizing special collections while fostering inclusivity, aiming to transform these resources from appearing as exclusive academic repositories into vibrant, welcoming spaces that engage and reflect diverse communities.
Dr. Japhia Ramkumar is an internist and associate professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.
She is on the board of the Champaign County Medical Society and the Illinois Clinicians for Climate Action and has two decades of experience in medical education issues with a focus on the climate, biodiversity loss, and pollution crises.
Dr. Ramkumar develops medical school curriculum and educates the medical community locally, nationally, and internationally on climate change and health impacts through a One Health lens, which is an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. Her focus is on Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as climate and health solutions.
In the last few years, Dr. Ramkumar has combined her long-held interest in gardening, environmental stewardship, and work on climate change and NBS to focus on the farm, food, and health connection through the microbiomes and regenerative agricultural practices.
Adam Steel, Ph.D., joined the Department of Psychology and the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an assistant professor in January 2025.
His research investigates how the human brain represents and processes visual information, with a particular focus on scene perception, spatial memory, and the interaction between these cognitive processes using a combination of behavioral studies, neuroimaging, and computational approaches.
Prof. Steel completed his postdoctoral training at Dartmouth College, where he worked with Caroline Robertson, Ph.D., studying the neural mechanisms of scene perception and memory. Prior to his postdoctoral work, Prof. Steel earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Oxford as an NIH-Oxford/Cambridge Scholar, working with Prof. Chris Baker (NIH), and Prof. Charlotte Stagg (Oxford).
Prof. Steel received his B.A. with honors in neuroscience and English composition from Vassar College.
Caterina Gratton, Ph.D., is cognitive neuroscientist. She is an associate professor in psychology at Illinois and the principal investigator at the Gratton Lab which is housed in the Beckman Institute on Illinois’ campus.
Prof. Gratton received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Neuroscience from Illinois in 2008 and her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. Subsequently, Prof. Gratton did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Neurology Department at Washington University in St. Louis.
Her research focuses on the organization and function of human brain networks and how they contribute to goal-directed cognition. She is interested in how these systems vary across people and over the lifespan.
Prof. Gratton employs a multifaceted approach to her research, utilizing a variety of human brain imaging methods, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and patient recordings, to investigate how brain systems function and change.
Elisa Frühauf Garcia, Ph.D., is a history professor at Fluminense Federal University (UFF), however she is currently a visiting distinguished scholar at the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies at Illinois.
Prof. Garcia received her Ph.D. in history at UFF and has done postdoctoral research at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid.
An expert on the indigenous peoples of Brazil, her current research focuses on the relationships between Native women and European men in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. By adopting a long-term perspective, her work bridges history, cultural heritage, and the diverse ways in which the early colonial past is interpreted and utilized.
Emily E. LB. Twarog, Ph.D., is a historian, an associate professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Illinois, and co-director of the Regina V. Polk Women’s Labor Leadership Programs. She is also the Ronald and Lilia Peters LER Faculty Scholar.
As a historian, her work focuses on the intersections of gender, work, and the body from a transnational perspective. Her research has been supported with grants from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS); the Schlesinger Library – Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University; and Illinois’ Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies at Illinois; Campus Research Board; Humanities Research Institute; and the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity.
Bruno Nunes, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Illinois.
He graduated from Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil with a B.A. in nurse training in 2010, and went on to earn his M.S.c. and Ph.D. in epidemiology from Federal University of Pelotas in 2012 and 2015, respectively.
Throughout his career, Prof. Nunes has been leading projects focused on access to health services, chronic diseases, multimorbidity, and machine learning, utilizing equity-based approaches.
He has applied artificial intelligence to improve public health in Brazil since 2018 and was one of the first researchers to receive funding for predicting emergency services utilization.
Additionally, Prof. Nunes has experience in teaching, scientific publishing, mentoring, and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Jonathan Dunn, Ph.D., is an associate professor specializing in computational linguistics at Illinois.
His research models the relationship between the emergence of grammar, specifically how language is learned, and the variation in grammar, specifically how languages change.
His recent work has also explored the impact that linguistic variation has on language technology.
To support this research, Prof. Dunn has worked to develop large multi-lingual geographic corpora, and his recent work has also focused on the impact of linguistic variation on natural language processing and on low-resource contexts.
Prof. Dunn received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2013, his M.A. from Purdue in 2010, and is B.A. in classics from Hillsdale College in 2008.
Ryan L. Sriver, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS) at Illinois.
Before joining Illinois, he worked as a research associate in Penn State's Department of Geosciences and as a NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Purdue University with a Ph.D. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Prof. Sriver’s research aims to develop a deeper understanding of the physical processes that influence variability within Earth's climate system.
His work combines observational products, statistical methods and tools, and numerical models spanning a wide range of complexities and scales to understand how extreme weather and climate events are changing with global warming, identify the relevant uncertainties, and assess the implications for natural and human systems.
Zhuo Wang, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (CLiMAS) at Illinois.
She currently serves as the chief editor for the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences and co-chair of the WMO Working Group on Tropical Meteorology Research (TMR).
She has previously served as the chair of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee on Tropical Meteorology and Tropical Cyclones.
Her research primarily focuses on tropical cyclones, Arctic storms, climate dynamics, and the sub-seasonal to decadal prediction and predictability of extreme weather and climate events.
Erol Tutumluer, Ph.D., is an Abel Bliss Professor specializing in transportation geotechnics in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Illinois.
Prof. Tutumluer holds the Paul F. Kent Endowed Faculty Scholar and serves as the director of International and ZJUI Education Programs.
He has research interests and expertise in:
- characterization of pavement and railroad track geomaterials, i.e.
- subgrade soils and base/ballast unbound aggregates
- soil/aggregate stabilization
- geosynthetics
- advanced imaging techniques and applications of artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques to transportation infrastructure
- structural health monitoring of transportation facilities using sensors
- modeling granular foundation systems using innovative techniques
- sustainable use of foundation geomaterials and construction practices for transportation infrastructure
- discrete element analysis of ballast
- dynamic response measurement and analyses of track systems
- mechanistic analysis and design
Since he started as a faculty member at Illinois in 1996, Prof. Tutumluer has served as an investigator on over 125 research projects and graduated 27 Ph.D. and 47 M.S. students and authored/co-authored over 400 peer reviewed publications from his research projects.
Don Casler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Illinois and a faculty affiliate at the program in Arms Control and Domestic & International Security (ACDIS).
Prof. Casler studies topics at the intersection of international security and international political economy, applying concepts from organizational theory and political psychology to better understand how domestic politics shape international relations and foreign policy.
His research has received awards from the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the International Studies Association (ISA), and his work has appeared in prominent journals such as International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Politics, Security Studies, and World Politics.
Prof. Casler holds a B.A. in government from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.
Tuyet Mai (Mai) Hoang, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Illinois.
Her research focuses on addressing racial, gendered health inequities experienced by women, infants, and vulnerable communities through community-based and stakeholder-engaged approaches.
Her approach is grounded in the principles of intersectionality and community-based participatory frameworks.
Research topics encompass reproductive and maternal health equity, mental health, and climate-health work, particularly with communities that have been historically excluded from health and policy decision-making processes.
Ricardo Constante-Amores, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Science & Engineering Department at Illinois.
His research focuses on advancing the fundamental understanding of turbulence and multiphase flows through numerical simulations and theoretical analysis.
He earned his Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics from Imperial College London. He has received several prestigious awards, including the ERCOFTAC da Vinci Medal (2021), the Milton van Dyke Award from the American Physical Society (Division of Fluid Dynamics), the Osborne Reynolds Prize, and the Dudley Newitt Prize.
He holds a BEng in Chemical Engineering from the Complutense University of Madrid and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London. Following his Ph.D., he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Ngoc Nguyen, Ph.D., is an R&D Scientist at the Illinois Applied Research Institute in the Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois.
Prior to his current role, he served as an R&D Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and as a Tenured Assistant Professor at Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
He leverages the unique macromolecular characteristics of polymers to develop innovative materials and processing techniques that address critical challenges in construction, defense, energy, and healthcare.
Prof. Nguyen has worked with a wide range of advanced materials, including:
- stimuli-responsive polymers
- thermoplastics
- elastomers
- carbon-based materials
- natural polymers (cellulose and lignin)
- nanocomposites
- fiber-reinforced composites
- sulfur copolymers
- semiconducting polymers
Carla Cáceres, Ph.D., is G. William Arends Professor and director of the School of Integrative Biology at Illinois.
Her research is focused at the interface of population, community, and evolutionary ecology and addresses questions such as how biodiversity influences the spread of infectious diseases.
She received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University.
She joined the University of Illinois faculty in 2001 and has been involved in several initiatives aimed at transforming undergraduate education and broadening participation in STEM.
Rosa Maria Espinosa-Marzal, Ph.D., is a professor at Illinois, holding joint appointments in the Departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Materials Science & Engineering.
Since 2021, she has served as the Area Chair of Environmental Engineering & Science within CEE. She earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.
Her research focuses on fundamental studies of nano-enabled interfacial processes and the discovery of sustainable materials for applications in energy, health, and environmental engineering.
Since 2016, she has been an active member of the executive committee of the Division of Colloids and Surface Chemistry at the American Chemical Society, where she currently serves as Elected Chair. She also serves in the ACS National Award Selection Committee (2026-2028) and as the Chair of the 2026 Gordon Research Conference in Tribology.
Birmingham Faculty Biographies
Hazel Wilkinson, Ph.D., is an associate professor (senior lecturer) in the English Department, specializing in eighteenth-century and early modern literature, at the University of Birmingham. She is also deputy director of the Institute for Data and AI at Birmingham.
Prof. Wilkinson first joined Birmingham in 2017 as a Birmingham Fellow. Prior to that, she was a junior research fellow in English Literature at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
She completed her doctorate at University College London under the supervision of Professor Henry Woudhuysen, holds a Master of Arts in Renaissance Literature from the University of York, and holds a B.A. in English from the University of Oxford.
Prof. Wilkinson is a member of the executive board of the Centre for Printing History and Culture and a member of the Steering Committee of the Birmingham Eighteenth Century Centre.
She is a general editor (with Caroline Archer-Parré and Malcom Dick) of the Printing History and Culture series at Peter Lang, where she welcomes proposals for monographs or edited collections on any aspect of global, national, and local printing history and print culture as well as related arts and crafts.
Helen Onyeaka, Ph.D., is an industrial microbiologist and associate professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham. Her research focuses on food safety and sustainable microbial bioprocessing.
Prof. Onyeaka delivers lectures on a variety of microbiology topics to undergraduates and postgraduates in the Food Safety, Hygiene and Management masters or Master of Science programs, Post Graduation Diploma programs, and Post Graduation Certificate programs.
She also lectures to students in the Master of Science in Environmental Health program and Master of Science in Public and Environmental Health Sciences program, and she lectures bioprocess engineering to chemical engineering students.
In 1991, Prof. Onyeaka graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Microbiology from the Federal University of Technology in Owerri, Nigeria. She furthered her studies at Wolverhampton University, obtaining a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences in 1998, and in 2004 she obtained her doctorate in biochemical engineering from Birmingham.
Andrew Bagshaw, Ph.D., is a professor of Imaging Neuroscience at Birmingham and co-director of the Centre for Human Brain Health.
Prof. Bagshaw's research focus is on understanding how the human brain is impacted by sleep and epilepsy, with a particular emphasis on the role of the thalamus. He is also interested in understanding how ongoing brain activity influences brain and behavioral responses.
Prof. Bagshaw sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Epilepsy Research UK, is the chair of the Midlands Medical Imaging Network, and co-chair of the Birmingham Epilepsy Research Network.
Prior to his employment at Birmingham, he completed a Ph.D in nuclear physics at the University of Manchester in 1998. He went on to undertake postdoctoral positions at City University London, University College London (UCL), and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI).
It was at UCL and subsequently the MNI that he first worked on the development of brain imaging techniques, with a specific focus on epilepsy.
Courtney J. Campbell, Ph.D., is co-director of the University of Birmingham Brazil Institute and an associate professor of Latin American history.
Prof. Campbell teaches, researches, and writes on Brazilian history, with a focus on the social and cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her writing has focused on regionalism, race, gender, international events, abolition, national identity, social movements, and foreign presence in Brazil.
Her 2022 book, “Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World (1924-1968),” analyzes how Brazilians understood the meaning of belonging to the northeastern region in the early to mid-twentieth century.
Her current research focuses on mothering and other mothering in times of exile. She is carrying out a microhistory of the people and networks that came together to raise Anita Benário Prestes, born in a German women’s prison to the militant Olga Benário Prestes and raised by the family of her father, the Brazilian communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes.
Tom Marshall, Ph.D., is a professor of public health and primary care at the University of Birmingham.
His main medical specialty is in public health medicine, but he is also trained in general practice and has studied health economics.
Prof. Marshall has over 70 peer-reviewed publications to date, with more than 35 as the first author and a significant number as the sole author.
He has contributed to local, national, and international media regarding his research, particularly concerning the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
His interests lie in designing efficient strategies for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in primary care and the early diagnosis of cancer using information held in electronic patient records. He is also interested in collaborating with data and computer scientists to utilize electronic patient records for research.
Jack Grieve, Ph.D., is a professor of corpus linguistics at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on understanding language variation and changes through the quantitative analysis of large corpora of natural language data.
Prof. Grieve is from Vancouver and studied at Simon Fraser University and Northern Arizona University.
Before moving to the University of Birmingham in 2017, he held a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Leuven and a Lectureship in Forensic Linguistics at Aston University.
Gregor Leckebusch, Ph.D., is a professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of Birmingham and the UK Met Office joint chair. He is a leading expert in natural science research on meteorological and climatological extreme events and related impacts.
His work is dedicated to natural variability and anthropogenic changes in extreme events like cyclones and storms, and the relation to relevant risk assessments. Prior to Birmingham, Prof. Gregor Leckebusch studied meteorology at the University of Cologne (Germany), where he completed his Ph.D. on meteorological diagnostics of polar ice cores by means of paleoclimate model simulations.
He subsequently worked as a Postdoc on regional extreme event modelling and impact assessment. He was an associate professor from 2004 to 2010 (Habilitation 2009) at Freie University of Berlin (Institute for Meteorology) and acting chair of dynamical meteorology at the University of Leipzig (2010/2011).
Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Ph.D., is a reader in Railway and Civil Engineering and convenor of the undergraduate Railway Engineering Programme at the University of Birmingham.
He has extensive expertise in transport infrastructure engineering and management, successfully navigating all stages of the infrastructure life cycle and ensuring the safety, reliability, resilience, and sustainability of rail infrastructure systems.
Before joining Birmingham, he had over 14 years of experience in the industry. He has recently spent more than six years as a technical specialist (senior project manager level) at Track Engineering, working with RailCorp, Sydney Trains, and Transport for NSW (TfNSW) in Sydney, Australia.
He is a chartered engineer in both civil and structural engineering, with research and practical experience internationally in railway systems and infrastructure engineering. His professional work has involved numerous industry projects worth over 5 billion pounds and has supervised and participated in railway research projects worth over 8 million pounds.
Robert Ralston, Ph.D., studies international security, grand strategy, and civil-military relations at the University of Birmingham with a specific focus on the domestic politics of great power politics and the politics of military service.
He was previously a Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow jointly appointed at the International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School and the Security Studies Program, MIT and a Predoctoral Fellow in the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy at the Bush School for Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.
Soha Sobhy, Ph.D., is an associate clinical professor for the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science at the University of Birmingham.
She has a passion for global maternal health and safe surgery. She has spent time in several low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings, volunteering in Malawi, working with refugees in Greece, and teaching in India.
Her research has primarily focused on the safety of obstetric surgical procedures in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Prof. Sobhy is also a member of the trainees' global health committee at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). She is one of the founding members of the Global Anaesthesia, Surgery and Obstetric Collaboration (Gasoc) and the first O&G rep.
Thomas Abadie, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Birmingham.
His research primarily focuses on fluid mechanics, multiphase flows, and the modelling of interfacial phenomena, with a particular interest in bubble dynamics, complex fluids, surface-active agents, and interfacial transfer applicable to both environmental (e.g., water resources) and industrial (e.g., formulation engineering) challenges.
Employing both experimental characterization (imaging, Particle Imaging Velocimetry) and numerical simulations (interface capturing/tracking, Discrete Particle Methods), Prof. Abadie's research activities encompass bubbly flows across various scales, from microreactors to aeration/flotation tanks and electrolysers; drop generation in jetting/spraying; and mixing of complex fluids.
Atif Shahzad, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Medical Technologies and programme lead for MSc Biomedical Innovation program at the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science, University of Birmingham.
He is associated with the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine and also holds an honorary position at the University of Galway.
Prof. Shahzad is interested in needs-led health technology innovation with a focus on device-based therapies, monitoring and diagnostic technologies.
After joining the University of Birmingham in 2021, Prof. Shahzad setup the new MSc Biomedical Innovation program with an aim to train next generation innovators. He is the program director and leads the core postgraduate modules of the course.
Iseult Lynch, Ph.D., is an associate editor for Environmental Science: Nano, and deputy director for the Facility for Environmental Nanomaterials Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC) at the University of Birmingham.
Her research focuses on the environmental interactions of nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces with biological entities from macromolecules to organisms.
She has a very broad overview of all aspects of nanomaterials safety assessment and the data requirements, having served as Chair of the EU Nanosafety Cluster Working Group (NSC WG) on databases for two years (and as co-chair of the Hazed WG prior to that), as well as being theme editor for the Materials and classification section of the NSC Vision 2020 research roadmap (under review for publication in June 2013).
Prior to the University of Birmingham, she was Strategic Research Manager at the Centre for BioNano Interactions at University College Dublin, where she was instrumental in the development and implementation of numerous large EU-funded projects.
Katie Reilly, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham.
Prof. Reilly is an environmental scientist with a focus on ecotoxicology and anthropogenic stressors in aquatic environments.
She also has a keen interest in science communication and public engagement centred in environmental issues, often with a focus on microplastic pollution effects, and has experience working with a range of audiences. She is a member of Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry as well as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Iestyn Stead, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.
His research interests include Friction, Wear, and Lubrication, Biological solutions for Wastewater Treatment, Machine Vision, and Learning Control and Automation of complex systems.
He teaches Mechanical Design, Integrated Design, and Industrial Experience at the University of Birmingham.