Project: Particle-surface adhesive forces and their role in resuspension phenomena

Supervisors: Dr Matthew Jones, Dr Paul DeBank, Dr Anton Souslov

My name is Patric, and I’m a PhD student at the University of Bath, modelling the resuspension of particles from different surfaces. This combines my interests of fluid dynamics and 3D modelling and has many relevant applications towards medicine and disease. Outside this I enjoy creating music for my band, graphic design as well as hiking and gaming.

Project: Early Life Air Pollution Exposure and its Lasting Effects on the Lung: Understanding how pollutant aerosol particulates impact airway inflammation

Supervisors: Prof. Sheena Cruickshank, Dr Cyrill Bussy, Dr Martin Leonard, Dr Laura Urbano

I did my undergraduate degree in medical laboratory sciences in my country, Iran. I moved to UK to do my master’s degree in immunology and inflammatory diseases at the university of Glasgow and graduated with a distinction. following that, I worked one year as a research assistant at the university of Glasgow where we focused our research on mucosal immunology. my passion for studying mucosal immunology led me to my PhD at the university of Manchester, where we focus on the role of early life air pollution in developing respiratory diseases, such as asthma.

Project: Stability of dry powder formulations used in drug delivery to the lungs studied one particle at a time

Supervisors: Prof. Jonathan Reid, Mr. Joe Takher-Smith (Viatris)

I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Swansea University. Throughout my undergraduate degree I completed a computational research topic where I produced some code to provide all the structural isomers of a compound and my dissertation topic was looking at finding the most effective inorganic solvents for increased hydrogen production from irradiating waste plastic. I then progresses onto an MSc by research programme in Chemical Engineering at Swansea University where I investigated the removal and degradation of some chemical contaminants from wastewater via advanced oxidation processes.

Project: Data-informed modelling of aerosol resuspension under aerodynamic loads

Supervisors: Dr Alberto Gambaruto, Dr Karen Aplin & Dr Nick Zhang

Before enrolling in the CDT, I completed my Aerospace Engineering (MEng) undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol (2019-2023). I was particularly interested in programming, modelling and simulations, leading me to apply for the project proposed by Dr Alberto Gambaruto.

My project focuses on establishing an exhaustive description of parameters influencing the resuspension of particles. I am very enthusiastic about using state-of-the-art experimental and numerical approaches such as wind tunnel testing and CFD, in addition to machine learning-based models (PINNs) to predict resuspension behaviour.

Project: Aerosol emissions from future generation aircraft and their impact on climate

Supervisors: Dr Alex Rap & Prof. Ben Murray

Growing up in a city with severe air pollution sparked my interest in aerosol research. During my undergraduate studies in Earth Sciences at UCL, I became particularly interested in the climate impacts of aerosol emissions after studying the climate dynamics. On my final year, I conducted a research on whether the reduction of aerosol pollutions will accelerate global warming. Through this experience, I became aware of the significant uncertainties associated with aerosol-cloud interactions when assessing aerosol climate impacts. As a result, my current PhD project is dedicated to quantifying the indirect climate impact of aerosol emissions i.e., aerosol-cloud interactions from current and future aviation. This is essential for gaining a comprehensive understanding of aviation’s complete climate footprint and for designing more informed emission pathways to achieve the aviation industry’s ambitious net-zero carbon target.

Project: Hygroscopic dynamics of solution phase aerosol on generation and inhalation to the lungs

Supervisors: Prof. Jonathan Reid & Dr Rachael Miles

Nan graduated from the Australian National University with a bachelor degree of Medical Science. Then he obtained a master’s degree in Pharmaceutics from the University College London where he developed a strong interest in drug delivery to the lungs. Thus, he decided to join the Aerosol Science CDT and the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre (BARC) to continue his research. For his PhD, he will be studying the effect of hygroscopicity on the stability of dry powder formulations. He is excited to contribute to the development of more effective and reliable drug delivery systems for respiratory conditions.

Project: Optimising the performance of air cleaning technology for mitigation of infection in hospital environments

Supervisors: Prof. Catherine Noakes, Dr Louise Fletcher, Dr Marco-Felipe King

I completed my BS-MS (dual degree) from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India in the year 2023. I majored in Environmental Sciences where my thesis focused on finding the oxidative potential of PM 2.5 in Central India. This was the time where my interest in aerosol and health developed. I would be working on optimizing the performance of air cleaning technology for mitigation of infection in hospital environments. The aim would be achieved by a combination of experimental study and computational modelling. Experiments will involve sampling and culturing microorganisms from the air and on surfaces, as well as real-time measurement of physical environmental parameters . Modelling approaches based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will be used to simulate the interaction of the air cleaning device with the airflows and pollutant sources in indoor spaces. This will build on existing chamber airflow CFD models with a device model added to understand interactions between the device and room airflow and the capture behaviour for different size aerosol particles as well as chemical species in air. The combination of CFD and experimental data will be used to assess aspects such as performance characteristics, optimisation of controls and the effectiveness under transient scenarios.

Project: Bridging Across Scales for Contrail Impact Modelling

Supervisors: Dr Marc Stettler and Jey Williams (Airbus)

Emily attended the University of Bristol, where she studied Chemistry from 2019 to 2023. During her final year, she completed her Master’s thesis, titled ‘Effect of Varying Relative Humidity on the Drying Kinetics in Inorganic Aerosols’. This research was supervised by Professor Jonathan Reid with the BARC (Bristol Aerosol Research Centre) group. Her project focused on understanding the kinetics of individual droplets, which form the foundation for more complex atmospheric applications and further fuelled her passion for research.

Emily is currently pursuing her PhD at Imperial College London under the guidance of Dr. Marc Stettler. Her research is titled ‘Bridging Across Scales for Contrail Impact Modelling’. She aims to expand her understanding of fundamental aerosol processes to develop a comprehensive model for tracking the exchange of water vapor throughout the lifespan of contrails, both for single aircraft and for multiple aircraft in a region.

Project: Model systems for exchange of liquid between different aerosol sources: application in disease risk during aerosol therapies

Supervisors: Dr Adam Squires and Dr Anton Souslov

I studied pharmacy at the University of Central Lancashire and was due to get an MPharm in 2024 but I took the exit award of a BSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2023 in order to pursue the CDT in Aerosol Sciences. My PhD project is investigating how much, and to what extent, two different aerosol streams exchange content after they collide with each other, and I’ll be undertaking it at the University of Bath as a part of the Squires Research Group.

Project: Characterising alveoli-on-chip for better design of aerosolised drugs deep into the lung

Supervisors: Dr Jorge de Bernardino de la Serna

Chemistry graduate from the University of Edinburgh where my final year project was designing and synthesising peptide hydrogels. Currently, I am joining Jorges’ group to develop an organ-on-chip to model aerosolised drug action in the distal lung.