My research interests include:

• Systematic reviews of diagnostic and screening tests
• Systematic reviews of healthcare interventions, complex interventions and public health interventions
• Development of methods for systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis
• Rapid review methods and diagnostic review methods

Research interests

I am interested in supervising research into health behaviour change. I am particularly interested in supervising research on physical activity. I am able to supervise students in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research, and many different types of evidence synthesis.

Broad area of research interest:

• Primary and secondary prevention of nutrition-related diseases.
• Interventions to support healthy eating and lifestyle in underserved groups.
• Reviews
• Food analysis and nutrient composition
• Public health, including low/middle income countries
• Sustainable diets

Methods I am able to supervise:

• Quantitative
• Qualitative (interviews, focus group discussions and vox pops)
• Mixed Methods
• Systematic review
• Narrative review

Research interest:

• Nutrient composition of ethnic foods
• Development of food-based resources for health promotion and interventions
• Community-based interventions to support healthy eating and lifestyle.
• Interventions to enhance health literacy, expand health opportunities and reduce nutritional issues related to under/over nutrition.
• Promotion of sustainable diets.

Research Interests

My research interests focus on all methods of systematic review,  evidence synthesis, evidence based practice, and knowledge translation. I am particularly interested in systematic review topics from developing countries, particularly from Sub-Saharan Africa, and in public health topics such as alcohol and HIV/AIDS.

I have published with students in topics such as medication adherence, social marketing,  disaster management and evidence based management. My current research students are working in knowledge management in acute hospitals and use of NICE guidance in Social care.  I have been involved in development of a wide range of tools for dissemination, both web based and as online briefings. In 2013 I was one of the first to achieve the University of Sheffield's PhD by Publications with my thesis entitled Acknowledging a Dual Heritage for Qualitative Evidence Synthesis: Harnessing the Qualitative Research and Systematic Review Research Traditions. My most recent interests centre on multiple types of review, including rapid reviews, mapping reviews and scoping reviews.

Lecturer in International Business

Research

My research interest lies in internationalization strategies, particularly cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), post-acquisition socio-cultural integration and organisational change, emotions and cultural differences, as well as sustainability. My research focuses on the human side, such as emotions and change management, in international business strategy (M&A) and more recently in SME internationalisation.

My research expertise also lies in research methods, particularly qualitative research methods, longitudinal, case study and mixed method approaches. This is reflected in a book, namely “Handbook in Longitudinal Research Methods in Organisation and Business Studies”, published by Edward Elgar in 2013, as well as an article on time, which was published in Management International Review in 2016 “TEMPUS FUGIT – A hermeneutic approach to internationalization process”. I am the co-editor in recently published Special Issue on “When Time Matters: Rethinking the Role of Time in IB Theory and Practice” in the Journal of World Business.

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas:

• International mergers and acquisitions
• Post-acquisition integration and socio-cultural integration
• Internationalisation (SMEs and MNEs)
• Emotions, social capital, informal networks in the context of internationalisation and/or mergers and acquisitions

Publications

Hurmerinta, L., Paavilainen-Mantymaki, E. and Hassett, M. E. (2016). TEMPUS FUGIT: A hermeneutic approach to the internationalization process. Management International Review, 56(6) 805-825.

Hassett, M., Vincze, Z., Urs, U. and Angwin, D. (2016), “Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions from India: Motives and Integration Strategies of Indian Acquirers”, in Marinova, S., Larimo, J. & Nummela, N., Value Creation in International Business, Palgrave Macmillan-SpringerDegbey, pp. 109-139.

Degbey, W. and Hassett, M.E. (2016), “Creating value in cross-border M&As through strategic networks”, in Heinz Tüselmann, Stephen Buzdugan, Qi Cao, David Freund and Sougand Golesorkhi, Impact of International Business: Challenges and Solutions for Policy and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, pp. 158–177.

Nummela, N. and Hassett, M. (2016), “Opening the black box of acquisition capabilities”, in Risberg, A., King, D. and Meglio, O., The Routledge Companion of Mergers and Acquisitions, Routledge Companion Series, Routledge: Oxon, pp. 74–91.

Lecturer in Marketing

Research interests

Following the achievement of an MBA degree (with Distinction) from the University of Leeds, Lien carried out her PhD research in consumer behaviour of East Asian luxury goods market. She has conducted peer review for a few marketing journals and conferences (for e.g. Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, AIB South East Asia conference, Academy of Marketing conference). Lien has a few papers in 3* journals and has presented at different international conferences in her research area.

Lien has supervised a number of PhDs to completion at the Management school. When she has capacity to take on more students, she welcomes those applicants who would like to research especially in the following areas: quantitative methods, East Asian culture, acculturation, sustainable consumption, luxury goods buyer behaviour, and consumer research in general.

I have a particular interest in researching nursing workforce issues and knowledge mobilisation. Current research includes longitudinal mixed methods cohort studies of advanced level nurse practitioners and trainee nursing associates. I am also involved in a systematic review of continuing professional development in nursing.

Methodologically my expertise lies in qualitative research (using observations, focus groups and interviews), and reviews.

I currently co-supervise two PhD students, exploring advanced nursing roles in surgery and stroke care settings, and welcome any prospective student interested in researching nursing workforce issues or aspects of knowledge mobilisation.

Anitha joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2024, having previously worked at the University of Lincoln, the University of Leeds and the University of Central Lancashire. 

Anitha’s research focuses on two areas across the disciplines of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology: (i)  the problem of violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the intersection of gender, race, border and migration in diverse contexts including the UK, US and India; domestic violence and abuse, including particular manifestations such as dowry-related abuse, forced marriage, transnational forms of violence such as abandonment of wives and domestic servitude; sexual violence including everyday forms of sexual harassment in online and offline spaces; gender-based violence in university communities; and (ii) the intersection of gender, race and ethnicity in employment relations; agency, solidarity and industrial action by migrant workers;  and trade union representation of migrant workers.  Anitha’s research draws upon qualitative research methods, including life history methods.

Anitha has been the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on a range of research projects and received funding from the The Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation and the British Academy. 

Anitha served as Associate Editor of Women’s Studies International Forum (2022-23) and is a member of the Editorial Board of British Journal of Criminology and Women’s Studies International Forum.

Anitha was a member of the REF2021 Sociology sub-panel. 

She is a member of the ESRC peer review college.

Anitha’s research spans the following areas:

• Violence against women and girls at the intersection of gender, race, border and migration
• Domestic violence
• Sexual violence
• Gender-based violence in university communities
• Intersection of gender, race and ethnicity in employment relations
• Trade union representation of migrant workers
• Industrial action
• Forced labour and domestic servitude
• South Asian diaspora
• Qualitative and narrative methods
• Feminist and participatory research methodologies

Broad area of research interest:

• Mental health
• Online learning
• Technology (inernet, social media) 

Methods I am able to supervise:

• Qualitative
• Mixed Methods
• Systematic review 

Specific areas of interest:

My main research interest is in the role of emotions in online learning, and more generally the impact of the internet on well-being. I have been involved in developing and evaluating e-learning Psychotherapy training resources across Europe. Since my doctoral research, I have become interested in the potential of learning analytics and the use of data on well-being to enhance and personalize students' learning, and the application of the same principles in analysing therapeutic interactions. I am developing an interest in narrative therapy and use of virtual reality.

My current research interests are:

• Social stratification and inequality
• Labour markets
• Education
• Family and gender
• Migration
• Electoral behaviour
• Advanced multivariate methods (such as panel regression, event history analysis, multilevel analysis, multiple imputation)

I would be very keen to supervise PhD students with an interest in these substantive topics and with an interest in quantitative research methods.

My current research is focused around the Social Accountability of Medical Schools, the impact on medical students and community organisations working in partnership with the university. This involves supporting students to become more aware of health inequity and social determinants of health and the broader implications for society.

My background is in academic psychology and counselling and I have a longstanding interest in the psychosocial impact of illness, in particular in relation to cancer survivorship and the management of children with long term conditions

Research Interests

• Methods for measuring uncertainty in economic evaluations
• Methods for developing preference-based measures from existing QOL measures
• Economic evaluations alongside clinical trials
• Censored costs
• Mapping

My research interests are in palliative and end of life care, in particular the role of the family caregiver, palliative care in hospitals, care of older people at the end of life, and health economic approaches to palliative care. My methodological expertise lies mainly in qualitative, mixed methods research and evidence synthesis

Beth joined the Sheffield Methods Institute as a Lecturer in Quantitative Methods in September 2019. Before this, she was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Investigation, Nuffield College, Oxford. She completed her PhD in Social Statistics at the University of Manchester in 2015, exploring the role of income on mental health in 3-12 year-old British children and their parents. Her research focusses on mental health in adults and children, poverty, food poverty, and homelessness.

She is a strong believer in engaging with non-academic audiences, and to this end has spoken about food insecurity on TV and radio. Her research on UK food insecurity has received widespread press coverage, been cited in government debates and was also made into an impact film.

Beth's personal blog can be found here.

Tessa is a Senior Lecturer in Health Economics within the Division of Population Health. She has a background in economics and is a mixed-methods researcher, with significant expertise in quantitative and qualitative research.

Research Interests

• Measuring and valuing health, wellbeing and quality of life
• The development, evaluation, and modification of patient reported
• outcome measures and preference-accompanied measures
• Measuring and valuing child health and carer health and wellbeing
• Valuation of very poor health states which may be considered worse
• than being dead
• Normative and ethical issues in the valuation of health states
• The use of health values or utilities within economic evaluation
• Use of wellbeing measures in health and social care

Tessa is available to supervise students in these and related areas.

Georg works mainly on logical and algebraic methods in computer science, formalised mathematics with interactive theorem provers and program verification and correctness. His interests range from foundational work on the axiomatisation and semantics of sequential and concurrent computing systems to applications in the design and implementation of program verification software.

Broad Research Interests:

My research interests are health-related quality of life and patient outcome measures. In 2006 I was awarded a fellowship (Researcher Development Award) through the National Co-ordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development, NCCRCD). My PhD involved designing a paediatric disease-specific health related quality of life measure for amblyopia. The Child Amblyopia Treatment Questionnaire (CAT-QoL) is a short questionnaire that was designed for children aged 4-7 years to measure the impact of amblyopia treatment from the child’s perspective.

Research Methods I can Supervise:

• Instrument Development
• Mixed Methods
• Specific Areas of Interest:
• Paediatric
• Quality of Life

Kitty has been teaching Sheffield Methods Institute (SMI) modules since the Institute first launched, but joined the SMI full-time in 2021, having previously been based in the Department of Sociological Studies where she completed her PhD. Before this Kitty completed her Masters degree in Sociology and Social Research Methods at The University of Newcastle and her undergraduate degree at The University of Leicester.

In 2018 Kitty completed her PhD entitled ‘Banter, masculinities and Rugby Union: exploring the relationship between masculinity and humour in men’s lived realities of gender.’ Drawing on data from a three-year ethnographic study of a Northern Rugby club, the thesis was concerned with how men experience and negotiate the gendered structures which underpin sporting sites. She has since been developing and extending these ideas into papers.

Research Interests

• Police and Policing (in particular criminal investigation, vulnerability and police training/education)
• Police Reform (in particularly, the civilianisation and privatisation of ‘core’ provision and services)
• Vulnerabilities Crime
• Police Custody
• Police Legitimacy
• Private Security
• Criminological Theory
• Mixed Methods Research

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research Cluster
College of Policing – Policing Education Qualifications Framework network

Research Interests:

Research topics in the field of developing and implementing evidence-based public health including: health inequalities, access to health care, physical activity interventions, type 2 diabetes and diabetes prevention.

Methods:

Research methods include mixed methods evaluations of public health and complex interventions and evidence synthesis/ systematic reviews of public health and complex interventions.

Philip (Phil) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (SCHARR). He has a background in Psychology, Economics, and Health Outcomes research and is a mixed-methods researcher, with combined expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and experimental research methods.

Phil’s research interests include:

• Measuring and valuing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) across different health conditions.
• Measuring and valuing HRQoL in children and in rare diseases.
• Developing, evaluating, and modifying patient reported outcome measures (PROMs).
• Methodological (including normative and ethical) issues in the valuation of health states.

He is available to supervise students in these and related areas.

My research focuses on how digital media and related technologies intervene within everyday life, encompassing visual, temporal, cultural, and political perspectives. Much of my work examines how the everyday cultural practices of digital media users intersect with political themes and issues, such as how digital content, and especially visual forms, are used to make sense of politics. I am also interested in the aims and roles of digital platforms themselves in making and shaping these interventions, and how these relate to the cultures and practices of their users.

I am interested in supervising PhD students investigating topics including:

• Visual social media

• Everyday digital cultures

• Digital media politics

• Time and digital media

• Digital methods

Research Interests:

• Access to and provision of equitable services for individuals from marginalised groups
• Learning disabilities
• Health behaviour particularly weight management
• Qualitative methods
• Narrative research
• Cross lanaguage qualitative research
• Realist synthesis
• Complex intervention development and evaluation
• Social Care Research

My research interests lie in the area of mathematical control theory. I study infinite-dimensional systems governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) and delay differential equations. My goal is to develop mathematical tools for designing controllers that guarantee the desired system behaviour in the presence of input/output delays, external disturbances, measurement noise, parameter uncertainties, and other phenomena occurring in practice.

Research Interests 

• Control and stability of partial differential equations (PDEs)
• PDE-based analysis of multi-agent systems (robot swarms)
• Analysis and control of traffic flows
• Time delays and networked control systems
• Adaptive control

Research Interests

I am interested in research evaluation methods and bibliometrics, including with artificial intelligence approaches.

Bibliometrics involves primarily quantitative analysis of academic publications, including factors like citation rates, the role of collaboration, gender differences, and the relationship between citations and research quality. It also includes altmetrics, in the form of alternative quantitative indicators of research impact. The AI component involves using traditional machine learning or Large Language Models to predict research quality or to perform other tasks within the research assessment ecosystem.

Research supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD projects in the following areas:

• Artificial intelligence and particularly Large Language Models in research assessment.
• Bibliometrics and research evaluation, whether methods development, broad applications, or the assessment of the influences of factors like gender and collaboration.
• The accuracy and limitations of various types of scholarly peer review in research assessment.
• Equality and diversity in research assessment.
• Qualitative-quantitative methods to analyse social media data for social research goals, such as testing theory or investigating online or offline phenomena.
• Artificial intelligence methods for social media analysis.

My main area of research is UK administrative law. Within this, I am particularly interested in work that expands the understanding of features of judicial review litigation that are understudied, including costs and funding, and procedural issues such as time limits, as well as the intersections of administrative law with fields such as planning and the environment. I also have interests in the use of strategic litigation and legal mobilisation by civil society and community groups. Methodologically, I am a proponent of empirical approaches to studying public law, and my PhD research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. As part of a wider interest in administrative justice, I have also been involved in the Administrative Fairness Lab, based principally at the University of York, working on the Nuffield Foundation-funded project, ‘Administrative fairness in the digital welfare state’. My teaching is focused on public law, meaning I am able to incorporate my research interests into teaching.

Kevin's research covers a range of topics related to fuel combustion, fuel degradation and deposit formation, pollutant chemistry, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and process modelling in carbon capture and storage systems.

In the area of combustion, degradation, and pollutant chemistry, the approach is a combination of experimental and theoretical investigation; for example the elucidation of a simple laminar flame structure by a combination of conventional species sampling techniques allied to laser diagnostic probing of the flame structure using the technique of planar laser induced fluorescence. This provides data that allows for the validation of detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanisms. These mechanisms are constructed by a variety of means ranging from experimental measurements of individual reaction rates, crude estimation by analogy, group additivity based methods, detailed theoretical calculation using quantum chemistry methods, and the application of master equation models to calculated potential energy surfaces. Insight is further gained by the application of sensitivity analysis methods to both allow the simplification of detailed mechanisms, and to highlight those regions of particular importance for the phenomena of interest.

In the area of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, the focus is on the CFD modelling and the experimental testing of small scale devices, and the systematic investigation of their performance as a function of operating conditions and the properties of the individual fuel cell components such as electrical conductivity and gas permeability. This is complemented by an experimental and theoretical investigation of novel catalysts, using quantum chemistry methods to predict behaviour, along with catalyst synthesis, physical and electrochemical characterization, and finally testing in real fuel cell systems.

Carbon capture and storage related research is focused on novel operating procedures related to gas turbines linked to solvent capture plants, with the aim of optimizing the overall system performance, and understanding the chemistry of solvent degradation and emissions.

Dynamic optimization is integral to many aspects of science and engineering, commonly found in trajectory optimization, optimal control, state estimation, system identification and design synthesis problems. A key characteristic of dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) is that the decision variables can be functions or trajectories, leading to infinite-dimensional optimization problems that are often more challenging to solve.

 

My current focus is on the development of a type of direct transcription method named the integrated residual methods. This is an excellent starting point to develop new DOP solution methods and next-generation software toolboxes. The advancements would allow DOPs to be formulated intuitively based on the problems' mission specifications and successfully solved thereafter, making the method easily accessible for scientists and engineers.

Optimization-based control explores the use of optimization algorithms for feedback control of dynamical systems. For example, model predictive control (MPC) is a widely used optimization-based control method, allowing systematic and optimal handling of constraints, nonlinearities and uncertainties.

 

The area I am particularly interested in is the design of optimization-based control with the optimization problem formulated directly based on the original problem specifications. Although such problems are typically more difficult to solve numerically, the difficulties are often offset by the availability of guarantees in solution properties, so that any local optimum solution (to a certain extent, even any feasible solution) can be considered suitable for real-world implementation.

I have a strong interest in the control and simulation of aerospace systems, particularly when unconventional and counterintuitive solutions are needed. My current focuses are on:

Lecturer in Work Psychology

Research Interests

I have two established streams of research. Both streams aim to further our knowledge of socially responsible and sustainable practices. One focuses on individual level practices and the other focuses on organisations and industry.

At the individual level, I focus my research on building our understanding of how individuals’ roles and experiences outside of work influence their work lives, and vice versa. To do this I examine the impacts of leisure activities, idiosyncratic deals (‘i-deals’) and interpersonal emotion regulation on employees work and non-work lives. My research contributes to the literature on work-life enrichment by providing a more nuanced understanding of the roles individuals fulfil, beyond the traditional focus on family. It sheds light on broader mechanisms that facilitate individual success and productivity in the workplace. I do this through intensive longitudinal quantitative methods- often referred to as diary studies.

At the organisational and industry level, my research deals with how businesses and public bodies can positively impact wider society.

I have worked on multidisciplinary projects such as:

• Comparative Police Studies in the EU (COMPOSITE), a European project examining policing processes across countries.
• Mainstreaming Assisted Living Technology (MALT), a TSB funded project aiming to facilitate the large scale introduction of telehealth technology.
• Active Workforce Initiative (AWI), a BOHRF funded project examining the impact of positive psychology interventions on the well-being of police and health workers.
• Business Driven Social Change, an NBS funded review of literature on the techniques and outcomes of business driven social change.

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students who would like to examine issues to do with the interface between work and other life domains - this can include work-life balance, enrichment and conflict pertaining to family and leisure domains as well as the impact of supportive supervisor behaviours on work-life balance.

Jonathan joined the University of Sheffield as a Lecturer in January 2023. He is the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Jonathan's research interests are primarily in immigration law, and his research and writing are informed by the methodologies of human rights law and administrative law.

Research interests

• Immigration Law
• Foreign National Offenders
• Human Rights Law
• The Best Interests of the Child
• The Best Interests of the Child principle in data protection law

Testing

Professor Rob Hierons’ research largely concerns software testing. The main aim of this research is to devise automated techniques (and tools) that generate efficient, systematic test suites on the basis of program code, models or specifications. Progress in this area can help industry to produce higher quality software and potentially to do so more quickly. He has recently become interested in the testing of autonomous systems, with a particular focus on robotics.

PhD Supervison

Professor Hierons is particularly interested in hearing from research students interested in the following areas:

• Testing from formal specifications
• Search-based testing
• Automated test generation

My research is focused on the intersection between first language acquisition and generative syntactic theory. I use a variety of corpus and behavioral measures to experimentally analyze children’s acquisition of complex syntactic phenomena.

Recently, I have been interested in understanding the acquisition of a range of A-movement phenomena related to voice, including subject-to-subject raising, passives, and middles. I am working to link patterns in acquisition to systematic cross-linguistic differences in the representation of these structures.

Other current or recent topics of interest include the Null-Subject stage in first and second language acquisition, word-level prosody in Samoan, and the syntax-prosody interface in language development.

Natural Language Processing 

Dr Mark Stevenson’s research focuses on Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval. He has worked on a range of topics in these areas including word sense disambiguation, Information Extraction, plagiarism/reuse detection, author identification, cross-lingual information retrieval and exploratory search. His research includes applications of these technologies to a range of areas including analysis of medical documents (study identification and evidence synthesis for systematic reviews; data mining information from corpora) and exploratory search (automatic organisation of large collections of documents, interpretability of topic models).

PhD Supervision

Dr Stevenson is particularly interested in hearing from research students interested in the following areas:

• Interpretation of scientific literature, particularly in the health domain
• Development of tools and techniques to support evidence synthesis (e.g. identification and analysis of research evidence)
• Supporting access to large collections of information

Research Interests

• Statistical methods for clinical trials and observational studies
• Statistical methods for healthcare performance monitoring
• Development and validation of clinical prediction models
• Analysis of routinely collected data
• Diagnostic accuracy studies

Research Interests:

• Young people's health and substance use practices
• Health inequalities for children and young people
• Accessing marginalised groups 

Methods:

• All qualitative methods 

Research interests

• Development of new methods and technology for the growth, processing and characterisation of III-V photonic devices and nanostructures.

Research interests

I have two main areas of research interest. The first is the ethical, legal and social issues associated with emerging medical technologies and the second focuses on the commercialisation of biotechnology and expectation dynamics in medical innovation. My research has previously examined the development of gene therapy, genomics, pharmacogenetics, stem cells and regenerative medicine. I have advised the European Parliament, the Conseil d'Analyse Economique (part of the French Prime Minister's Office), the UK Department of Trade and Industry and the Wellcome Trust. I am a member of the Editorial advisory Boards of Sociology of Health and Illness and New Genetics and Society.

As regards my research interests in synthetic biology, I am currently a member of a BBSRC working group on synthetic biology, a co-investigator in a recently established multidisciplinary chell network and have co-authored a major review of the social and ethical issues raised by synthetic biology which was published in June 2008.

As regards my research interests in neuroscience, I am leader of a strand of research on neurosociety as part of the £1.6m Leverhulme Trust Programme Grant 'Making Science Public'.

Research Interests:

Broad research in the areas of signal processing, Bayesian methods, Monte Carlo methods, nonlinear estimation, target tracking, sensor data fusion, control, autonomous and complex systems (e.g. image and video processing, transportation systems, large scale systems) – both at theoretical and applied level.

Lauren joined the Sheffield Methods Institute in January 2023 as a Lecturer in Social Research Methods, having previously worked as a researcher in iHuman and the School of Education at the University of Sheffield.

Lauren is a sociologist interested in health, disability, everyday life, materialities and mobilities. Her research is often interdisciplinary in nature and spans sociology, geography, urban studies, and critical disability studies. She is particularly interested in creative and participatory qualitative research methods and doing meaningful public engagement.

Dr Balasubramanian is an academic clinical geneticist based in Sheffield. In genomic
medicine, Dr Balasubramanian has several studies focused on genotype-phenotype
correlation in newly identified genes including Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI). She has been a
Consultant in Clinical Genetics with a specialist bone genetics interest at Sheffield Children’s
Hospital since 2012 and provides genetics input to the national OI service. She has led
several projects focused on genetics of rare bone disorders and research projects focussed on
identifying novel genomic approaches to rare bone disorders and exploring newer targets for
therapy for these conditions.

She has established her own lab on zebrafish disease models for bone fragility and published
over 135 principal-author publications and textbooks including a recent molecular medicine
series. She has also edited and written several patient information leaflets on rare genetic
disorders for Unique (www.rarechromo.org) and Brittle Bone Society.
Meena is a leading researcher into several rare neurodevelopmental disorders (RNDD) genes
and runs natural history studies, including, HNRNPU and ASXL3. Meena’s group have
published the largest clinical cohorts for the following RNDD genes: HNRNPU, ASXL3,
SIN3A, IQSEC2, YWHAG, ZMYND11 and written the expert literature reviews (Genereview/
Orphanet/ NORD guides) for ASXL3, HNRNPU & SIN3A.

Her other roles include Clinical Director of Research at Sheffield Children’s Hospital;
Secretary for Clinical Genetics Society and she serves on the ‘Medical Advisory Board’ for
Brittle Bone Society, HNRNP Family Foundation and Chair of the ‘Early Phase Safety
Review Committee’ for delivery of first in human gene therapies at Sheffield Children’s
Hospital.

Research Interests

I specialise in research on the third sector such as charities and community groups. I also research wellbeing interventions including social prescribing. I am interested in services which link different sectors together such as housing associations working in hospital inpatient units. I also have experience in implementation and knowledge mobilisation for example, implementing Patient Reported Outcome Measures. 

Methods

I am a mixed methods researcher with experience of booth quantitative and qualitative methods. I also undertake participatory and action research. I am passionate about stakeholder involvement especially patients/ service-users. 

• Policing (in particular the occupational culture of the police, criminal investigation and covert policing practices)
• Illegal drug markets and drug control policy
• The informal economy
• Qualitative research methods

Research Interests

My research interests are clinical trials in emergency medicine, economic analysis, the organisation of emergency care and methods for evaluating the quality of emergency care.

My group uses bio-robotic methods to investigate how animals solve complex problems such as navigation before abstracting lessons learned to solve engineering goals. 

To reveal how animals function we utilise methods from computational neuroscience, behavioural ecology, graphics, information theory, computer vision, machine learning, and robotics disciplines. 

We then use more standard robotic and engineering methods to apply lessons to specific problem areas including robot controllers, novel sensing, and new methods of AI and machine learning inspired by natural intelligence.  We celebrate this truly multidisciplinary approach which we find both stimulating and challenging. 

Therefore we welcome exceptional candidates from across fields but those with strong backgrounds in mathematical, physical sciences and engineering disciplines (including computer science and computational neuroscience) are particularly well suited to research in my group.  

Permala's research interests are

• Domestic violence and abuse in marginalised and minoritised communities
• Family practices and everyday family life 
• Intersectional inequalities in children and families social work  
• Restorative practice 
• Qualitative research methods with families 

Research Interests

• Pharmacy
• Non-medical prescribing
• Addiction
• Empirical and normative ethics in healthcare 
• Medicine supply (prescribed and over the counter) and misuse/abuse (over the counter, illicit)
• Medical sociology
• Public Health

Methods

• Qualitative (interviews, observation, ethnography, content analysis, narrative)
• Mixed methods (questionnaires, secondary data analysis)

My research interests focus on understanding the structure of the urban housing market and specifically exploring the relative merits of different approaches to capturing neighbourhood segmentation within house price models by using quantitative methods. My research adopts a variety of econometric methods to the analysis of property markets by investigating the effectiveness of different modelling techniques at capturing housing market segmentation. I am also interested in the structure and operation of real estate markets particularly from investor's and developer's perspective. 

Broad area of research interest: 

• Health inequalities
• Gender
• Race/ethnicity
• Poverty
• Reproductive health
• Work and health
• South Asia

Research methods I am able to supervise:

• Qualitative
• Quantitative or mixed methods
• Participatory and inclusive research approaches

Specific areas of interest:

• UK South Asian populations
• Intersecting inequalities
• Complex interventions
• Knowledge translation

My research of lighting has two main themes – human factors and research methods.

Lighting and human factors: The main question is how do variations in lighting conditions (the amount, colour, and spatial distribution) affect perception of the environment and task performance, and non-image-forming effects such as alertness? Currently, I focus mainly on lighting for pedestrians and cyclists.

Research methods: In the Lighting Research Group we aim to make sure our results are robust. In subjective evaluations, for example, we study how the question and the experimental design influence the responses gained in an experiment. Was Poulton correct that all subjective quantitative judgements are erroneous or misleading?

I have supervised 20 PhD students to completion and set up LumeNet, the annual research methods symposium for PhD students of lighting. I am the Editor-in-Chief of Lighting Research and Technology.

Primarily I am a qualitative researcher with an interest in narrative but I have experience of managing mixed methods projects too. I am interested in all things that concern equality and social justice in relation to my practice discipline of social work and social care, but my main research interests and research lie in the following areas:

• interpersonal and gender-based violence (including intimate partner violence, elder abuse, domestic homicide, child abuse, and other forms of family violence);
• gender, trans and gender diversity;
• hidden voices and marginalised communities;
• narrative methods.

I am also interested in, and would welcome applications, concerning:

• Identity and belonging;
• A sociology of family, family practices and identity;
• Hate crime;
• Stalking and harassment;
• Digital methods, abuse, stalking and harassment;

Research Interests

My research interests are related to better understanding bone mechanics and remodelling with imaging, experimental and computational methods.

In particular the main goal of my research is to develop and validate computational models for the prediction of bone strength and risk of fracture in healthy and disease, applied to both preclinical and clinical studies.

Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Research interests

• Facility Location Problems: models, methods, applications
• Applications of Spatial Interaction theory
• Multi-Criteria Decision Making problems
• Decision Support Models for Logistics Problems
• Green logistics and low carbon innovation for Supply Chains

Professor Derek Ingham is an applied mathematician who has worked on a wide variety of engineering and industrial mathematical problems in collaboration with numerous engineering scientists and with several industries and acted as an Expert Witness. He has published research papers with members of staff in all the engineering and environment departments, and several science and medical departments. At present he supervises 15 PhD students and has successfully supervised over 100 PhD students. Further he is on the editorial board of 12 international journals, has written 16 research books, over 900 research papers in referred journals and over 40 confidential industrial reports. He has received funding from over 70 different organizations.

In particular, he has research interests in energy:  wind energy, fuel cells; heat and fluid flows: flows in porous media, ill-proposed problems, cementing of oil castings, proppant transport in  fractures, Stirling Engines, heating of oils and in ship holds. Carbon capture and storage. Environment: ventilation, fume cupboards, sampling, aerosols, filtration, gravity currents, atomisers, blowing snow. Computational Fluid Dynamics: Finite volume methods, finite element methods, Lattice Boltzman methods, boundary element methods. Turbulence. Boundary layer theory.

The measurement of sulphur dioxide, using ultra violet cameras, and modelling via computational fluid dynamics and laboratory analogues of a variety of degassing modes from basaltic magmas, including: passive, strombolian, and lava fountaining.

Low-cost alternatives to previously expensive methods

• Miniaturised multiband electromagnetic metamaterial characterisation and design.
• Regression methods for electromagnetic periodic structures 
• Active mmWave programmable metamaterials. 
• Printed antennas and metasurfaces. 
• Reconfigurable miniaturised antennas. 
• mmWave Phased array antennas and beamforming systems.

My research revolves around symmetries in topology, geometry, and algebra. I use homotopy theory and homological algebra, representation theory and K-theory to understand groups and their generalisations, but these methods have applications far beyond the study of symmetry. My current research also applies these ideas to number theory and algebraic geometry.

Chair in Accounting and Society

Adam's current research interests include:

• using social network analysis methods to map the social relationships that underlie certain complex securities markets
• developing a relational theory of the firm to understand the impact of financialization in the corporate sphere
• exploring the inter-temporal transfers and tensions that arise as a consequence of financialization
• theorising the relations between accounting and the built environment.

Research interests

Dr Barthorpe's research covers a range of problems in the field of structural dynamics and beyond, with an underlying theme being the integration of numerical modelling and experimental data. Structural health monitoring is one of his major research themes. The broad aim of an SHM system is to be able to identify, at an early stage, occurrences of damage that may ultimately lead to the failure of the component or system being monitored.

Established approaches to this task typically fall into one of two categories: they are either based entirely on experimental data, or make use of a numerical model that is periodically updated as new data becomes available. Both of these approaches have distinct drawbacks: for the former, lack of appropriate experimental data is the major issue; for the latter, model-form uncertainty is among the challenges faced.

Part of Rob's work is in investigating ways to circumvent the lack of data problem through novel experimental and data-modelling techniques. A larger part is in developing new methods for integrating experimental and numerical methods, such that uncertainty in both the experimental measurements and the numerical model may be accounted for.

These methods are being developed for application to aerospace structures, wind turbines and civil infrastructure. However, the domain of applicability is much broader as the issues of handling uncertainty, solving inverse problems and overcoming test-model discrepancy are pervasive in many branches of science and engineering. Applications being investigated include the energy performance of buildings and the modelling of human bones.

Global Communication and Computational Methods in Journalism

Dani's research focuses on global political communication and international media flows, with a focus on the Global South. He has published on the impact of global Chinese media on local journalistic cultures in English and French speaking Africa. He has also studied the multiple ways audiences in East and Southern Africa engage with news and entertainment on Chinese media.

In recent years, he has also been interested in the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. He is currently examining how media users engage with disinformation online, and how foreign disinformation influences public opinion.

In his research, Dani employs a wide range of methods and welcomes students with a keen interest in mixed methods, including computational approaches to the study of media texts.

PhD Supervision

Dani is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

• China-Africa media relations
• Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Global public opinion
• Audiences and global media flows
• Computational approaches to the study news

Indeewara’s research interests include model fitting, estimation, inference and forecasting in non-linear time series models, with special emphasis on statistical analysis of financial data. The concepts and tools used for weak convergence of stochastic processes in metric spaces, bootstrap methods, and goodness-of-fit tests play important roles in most of his research.

He has produced several papers in leading journals in the areas of econometric theory, mathematical statistics, and time series analysis. Four of his papers have been published in journals ranked A* by the 2013 Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Quality List.

Indeewara is interested in supervising PhD students working in Econometrics (Theoretical or Applied) and Statistics. Specifically, he is interested in the following areas:

• Developing new methods for model fitting, estimation, inference and forecasting in non-linear Econometric/Time-Series models, including ARCH/GARCH type models, Multiplicative Error models, and Panel Data models.

• Bootstrap and resampling methods in Econometrics and Statistics; in particular, he is interested on nonstandard and massive data set ups.

I am an academic GP.  My special interests are neurology, epilepsy and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.  Major themes in my research are improving emergency care for people after a seizure and the use of free-association narrative interviews to give new insights into psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. All of my research is about health-service quality improvement, my personal methodological expertise is in quantitative methods but I work in multi-disciplinary research teams using mixed methods to develop and test complex interventions. 

I am very happy to receive informal enquiries.  Feel free to get in touch by email.  

My web profile is avaiable via this link:

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/research/aupmc/staff/academicprofiles/jmdickson

I am a sociologist with interdisciplinary research interests in youth, lifecourse, generation, inequalities and creative qualitative methods. My research has investigated how wider changes in society have affected the health, wellbeing, identities and consumption practices of various groups, including women and young people. My current research explores:

• How austerity policies, the cost of living crisis, and wider socio-economic changes have affected the health, wellbeing and life courses of different groups, including young people and those living on low incomes;
• How to democratise and re-purpose social research methods and methodological expertise to support the creation of social infrastructure in community settings;
• Youth transitions;
• Young people's civic and political agency

Siobhan’s current research interests span behavioural social science; the study of religion, culture and values in social and political life; and digital policy. Prior to joining Sheffield Methods Institute, Siobhan was QStep Director and Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Social Science at the University of Bristol.

Siobhan currently leads a research project into vaccine confidence and attitudes to public health policy, and is also involved in funded projects on cultural sector employment and cultural data innovation. Her methodological interests lie in generation of new historical datasets, linkage of born-digital and survey data, and network analysis. Siobhan is also Programme Director of the BA and BSc degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, leading core modules on concepts and research methods

A key focus of my research has been police detention, in England and Wales, but also in other parts of the Anglophone world. In this setting, I am interested in police powers and their relationship with the law, police cultures and police discretion, and furthermore, how this impacts on equality and on state-citizen relations. I am also interested in how the public – particularly detainees – perceive the police, which links my research to discussions about police legitimacy and to 'good' policing.

Research Interests

• The police custody process
• Police and policing
• The role of the law in policing
• Police legitimacy
• Multi-agency criminal justice partnerships
• Crime prevention and community safety
• Restorative justice in schools
• The relationship between drugs and crime
• Mixed-methods research

Areas of Research Supervision

• The police custody process
• Police and policing
• The role of the law in policing
• Police legitimacy
• Multi-agency criminal justice partnerships
• Crime prevention and community safety
• Mixed-methods research

Research interests

• Poverty and deprivation (measurement and impacts)
• Labour markets, skills and training
• Innovation systems and the learning economy
• The relationships between social, innovation and industrial policy
• Socio-economic indicators
• Advanced multivariate methods (such as Structural Equation Models, panel regression, neural networks)

I am an interdisciplinary scholar having worked in economics, management, innovation studies and sociology over the past two decades. My main interests at the moment are in labour processes and labour market disdvantage (which includes skills, learning, organisational effects on human capital development, and the contribution labour makes to innovation systems etc). I also have a strong interest in poverty research in general.

I broadly follow an economic sociological approach and use quantitative methods. I also try to apply my research to the real world in terms of policy development.

I am a mixed method researcher and equally use qualitative as well as quantitative methods. I explore gender based violence, especially intimate partner violence from the perspective of victims and perpetrators.  I am interested in exploring nursing research related topics,  inequalities in health care experiences and health outcomes and how the preparation and training of health professionals such as doctors, nurses and allied health professionals can contribute to tackling such inequalities. Any other topics related to nursing, nursing research  

Research interests:

My research interests are wide reaching and focus on the integration of different analytical methods. I work predominately in the Mediterranean but have worked all over the world, including Britain, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Turkey and Argentina.

• Geoarchaeology (landscape and on-site investigations)
• Italian and Mediterranean prehistory
• Landscape archaeology and field survey techniques
• Contemporary archaeology

Sustainable Oxide Processing Group 

My group and I are interested in developing new low-temperature synthesis routes to control particle size and shape in functional ceramic oxides. Current work includes Na- and Li-ion battery cathodes and anodes, thermoelectrics, dielectrics, oxide superconductors and materials for fusion energy generation. 

We also investigate novel low temperature sintering methods which allow us to create dense ceramics with controlled nanostructure, exploiting emergent structure-morphology relationships. 

Research interests

My main research interests are in the broad areas of research methodology, novel applications of social theory, and sport. More specifically, I am interested in the utility of social research and the impact of being researched; the ethics of social research; secondary research methods; methodological innovation; and, the sociology of lower league football. Currently, I am attempting to utilise novel sources of data in order to explore the sociology of evil. I am also interested in the sociology of deception, in all of its various disguises.

Research interests

Positioning myself as a critical geographer/planner, I am interested in using qualitative methods to explore contemporary issues related to housing, class, gentrification, urban regeneration and associated conflicts over the meaning and use of space.

Within the context of a broad ambition to develop an understanding of planning ‘from below’, I am keen to extend and develop the focus of gentrification research from displacement to matters of emplacement whilst further examining the politics and geography of ‘home’, attachment to place and the personal and social costs of displacement.

Senior Lecturer

Sam is a Senior Lecturer in Work Psychology at Sheffield University Management School. He is particularly interested in the Dark Side of workplace behaviour, including bullying, cyberbullying and incivility. Within this field, his interests include the measurement of bullying, perpetrators of bullying and methods of preventing and addressing bullying in organisational life. Prior to working at Sheffield, Sam worked as an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds Business School.

Research interests

My main research interests are within the area of information management, with specialist expertise in information governance and ethics. I have led and worked with colleagues from across a number of disciplines on externally funded projects in this area supported by the EPSRC, ESRC, AHRC, and Innovate UK. I predominantly use qualitative and mixed-methods.

PhD Supervision

Information governance and ethics; AI governance, accountability and ethics; trustworthy and responsible AI; information management.

Naomi Hawkins's research focuses on the interaction of law and biomedical science, particularly around intellectual property rights. She uses traditional legal research and empirical methods to investigate the impact of human gene patents on the development of translational outcomes of genetics and genomics research.

She is also interested in the ways in which data sharing practices intersect with intellectual property rights in science

My main research interests lie in microeconometrics, the analysis of micro level data on the economic behaviour of individuals. I am also interested in more general model and methods development to analyse individual level data showing nonstandard characteristics. Recent examples include analysis of health state utility data, health and life satisfaction, the economics of illicit behaviour, the dynamics of children developmental outcomes and applications to individuals’ decisions to participate in welfare programmes.

Research interests

Dr Kesserwani current research interests revolve around:

• Hybrid mesh-based/mesh-less numerical methods for solving conservations laws
• Integrated river flow modelling on mobile bed with sediment transport and vegetation
• Multi-layer coastal flow modelling with application to tsunamis
• Integrated hydrological and flood modelling at multiple scales
• High-performance computing and Multi-Agent-based systems

My background is in economics and health economics and I am interested in using quantitative and qualitative research methods  in measuring and valuing health and wellbeing to support economic evaluations in health and social care. This includes:

• Development and testing of preference-based health and wellbeing measures in different populations
• Mapping between condition-specific and generic preference-based measures of health
• Developing and testing measures of health for children and adolescents
• Use of wellbeing measures in health and social care

Research interests

My interests include the application of research to policy and practice, service evaluation, process and outcomes of psychotherapy in health service settings and psychotherapeutic competence.

Recent research includes an evaluation of the new model of psychological service delivery "Improving Access to Psychological Therapies" and an investigation into research-based methods of improving the quality and effectiveness of psychological services for people with long term depression.

Research interests

Pierre's research focuses on fluid mechanics and he has used experimental, numerical and theoretical techniques. He has been interested in turbulent drag reduction by moving surfaces (spanwise wall oscillations and traveling waves), and in boundary-layer transition to turbulence induced by free-stream perturbations. 

• Turbulent drag reduction
• Bypass transition to turbulence
• Klebanoff modes in laminar boundary layers
• Effect of free-stream disturbances on laminar boundary layers
• Receptivity of Tollmien-Schlichting waves
• Perturbation methods in applied mathematics

My research interests include the development and optimisation of MRI methods and technology for hyperpolarised media and lung imaging.

Ongoing projects include:
- Free-breathing cardio-pulmonary MRI in infants
- Pulse sequence development for multi-nuclear MRI
- Hyperpolarisation technology development for 129Xe gas by spin-exchange optical pumping, and 13C compounds by parahydrogen-induced polarisation
- Physiological models of gas exchange and diffusion in the lungs

Christina’s research is focused on young children’s experiences of, and access to, education
in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. More recently, Christina has worked
specifically with asylum seeking and refugee families with young children to understand
how voluntary and community organisations support them to access education.

Christina has a particular interest in participatory, visual methods with children and
methodologies that highlight children’s rights adopt the perspective that children are
competent social actors.

• Ageing
• Expertise
• Skill development
• Nonlinear modelling
• Bayesian models
• Electronic health records
• Natural language processing

My research interests are in the application and development of (mostly Bayesian) statistical methods to identify disease-causing DNA variants in population-based studies. I am interested in finding coherent ways of incorporating functional genomic information into priors to aid the detection of these causal variants. I have also recently become interested in developing statistical approaches to determine essential bacterial genes using transposon insertion data (next generation sequencing). One such approach uses modified Hidden-Markov models.

Tony's research interests are focused in areas of critical psychology and psychoanalytic concepts and theory. To date his research has focused on contributing to the concept of a critical educational psychology. Related areas of interest include group dynamics, conceptions of mental health and emotional wellbeing, case study research and the use of reflexive and interpretative research methods.

My research is fundamentally interdisciplinary, and has applications both in academic, public service and in industry. The topics and methods I am interested in include, but are not limited to: Information Retrieval, Human Computer Interaction, Data Visualisation, Urban Analytics, Digital Health, Machine Learning, Spatial Data Science, Representation Learning.

A detailed and updated list can be found here.

Christine’s research explores trends in political behaviour, political engagement, and conceptions of citizenship and democracy, in particular among young people. Her current research focuses on inequalities in political representation of young people and how experiences of inequality shape young people's political behaviour. Christine has accompanied and collected evidence on the outcomes of the lowering of the voting age to 16 in Scotland and Wales and is providing evidence-based advice to policymakers wanting to connect with young people around Europe, partially in her role as partner of independent and non-partisan think tank d|part. Her methodological interests include longitudinal qualitative and quantitative research designs, statistical modelling, and surveying difficult-to-reach groups. Prior to joining the Sheffield Methods Institute, Christine was Early Career Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University. She completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2020. She welcomes applications to study PhD research degrees, either full or part time in the following areas: political participation, citizenship, perceptions of political legitimacy, political inequality, lowering the voting age, children’s voting, longitudinal qualitative methods

Research interests

Core research develops from the advancement of methods of Characterization, Patterning and Irradiation of Materials on the Nanoscale (Nanometrology & Nanomanipulation). These methods are applied in collaboration with research groups spanning a wide range of research fields in optical, energy, catalytical and biomedical materials sectors. Particular materials examinations include oxide nanoparticles, nanoscale hydroxyapatite, metallic nanostructures with special plasmonic properties, porous alumina and related nanocomposites, piezo-actuation materials, metallic multi-layers, and multi-component oxide glasses, including those for radionuclide immobilisation.

Recent priority research topics include:

• Developments in Nano-Tomography for 3D reconstruction of nanoparticles, nanophases and for 3D chemical mapping of composites.
• Atomistic structure of nanoparticles, their surface structures and structural dynamics related to catalytic activity, as well as particle-coalescence, using quantitative high- resolution electron microscopy (HREM) and in-situ TEM.
• Study of structure and chemistry of glasses and ceramics, including radiation induced fluidity, local determination of coordination and oxidation states of cations, coordination of borate units, and precipitation in oxide glasses (e.g. alkali-borosilicates, zinc-borosilicate).
• Electron and ion beam interactions with materials, including irradiation for patterning of surfaces for nanotechnology applications. New method of porous-alumina-masked ion implantation into substrates for optical and magnetic nanodot patterning

First, Ozge studies media activism and participation, where she investigates political voice and mobilisation and intersectional approaches to urban and digital citizenship. Second, her research covers the interrelated areas of far-right digital publics, the visibility and spread of online conspiracy theories, and social media use during conflicts and crises. Ozge uses both qualitative (e.g., discourse-analysis-centred methods, in-depth interviews, and participant observation) and quantitative (e.g., sentiment and content analyses) methods in her research on digital media and society.

Ozge is an experienced supervisor for students at BSc and MSc levels. She has supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on digital cultures and social identities at Brunel University and Loughborough University, including Brexit memes, #MeToo culture, celebrity diplomacy and alternative online platforms in China. Ozge would be interested in supervising PhD students on online political cultures, DIY media activism, visual politics, online disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories, media and its relationship to radicalisation, and crisis communication.

My research is influenced by my historical involvement with Youth and Community Work and focuses on family, and the social constructions of what is perceived to be a 'normal' family within specific contexts.

More broadly, I am interested in the ways in which the gender, generation, ethnicity, race and migration status of family members impacts on their sense of 'belonging' to both their 'family' and the broader community.  I am also interested in the strategies employed by families, and individuals within families, to foster this sense of 'belonging' within a certain place. In addition to this, I have a long-standing interest in qualitative and ethnographic research methods and working with individuals and communities to understand the impact of broader narratives on everyday life.

I am interested in supervising research students who intend to focus on any of the following issues (in UK and/or other national/regional/international contexts):

• Family and the relationships between ‘family’ members.
• Community and ‘belonging’.
• Intersections of gender, generation, ethnicity, race and migration status.
• Multiculture and multiculturalism.
• Qualitative and ethnographic research methods.

Research Interests

Natural Language Processing

Professor Kalina Bontcheva leads the Natural Language Processing (NLP) research group. Her main research interests are in NLP methods for online abuse and disinformation analysis, social media mining and summarisation, and biomedical text analysis. Kalina has published over 150 peer reviewed papers on these topics. She regularly reviews papers for high profile conferences and journals in the field of AI and its applications.

PhD Supervision

Professor Bontcheva is particularly interested in hearing from research students interested in the following areas:

• Detection and analysis of online harm (disinformation, abuse etc)
• Social media Analytics
• NLP Infrastructures

My academic interests concern administrative law and market regulation. In my research, I focus on government buying and selling. I have published on various aspects of UK and international public procurement regulation, and I am currently researching the legal side of major government auctions. My research uses empirical methods, qualitative and quantitative, and, related to this, I have a growing interest in the research field of empirical industrial organisation.

Research interests

• Administrative law
• Regulation
• Public Procurement Regulation
• Government contracts
• Competition regulation
• Law and economics
• Empirical legal research
• Socio-legal studies

Available to supervise history topics

Kate’s research focuses on eighteenth-century British society and culture. She has a particular interest in humour and laughter in this period, and how they played a part in social practices and political processes, but this work has also drawn in wider themes relating to print culture, sociability, gender, race, and public politics. She also has an interest in approaches and methods associated with social network analysis in historical contexts.

She is happy to supervise students with interests in most aspects of eighteenth-century British culture and society.

I am interested in the neuropathology and pathophysiology of neurodegeneration, in particular motor neurone disease (MND), Parkinson’s disease and dementia. I use standard neuropathological techniques to characterize post mortem tissue kindly donated by individuals with these diseases and to highlight contrasts with tissue from people who were free from disease. These methods are used to study genes, proteins and molecular pathways of interest and the pathological effects of gene mutations known to neurodegeneration.

I study mouse, zebrafish and cellular models of disase and the comparison of these with human tissue based pathology

• Sustainable and just development futures in the global South (and North)

• Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D)

• Digital Geographies and digital participatory methods

• Ethics of ICT-related development interventions, inclusive innovation and data ethics

• The capabilities approach and sustainable development

• Sustainable/ethical consumption research, food geographies, trade justice and Fair Trade

Themes such as participation, gender, justice and choice run strongly through my work. I have conducted research in Latin America (Brazil; Chile), Europe (UK, Germany), South Asia (India) and Africa (Kenya; South Africa).

Research interests

Dr Leyland´s main research interests are plasma-based coatings & treatments for surface engineering and tribology, wear & corrosion of surfaces. Coatings and treatments studied include PVD ceramic, metallic and nanocomposite films and hybrid/duplex substrate pre-treatment by diffusion hardening, plasma electrolysis or interlayering (eg. by electroless plating), to improve coating durability. Practical applications for these processing methods range from tribological (friction and wear), through thermal barriers, to high temperature & aqueous corrosion-control – as well as biomedical, optical and other functional property requirements.

Robert is President-Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2024 -2026) and will be President in 2026 to 2028. He is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2017- 2022), was appointed OBE in 2022 for services to the Chemical Sciences and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2023.

His research interests are on the design, synthesis and characterisation of new forms of sustainable porous materials and the study of their structure-property relations. The research involves exploring fundamentally new synthesis methods that are simpler, cheaper, and more efficient and offer valorisation routes to materials with optimised properties for targeted sustainable energy applications.

Research Interests

My research is focused on investigating the excitability of primary sensory neurones. The cell bodies of these neurones make Dorsal and Trigeminal sensory ganglia, and are part of the peripheral nervous system (PNS).

These neurones convey sensory information from skin and internal organs (e.g. viscera, muscles and bones) to the central nervous system (CNS). Sensory neurones convey both innoxious and noxious stimuli. The latter is perceived in the CNA as pain.

My research interest lies in investigating the molecular changes in sensory neurones that underlie pathological pain. My lab uses a variety of methods based on molecular biology, cellular biology, imaging and functional imaging to identify targets for novel and effective analgesic drugs.

My primary research interest is strengthening the collection, collation, and use of HIV data to inform prevention and care programming in sub-Saharan Africa.

Working towards this broad objective, my key research areas are

• developing epidemiological methods to strengthen the collection and use of data collected through surveillance and service delivery platforms
• characterising the locations, populations and individuals at greatest risk of infectious disease
• designing and implementing frameworks to collect strategic health data
• constructing health indicators / minimum indicator-sets
• implementing continuous data quality improvement
• formative research into the health and wellbeing needs and priorities of communities

Research interests

Viscoelastic damping materials
• development, analysis and testing of polymers
• design and testing of syntactic foams and other multiphase systems

Surface damping treatments
• free and constrained layer systems using organic and ceramic materials
• methods of application

Friction-based systems
• design and analysis of particle dampers including the use of discrete element analysis
• granular polymeric materials as fillers
• metal mesh and other dry fibre systems

Active & Adaptive Structures
• active constrained layer damping
• adaptive particle dampers
• shape memory actuated systems

Design of damped components
• hollow turbomachinery blades
• numerical optimisation techniques including genetic algorithms and cellular automata
• composite structures

Fiona’s work is located in the field of digital literacies. Her research engages with sociomaterial theory to theorise very young children’s intra-actions with digital devices and texts. She is concerned with child and family practices in relation to the digital and, in particular, the role played by social class. Fiona is also interested in research methods and methodologies, including the tensions associated with researching children’s lives in more-than-human contexts. Fiona’s PhD thesis, produced in collaboration with CBeebies, examined preschool children’s engagements with television and related media at home.

Research interests

Smart fluids

• Modelling and design of smart fluid dampers
• Control and stability of smart fluid dampers
• Commercialisation of smart fluid dampers for consumer and industrial applications
• Research projects include the ADLAND project

Machining vibration:

• Methods for predicting and preventing chatter in high speed machining
• Active and passive vibration control during machining
• Research projects include the EPSRC research grants on chatter avoidance, and process damping

Uncertainty propagation:

• The role of uncertainty in structural dynamics problems
• Propagation techniques
• Application to smart materials and machining problems
• Application to modelling and design of energy harvesting systems
• Research funded by the EPSRC platform grant on Uncertainty Propagation in Structures, Systems and Processes

Machine Learning

As a Computational Scientist and Engineer with extensive cross disciplinary experience, Professor Eleni Vasilaki contributes to understanding brain learning principles. Together with her team she takes inspiration from these principles to design novel, machine learning techniques, and in particular reinforcement learning methods.  They develop data analytics frameworks for neuroscientists, and also work closely with engineers from other disciplines to design hardware that computes in a brain-like manner. 

PhD Supervision

Professor Vasilaki is particularly interested in hearing from research students interested in the following areas:

• Neural Networks (and Spirking Neural Networks in particular)
• Reservior Computing
• Reinforcement Learning
• Clustering
• Computational Neuroscience

My research, publications and teaching have focused on the relationship between work and care in contemporary societies, and on how people manage caring roles and responsibilities throughout the life course.

I specialise in research with the potential for policy and practical impact, and have expertise in making complex research findings accessible to a wide range of audiences, wide experience of research design and methods, and extensive knowledge of policy on care, carers and employment.

I currently supervise PhD students studying the work of carers’ organisations (Jenny Read) and the provision of home care in Shanghai (Wenjing Jin), and welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students wishing to study topics in my specialist field.

Research interests

Alternative Disposal Concepts: Deep Borehole Disposal
Geological disposal of HLW and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in very deep boreholes is a concept whose time has come. The alternative – disposal in a mined, engineered repository is beset with difficulties not least of which are the constraints placed upon the engineered barriers by the high thermal loading. 
The deep borehole concept offers a potentially safer, faster and more cost-effective solution. The deep borehole research group at Sheffield (Travis and Gibb) is at the forefront of international efforts to develop this concept. We are currently working with Sandia National Labs on a program leading to the drilling of pilot borehole in the USA. Our work includes: developing sealing and support matrices, rock welding and deployment mechanisms, and employs a combination of experiment and continuum modeling (Finite differences and Smooth Particle Applied Mechanics).

Behaviour of Materials under extreme conditions
Our main focus here is on wasteform performance. The detrimental effects of self-irradiation (mostly alpha decay) of immobilised radionuclides include: swelling, amorphisation and crack formation in ceramics and de-vitrification in glasses. We use computational methods (mainly molecular dynamics and topological modeling) and statistical mechanics to examine the consequences of alpha recoil damage and understand the recovery pathways in these materials. Recent research is aimed at understanding why some materials have a greater resistance to radiation-induced amorphisation. The use of Smooth Particle Applied Mechanics in understanding how materials fail under mechanical and thermal loading is another area of interest.

Simulation Methodology
Software Packages certainly have a role to play in the Materials Science and Engineering community, but new research often requires new methods of simulation that are not supported by off-the-shelf codes. Developing new simulation methods and codes is a key area of interest for this research group. 
Previous research in this area includes the development of configurational thermostats and barostats for molecular simulation and a method which allows an unambiguous determination of the role played by intramolecular flexibility on transport properties of liquids. Recent work in collaboration with Bill and Carol Hoover, has lead to a new algorithm for simulating Joule-Thomson expansion of gases.

Research Interests:

Our research focuses on the theoretical/computational study of chemical reactions. The systems studied vary from small fundamental gas-phase reactions via gas-surface reactions to reactions involving flexible molecules. The results of these calculations are used together with the results of sophisticated experiments to obtain insight into the fundamentals of the reactions involved and to get a fundamental understanding of reaction dynamics. Below are given some projects to illustrate the work.

Gas-surface scattering

We are currently working on the formation of H₂ on graphite. H₂ is the most abundant molecule in interstellar space and it plays an important role in the formation of stars and in interstellar chemistry through reactions with ions and radicals. Moreover, the energetics of the reaction directly influences the thermal balance of the interstellar medium. H₂ is generally supposed to be formed on interstellar dust grains for which the graphite is used as a template. Our calculations complement experiments done in the group of Prof. S. D. Price at UCL and astronomical modelling and observations done in the groups of Prof. D. A. Williams and Dr. J. Rawlings at UCL through the Centre for Cosmic Chemistry and Physics.

Gas-phase reactions

We have done extensive work on the H + O₂ combustion reaction in the past, in particular focusing on the role the total angular momentum in this reaction. This lead to the first-ever rigorous theoretical cross sections, which compared well with experimental data from the Wolfrum group at the University of Heidelberg. We are re-investigating this reaction in collaboration with Dr. M. Hankel of the University of Queensland.

We are also currently applying the methods developed to the photo-dissociation of molecules inside van der Waals complexes, such as Ar-H₂S and Ar-H₂O, where angular momentum effects allow the van der Waals molecule to survive when one of its constituent molecules, such as H₂S, is dissociated. We also have plans to apply the developed methods to the calculation of rates for reactions between radicals at low temperatures, which is important for our understanding of the interstellar medium and our understanding of extraterrestial planets and moons.

Reactions and Structure of conformationally flexible molecules

As molecules become larger, they generally become more flexible. As a consequence the potential energy surface becomes more complicated with many local minima, which may or may not be accessible at thermal energies. Each of these minima will be a distinct structure with e.g. a distinct IR spectrum. We are currently working on methods to allow us to generate many minima, which can then be screened for further investigation. This work ties into a number of collaborations we have, such as with Dr. Mathias Schäffer of the University of Cologne, who studies conformationally flexible molecules in the gas-phase using IRMPD spectroscopy as well as internal collaborations on the structure, reactivity, and properties of organic and organometallic compounds.

Algorithm development for Quantum Dynamics Calculations

Quantum Dynamics calculations are significantly harder than standard electronic structure calculations due e.g. the exponential scaling with respect to the basis set size. We are working on methods that will allow us to solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation more quickly. In particular, we develop efficient parallel methods to make calculations tractable.

Research interests

My research focuses on the meaning and role of race and racism and the significance of social identity in a range of contexts including the criminal justice system, legal profession and voluntary sector. In keeping with developments in these areas, it has a specific focus on critical whiteness and mixed race studies. I have a long standing interest in European Muslims and have completed research which examined the interplay of race, ethnicity, gender and generation in the lives of Muslim men.

I welcome applications to study for MPhil or PhD research degrees with me, either full or part-time, in any  of the following areas linked to my research interests:

• Social identity
• Race and racism
• Intersectionality of race, ethnicity, gender and generation
• European Muslims
• Multiculture and multiculturalism
• Qualitative and ethnographic research methods

My research interests range from politics, memory and violence, to spatial and urban anthropology. I have been working in Chile since 2008 and have recently started working in Bolivia. My research focus on indigenous lived experience and epistemologies, exploring the interplay between affectivity, narratives and spatial and political performances. I am currently exploring site-specific performance, art, and other visual methods, as practice-based and collaborative ethnographic methodologies.

My most recent projects collaboratively address indigenous migration and diaspora in urban contexts, centring on practices of place-making, political imaginations and visions, and issues of displacement and inequality, major challenges in contemporary urban contexts. Through close collaboration with indigenous artists and activists, these projects have resulted in multimodal and collaborative ethnography and active interventions into public debate. The outcomes of my MSCA research comprise an art exhibition and a theatre piece, and a collaboratively written book.

Her research interests centre around reducing the whole life carbon of the built environment, exploring the effectiveness of different methods to achieve this, across multiple scales - predominately buildings and cities. She has a particular interest in the use of materials to reduce whole life carbon.

The building level approach explores design strategies to reduce whole life and embodied carbon, this includes areas such as design for deconstruction and material reuse, design for adaptability, use of low carbon materials and material efficiency.

At the city scale, an urban metabolism approach is taken, exploring the material metabolism of cities, seeking to answer the question, what are our cities made of? A greater understanding of city stocks enables strategic planning decisions and retrofit and can highlight future reuse potential thus faciliating greater material salvage.

Available to supervise archaeology topics

My research interests are very varied and diverse. For instance I have worked on lithics in Swaziland, conducted surveying work with the University of Cardiff at the Sacred Animal Necropolis in Saqqara and excavated at Amarna in Egypt.

My main research is however, on the study and scientific analysis of archaeological materials, specialising in glass and other vitreous materials such as faience. The primary focus of this work is in Bronze Age Egypt and the Aegean mainly from production sites and on Roman glasses from consumption contexts. I use scientific methods to analyse archaeological glass and experimental archaeology to elucidate patterns relating to provenance, trade and consumption in the ancient and historic world.

• Material culture in the Roman and Ancient Egyptian worlds.
• The technology of glasses
• The analysis of glasses to explore production and consumption patterns
• Experimental archaeology
• Craft production in Egypt
• Provenance studies

Research Interests

I have a long-standing interest in the autoimmune responses and genetic aspects of the depigmenting disease vitiligo, and work on projects to profile autoantibody responses against melanocytes in vitiligo as well as in melanoma. I am also interested in characterising autoimmune responses against the calcium-sensing receptor in patients with parathyroid autoimmunity. I have an interest in the aetiology of autoimmune thyroid disorders and have characterised autoantigens, autoantibodies, cytokine gene expression, and genetic susceptibility factors in these diseases. I have international collaborations with respect to all these research areas. A further interest is the use of siRNA and anti-sense oligonucleotides for the treatment of Cushing’s disease.

Research Methods

Molecular biology; immunoassays; cell culture; phage-display

Lecturer in Management Accounting

Juliana’s research interests range from management accounting to inter-disciplinary accounting.

PhD supervision:

Juliana would be interested in supervising students with projects on:

• supply chain and accounting,
• managing reverse logistics, retails returns, and circular economy
• performance measurement and balanced scorecard
• strategic management accounting, including beyond budgeting
• accounting and human resource management, including HR monitoring in the supply chain and cost-benefit analysis of adaptations for people with disabilities at work

She is interested in all three aspects of sustainability: people, profits and planet. Juliana has also an interest in extending her research to include environmental accounting, closing the sustainability loop. Her research is based on mixed methods, utilising mainly case studies and surveys as methodological approaches.

Behzad has research interest and expertise in:

(a) Sustainable (low carbon) concrete materials, such as geopolymer concrete;

(b) High-performance fibre-reinforced cementitious composites, such as strain-hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) and ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC); and

(c) State-of-the-art digital fabrication with concrete technologies, such as 3D concrete printing.

Combination of expertise and high-quality research in (a), (b), and (c) has enabled Behzad to develop new generation of concrete materials and innovative construction methods, which:

(i) leads to simultaneous increase in resilience and sustainability of buildings and civil infrastructure under natural disasters (e.g. cyclones, floods and earthquakes) and manmade attacks; and

(ii) enables ‘free-form’ construction of sustainable, commercially viable, and architecturally elegant buildings and civil infrastructure with complex geometries that are not currently possible or too expensive to build.

Research Interests

My interests lie primarily in undertaking evidence reviews of complex interventions, specifically in service delivery areas and in the identification of evidence for reviews. I have led a variety of different reviews for organisations including the HS&DR Evidence Synthesis Centre, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing and the ScHARR Public Health Collaborating Centre and have been involved in a number of publications from this work. I have also published on methods relating to searching. From my prior research projects, I maintain an interest in health services research with a particular interest in information use by patients and carers. I obtained my PhD in 2005 from the University Of Sheffield. It examined the impact of the MMR vaccine scare on parents in terms of their decision making and information requirements.

Based in the Digital Humanities Institute and available to supervise Digital Humanities topics

Guy's research is interdisciplinary in nature, combining elements of digital humanities, economic and social history, geography, and urban studies.

Guy is generally interested in the application of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and computational methods to research in the humanities, particularly (although not exclusively) in relation to geospatial data.

His broader research interests concern the dynamics of urban systems, long term economic and social development, and the role of ‘missingness’ and uncertainty in data analysis. His research background includes the development of tools to aid the linkage of individuals across historic censuses, modelling of inter-city trade in the nineteenth century economy of England and Wales, and contributor biases in Volunteered Geographic Information platforms.

Research interests

Broadly speaking, my specialty is Late Medieval and Early Modern English language, and my research methods are derived from historical linguistics, especially pragmatics. In particular, I have worked extensively with manuscript and digital letter collections in order to study actual English, dating from c.1400-1650.

I also have strong research interests in manuscript studies, paleography, digital editing and corpora - in particular the implications these perspectives have for the historical study of language.

At the moment, I am developing research on: 1) the history of verbal irony (e.g. sarcasm, mock (im)politeness and banter) in English, as evidenced by both literary and non-literary texts; and 2) the letters and language of Margaret Tudor (1489-1541), princess of England and Queen of Scots.

• Energy efficient generation of microbubbles and their applications (particularly biofuels and bioreactors).
• Plasma microreactors, especially low power consumption generation of ozone.
• Fluid dynamics of helical turbulence and mixing.
• Thin film dynamics and microrheometry.
• Computational modelling with inverse methods.

Perlemax Ltd, a University spinout company, was founded to exploit his research and technological advances. Perlemax and Zimmerman have won the below awards and recognition:

• 2009 IChemE Moulton Medal
• 2010 Royal Society Innovation Award (Brian Mercer Fund) (Video)
• 2010 CleanTech Open, AXA UK Global Ideas Champion
• 2010 CleanTech Open, International Finalist, Global Ideas
• 2011 Zayed International Future Energy Prize, Semifinalist

Research Interests:

My research focuses on explainable and trustworthy machine learning (ML). Explainability is multifaceted in this context; I work on mathematical and computational methods in Computational Intelligence (CI) that enable enhanced understanding and transparent information use for neural networks, visual and numerical performance measures for many-objective optimisation algorithms, as well as linguistic interpretations of models, and safe control systems. Explainability and trustworthiness are key barriers in using machine learning in a range of critical applications, e.g. in engineering, and healthcare. A multitude of research questions still need to be addressed, for example how neural network - based systems learn and perform when information/data is imperfect, how can we exploit prior knowledge for enhanced learning, and how can we develop performance metrics that will allow us to understand the optimisation of systems at scale.

Towards formulating research questions in machine learning, I often use challenge-driven research e.g. in manufacturing, healthcare, as case studies. This way,  applications drive the research questions, towards maximising impact. I also use explainable machine learning for translational research and to create innovation to address global challenges (e.g. sustainability, energy). The advanced monitoring, optimisation and control of manufacturing processes is such an example, where ML-based methods can be used to reduce material waste, and minimise energy use.

I welcome PhD applications in topics that fall under Computational Intelligence, in particular when these are concerned with explainable machine learning. Examples of recent PhD projects include, physics-guided neural networks, physics-guided generative models, new performance metrics for decomposition-based many-objective optimisation, information theoretic explainability in neural networks, safe reinforcement learning, and linguistic interpretations of Convolutional Neural Networks.

Introduction

Our work centres on the structures, properties and reactivity of molecular surfaces (organic thin films and monolayers) on nanometre length scales. There are two principal foci: nanofabrication (the construction of molecular objects smaller than 100 nm) with a particular emphasis on nanoscale biological interfaces (the organisation of biomolecules, and the study of their structure and function, on molecular length scales); and nanotribology (the study of sliding contacts between nanometre scale molecular objects).

Nanofabrication

The integration of top-down (lithographic) with bottom-up (synthetic chemical) methodologies remains a major challenge in molecular nanoscience. There is a critical length range, between ca. 100 nm and the dimensions of a single biomacromolecule, in which there are few established methods for the execution of chemically specific molecular transformations. Our work on nanofabrication revolves around the use of photochemical methods to execute selective molecular transformations in nanometre-scale regions at surfaces. Photochemistry is an attractive tool, because organic chemistry furnishes us with a wide choice of photochemical strategies, and because photolithography remains the go-to fabrication tool many years after its eventual demise was predicted. The challenge is to find ways to execute photochemical transformations on nanometre length scales. We have found that near-field methods yield exquisite control at length-scales down to a few tens of nm, and interferometric lithography offers remarkable performance over macroscopic areas via fast, inexpensive, simple approaches. Interferometric techniques have enabled us to fabricate dense arrays of structures as small as 25 nm covering square cm regions. Arrays of gold nanostructures have been used in spectroscopic investigations of light-harvesting complexes, and have led to the exciting discovery of strong coupling between localised surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) and excitons in these molecules.

Nanotribology

Tribology is the study of sliding contacts between materials, and includes the phenomena of friction and wear. Our particular interest is in nanometre-scale contacts between molecular materials. Nanometre-scale sliding contacts are important for a variety of reasons; the following are examples:

• Miniaturised devices, such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), rely upon tiny mechanical contacts, and the lubrication of these presents substantial problems - a drop of oil will not suffice! Organic thin films and monolayers may provide solutions.
• Macroscopic materials may have properties that depend on microscopic sliding interactions. For example, conditioners in laundry formulations are used to modify the sliding interactions at tiny contacts between between textile fibres that are only a few micrometres in diameter (see below).
• Measurements of the tribological properties of surfaces at nanometre length scales provide a powerful means for mapping variations in chemical structure and composition; friction force microscopy is an invaluable tool for the characterisation of molecular nanostructures (see nanofabrication page).
• Studies of tribological phenomena may yield insights into the fundamental nature of forces at surfaces; a current focus in our research is exploring the relationship between nanotribology and the thermodynamics of non-covalent molecular interactions.

Surface Analysis

I am director of the Sheffield Surface Analysis Centre (SSAC) which is home to a variety of state-of-the-art surface characterisation equipment, including an imaging secondary ion mass spectrometer and two X-ray photoelectron spectrometers.

Research interests

I have a major research interest in the mechanisms of altered neuronal excitability that occur under the pathological conditions of nerve injury and inflammation, and which contribute to the development of chronic pain, including that in the oro–facial region. Much of this research has been done at the academic–industrial interface. Collaborations with GSK, Pfizer and Eli Lilly have funded a wide range of pre-clinical translational studies, using pre-clinical models and human tissues to identify and validate a range of regulators of neuronal excitability as potential targets for the development of novel analgesics and anti-inflammatory mediators.

Other research projects are directed towards improvement of nerve regeneration. This work investigates methods of improving nerve repair through the use of a range of anti-inflammatory and anti-scarring agents, and includes collaboration with the Department of Engineering Materials at the University of Sheffield to develop bioengineered conduits to enhance nerve regeneration. In other projects I collaborate with the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) investigating the role of chemokines in CNS disease.
I also have a significant research interest in neural–immune interactions and their role in the development of disease. I have a number of pilot projects underway in this field investigating neural interactions in the generation of cancer pain and tumour progression.

Penny is currently a research associate in ScHARR within the Health Economics and Decision Modelling Section. Penny has been at ScHARR for over 4 years, first as a PhD student and more recently working as a health economics modeller. Before working in ScHARR Penny was working as a health economics consultant at IMS Health developing cost-effectiveness models for pharmaceutical products. The subject of her thesis was to investigate the use of health economic models to develop drug development programmes for new treatments for systemic lupus erythematosus. Since working at ScHARR Penny has been working on a project funded by the School for Public Health Research (SPHR) to provide a coherent, model based framework for the evaluation of strategies for the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Penny has developed a new cost-effectiveness model to evaluate a broad range of type-2 diabetes prevention interventions in the United Kingdom. Penny's research interests are in methods for longitudinal data analysis for use in decision-analytic modelling. Specifically in complex natural history models with multiple dynamic risk factors.

Research interests

Dr Chen’s research interests are in China’s urbanisation and rural-to-urban migration. China is experiencing the largest migration wave in human history, with hundreds of millions of people moving from the countryside to cities to seek better life. She is interested in the social, economic, spatial and environmental consequences of such massive urbanisation.

She is currently working on the following projects:

ESRC/CASS Urban Transformations: Urban Development, Migration, Segregation and Inequality (2015--2018). This project aims to bring together researchers from the University of Glasgow, University of Sheffield and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to develop new ideas, innovative methods and analysis on the impacts of migration on urban development, the related social-spatial segregation and public policy challenges.

ESRC/GCRF: Dynamics of Health & Environmental Inequalities in Hebei Province, China (2017–2018). This project aims to develop the data infrastructure and to examine the social and health impacts of rapid urbanisation and air pollution, in order to improve decision support tools for economic and social policy.

She is also interested in rural-to-urban migrants and their life prospects. Her previous projects examined the aspirations and socio-economic integration of new-generation migrants in urban China.

She welcomes applications from prospective PhD students in the fields of urbanisation, migration, urban development and housing.

Research Interests:

My research group focuses on biomedical robotics, specifically bionics and capsule robots to advance healthcare technology for long-term therapies and non-invasive surgical interventions.
We work on three main research themes: (1) soft-matter devices, in which we develop surgical and medical devices that are soft and functional such that they comply with the mechanics of soft tissue reducing inflammatory responses. Examples: soft sensors, soft pneumatic actuators, soft implants; (2) tissue-device interaction, in which we investigate advanced and efficient therapies based on in situ sensing. Examples: tissue patching, deployable miniature surgical devices, remotely controlled capsules; (3) resilient devices, in which we investigate methods and mechanisms to develop fault-tolerant devices that can continue their operation even in the event of a fault. Examples: mechanisms and control algorithms that avoid faults or detect and isolate the faults.
Relevant background to carry out this research: mechatronics, bioengineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, material engineering or chemical engineering.

• Tailoring the structure of epoxy resins by altering the resin/hardener chemistry and stoichiometry to understand how the chemical structure influences thermo-mechanical properties.
• Tailoring the structure of phenolic resins by altering the reactant stoichiometry, cure schedule and catalysts to understand how the chemical structure influences thermo-mechanical properties.
• Monitoring epoxy and phenolic resin cure through DSC, DEA and NIR to understand how the curing reactions influence the final structure of thermosetting resins.
• Manufacture and mechanical property testing of composite panels based on epoxy and phenolic resins in order to improve properties by tailoring the properties of the matrix phase.
• Group Interaction Modelling of polymer properties.
• Multi-scale modelling of polymer composites using Group Interaction Modelling for material properties of the fibre and matrix combined with FEA and statistical fibre failure model for composite properties.
• Predicting and measuring the effect diluents (e.g. water) have on polymer and polymer composite properties.

Research interests

My research interests centre around inclusive urban development planning in the global South, with a regional focus on Latin America. My work is highly interdisciplinary and engages with debates in urban studies, planning, geography and global development. Within this broad agenda, my research focuses on urban indigeneity, territorial contestation, alternatives to development, and citizen-led and participatory planning. My current research documents emerging patterns of indigenous urbanisation in Bolivia and looks at the everyday lived experience of urban indigenous peoples, paying particular attention to intersectional differences around age and gender. Through direct engagement with indigenous youth activists and local authorities, my research examines opportunities and challenges around integrating specific interests, demands and alternatives to development promoted by indigenous peoples into urban planning policy and practice. Methodologically, I prefer making use of co-productive, decolonial and participatory approaches and deploying creative methods such as participatory filming, counter-mapping and photovoice. 

Research interests

His main clinical interests are inborn errors of steroidogenesis, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, disorders of sex development (DSD), and PCOS; his main research interests are on inborn errors of steroid hormone biosynthesis and steroid hormone metabolism in health and disease.

Current efforts of his work concentrate on the implementation of model systems to study genetic variants and the integration of diagnostic methods in adrenal disease and DSD. His group has implemented various in vitro assays to study enzymatic defects in steroidogenesis. The most recent work of his group explores the consequences of disrupted steroid hormone synthesis and action on whole organism employing zebrafish as a model organism in translational steroid hormone research (Endocrinology 2013; Endocrinology 2016). This research is based at the Bateson Centre.

The main focus of this clinical research program is on CAH. He leads on a multicentre, 17 tertiary paediatric endocrine centres in the UK, NIHR RD TRC funded project to establish the evidence basis on the current health status in children and young people with congenital adrenal hyperplasia in the UK. In addition, he works on a program to improve health care deliver for children and young people with adrenal conditions and DSD.

Research Interests

Aidas is an experimental economist who uses laboratory, online and field experiments, as well as game theory, to understand human behaviour.

Aidas is interested in understanding how boundedly rational decisions depend on the framing, information or feedback in the game. To address these questions, Aidas compares the predictions of agent-based models to experimental data in games where convergence is slow or there are multiple equilibria to which choices could converge. Results from this research shed some light on whether behaviour is driven by beliefs, preferences or bounded rationality, and how the policymakers could use information design to shift behaviour in a desirable manner.

Aidas is also interested in using experimental methods to address problems such as climate change, income inequality and collusion in oligopolies. Some aspects of each problem can be modelled by appropriately designed games and the consequences of potential policy interventions can be investigated using both behavioural game theory and laboratory experiments. Specifically, his recent research explores whether exposure to income inequality has a negative effect on productivity, whether the outcomes of climate change negotiations depend on historical responsibility and whether collusion is more likely in more concentrated markets.

Based in the Digital Humanities Institute and available to supervise Digital Humanities topics

Seth is primarily active in two broad research areas: corpus semantics and community archiving.

His recent corpus semantic research focuses on words with multiple contested meanings, which lead to cross purposes and confusion in public debate and personal conversation: for example, decolonisation, gentrification, appropriation, fundamentalism, and white. These contentious multiple meanings often include newly emerging senses, and exhibit increasing vagueness. They also lead to potentially grave social, cultural, political, and material consequences.

Seth leads on the DHI’s concept modelling research, based on the Linguistic DNA project and subsequent collaborations with the BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary.

His community archiving research is primarily conducted in collaboration with a team of academic and non-academic researchers in rural South Africa, and employs community- led co-production methods. That work has supported the creation of community archives in the form of ‘live’ records of unfolding events; and records of the living memories of older adults; as a means for building capacity and exploring concepts of development and identity.

Seth welcomes PhD applications related to corpus linguistics, semantics, Keywords, lexicography and lexicology, community archiving, technology for inclusion, and digital humanities.

My research questions the way we understand and address
inequalities in health, particularly as experienced by migrant and
ethnic minority groups. There is a focus on the intersection of three
main axes of inequality: race/ethnicity, gender and poverty and,
within this, on the role of power/control as an underlying social
determinant of health. My research takes an interdisciplinary
perspective, drawing on the theory and practical application of a
range of complementary methods drawn from sociology, political
science and history. Recent work, for example, has involved
developing critical methodologies that help us think differently about
the ‘problem’ of ‘Roma health’ and the types of knowledge that inform
how it is understood/addressed.

I have supervised Masters and PhD students in a range of social
science projects exploring pathways to and from health inequalities
among various disadvantaged groups (ethnic minorities, those living
in excluded communities, older people.) I am particularly interested to
hear from prospective students whose research explores the
intersection of health and social science with a focus on inequality
and critical methodologies.

Research interests

My research focuses on the study of bias and transparency in information retrieval and multilingual information access. I am especially interested in investigating how biases influence information access, and how bias-aware search engines should be designed to support users in their search tasks. I am also interested in researching cross-lingual similarity in Wikipedia; this includes creating methods to measure cross-lingual similarity, understanding why dissimilar information exists, and how this impacts different users (e.g., users in different locations or those speaking different languages).

PhD supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD research projects in the areas of:

• Fairness and transparency in search engines, e.g., impacts of biases, technologies to mitigate biases, designs of search engines to improve users’ awareness of biases
• Bias in data across languages
• Multilingual information access
• Cross-lingual similarity in the Web, especially Wikipedia
• Development and evaluation of systems/technologies to support information access
• Information extraction 
• Information seeking behaviour

Research interests

My research interests focus on scholarly communication, research data management, open access and open science, digital scholarship, digital information resources management, research policy, and managing information and technology services in organisations. Recently, this has included work on open-access publishing and dissemination, library and information strategy, and higher education research policy. I work at the intersection between technology deployment, policy development, and cultural practices, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Much of this has to date concentrated on applied areas, stemming from my professional background as an information services manager before moving into an academic role. I have, however, combined this with working with a number of theoretical models in order to understand patterns of uptake of innovative approaches to scholarship and communication. I am interested in the relationship between theory and practice, and in how researchers interact with practitioners in information-related and knowledge-producing organisations.

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD projects in any areas of my research interests.

Research interests

The Aerodynamics Research Group's interest is in the development and application of computational aerodynamic tools to a wide range of industrial problems in aerospace, automotive, and environmental industries. These advanced tools provide in-depth analyses and design optimisation for engineering products, such as aircraft wing drag reduction, racing car down force enhancement, and gas turbine and wind turbine blade efficiency improvement.

The aerodynamic analysis and design tools vary from very fast panel methods to popular commercial CFD packages, from the most advanced adjoint method for optimisation (adj-MERLIN) to the detached eddy simulation software (DGDES) for massively separated turbulent flows, developed within the group.

Current projects include: flow separation control, shock control for drag reduction, adjoint based shape optimisation for transonic wing performance, hybrid RANS/LES for synthetic jet, VG and plasma flow control, MAV low Reynolds number aerodynamics, and feature aligned adaptive mesh techniques. 

Research interests

My primary research interest lies in developing techniques to reconstruct and account for phonological change over time, and investigating to what extent synchronic structure plays a role in diachronic phonology. One aim is to improve methods used to access fine-grained phonetic evidence from dead languages, to allow a better evaluation of theories of change grounded in phonetics. We can then better address the much-debated question of whether phonetics and analogical pressures alone drive sound change, or if structural constraints play a role.

My current research focuses on three areas: (1) investigating the role played by prosodic structure in sound change, examining the roles of syllable and foot structure in Latin and other languages; (2) working in collaboration with Professor Joan Beal (University of Sheffield) and Dr Nura Yáñez-Bouza (University of Manchester) to construct a database of eighteenth-century English phonology from contemporary sources, (e.g. pronouncing dictionaries), in order to address problems in English phonology, both historical and contemporary; (3) working in collaboration with the Oxford Phonetics Laboratory to investigate theories of speech production and phonological representation in the mind, from the evidence of reading aloud non-words, examining questions of both phonological and psycholinguistic significance.

My Research interests

I have three related research interests that fall under the general banner of Uncertainty Quantification: (1) how do we properly account for all relevant uncertainties when we build a computer model of a physical, biological or social system? (2) how do we (efficiently) compute value of information? (3) how do we work out the value of a computer model? How much should we pay to make a simple model more complex? When do we stop increasing the complexity of a model?

Jeremy Oakley, Jim Chilcott and I have proposed an "internal" discrepancy-based method for managing model uncertainty. See this paper in JRSS Series C, and this paper in SIAM/ASA Journal of Uncertainty Quantification. The method is discussed in more detail in my PhD thesis.

We have proposed an efficient method for computing partial EVPI. This method works for any number of parameters of interest and requires only the PSA sample. See this open access paper in Medical Decision Making. R functions to implement the method can be downloaded here. This paper uses Gaussian process-based methods that are nicely described in the  Managing Uncertainty in Complex Models (MUCM) toolkit.

The partial EVPI method extends nicely to the computation of EVSI. See here for our open access paper on the efficient computation of EVSI.

Research interests

My main research interests center on the aetiology of autoimmune disease, with a particular focus on the thyroid. Autoimmune thyroid disease is the most prevalent form of organ-specific autoimmunity in the population and affects approximately 1-2% of individuals. Antigenic targets in autoimmune thyroid disease are well characterised and this, together with the availability of patient material, makes the disease and important model for other forms of autoimmunity. In seeking to better understand the origins of thyroid autoimmunity we have developed techniques to study the nature of the immune response. In particular we have used phage display methods to analyse the autoantibody repertoire of thyroid disease patients.
Recombinant antibody technology is a major component of our research efforts, and we are using this approach in a number of areas, including the analysis of human autoimmune disease and the development of novel therapeutics. Aside from recombinant antibodies we have also employed phage display strategies to identify novel human autoantigens by synthesis and screening of cDNA expression libraries.
In a further development of our research effort we are now employing these techniques commercially in the rational design of novel antibody-based enzyme antagonists for use as therapeutic agents in the treatment of chronic kidney disease. This work is funded by the MRCT.

Briony joined the Department of Sociological Studies in early 2021. She initially joined the department as a University Teacher in Digital Media and Society (Grade 8), before transitioning to her current role as a University Teacher in Sociology in September 2021. In addition to her primary role as a University Teacher, Briony has also undertaken a fixed-term role as a Research Associate in Digital Technologies with Professor Helen Kennedy, as well as a HEIF-funded fixed-term role in the Sheffield Methods Institute as a Research Associate in the Creative Industries. 

Briony previously worked as an Associate Lecturer and Associate Tutor at the University of East Anglia, where she spent three years teaching across gender studies, political communication, digital sociology, and digital politics. Briony completed her studies in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia, completing her BA (Hons) in Society, Culture and Media (1:1*) in 2015, her MA in Media and Cultural Politics (Distinction) in 2016, and her PhD in Politics in 2021.

Briony is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and is currently enrolled on the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PG Cert LTHE) at the University of Sheffield. She is currently co-lead of the Critical Diversities and Everyday Life Research Theme.

While Briony is formally trained in cultural politics and the sociology of media and culture, her interdisciplinary research spans across feminist sociology, feminist cultural studies, media and communications, internet studies, girls’ studies, and fan studies. Briony is a qualitative feminist researcher and she uses ethnographic methods (both online and offline), including participant observation, focus groups, interviews, surveys, discourse analysis, and textual analysis. Her ethnographic research locates digital media fan communities as an important space for young people to produce, negotiate, and contest the meanings of feminism(s) in an informal and everyday context. In doing so, her work locates digital youth cultures on Tumblr as a fruitful site for young people to engage in feminist activism, community building, and knowledge sharing, while also complicating utopian framings of these digital spaces to reveal the contradictory and ambivalent processes of inclusion and exclusion at work within them. Broadly speaking, she is interested in the following:

• Youth and the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality
• Popular culture as a site of struggle
• Participatory culture and fandom
• Digital cultures and platforms
• Girls’ and young women’s media cultures
• Belonging, (cultural) citizenship and civic engagement
• Digital feminist pedagogy and knowledge sharing
• Feminist methodologies

Briony’s research on Tumblr has been featured in WIRED magazine, and she has been invited to interview as an expert on gender, popular culture, and fan culture for The Observer, Mashable, Vice, and BBC Radio, amongst others. Her first monograph will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in late 2023.    

Research interests

Joab Winkler’s main research interests are image processing, and  algebraic and numerical properties of curves and surfaces in computer-aided design systems.

• IMAGE PROCESSING: The removal of blur and other degradations from an image arises in many applications and it may be considered a preprocessing operation before the image is interrogated for, for example, medical diagnosis. The most challenging problem arises when prior information on the source of the degradations and the exact image is not known, in which case the problem is called blind image deconvolution. My research is concerned with the application of polynomial computations, implemented using structure-preserving matrix methods, for the solution of this problem. The next stage of this work on image improvement is its extension from static images to video images for the observation of dynamic events, for example, the flow of blood.

• GEOMETRIC MODELLING: Curves and surfaces in computer aided design systems are represented by polynomials. Computational problems arise because the coefficients of these polynomials are corrupted by noise due to manufacturing tolerances and numerical approximations, and robust computations on polynomials are therefore required. Recent work on these robust computations includes the computation of a structured low rank approximation of the Sylvester resultant matrix, and the devlopment of a polynomial root solver for the determination of multiple roots of the theoretically exact form of a polynomial, when the coefficients of the given polynomial are corrupted by added noise.

• FEATURE SELECTION: Many problems in science require the identification of the most important features that characterise a system, such that the expected response of the system to new data can be accurately predicted. Problems arise because the given data that is available to identify these important features is usually insufficient to define the system uniquely, which implies that the equation to be solved has an infinite number of solutions, This raises the question as to the solution that is selected from this infinite set of solutions, and the criterion used for this selection. My research is concerned with the development of mathematical theory and methods for the selection of the best solution, defined using a specified criterion. The features that characterise a system may be a combination of numerical data, binary data and categorical data, and a mathematical model that describes a system must include these three classes of data. This problem has many applications, including bioinformatics, signal analysis, atmospheric physics, and in general, problems in which the response (output) is a function of many variables (inputs), only some of which are important and must therefore be identified.

Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour

Sarah joined the University of Sheffield in 2012 after being awarded a Management and Business Development fellowship jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS). The fellowship was designed to improve practitioner experience within the academic field. In December 2015, Sarah became a full-time lecturer in Organisational Behaviour with specific focus on Occupational Psychology, Human Resource Management and Leadership.
Prior to joining the University, Sarah held a number of positions in the fields of operations management and management consultancy, leading change management projects in both the private and public sector. She is currently in the fourth year of a PhD at the Institute of Work Psychology focusing on understanding the role of formality on upward challenge in the UK Police Service.

Research

Sarah’s research interests include all aspects of voice and silence and organisational communication. As a qualitative researcher, Sarah is keen to use innovative and unique methods designed to provide insight into cognitive and mental models of individual behaviour such as card sort, repertory grid and thinking aloud technique.

PhD Supervision

Sarah is interested in hearing from anyone interested in studying voice and silence or wider communication issues in the workplace.

Working with Organisations and Public Engagement

If you are interested in knowing more about the reasons why employees don’t speak up to their managers, or why managers might not encourage voice, please contact me. I am happy to run workshops designed to raise awareness of these issues. If you would like to work with me on a piece of research in your organisation, I would also be delighted to hear from you.

Publications

Brooks, S. (2014). Understanding workplace voice and silence. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology in Practice, 6 26-38.

Full list of publications

Based in the Digital Humanities Institute and available to supervise Digital Humanities topics

James's research incorporates history, linguistics and digital humanities and focuses on the transformation medieval society over the longue durée, from the fourth century to the fourteenth.

His PhD project re-examined the transformation of the English personal naming system between c.800 and c.1300. It combined quantitative studies examining broad trends with micro-analytical studies of individual naming decisions. The results demonstrated how the transformation of personal naming patterns were linked to broader socio-cultural changes that took place across the period and repositioned the history of English personal naming in a broader European context. A monograph based on this research, The Medieval Transformation of English Personal Naming, is under contract with Amsterdam University Press.

His postdoctoral research has focused on the personal names of early medieval Britain. By identifying and mapping (chronologically and geographically) names of non-English origin across the period c.300–c.850, James's work explores the movement and migration of people following the fall of the western Roman Empire, and the transformation of ethnic and linguistic identities that accompanied it. Aspects of this research will be published in a trade book, The Names We Call Ourselves, under contract with Reaktion.

James's research interests include:

• Medieval social history: the transformation of everyday life and underlying factors that caused it
• Onomastics: personal names and place-names, and how these can be used to help shed light on linguistics and social history
• Historical linguistics: the transformation of language over time and the linguistic and sociolinguistic reasons behind it
• Quantitative methods: the use of statistical analysis, large datasets and data visualisation to help us understand historical and linguistic change
• Digital prosopography: the creation and exploitation of digital databases to record and analyse the lives, relationships and activities of historical people

My interdisciplinary research aims to address the challenge of improving the sustainability and resilience of ecosystems, with a focus on urban and agricultural systems.  I have a particular interest in the interaction between soils, plants and the ecosystem services they provide to a growing global population.  

Urban horticulture

My research addresses the current and future potential of urban horticulture to make a contribution to local and national food security. This includes growing at a household level in gardens and allotments and using controlled environment agricultural systems in grey infrastructure.  I am also interested in the ecosystem service co-benefits of growing food, from soil quality to health and wellbeing.  As part of this research I run a national-scale citizen science project called Measure Your Harvest (MYHarvest.org.uk), that works people to collect long-term home grown crop yield data. My research also addresses the bioavailability of urban soil pollutants to fruit and vegetable crops and potential risks to human health. I work closely with local authorities and NGOs to deliver this applied research.

Soil and vegetation carbon budgeting

I have developed methods for soil carbon budgeting in complex urban ecosystems in both greenspaces and beneath greyspaces.  I am really interested in the role of black carbon in soil carbon storage and sequestration. 

Understanding the urban forest

Trees have been demonstrated to contribute disproportionately to ecosystem service provision in cities and towns but we have less understanding of how the unique combination of pressures in the urban environment, e.g. pollution and encasement in greyspace, affect their health and resilience to future climate change.  My research addresses both the role of urban trees in provision of ecosystem services e.g. heat island mitigation and carbon storage, and the effects of urban pressures on tree health and resilience at a species specific scale and the consequences for ecosystem service provision.

Research interests

Radioactive waste vitrification
Research is focussed on glass composition development for the immobilisation of "difficult" anionic species and legacy wastes into vitreous wasteforms. His group is currently working on developing novel glasses for the vitrification of Mo containing wastes and understanding the crystallisation of Mo containing phases in current waste glass compositions.

Durability of nuclear waste glasses
Research is focussed on understanding the effects of high pH environments on the durability of nuclear waste glasses using laboratory based durability test methods. In addition he is responsible for the field based long term glass burial site at Ballidon (a limestone environment), an experiment now in its 44th year, and which involves collaboration with Dr Strachan from Pacific North-West National Laboratory, USA.

Mechanical properties of glasses
Research is focussed on examining the effects of composition on the mechanical properties of silicate glasses. His group has previously demonstrated the important role of MgO in these glasses and we are currently investigating this further. We have also studied the mechanical properties of nuclear borosilicate glasses. His group is also focussing on assessing the changes in near surface mechanical properties of glasses due to hydration by nanoindentation and at the effects of high temperature mechanical contact on surface damage and thus the practical strength of bulk glass.

Sensing using reinforcing fibres in polymer matrix composites
Research is focussed on developing novel glasses for reinforcing fibres that can be used for both chemical and damage sensing in polymer matrix composites. This research is being undertaken in collaboration with CSIC.

Research interests

Radioactive waste management and disposal.
Our focus is on developing strategy, materials, processes and policy to support the safe, timely and efficient clean up of the UK radioactive waste legacy. A key aspect of our research is the design, manufacture and performance assessment of glass and ceramic materials for the immobilisation of plutonium residues, legacy intermediate level wastes, and high level wastes from reprocessing operations. We work closely with industrial organisations, including Sellafield Ltd., the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and National Nuclear Laboratory to address real world challenges of radioactive waste management. Our work has supported development of thermal treatment strategy by Sellafield Ltd. and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the acceptance of vitrified intermediate level wastes wastes in conceptual designs for the UK Geological Disposal Facility.

Advanced nuclear materials.
Research is focused on the development of new materials and processes for application in future nuclear fission and fusion fuel cycles. We are currently developing novel processing methods for advanced cermet fuels with application in naval reactor concepts, ceramic clad materials for accident tolerant nuclear fuels, and the application of molten salts technology to reprocessing of nuclear fuels. We are also working on new waste management strategies for future fuel cycles, to reduce the ultimate geological disposal footprint.

Structure-property relations in mixed metal oxides.
Research is focused on the study of structure-property relationships in perovskite related oxides showing a range of useful physical properties such as high temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance and anisotropic magnetic exchange. Recent work has investigated structure-property relationships in layered perovskite ferroelectrric oxides and oxide-fluorides.

• Plant-to-soil carbon fluxes - Quantitative analysis of carbon fluxes from plants to soil in grasslands and forests, and the storage of carbon in soils and vegetation. Development of methods for carbon budgeting in urban greenspace and its potential contribution to sustainable urban environments.
• Mycorrhizal fungi- their networks of power and influence - from nano-to-global scales - Use carbon isotope tracers to quantify energy passing from plants to their symbiotic root-infecting mycorrhizal fungi and how it is used by these fungi: (i) To drive mineral weathering, (ii) in nutrient and carbon cycling and (iii) to empower interactions with other soil organisms (fungi, plants, and fungal-feeding collembolans).
• Myco-heterotrophy: plants parasitic on fungi - About 10% of all plant species are myco-heterotrophic for part of their life, including most orchids. Over 400 species are fully myco-heterotrophic. My interests are in understanding their evolution, adaptive features, life-cycles, ecology, physiology, functioning and their critical fungal partners.
• Specialised root functioning - Root adaptations as an alternative strategy to mycorrhiza- spatial and temporal foraging precision and uptake of phosphorus by dauciform roots in sedges.
• Pollution impacts on plants, soil biology and chemistry, and health - Impacts of long-term nitrogen pollution on grassland soil and plant ecology, and recovery following reduced pollution inputs. Health risks and benefits associated with urban food production. Effects of urban greenspace and soils in trapping and sequestering black carbon.

Research interests

My research interests are varied, interdisciplinary and lie within the field of materials for biomedical and dental applications. My research focuses on the design, fabrication and characterisation of novel glasses, ceramics and composites for dental and medical applications. Much of this research is in collaboration with Engineering Materials (UoS), Imperial College London, Chubu University, Japan and Sao Paulo University, Brazil. My research has also progressed to the production of custom prostheses using novel production methods and advanced manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacture, Hot-Isostatic-Pressing, Spark-Laser-Sintering, freeze-casting, laser machining and electro-spinning. In addition, due to my involvement in the MMedSci in Dental Implantology, I also supervise projects in the area of dental implantology.

My research is progressing more towards knowledge and technology transfer, hence my industrial collaborations are widening and increasing, presently these include Ceramisys Ltd (a SME manufacturing and distributing bone augmentation materials); Fluidinova (a SME manufacturer of nanoceramics); Primequal (a SME specialising in development of medical devices); neotherix (a regenerative medicine SME specialising in novel bioresorbable scaffolds); CERAM (materials testing, analysis and consultancy); JRI (a manufacturer of orthopaedic implants and surgical instrumentation); Nobel Biocare (a world leader in innovative restorative and aesthetic dental solutions); Dentsply (a global leading manufacturer and distributer of high quality dental product) and GlaxoSmithKline (one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies).

Research interests

The common theme in my research is phase transitions in polymers. Most recently we have used the knowledge of the thermodynamics and kinetics of phase behaviour in polymer blends and block copolymers to develop new processing methods based on self-assembly. This has led to the development of the new field of Soft Nanotechnology where synthetic and natural macromolecules are harnessed in a way that makes use of their intrinsic flexibility and susceptibility to Brownian motion to generate work from changes on molecular conformation. Developments in polymers responsive to their environment have lead to research into molecular machines, specifically the fabrication of molecular valves and motors.

We do polymer synthesis in order to have well defined systems to study. The dynamics of phase behaviour are studied by calorimetry, spectroscopy, rheology, microscopy and light, X-ray or neutron scattering. A full suite of microstructural analysis (atomic force, optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and mechanical testing) is used to confirm the dynamic experiments and where appropriate computer modelling is also used.

My main contribution to the field has been the development and application of the techniques of time-resolved structural tools to polymers. This work was the subject of prizes in 1990 by the Plastics and Rubber Institute, in 1992, 1999 and 2003 from the Royal Society of Chemistry and in 1999 from the Polymer Processing Society.

I have been active in promulgating the public understanding of science since my graduate student days. This culminated in my appointment as the Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer for 2002 where my theme was the science and technology of everyday things. The lectures were seen on Channel 4 by 4.5 million viewers and have also been broadcast in Europe, Japan and Korea. I was also the 1st EPSRC Senior Media Fellow to allow me to combine world-class research and popular understanding of the impact of science and technology on society. I was awarded an OBE in 2005 for "services to science".

Research interests

As part of the Experimental Mechanics Laboratory, current research projects are in the development and use of optical instruments to measure strain in a wide range of applications, such as particulate reinforced materials, automotive glass, and aircraft components.

Digital Image Correlation techniques are being used to study damage in particulate reinforced materials. A range of particulate toughened polymers are being studied: to investigate experimentally the deformation mechanisms around the particles; to identify and characterise the potential failure mechanisms through experiment; and to explore how these mechanisms can be modelled mathematically. The work is sponsored by Cytec Engineered Materials Ltd, who are global providers of technologically advanced composite materials for high performance aerospace and automotive applications.

Within safety critical industries, such as in aircraft manufacture, numerical analyses need to be verified by experiment. However both the cost of development tests and the time taken to perform them are considerably greater than the cost and time required to conduct Finite Element Analyses (FEA). Airbus are sponsoring research into the use of Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) techniques to accurately produce scaled structural models for the aerospace industry with the aim of improving efficiency of design.

Asymmetric stress profiles through glass may be measured using magnetophotoelasticity. Pilkington plc are sponsoring research into developing a full-field magnetopolariscope system, which will enable more effective measurement of residual stress in glass. Non-destructive methods to measure stresses in three-dimensional photoelastic models of engineering components are being investigated. A joint research project with The University of Manchester is developing a new instrument using tomographic techniques, which will allow experimental verification of design prototypes to be performed quickly and efficiently.

Thermoelastic stress analysis techniques are being used in a number of different areas including exploring why a crack grows in the direction that it does, and investigating damage in polymers and elastomers used in the oilfield industry.

Other areas of interest are with birefringent fluids with applications in a wide variety of practical engineering problems, e.g. flow through micro-channels; unsteady flows; biological flows; and classic fluid dynamics problems, and using photoelasticity in medical and dental applications.

Research Interests

My research interests are at the intersection of critical studies of technology and society, social change, and information ethics. I focus on social appropriation and embodied experiences of technologies by different social groups, digital poverty, information privacy in the context of people’s migration and displacement, critical studies of information and communication technologies within sustainable development, and the role of public access to information in mis/disinformation. My research is qualitative and I use participatory and visual methodologies of research.

PhD Supervision

-Sustainability, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development: Issues connected to Information Systems/Information and Communication Technologies and social, socio-economic, and environmental sustainability / sustainable development.

-People’s migration and human displacement and information issues - information practices, information activities, policy, politics, data justice, data privacy and security, datafication of migration, migration digital traces, digital identity, and digital status.

-Digital poverty and public access to information - including role and potential for libraries or telecenters to address mis/disinformation; digital literacies and public venues to access information and communication technologies; role of digital inclusion networks.

-Digital push backs - motivations not to adopt and not to use digital technologies by specific social groups.

-Participatory methodologies to understand information activities, digital inclusion, or other information systems-related topics (e.g.: photo-elicitation, photo-voice, visual methods, theatre, playing and games).

I work at the intersection of medical sociology and science and technology studies. My doctoral research looked at lay and professional constructions of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a treatable hereditary condition associated with heart disease. My analysis focussed on the themes of geneticisation, genetic responsibility and biosociality, three prominent concepts in discussions of the social implications of genetic knowledge. Subsequent research projects looked at more mundane health technologies for cholesterol management, including cholesterol-lowering foods containing plant sterols and prescription and over-the-counter statins. Current research is expanding this work on consumer health technologies, looking at self-monitoring technologies such as blood pressure monitors and weighing scales/BMI monitors. All of these studies consider professional expectations as well as people’s accounts of why and how they adopt and use, or don't use, particular products or technologies. They consider the way responsibilities for health are distributed, the practices involved and the implications for forms of expertise in relation to health care. The work critically engages with notions of 'self-care' and 'health behaviours', proposing alternative lenses such as care infrastructures and practice theory approaches. I have an ongoing interest in developments in the biomedical sciences. Recent work has looked at the routine practices of racialised prescribing.

 Research interests:

• everyday health practices
• mundane health technologies
• self-monitoring, self-tracking, self-care
• social implications of biomedical developments eg genomics, epigenetics
• social categories in the clinic
• qualitative research methods

Dr. Willerton is interested in various ideas in low-dimensional topology coming from quantum physics, and in their relationship to geometry and algebraic topology. 

In particular, methods from quantum field theory give rise to new invariants of knots and three-manifolds -- these are the so-called quantum and Vassiliev (or finite-type) invariants. A large part of the motivation for Dr. Willerton's work is to understand these invariants from a topological or geometric point of view. For instance, the Kontsevich integral is a construction which takes a knot and gives back a sort of Feynman diagram expansion: this embodies a rich algebraic structure that is reminiscent of certain objects from algebraic topology, but it is not clear at the moment how to relate these. 

Well-studied examples of quantum invariants arise when one fixes a Lie group. Motivated in part by trying to understand the Kontsevich integral, Dr. Willerton has considered (with collaborators in San Diego and Oxford) the less well-studied invariants which arise when one fixes a hyper-Kahler manifold. This work has revealed unexpected algebraic structures in the derived category of coherent sheaves on a complex manifold. 

The theory of gerbes is a related interest of Dr. Willerton. Gerbes can be thought of as the next step beyond line bundles. Ideas from this area feed into K-theory, string theory and the quantum invariants mentioned above. 

In recent times Dr Willerton has been interested in the connections between metric spaces and category theory. This has lead in particular to him studying measures of biodiversity.