Research Supervisor Details

This page provides additional information about our research supervisors. You can either browser supervisors by department or search for them by keyword. Most supervisors also have a personal webpage where you can find out more about them.

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Miss Diana Papaioannou
d.papaioannou@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are in the following areas:

  • Harms/adverse events in behavioural change trials
  • Randomised controlled clinical trials
  • Systematic reviews
Professor Janet Brown
j.e.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

As a clinician scientist, I engage in both clinical and laboratory research, which is internationally recognised, with publications in Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Nature Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology Breast Cancer Research and Treatment and other journals. I lead the Clinical Bone Oncology and Biomarkers Group in University of Sheffield (LINK), which has a particular focus on the impact of cancer on the skeleton in patients with breast, prostate and renal cancer. Our recent research includes the use of biomarkers in established bone metastasis to aid patient management and studies of the negative impact of cancer treatments on bone health. One of the main objectives of our current clinical and laboratory work is to develop novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers for clinical use in patients with early cancer to help in prevention or delay of cancer metastasis to bone, after which disease is incurable.

I also run clinical studies to develop innovative therapeutic approaches in breast, renal and prostate cancer. As Chief Investigator, I currently lead a large UK-wide, 40 centre, clinical trial (STAR) funded by NIHR, to determine whether treatment breaks in patients with renal cancer receiving targeted therapies, can reduce toxicity and have health economic benefits, without loss in efficacy. I am also PI on a clinical study funded by Cancer Research UK aimed at evaluating a potentially exciting new form of virotherapy in patients with prostate cancer.

Mr Mike Bradburn
m.bradburn@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

I'm an applied statistician specialising in methodology relating to clinical trials. My primary research interest is in how randomised trial findings generalise in cases where subsets of the target population have been under-represented.
Professor Syed Hussain
syed.hussain@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

My major areas of interest are management of urological cancers, clinical trials, early drug development and translational medicine. I have set up a large number of clinical trials from early phase to late phase studies during my career. My work on organ preservation in bladder cancer moved all the way from an early phase I study (Hussain et al Annals of Oncology 2001), to phase II efficacy study (Hussain et al BJC 2004) that led to a Cancer Research UK funded study BC2001 trial that was reported in New England Journal of Medicine (James, Hussain, Hall et al April 2012). This study has now changed the standard of care for patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer opting for organ preservation treatment.

Professor Simon Heller
s.heller@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

Our group´s interests concern clinical research, focussing on clinical investigation involving varied topics with the common theme of immediate relevance to patients with diabetes. These include aspects of the pathophysiology of hypoglycaemia in diabetes, the contribution of hypoglycaemia to the increased risk of sudden death in young people with Type 1 diabetes (the 'dead in bed' syndrome), the clinical benefits of insulin analogues and trials of complex interventions to enable more effective self-management in people with diabetes.

Our observation that hypoglycaemia unawareness is caused by repeated episodes of hypoglycaemia has led to programmes of unawareness reversal and restoration of hypoglycaemic symptoms in patients with Type 1 diabetes. We have also recently completed a national multicentre project funded by the Dept for Transport exploring the incidence of hypoglycaemia in Type 2 diabetes to inform decisions on motor vehicle licensing.

We were the principal investigators for the multi-centre DAFNE trial and lead a national programme of research exploring different facets of the DAFNE education programme. We are one of the lead investigators for the ongoing DESMOND trial and lead a national multicentre trial measuring the benefit of blood glucose monitoring in those with newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes.

Professor Glenn Waller
G.Waller@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

My primary interests lie in the following areas:
• Cognitive content and processes that underlie and maintain the eating disorders
• The treatment of the eating disorders, with a particular focus on cognitive-behavioural approaches
• The translation of evidence-based approaches into real-life clinical settings, and the clinician variables that enhance or impede that process

Professor Michael Barkham
m.barkham@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

Outcome of Psychological therapies , in particular on practice based research as a compliment to trials methodology.

Professor Christopher McDermott
c.j.mcdermott@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

The main drive of Prof McDermott’s research programme is developing the evidence base for delivering supportive and symptomatic care for patients living with motor neuron disease. He is also interested in studying mechanisms of neurodegeneration, in order to develop treatments for patients with motor neuron disease and hereditary spastic paraplegia.

Offering PhD opportunities in the following areas:

  • Investigating and delivering optimal respiratory support for patients with MND
  • Establishing an evidence base for nutritional support in MND
  • Designing and evaluating assistive technologies for patients with neuromuscular weakness
  • Developing and evaluating novel service delivery mechanisms for patients with long term neurological conditions
  • Genetic and phenotypic characterisation of motor system disorders
  • Natural history study of motor system disorders
  • Collaborating with pharmaceutical companies in Phase 1-3 studies
  • Improving symptomatic management for patients with MND
  • Epidemiology of motor neuron disease
Professor Steven Julious
s.a.julious@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Clinical trials
  • Clinical trial design
  • Early phase trials
  • Non-inferiority
  • Asthma epidemiology
Professor Cindy Cooper
C.L.Cooper@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Trials methodology, particularly pilot (external and internal) and feasibility studies, recruitment and retention
  • Psycho-social aspects of long term conditions
  • Mental health research
  • Health technology evaluation
  • Evaluation of psychotherapeutic interventions
Professor Stephen Matcher
S.J.Matcher@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

 

Research interests with bullet points:

  • Biophotonics
  • Medical Imaging
  • Optical Coherence Tomography
  • Non-linear microscopy
Professor Markus Reuber
markus.reuber@sth.nhs.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

My main research interests are the nature and treatment of nonepileptic attack disorder (NEAD), psychosocial and neuropsychological aspects of epilepsy.  I am also very interested in doctor-patient communication and have pioneered the use of Conversation Analysis in neurological settings.

Professor Gillian Hardy
g.hardy@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Is not taking new PhD students


Research interests

Psychological treatments for depression: psychotherapy processes and outcomes; attachment theory; interpersonal processes. Psychological health in employment.

Professor Christopher Newman
c.newman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My main research interest is in non-viral gene delivery, particularly the use of high frequency ultrasound to promote plasmid-mediated vascular gene delivery. I also have interests in site specific targeting of gene therapy vectors, the vascular biology of pulmonary hypertension, the pathophysiology of sudden death in young diabetics, new approaches to the analysis of gene expression in acute coronary syndromes and links between the pathobiology of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Professor Oliver Bandmann
o.bandmann@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

My research focuses on different aspects of basal ganglia disorders such as Parkinson´s Disease, Huntington´s Disease, Wilson Disease or dystonia.

I’m particularly interested in precision medicine, drug development and early clinical trials.

Professor Daniel Hind
d.hind@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

  • Evaluation
  • Methodology
  • Research methods
  • Evidence synthesis
  • Clinical trials
  • Qualitative research
  • Anthropology
  • Ethnography
  • Personalised care
  • Quality improvement
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Theory
  • Theories, models and frameworks
  • Applied health research
  • Health sciences
  • Health Services Research
  • Complexity
  • Mechanisms and mechanistic thinking
  • Philosophical Realism
  • Philosophical Pragmatism
Dr Munira Essat
m.essat@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Systematic review of evidence for clinical effectiveness in healthcare
  • Health policy and decision making
  • Systematic review methodology
Dr Imran Aziz
i.aziz@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My research interests are in functional gastrointestinal disorders (e.g. irritable bowel syndrome), gluten-related disorders, the gut microbiome, and endoscopy

Professor Richard Eastell
r.eastell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

My research focus is osteoporosis. The University of Sheffield is well regarded for its contribution to the study of osteoporosis.  According to Thomson Reuter's Science Watch, we are ranked fourth among academic centres in the world for citations in osteoporosis, and first in the UK and Europe http://sciencewatch.com/ana/st/osteo2/institution/.  I study the epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. This has involved developing and establishing assays for bone turnover markers and studying their clinical utility. I have developed new approaches to the definition of vertebral fracture and applied new approaches such as vertebral fracture assessment. I have developed tools to evaluate bone strength such as high-resolution quantitative computed tomography, ultrasound and finite element modelling of bone strength. I have evaluated the endocrine changes in osteoporosis to better understand its causes. I have designed and conducted clinical trials of nutrition and drugs for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. I have evaluated approaches to enhance compliance with treatment.

Professor Zoe Marshman
z.marshman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Research interests

My main interest is child-centred dental research to increase understanding of the impact of oral health and dental care on children and young people. My work involves inclusive research with children with the aim of informing policy and clinical practice.

I co-ordinate the Children and Young People Oral Health Research Group, a multidisciplinary team conducting research with children using a range of research methods

Professor Helen Rodd
h.d.rodd@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Research interests

My earliest work was in the field of neuroscience, where I used the human
tooth pulp as a model to gain greater understanding into mechanisms of
inflammatory pain. However, I then moved from basic science research to
more social science research. I have focussed on the patient experience
with particular emphasis on the impact of dental conditions, such as
traumatic dental injuries or enamel defects on children's oral health-related
quality of life. I am also very involved in research to reduce children's
dental anxiety through a guided self-help cognitive behavioural therapy
approach. I work in a fantastic multi-disciplinary research team which aims
to improve the oral health and treatment experiences of children and
young people through a combination of clinical and social science research
strategies. Our ethos is to engage children themselves in all our research
and service development activities. To date, I have supervised 10 PhDs, 2
MPhils and 11 Masters to completion which have mostly had a
child-centred theme.

My current research programme is driven by Health and Social policy which have highlighted the need to be more inclusive of children in decisions about their healthcare, as well as involving them more actively in health-related research and service development. In line with this, a key research objective is to develop robust patient-centred clinical outcome measures for use in dentistry. These will have important application within the NHS in determining the benefits of various treatment modalities in order to more effectively direct resource allocation.

I work within a unique multi-disciplinary research group at the University of Sheffield, the ‘Person Centered and Population Oral Health’ group, which includes researchers across several clinical specialities and social sciences. The group conducts and implements high quality research in oral health, utilising the theories and empirical traditions of dental public health, sociology and psychology and a range of methodologies.

Mr Abdullah Pandor
a.pandor@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

My research interests are:

  • Systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence for clinical effectiveness
  • Application and development of methods for the systematic review and synthesis of diagnostic evaluations in the field of health services research
  • Network meta-analysis (indirect and mixed treatment comparisons)
Dr Munya Dimairo
m.dimairo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Specific area of research interests:

  • Statistical methods
  • Clinical trials methodology to improve trial efficiency across disease areas
  • Adaptive designs
  • Bayesian methods with application in clinical trials
  • Early phase clinical trials
  • Diagnostic accuracy studies
  • Hierarchical or multilevel modelling
  • Global health research
  • Prediction modelling
Dr Sarah Pollington
s.pollington@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

My main fields of research include ceramics and adhesive dentistry and I am an active member of the Oral Biomaterials Research Group at the School of Clinical Dentistry since 2002. I am involved in the development of novel glass-ceramics including manufacture and characterisation of various ceramics for use as indirect CAD/CAM core restorative materials and veneering ceramics. This work has concentrated on the production of materials with improved strength and durability. Other areas of research are the integrity of structurally compromised restored teeth and the clinical evaluation of restorative systems.

Dr Vanessa Halliday
vanessa.halliday@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My primary research interest focusses on nutrition and dietetics, in particular the prevention and treatment of undernutrition in vulnerable population groups.  I have experience of using quantitative approaches, including the development of health measurement scales, as well as qualitative research.

Professor Barry Gibson
b.j.gibson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Research interests

The primary focus on my research has been the experience of oral health conditions and to this end I have been instrumental in securing funding from commercial bodies to explore the impact of dentine sensitivity on everyday life. This research conducted along with colleagues in the Unit of Dental Public Health has resulted in a new measure of the impact of dentine sensitivity.

I am also continuing to study the sociology of the mouth in everyday life by looking at the impact of oral conditions and the experience of the mouth in the media and everyday life. This work involves the use of systems theory, consumerism and the sociology of the body.

I maintain a healthy interest in grounded theory and to this end I continue to write on the method. I like to focus on blending it with other approaches such as systems theory and critical theory and at the same time I like to clarify the original version of grounded theory.

Professor Stephen Walters
s.j.walters@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

Dr Tom Darton
t.darton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My research interests include:

  • Investigating the drivers of antimicrobial resistance in lower- and middle-income country settings.
  • Understanding the role and developing vaccines and diagnostics for enteric fever and other causes of non-specific febrile illness in low-resource settings.
  • The ethical use of human challenge studies to advance the discovery and translation of tools for patient benefit.
Professor Nils Krone
n.krone@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

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.

Professor Christopher Deery
c.deery@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Research interests

  • Cariology
  • Preventive dentistry, particularly fissure sealants
  • Evidence based dentistry
  • Child-centred dental research

 

My areas of particular research interests are cariology, preventive dentistry, research in primary dental care, evidence based dentistry and child focused research.

Dr Maria-Cruz Villa-Uriol
m.villa-uriol@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Dr Maria-Cruz Villa-Uriol's main research interests are:

  • the personalisation of models using computational imaging and modelling techniques, 
  • the composition of scientific workflows, 
  • and the use and development of data-driven decision-making strategies to support clinical decisions using heterogeneous data sources.

The data sources typically used in ther research are:

  • personalised VPH (Virtual Physiological Human) models, 
  • clinical databases, 
  • mobile sensors capturing a wide variety of variables describing an individual and his/her environment and mobile healthcare. 

Her primary area of interest is in the cardiovascular domain with an emphasis in clinical translation.

She is member of the Organisations, Information and Knowledge Group (Oak), INSIGNEO institute for in silico Modelling and Center for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH).

Professor Ali Khurram
s.a.khurram@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

My main research interest is in the interaction of chemokine receptors and their ligands in the pathogenesis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). During my Masters and PhD., I have studied the expression and role of various receptors including CXCR4 (receptor for CXCL12/SDF-1alpha), CXCR1 and CXCR2 (receptors for CXCL8/IL8) and XCR1 (receptor for XCL1/lymphotactin). My PhD findings showed the expression of the XCR1 receptor outside the immune system and on epithelial cells for the first time where it facilitated cancer cell signalling, migration, invasion, proliferation in addition to stimulating adhesion to ECM components and release of Matrix Metalloproteinases. I am also currently looking at the role of XCR1 and lymphotactin interaction in OSCC metastasis and involved in a study to design an antagonist for XCR1 in liaison with the Chemical Engineering department.
My main clinical research interest is studying extracapsular spread in OSCC as it reduces the 5-year patient survival by 80-85%. In addition, I have also been working on a number of collaborative projects for reducing postoperative salivary leakage in Head and Neck Cancer Resection patients. I am also involved with testing and optimisation of cancer treatment drugs and novel methods of delivery to reduce the associated side effects. In addition, I am also involved in numerous clinical audits/interventions with my surgical colleagues.

Professor Fiona Lecky
f.e.lecky@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

Fiona’s research interests include: Traumatic Brain Injury, Major Trauma, Biomarkers in Emergency Care and Injury Epidemiology. Latterly she has been Chair of the College of Emergency Medicine Research Committee – successfully setting up PhD studentships for Trainee Emergency Physicians, and the NW EM Walport Programme lead with a competitive ACF programme.
Recent publications include those looking at trends in trauma outcome and clinical effectiveness in trauma care and venour thromboembolism with a particular focus on head injury.

Professor Albert Ong
a.ong@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My major research interests are in the molecular genetics and cell biology of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the most common monogenic cause of kidney failure in man. In particular, we seek to understand how cysts form and grow in the ADPKD kidney, discover and test new treatments for ADPKD, and to improve clinical outcomes for ADPKD patients.

ADPKD affects around 1 in 500 people. It is caused primarily by mutations in two genes, PKD1 and PKD2, although up to 7 genes have been reported so far to lead to 'ADPKD-like' disease. ADPKD accounts for ~10% of patients with kidney failure in the developed world and affects 8-12 million people worldwide. It is also a major cause of sudden death and disability in some younger patients due to intracranial aneurysm rupture. Female patients can develop severe polycystic liver disease requring resection or liver transplantation.

Dr Thushan Indrajit de Silva
t.desilva@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My interests fall into three main areas:

  1. My primary interest is the study of anti-viral immune responses in the context of both vaccination and natural infection. Building on skills gained during my PhD, which focused on HIV-specific humoral and T-cell correlates of protection from disease progression in HIV-2 infection, the focus of my current research is the detailed mucosal and systemic immunogenicity of live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) in Gambian children using a systems vaccinology approach, including interactions with the host nasopharyngeal microbiome.
  2. Extending my work on immune responses in immunosuppressed hosts, I am interested in vaccine responses in Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant patients, collaborating with Professor John Snowden and Professor Diana Greenfield at STH.
  3. Aligning with The Florey Institute strategy, I am leading pilot studies characterizing MRSA (Sri Lanka) and Streptococcus pyogenes (The Gambia) isolates via whole genome sequencing.
Dr Marrissa Martyn-St James
M.Martyn-StJames@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

My research interests include:
• Systematic reviews of clinical effectiveness for healthcare interventions
• Development of methods for systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis including meta-analysis, meta-regression, individual patient data analysis and mixed-treatment comparisons/network meta-analysis
• Critical appraisal and risk of bias assessment methods for systematic reviews
• Exercise interventions for health outcomes

Professor Fiona Boissonade
f.boissonade@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

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.

Dr James Alix
j.alix@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience

I am a clinical neurophysiologist interesting in developing new biomarkers for both pre-clinical and clinical studies. I use electrophysiology and spectroscopy techniques to identify pathology and monitor changes over time. I work primarily in the field of motor neurone disease but also undertake studies in muscle disease.

Professor Sarah Danson
s.danson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

My clinical and research interests are in melanoma and lung cancer. My background is in the early clinical assessment of new anticancer agents. Sheffield is an `Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre´ and its aims are to expand the early clinical trial portfolio and produce associated translational work. I am ECMC Lead elect and I also sit on the Cancer Research UK New Agents committee, which complements this.

Melanoma is on the increase and this is not all due to excess sun exposure. I chair the Sheffield Melanoma Research Group which has obtained collaborative grants. Funding was obtained from Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity to look for epidemiology and biological features of cutaneous melanoma (principal investigators: Dr Sarah Danson, Dr Angela Cox, Dr Dawn Teare, Dr Kevin Walters, Dr Andrew McDonagh, Dr David Hughes). 87 patients were enrolled into the GEMS study (Genetics and Epidemiology of Melanoma in Sheffield). Translational work on the samples is complete and the manuscript is being written. The WPH Cancer Charity has also funded a grant to identify novel genes regulating the development of uveal melanoma metastases (principal investigators: Dr Karen Sisley, Dr Sarah Danson, Professor Ian Rennie). We enrol patients into clinical trials for melanoma if at all possible. I am Chair of the Rare Tumour Group, which aims to increase trial activity in less common cancers such as melanoma. Recent studies include agents targeting VEGF (AVAST-M), MEK inhibitors (PACMEL and COLUMBUS). AVAST-M and RADVAN recently completed accrual and the interim results of AVAST-M have been published in the Lancet Oncology.

Dr Calum Webb
c.j.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

Calum Webb joined the Sheffield Methods Institute as a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in September 2021, having previously worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Sociological Studies. His research explores socioeconomic inequalities in the child welfare system and their relationship to fiscal and social policy using quantitative research methods. He completed his PhD in Sociology at the University of Sheffield in 2019 as an ESRC-funded White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership student.

His research on child welfare inequalities and the funding of local services for children and young people has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Children and Youth Services Review, the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Child & Family Social Work, and elsewhere. Outside of academic circles, his work has been cited by the National Children’s Bureau, Ofsted, Children England, the British Association of Social Workers, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the Department for Education, and other organisations.


From 2021-2024 Calum will be leading an innovative new research project as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the British Academy titled “Investment in Prevention and its Systemic Effects (IPSE): Modelling the causal effects of spending in children's services with a whole systems approach.” 

Professor Nicholas Latimer
n.latimer@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

My research interests focus on economic evaluation methodology, with a particular emphasis on the incorporation of survival analysis within economic models. My doctoral and post-doctoral research has focused primarily on methods for adjusting survival estimates in the presence of treatment switching - that is, when patients in the control group of a clinical trial switch onto the experimental treatment, thus confounding estimates of the treatment effect (where the relevant question for an economic analysis is what would have happened if control group patients did not receive this experimental treatment). Adjustment methods are primarily from the causal inference literature, and I have a related interest in the use of causal inference methods to estimate comparative effectiveness from registry datasets, particularly in the area of cancer.


Dr Jane McKeown
j.mckeown@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

My research interests are the care and involvement of people who have dementia and I am interested in research methods that enable people’s ‘voices to be heard’.

Dr Robert Marchand
r.marchand@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Resource Efficiency

Research

My research is focused in the areas of Problem Structuring Methodologies and Behavioural Operations Management. I am interested in exploring methodological developments which allow us to understand what we don't know about a problematic situation so that we can facilitate inquiry to bring about appropriate and relevant real world changes that work. I have a particular interest in participatory methodologies for engaging stakeholders in a problematic system, to ensure a human-centred, holistic analysis and understanding can be achieved

Dr Rachel King
rachel.king@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

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.

Dr Joanne Thompson
j.thompson1@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Academic Unit of Medical Education

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

Dr Angela Sorsby
A.Sorsby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

  • Evaluating initiatives
  • Restorative justice
  • Probation supervision
  • Desistance from crime
  • Training of criminal justice practitioners

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research.

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Quantitate research methods and statistics
  • Restorative justice
  • Probation supervision
  • Desistance from crime
  • Training of criminal justice practitioners
Dr Claire Cunnington
claire.cunnington@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies
  • Childhood sexual abuse - both current and historical
  • Research ethics
  • Qualitative methods including insider research
  • Trauma informed research and practice
  • Children’s social work
  • Impact

Claire’s research has mainly focussed on interpersonal violence towards adults and children as well as the social work response. Claire is particularly interested in the lived experience of CSA recovery and the professionals supporting that recovery. Her work looks at how recovering can be conceptualised and facilitated. 
She is also fascinated by participatory research methods, co-production and trauma aware research. Recently she worked with NHS stakeholders and people with lived experience to produce a film (Flow) about disclosing abuse to NHS staff.

Dr Sina Rastani
s.rastani@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Operations Management

My areas of research interests include transportation and logistics systems, sustainable transport planning, electromobility, and applied optimization and operations research, particularly vehicle routing problems and their variants, facility location, and distribution systems, and network optimization.

Dr Fiona Wilson
fiona.wilson@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery
My research interests are in palliative and end of life care, particularly how people make decisions about care and service provision, and older people's care and access to services.  My methodological strengths are in participatory approaches and qualitative research methods. 
Dr Merve Keskin Ozel
M.Keskin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Operations Management and Decision Sciences

My research interests are modelling optimisation problems, especially in the field of transportation and logistics, and applying operational research methodologies to solve them. I have worked on planning the activities of electric vehicles in urban transportation and I am keen to continue exploring new research areas related to green logistics and increasing the use of electric vehicles in the transportation sector.

Dr Warren Pearce
warren.pearce@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Warren’s research lies at the intersection of science, policy and publics, with three main areas of research interest:

  • Climate change communication and policy
  • Public inclusion in research governance
  • The rise of randomised trials within UK public policy


Warren holds a three-year ESRC Future Research Leaders fellowship (2016-19) to investigate the implications of the social media revolution for the science and politics of climate change. He has published in a wide range of high-impact academic journals across the natural, social and health sciences such as Nature, Nature Climate Change, PLOS-ONE, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, Policy Sciences, BMC Trials.

He is committed to discussing and debating his research across a range of locations. He was an invited participant in the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K.’s “Digital Dialogue on Climate Change” held at Winfield House in 2015, and an invited speaker at a Royal Society event on science and society in 2015. He has been an invited speaker on climate change and social media at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Open University, University of Exeter, University of Leeds, Tyndall Centre and University of Bristol. Warren’s research regularly appears in the international media, including The Guardian, The Independent, de Volkstrant, Der Spiegel, Scientific American, Research Fortnight and Huffington Post.

Dr Jason Slade
j.slade@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

I have broad research interests in the fields of planning and planning theory, encompassing commercialisation in contemporary practice, storytelling/narrative, action research, public participation, community-led planning and planning education. My PhD (2013-17) examined the role of narrative/storytelling in planning, particularly its efficacy for facilitating inclusion and democracy in grassroots contexts. The research was closely linked to my involvement with the Westfield Action Research Project (WARP), which saw staff and students in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning supporting community-led planning efforts in Sheffield. Subsequently I worked as a Research Associate on three UKRI funded projects: Working in the public interest?, which was the first major investigation into the increasing involvement of private companies in carrying out planning work for UK local government; Responding to and modelling the impact of Covid-19 for Sheffield’s cultural ecology; and Spaces of Hope, which aimed to unearth the hidden histories of community-led planning in the UK over the last 60 years. This work and experience is the foundation for my enduring interest in participation and inclusion – both in planning and academic research – and related questions around inequality, social justice and democracy. Furthermore, it underpins my commitment to a planning project broadly conceived to include a range of practices and activities – both statutory and non-statutory – and centred on the question of how we collectively make better futures together.

Dr Jessica Bradley
jessica.bradley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

Jessica is an interdisciplinary linguist and ethnographer, with particular research interests in creative practice and the arts (see her personal website https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/dr-jessica-bradley/home). Her research expertise is in creative and artistic methods, ethnographic approaches, and multilingualism, in particular lived experiences of multilingualism. She has led a series of funded research projects in creative approaches to linguistic landscapes, including developing cutting edge participatory and arts based research approaches to language in public space. Recent esearch explores how the arts can support new mothers, parents of young children and communities who experienced isolation during the COVID19 pandemic. Her professional background is in educational engagement in the arts and social sciences and in particular widening participation. She welcomes applications from potential doctoral researchers which engage with lived experiences of multilingualism and difference, motherhood and autoethnography, and is particularly keen on arts based research, ethnographic approaches, and co-production with creative practitioners, children and young people, all areas in which she has published widely.

Dr Katherine Davies
k.davies@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Research interests

My research focuses upon the complexities of personal relationships and the life course and I have a long standing interest in qualitatively driven methodological approaches which can capture the lived experience of everyday lives, times and relationships. My previous research has included a study investigating the social significance of family resemblances and a project researching how associations with friends, neighbours, colleagues and the like matter throughout the life course in both positive and negative ways (both projects were completed with colleagues at The University of Manchester). My PhD research took a relational approach to exploring how young people see themselves as ‘turning out’ in life, with a particular focus on the role of sibling relationships in shaping their ideas about their past, present and future selves. I am currently working with colleagues on an ESRC project entitled ‘Under the Same Roof: The everyday relational practices of contemporary communal living in the UK’ which explores the relational complexities of shared living arrangements including co housing, housing co-ops, private lodgings and shared houses.

  • Kinship and relatedness
  • Friendship, personal relationships and social change
  • Sibling relationships
  • Inheritance and social transmission
  • Life course, youth and childhood
  • Qualitative methodologies


Dr Claire Elcock
c.elcock@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Oral clinical phenotyping, involving the accurate measurement of oral parameters using image analysis.


Normal and abnormal oral growth and development, including investigations into anomalies of tooth number, size, form and structure.


Quantification of dental plaque and periodontal disease.


Child protection, children and young people's oral health, oral neuroscience.

Dr Liz Croot
l.croot@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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
Professor Jonathan Nicholl
J.Nicholl@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are in Health Services and Public Health research.  My main field of research is the evaluation of emergency and urgent first contact care and services, particularly A and E services, including trauma services and chest pain care; ambulance services including helicopter ambulances; and urgent first contact care services including telephone and out-of-hours services.  I also carry out methodological research related to the design of health service evaluations, and I have a particular interest in the use of routine (e-health) data for HSR.

Professor Wendy Baird
w.o.baird@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

Research interest focuses on inequalities in health and access to health services for both those with chronic disabling diseases and those who are socially excluded from care.

  • Health inequalities 
  • Health Services Research and Technology Assessment.
  • Public and patient involvement in research
Professor Robin Purshouse
r.purshouse@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research interests:

Robin's research aims to help improve how we identify and choose between possible solutions to a problem, with a particular focus on the process of policy appraisal. There are a number of factors that make policy appraisal a challenging research area:

  • Multiple trade-offs
  • Multiple stakeholders
  • Deep uncertainty
  • Cognitive challenge
Ms Kitty Nichols
k.nichols@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies
Sheffield Methods Institute

My main research interests are in the broad areas of gender, masculinity,  sexuality, identity, sport, humour, language, emotion and age. I am also interested in research methodology and developing innovative qualitative methods.

I welcome applications to study PhD research degrees, either full or part time in the following areas:

 

    • Masculinity 

    • Gender and sexuality

    • Gender and sport

    • Humour, or banter

    • Gender and emotion

  • Qualitative and ethnographic research methods

 

Dr Lien Monkhouse
L.L.Monkhouse@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

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.

Miss Stephanie Ejegi-Memeh
s.ejegi-memeh@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

My research interests lie mainly in health inequalities and patient experience. I am especially
interested in the areas of health care access and communication between patients and
healthcare professionals. Recent studies have included qualitative research with patients,
family members and staff. This includes studies in the areas of mesothelioma, Type 2
diabetes, ageing, gender and sexual health.
Methodologically, my expertise lies in qualitative research and community engagement.

Dr Elizabeth Such
e.such@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are:-

  • public health and health services research, particularly relating to black, minority ethnic and other marginalised groups
  • migrant health;
  • leisure and everyday, relational life;
  • physical activity and health, particularly in relation to children, young people and families
  • policy making and outcomes in the fields of employment, health and sport;
  • sedentary lifestyles and 'sit less' interventions.
Dr Katie Ellis
k.ellis@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

I am interested in childhood and youth and in the wellbeing of children and families. I am a qualitative researcher and have focused much of my research around children and young people who are living away from their parents. My research covers sensitive topics, such as CSA, youth homelessness, foster care, child abuse and neglect. I am keen to explore the concept of resilience and champion methodologies which allow those termed as 'vulnerable' to share their experiences. 

Dr Edward Yates
edward.yates@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Employment Relations

Edward Yates is a Lecturer in Employment Relations in the School of Management at the University of Sheffield.

Edward is a member of the Centre for Decent Work (CDW) located within the Management School.

Edward’s research explores the relationship between processes of political economy, state regulation, employment relations and labour market outcomes. He is particularly interested in the behaviour of local labour markets, in particular for young workers. Edward’s current research is organised into four main areas:

  1. Local labour markets. Specifically how processes of capitalist accumulation manifest in and through local labour markets and how this is expressed in the behaviour of local state actors, local employers, and workers.
  2. State regulation of work, employment, and labour markets. In particular how shifts in the global economy in the last 50 years have impacted upon state policy for labour market regulation and what this means for workers.
  3. Young workers. Edward’s research examines central and local government policy regarding young workers, wage-rates for young workers, conditions of work and employment, skills and training provision, and the theoretical development of a ‘political economy of youth’.
  4. Work, employment and labour markets in the NHS. This strand of research explores contemporary conditions of work and employment in the NHS for different staff groups and occupations.
    • The research examines: the intensification of working conditions in the NHS, processes of churn and attrition, pension changes, the role of trade unions and professional organisations in the NHS, and NHS financing.

In addition to these four research areas Edward is interested in the theoretical development of critical, global political economy, and in research methodologies.

Mr Chris Blackmore
C.M.Blackmore@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.


Dr Abigail Tazzyman
a.tazzyman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

Abigail joined the Sheffield Methods Institute as a Lecturer in Qualitative Methods in 2020. Previously she had worked at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. Abigail completed a PhD at the University of York in 2015. Her thesis investigated female cultures of body modification across the life course, focusing on how women learn practices and the social norms which surround them. Abigails research has focued on organisational change (particularly within health and social care) and the impliations for workforce and inequalities as well as policy implementation. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, her research interests focus on organisation studies, inequalities and medical sociology/health services research and their intersection.

Abigail would welcome students with an interest in medical sociology, workforce and organisations adbn gender studies .

Dr Hannah Armstrong
hannah.ditchfield@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Sociological Studies

Hannah’s research interests centre on the use and impact of digital media technologies in everyday life. Her PhD (found here) explored online interaction on Facebook specifically focusing on how social media users utilised the affordances of the platform within their everyday talk. She used screen capture technology to record users screens whilst they were online to capture how they edited their messages before sending them to their audience as well as how they managed and negotiated holding multiple conversations at once. This work theoretically drew on Goffman and methodologically on from conversation analysis and highlighted the significance of studying the ‘behind the screen’ spaces of the online world.

Hannah is now working on ‘Living With Data: knowledge, experiences and perceptions of data practice’: a research project funded by The Nuffield Foundation which runs from September 2019 to December 2021. The project aims to understand people’s knowledge, experiences and perceptions of specific data practices in the public sector and explore what they think constitutes fair data practices. 

Hannah’s research interests include: 

  • The study of online interaction 
  • Digital identity and the presentation of self 
  • Datafication of everyday life 
  • Digital research ethics 
Professor Scott Weich
s.weich@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Scott Weich is Professor of Mental Health in ScHARR.  He is also a practicing NHS Consultant Psychiatrist.

His research interests include public mental health and the study of the distribution, causes and consequences of common mental disorders, as well as mental wellbeing.  He has experience of large-scale observational and secondary research looking at socio-economic, ethnic, gender and spatial variation in mental disorders and their outcomes.

Recent research includes the study of compulsion in mental health services, inclding compulsory admission and the use of Community Treatment Orders.  He is also undertaking research into the way in which patient experience data are collected and used to influence service improvement in NHS mental health services.

Prof Weich has an interest in the evaluation of service change in real-world settings.  He is also interested in the evaluating improvements in the efficiency with which existing services are delivered, and in evaluating the use of technology in mental health care, and in the application of experience-based co-design in mental health settings.

Dr Ysabel Gerrard
y.gerrard@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies
My research mainly focuses on how the policies of technology and social media companies further marginalise particular social identities. Broadly speaking, my research interests fall into the following categories:
 
  • Social media content moderation
  • Digital identities (particularly gender and race)
  • Feminist media theory
  • The ethics of social media research
 
I would be particularly interested in supervising students researching one of the following topics:
 
Social media content moderation: I am interested in various aspects of the content moderation process, including: the process of writing policies, the implementation of new rules, press/public responses, and users’ reception and circumvention. I am especially interested in policies that heavily affect marginalised populations, like adult content bans and mental health-related rules.
 
Secret-telling apps: I have begun a new project about secret-telling social media apps and am interested in supervising students who also have interests in this area. 
Professor James Chilcott
j.b.chilcott@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

* Modelling in public health

* Modelling in cancer and cancer screening

* Methodological modelling interests including:

  • the modelling process and errors in HTA models
  • cognitive mapping for systematic reviews in complex settings
  • structural uncertainty in models
  • Bayesian analysis of joint disease natural history and test characteristics in screening
  • value of information methods
  • probabilistic sensitivity analysis methods
  • meta modelling
  • information gathering processes for models
Dr Adam Barker
a.j.barker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Adam J Barker is a Settler Canadian from the territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples in what is currently called Ontario, Canada.

He holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Leicester (2013) and an MA in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria (2007).

Adam researches Indigenous-led and decolonial social movements through the lens of settler colonialism, particularly on Turtle Island (North America).

His work is collaborative and interdisciplinary, drawing on history, political theory, cultural and literary studies, sociology, and other approaches to place-based research.

Ms Kitty Nichols
k.nichols@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

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.

Dr Laura Sutton
l.j.sutton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Statistical methodology for clinical trials
  • Diagnostic accuracy studies
  • Prognostic modelling
Professor Andy Swift

Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

My research interests include the clinical application of novel imaging techniques in patients with pulmonary vascular disease.

Dr Philip Powell
p.a.powell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

hilip (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.

Dr James Fotheringham
j.fotheringham@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Methods and Instruments

  • Within and beyond trial health-economic modelling
  • Patient reported outcome and experience measures - Symptom burden, quality of life (utilities), mapping to the EQ5D
  • Observational data, secondary use of data and data linkage for epidemiology and comparative effectiveness
  • Statistical methods to reduced confounding - Instrumental variables, marginal structural models, G-methods and treatment switching
  • Discrete choice experiments
  • Systematic review and meta-analysis

Topics

  • Health Technology Assessment
  • The two-day break in three times as week haemodialysis
  • The health economics surrounding renal replacement therapy - In centre haemodialysis (range of formats and settings including intensive frequency/duration and minimal care), peritoneal dialysis, home haemodialysis and transplantation
  • Patient centred care, decision making and research prioritisation
Professor Sundari Anitha
S.Anitha@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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
Dr Malcolm Patterson
m.patterson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Research Fellow

PhD Supervision

I am currently supervising PhD students in the following areas:

  • destructive leadership
  • emotions, moods and innovative work behaviour
  • knowledge sharing
  • organisational interventions to enhance employee engagement
  • start-up journeys of entrepreneurs
  • participative action research interventions to improve quality of patient care

I would welcome applications and inquiries in these areas and related areas corresponding to my areas of expertise listed above.

Publications

Knight, C;, Patterson, M.G, Dawson, J and Brown, J (2017). Building and sustaining work engagements- a participatory action intervention to increase work engagement in nursing staff. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26(5) 634-649.

Knight, C;, Patterson, M. and Dawson, J. (2017). Building work engagement: A systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of work engagement interventions. Journal of Organizational Behavior Education, 38(6) 792-812.

Madrid, H.P. and Patterson, M.. Creativity at work as a joint function between openness to experience, need for cognition and organisational fairness. Learning and Individual Differences, forthcoming 2016.

Stephan, U., Patterson, M., Kelly, C. and Mair, J. (2016). Organizations driving positive social change: A reveiw and an intergrative framework of change processes. Journal of Management, 42(5) 2016.

Madrid, H., Patterson, M. and Leiva, P. (2015). Negative core affect and employee silence: How differences in activation, cognitive rumination and problem-solving demands matter. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(6) 1887-1989.

Madrid, H.P., Patterson, M.G., Birdi, K.S. and Leiva, P.I. (2014). The role of weekly high-activated positive mood, context, and personality in innovative work behavior: A multilevel and interactional model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(2) 234-256.

Full list of publications

 

Professor Steve Goodacre
S.Goodacre@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.

Dr Liz Williams
e.a.williams@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

Research Interests

I am a UK registered nutritionist.  My primary research interests are the role of diet in the prevention of chronic disease, healthy ageing and dietary assessment methods in older adults.  I am interested in dietary strategies to improve musculoskeletal health, diet and digestive health and in technology use for supporting people to adopt healthy behaviours. I am also interested in diet and fertility.  My research methods are primarily quantitative, and I have considerable experience in conducting and supervising dietary intervention trials in adult/older adult populations. 

My recent PhD students have studied the following:
- a randomised control trial to investigate the effect of vitamin D on musculoskeletal function in post-menopausal South-Asian women
- dietary pattern analysis in people with colorectal adenoma
- vitamin D for the management of symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome
- complex dietary intervention (physical activity, vitamin D and protein) to prevent musculoskeletal ageing
- development of a novel method of dietary assessment in older adults
Ms Shijie Ren
s.ren@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests 

  • Bayesian statistics in clinical trials and health economics
  • Network meta-analysis
  • Extrapolate time-to-event data
  • Eliciting probability distributions
  • Value of information analysis
Dr Ben Rutter
b.rutter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Human Communication Sciences
School of Allied Health Professions Nursing and Midwifery

Research Interests

  • General and clinical phonetics.
  • Dysarthria and the motor speech disorders.
  • Issues surrounding the measurement and treatment of reduced intelligibility.
  • The role of topic knowledge in the understanding of speech.
Dr Ben Rutter
b.rutter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Human Communication Sciences (old code)
Research interests
  • General and clinical phonetics.
  • Dysarthria and the motor speech disorders.
  • Issues surrounding the measurement and treatment of reduced intelligibility.
  • The role of topic knowledge in the understanding of speech.
Professor Allan Wailoo
a.j.wailoo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Economic evaluation including alongside clinical trials and decision modelling
  • Analysis of patient level data, particularly around health utilities
  • Social values and decision making, including equity and procedural preferences
Professor Tracey Young
t.a.young@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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
Dr Ruth Payne
r.o.payne@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My research interests are in vaccinology and malaria infection. I am particularly interested in looking at the innate responses to vaccination and how these are affected by changes in vaccine regimen or vaccine formulation. I run clinical vaccine trials through the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NIHR Clinical Research Facility, from Phase I to Phase III. 

I have aslo been working with HEE for the past few years to develop support for academic trainees who have taken time out of training to try to inprove transitions beween academia and clinical training through the SuppoRTT program.

Professor Paul Griffiths
p.griffiths@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interests are Paediatric Neuroradiology and in utero MRI scanning.

I am a neuroradiologist who has specialised in diseases of the developing brain therefore much of my clinical and academic work concerns MR imaging the brains of fetuses, neonates and children. The vast majority of my research is patient-centred and I have a good track record of delivering research that informs and changes clinical practice. 

Professor Julian Gunn
j.gunn@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My higher degree was in the field of local coronary artery injury and healing, and my interests since then have exclusively centred on coronary artery disease (CAD), its endovascular treatment with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; angioplasty), the injury and healing resulting from that, computer modelling of CAD, and how we can improve upon the results of PCI. This research spans basic research, in vivo experimentation and translation into clinical studies. I supervise Academic Clinical Fellows and students at BMedSci, MD and PhD level.

Professor Andrew Booth
a.booth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.

Professor Alexander Rothman
a.rothman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My research interests are the pathology and treatment of cardiovascular and pulmonary vascular diseases. My current work focuses on the pathology of pulmonary arterial hypertension and the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Recent pre-clinical studies have led to early phase clinical studies of pulmonary artery denervation and implantable pulmonary artery pressure monitors.

Our work is supported by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council UK and by industrial collaborators. We are greatful for the support of our funders and study participants.

Professor Robert Storey
r.f.storey@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My principal research area is platelet biology and pharmacology. My particular interests are:

  1. platelet P2Y12 receptor and P2Y12 receptor antagonists.
  2. relationships between inflammation and thrombosis.
  3. clinical monitoring of antiplatelet agents.
  4. clinical trials of antithrombotic agents.
  5. genetic influences on platelet function and response to antiplatelet agents.
Dr Katy Cooper
k.l.cooper@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests include:

• Systematic reviews of clinical effectiveness for healthcare interventions
• Development of methods for systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis, including rapid review methods
• Systematic reviews of complex interventions 
• Patient safety and quality of care
• Complementary and alternative medicine research

Professor Enrico Dall'Ara
e.dallara@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

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.

Dr Caroline Mitchell
c.mitchell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Academic Unit of Medical Education

I am a General Practitioner and Senior Clinical Lecturer;  Deputy Academic Training Programme Director NIHR Sheffield Clinical Academic Training programme; Research training and Capacity Building Lead on the ‘PRIME’ NIHR RCUK Global Health Project 

I have research interests in the overlap of physical and mental health problems and health inequity in access to primary care of high risk, underserved populations. I have methodological expertise in health service qualitative and quantitative study design and analysis including the development and evaluation of complex interventions in primary care; recruiting for clinical studies in high risk deprived and/or socially excluded populations.

Current and recent projects:

EDIT: Early Diagnosis Intervention and Treatment of long-term conditions (respiratory disease, T2 Diabetes Mellitus, Cancer) in high-risk populations.  For example postnatal interventions for women with gestational diabetes, primary care interventions to improve respiratory health of high risk populations , for examples: people who use substances; people living with HIV;  people living with severe mental illness  

Co-investigator,  PhD and Clinical Academic Trainee supervisor on the ‘PRIME’ NIHR Global Health Research Group on PReterm bIrth prevention and manageMEnt (PRIME) https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/ptb-grant-reduce-child-death-1.794251. Our LMIC/ UK partnership includes partners in Bangladesh, South Africa and Nigeria. I work as a senior clinical academic within the evidence synthesis, clinical (intervention development, health service delivery)  and social science qualitative research teams  

Postgraduate supervision:

Clinical Academic Trainees; NIHR In practice training fellows; ACF and ACL; Masters; PhD students (multidisciplinary) 

Professor David Kiely
david.kiely1@nhs.net
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

I am the Pulmonary Hypertension Research Theme lead on the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Respiratory Medicine Research Executive and lead the Pulmonary Hypertension Clinical Phenotype and Bioresource stream of the Sheffield Pulmonary Hypertension Research Network, where I collaborate closely with Jim Wild and Andrew Swift (Imaging), Allan Lawrie (Pre-clinical models and drug discovery) and my clinical colleagues in pulmonary hypertension Charlie Elliot, Robin Condliffe, Ian Sabore and Thanos Charalampopoulos. My research is primarily focused on the assessment and classification of pulmonary hypertension and the use of multimodality imaging. I am particularly interested in the use of imaging modalities to understand more about pulmonary vascular disease and I am collaborating with colleagues to understand more about pulmonary vascular disease using modelling and using an in silico approach (Insigneo). I have participated in multiple randomized controlled trials in pulmonary hypertension leading to the licensing of new treatments and have helped translate new imaging techniques into routine clinical practice. I currently participate in a number of research studies funded by the NIHR, MRC and BHF and am part of a UK collaboration characterizing genes and biomarkers in patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Dr Asha Akram
a.akram@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Does not supervisor PhD students


Research interests

Neurodegenerative disorders: Understanding the mechanisms of cell death following ischaemic stroke; Identifying novel targets for pharmacological treatment; Improving outcome for patients through rehabilitation therapy; Bridging the gap between the laboratory to the clinical situation

Mr Leo Appleton
l.appleton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

  • Developing the library workforce (including LIS education; professional skills and competencies of library workers)

  • Academic libraries

  • Role, impact and value of public library services

  • Health and NHS Library Services / Clinical Librarianship

  • Critical librarianship practice

  • Library classification systems (application / development / issues and challenges of bias)

Professor Jaime Delgadillo
j.delgadillo@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Psychology

My clinical interests are in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for depression, anxiety and addiction problems. My research primarily focuses on the development of methods to predict and prevent poor treatment outcomes (i.e. dropout, persistent distress after therapy, relapse) and to optimally match patients to specific interventions.

Dr Michelle Horspool
m.horspool@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

As well as having an interest and clinical background in substance misuse and mental health (which was the area or work for my PhD), I have experience in designing and delivering complex interventions, as well as the feasibility, design and recruitment to studies within primary care and pharmacy settings. 

Dr Alberto Marzo
a.marzo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Research interests

Dr Marzo's research area stands at the interface between the physical and life sciences. It is firmly rooted in engineering and mathematics in the context of computational fluid mechanics, including state-of-the-art fluid-structure interaction, and cardiovascular biomechanics, but has a strong emphasis on clinical interpretation and translation of engineering technologies into clinical tools.
  • Numerical modelling of wall motion in cardiovascular applications
  • Image-based computational vascular haemodynamics
  • Minimally invasive image-based interventional planning and guidance
  • Influence of haemodynamics on cardiovascular disease
  • Influence of lifestyle on haemodynamics and cardiovascular disease
  • Fluid structure interaction and flow-induced oscillations in elastic vessels
Dr Alisdair McNeill
a.mcneill@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience

My research interest focuses on the genetic cause of neurological disorders, in children and adults. I am identifying new ways of phenotyping patients in order to improve diagnosis and disease monitoring. For example, using patient wearable movement sensors (collaboration with INSIGNEO) in adults with neurological disorders and 3-dimensional facial image analysis (collaboration with Prof Peter Hammond, Oxford) in children with chromosome microdeletions. I am also interested in studying variants of uncertain significance identified in clinical genetics testing, and resolving their pathogenicity through clinical phenotyping and in vitro studies

Professor Stephen Wharton
s.wharton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

Current interests lie in the clinical and molecular pathology of brain ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. Major areas:

Pathology of cognitive impairment – through involvement with the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study. This study takes a population-based approach to the neuropathology of dementia.

The role of astrocytes in brain ageing and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Oxidative and nucleic acid damage in brain ageing.

White matter pathology in dementia

Motor system pathology and tissue banking in collaboration with Prof Ince and Prof Shaw.

Diagnostic interests in neuro-oncology related to clinical practice in this area.

Professor Arshad Majid
arshad.majid@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

Professor Majid's focus is translational cerebrovascular disease research.  The models that are used in his research include both in vitro models (cell culture) and in vivo models (focal ischaemia and global ischaemia).  He is interested in understanding the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular diseases with the intention of developing new treatment and brain repair strategies.  To this end, his lab has been successful in developing two novel treatments which are undergoing further preclinical testing before they are taken to the clinic.  He has a particular interest in ischaemic preconditioning, a fascinating phenomenon whereby animals exposed to sub-lethal or mild insults develop protection against subsequent severe insults.  His lab has developed a mouse model of ischaemic preconditioning which is used extensively in their research efforts.

Other research interests and areas of collaboration include: large animal (ovine) models of stroke, clinical outcomes research, clinical trials, stroke epidemiology and translational bioengineering.

I would welcome enquiries from students interested in pursuing a doctorate in translational and clinical research.

Dr Elspeth Whitby
e.whitby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

Imaging the fetus is routine during pregnancy in most countries. Ultrasound is the technique of choice as it is widely available and does not harm the fetus or mother. Despite major advances in ultrasound technology there are situations where it is necessary to know more or see more of the fetus. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is possible and during the last 20-25 years research has shown that MR is a valuable adjunct to ultrasound for fetal imaging. Over the last 12 years I have been involved in assessing the value of fetal MR in clinical practice and also developing additional sequences to image specific pathologies.
Outcome data is essential for such studies and I work closely with my clinical colleagues in neonatology, pathology and obstetrics to collect this data. This has lead to other avenues of research including imaging of the neonate with MR and imaging of the post-mortem fetus and neonate with MR in both the research and clinical settings.
Links have been established with psychology to study how the brain structure, as seen on imaging, relates to development in the term and premature infant.
Collaboration with social sciences allows us to look at the sociology of health, science and technology in fetal imaging and its impact in society.
The placenta plays an important role during the pregnancy and abnormalities of the placenta can affect the mother and the fetus. Recently, I have started to look at the placenta using MR. The majority of the work focuses on developing sequences that can determine whether the placenta has invaded into the uterine wall, if so by how much and at where. This involves a multidisciplinary team to ensure accurate follow up and outcome data.
In all areas of research I aim to translate the results into clinical practice as soon as possible and this means working very closely with clinical colleagues without whom I could not do any research.

Mrs Elizabeth Taylor Buck
e.taylor-buck@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are in child and adolescent mental health and interventions that focus on the relationship between child and caregiver. In 2009 I was awarded an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship. I used a mixed methods design to create an online manual of dyadic art therapy.

Research Methods I can Supervise

  • Mixed Methods
  • Manual Development

Specific Areas of Interest

  • Child and adolescent mental health
  • Parent-child interventions
  • Parenting interventions
  • Early years 
  • Art therapy
Dr Gemma Arblaster
g.arblaster@sheffield.ac.uk

Ophthalmology and Orthoptics

I am a clinical academic Orthoptist with an interest in strabismus, binocular single vision, eye movements, low vision and orthoptics. I have a special interest in projects that measure the outcomes of treatments for strabismus, functional outcomes and eye movement disorders, such as nystagmus. My previous research has been quantitative, but more recently has also included mixed methods research. Please contact me if you would like to discuss research in these areas.

Dr Olena Mandrik
o.mandrik@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interest is in evaluation of healthcare interventions through modelling the long-term clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

Specific areas of interest:

  • Evaluations of public health programmes
  • Screening and early detection
  • Natural history disease modelling
  • Cancer modelling
  • Calibration of the models
  • Transferability of models and cost-effectiveness studies
  • Global research
Mr Ola Rominiyi
o.rominiyi@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience

My research interest focuses on understanding spatial intratumoural heterogeneity in high-grade brain tumours with a particular focus on responses to DNA damage and leveraging this knowledge to deliver new ways to monitor and treat disease in patients. I aim to combine a long-term ethos of excellence in clinical and surgical practice with internationally excellent academic research to ensure the best possible care and outcomes are extended to patients both now and in the future. I would be pleased to discuss PhD opportunities in areas including: DNA repair inhibitors and combinations; tumour treating fields; development of clinically- and surgically-relevant patient-derived 2D and 3D models; surgically-delivered therapies; early detection of tumour recurrence; surgical device development, and; early phase (including phase 0 / window-of-opportunity) clinical trials.

Dr Vitor de Carvalho Moreno das Neves
v.neves@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Clinical Dentistry

I am a specialist in Periodontology, with a MSc and PhD in Translational & Regenerative Dentistry.


I am qualified in Brazil and in the UK, with over a decade of experience in clinical and research
environments.


I have been dedicating my life to understand the body biology, so that new oral health interventions are fully based on the natural biological processes of body. I have a strong track record of restorative dentistry research, having completed my PhD (2014-2018), supervised by Professor Paul Sharpe, on operative dentistry biology, which produced high impact research on dental pulp stem cell biology. My research has the potential to transform the way that teeth cavities are treated in the future, making current filling strategies obsolete. Additionally, during my NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship (2019-2023), I developed periodontal research with focus on ageing and glucose metabolism, by using an array of research methodologies, such as pre-clinical, computational biology, microbiological sequencing, and clinical research. I administrated an international research group based in the UK and in Brazil, which together achieved excellent results repurposing Metformin as new drug for the management of periodontal disease. My work was awarded the 2022 Sir Wilfred Fish Prize (BSP) and received attention from national and international media outlets.


My focus will be to continue these lines of research bringing positive media attention to the cutting-edge research taking place at your university and building new and beneficial collaborations within and outside the University.

My career ambition is to shape the future of Dentistry via molecular biology, genetics and
epigenetics, developing techniques that are industry viable and affordable for the general public.
The dream being to help patients to naturally grow and repair their own oral tissues and organs.

Dr Mahnaz Arvaneh
M.Arvaneh@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Biomedical signal processing, machine learning and pattern recognition
  • Statistical and adaptive signal processing, and mathematical modelling of bioelectric signals
  • Neural and cognitive process, clinical applications, and understanding
  • Brain–computer interface algorithms, systems, adaptation, and applications
  • Robotic and BCI-based stroke rehabilitation
  • Neuroprosthetic learning and control
  • Medical system and device research and development

Keywords: Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Dr Vanessa Hearnden
v.hearnden@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Vanessa’s research focuses on tissue engineering as a tool to both understand the fundamentals of disease processes and to develop novel diagnostic and treatment strategies.

Tissue engineering of soft tissues for the treatment of disease

Vanessa is interested in developing tissue engineered products and biomaterials for the treatment of disease or injury, in particular those affecting the oral mucosa. She has a strong interest in clinical translation and has a network of clinical collaborators.

Three dimensional in vitro models of oral cancer

Vanessa, along with colleagues in the School of Clinical Dentistry, developed a series of tissue engineered models ranging from healthy oral epithelium to precancerous dysplastic lesions and invasive squamous cell carcinoma. These three dimensional in vitro models provide a valuable tool for studying many aspects of tumour biology  as well as novel diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

Fat derived cells for soft tissue wound healing

It is well known adipose tissue contains large quantities of mesenchymal stems cells but how best do we isolate, process and utilise these cells from fat to heal soft tissue wounds?

Dr Mark Hepple
m.r.hepple@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Dr Hepple has wide-ranging interests across Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, and has published on many topics, including formal grammar and parsing, information extraction, clinical text mining, temporal information processing, robust dialogue processing, and efficient storage of large-scale linguistic data.

Professor Mark Wilkinson
j.m.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

Joint arthroplasty mechanisms of failure
Cytokine genetics
Metabolic bone disease
Novel biological therapies for osteolysis
Surrogate outcome markers for implant performance and failure
Clinical outcomes measurement after THA
Genetics of bone shape and remodelling responses to disease
Genetics of osteoarthritis
Effects of metal ion exposure on bone and other organ systems

Professor Susan Mawson
s.mawson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research focuses on improving the quality of life of people with long term conditions, particularly through exploration of the effectiveness of rehabilitative interventions and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support the self-management of the rehabilitation process. My research work, funded predominantly through the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, and latterly the NIHR CLAHRC Y&H, has capitalised on new innovations in sensor and digital technologies and involves interdisciplinary work, integrating clinical rehabilitation researchers with engineering, design, mecatronics, informatics and digital media specialists.

Dr Paul Taylor
P.M.Taylor@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My research interests include prognostication and clinical decision-making, particularly with respect to end of life care.  In addition to developing my own ambitions, I have worked with St Luke’s on their existing research portfolio, including EnComPaSS and project ECHO. 

I have collaborated with researchers nationally to support St Luke’s involvement with the £1.3m Yorkshire Cancer Research funded RESOLVE study, and the NIHR portfolio StOIC study, exploring management of opioid-induced constipation in cancer patients.

In collaboration with colleagues at ScHARR, I am undertaking research into Avoiding Emergency Admissions in Palliative Patients, funded by the Sheffield Health Care Challenges Collaboration.

Dr Catriona Mayland
c.r.mayland@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

My research interests are focused on palliative and end-of-life care. In particular, I am interested in conducting research in the following areas:

  • Integration of palliative care – within routine oncological care and within primary care
  • Head and neck cancer
  • Assessment of quality of care for dying patients
  • Engagement of bereaved relatives within research
  • Development, validation and use of outcome measures

I am currently undertaking a Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) Senior Clinical Research Fellowship. My post-doctoral work has focused on the development, validation and use of outcome measures to evaluate the quality of care in the last days of life, as perceived by bereaved relatives. My tool, ‘Care Of the Dying Evaluation’ (CODE), is a post-bereavement questionnaire which has been used on an international basis to help identify and improve aspects of clinical care. Additionally, I have developed work on improving palliative care for specific complex groups, such as those with head and neck cancer. I use both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

Professor Paul Hatton
paul.hatton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Professor Hatton has interests in biomaterials, medical devices and tissue engineering for clinical applications in human skeletal tissues. The five major themes for his research are (1) the development of bioactive glasses and ceramics for mineralised tissue repair, (2) glass-ionomer bone cements, (3) In vitro evaluation of biocompatibility, and (4) Cartilage and bone tissue engineering on biomaterial scaffolds. He is also active more broadly in the promotion of academic-industrial collaboration and technology transfer in the orthopaedic, craniofacial and dental material sectors. See "Links" below for more details on this and the wider research of the Biomaterials Research Group.

Dr Matthew Kurien
m.kurien@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My research interests are in small bowel disease and clinical nutrition, with outputs predominantly in coeliac disease and gastrostomy feeding. Other research interests include gastrointestinal bleeding, bile acid diarrhoea and irritable bowel syndrome.

In coeliac disease my work has focused on detection, using differing endoscopic techniques and point of care tests. I am now examining the autoimmune association between Coeliac disease and Type 1 Diabetes, and also investigating the overlap with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. In gastrostomy feeding, my research has aimed at improving patient selection for this intervention. In 2016, I was awarded the Julie Wallace Award by the Nutrition Society for my contributions to this field.

Professor Sheila MacNeil
s.macneil@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Her research focuses on developing tissue engineering which will benefit patients, alongside fundamental work to develop new understanding and tools in the area of tissue engineering. Her primary research interests are in tissue engineering of soft tissues – skin, oral mucosa, urethra and cornea, with a strong focus on translating research for clinical benefit. Her group have a long history of working with clinical NHS colleagues using tissue engineered skin to benefit burns patients (from 1992) and more recently patients with chronic ulcers (2004) and patients requiring reconstructive surgery of the urethra (from 2007). She has developed the product Myskin™ which was clinically evaluated and developed commercially and has been available in the UK for patients with extensive skin loss due to burns injuries and to chronic non-healing ulcers from 2005, currently available through the company Altrika. Additionally she has developed 3D tissue engineered models used to study a wide range of normal and abnormal conditions spanning wound healing, skin contracture, pigmentation, melanoma invasion, angiogenesis, bacterial infection and skin sensitisation.

Prof Dame Pamela Shaw
pamela.shaw@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

The Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, established as part of a major strategic initiative within the University of Sheffield is well-placed to harness the revolutionary developments in biomedical science for the benefit of patients with neurodegenerative disease. The major goal of my group is to elucidate the functioning of motor neurones in health and disease and to translate these basic science findings into health benefits for patients afflicted with degenerative motor system disorders.

My research group consists of a multidisciplinary team of basic and clinical scientists investigating molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in disorders of the human motor system, particularly motor neurone disease (MND), spinal muscular atrophy and hereditary spastic paraparesis (HSP). The Neurology group is closely linked with Neuropathology, headed by Professor Paul Ince. The research resources underpinning this programme include clinical material (Biobanks of DNA, blood RNA, CSF, fibroblasts and CNS tissue donated by patients for research); and in vitro and in vivo experimental models employed to investigate molecular mechanisms of motor neurone injury including genetic perturbations, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and disorders of RNA processing.

Dr Paul Collini
p.collini@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interest is in the innate immune response to pneumococcal infection in HIV, with a specific focus on the role of the macrophage. My MRC clinical training fellowship title is `The modulation of macrophage apoptosis during S. pneumoniae infection by HIV-1 or antiretroviral agents´.

I also have an ongoing interest in the roll out of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV in resource-poor settings. Specifically, I continue to follow a closed cohort of Ghanaian HIV patients on ART in collaboration with researchers from the KNUST in Ghana and the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough and Newcastle University in the UK.

Professor Sara Fovargue
s.j.fovargue@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

I have been teaching and researching issues relating to health law and ethics, and family law (particularly relating to children) for over 20 years and I am passionate about these subjects. I have also taught Criminal Law, English Legal Systems/Legal Methods, and Gender and the Law.

Research interests

Health care law and ethics generally - specifically:

  • Consent and Capacity
  • Decision Making for the 'Vulnerable'
  • Risk and Regulation
  • Clinical Research Involving Human and Non-human Animals
  • Developing and Emerging Biotechnologies (such as xenotransplantation)
  • Reproduction and Reproductive Technologies
  • Organ Donation and Transplantation
  • Conscientious Objection

Family law:

  • Parents, Parenthood and Reproductive Technologies
  • Children and Health
  • Children and Childhood
Professor James Wild
j.m.wild@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research focus is the physics and engineering and clinical applications of MR imaging of hyperpolarised gases (3He and 129Xe) and protons in the lungs and pulmonary vasculature.

Physics and engineering projects include:

  • rapid acquisition methods for imaging of inhaled hyperpolarised gases using compressed sensing, steady state free precession and parallel imaging.
  • Techniques for simultaneous imaging of 1H, 3He and 129Xe in the lungs.
  • RF coil hardware engineering for 3He and 129Xe lung MRI.
  • 3He and 129Xe MRI at different magnetic field strengths.
  • Spin exchange optical pumping physics for polarisation of 3He and 129Xe.
  • Measuring and modelling gas flow and diffusion in the lungs; physiological models of alveolar geometry and gas exchange.
Professor John Newell-Price
j.newellprice@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

John Newell-Price Is Professor of Endocrinology. He trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and then the Royal London Hospital. He did his specialist training in endocrinology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where he was an MRC Training Fellow from 1995-1998, and ahs been at the University of Sheffield since 2000.  At Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust he leads the busy Specialist Endocrine Services. 

The focus of both his clinical and basic research is glucocorticoids (steroids). His group has identified important aspects of epigenetic regulation of proopiomelanocortin, the key regulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and now is using this information to design strategies to modify over-expression in conditions of excess hormone secretion, such as Cushing's disease.

The clinical research programme has been investigating means of inhibiting excess ACTH and cortisol in man and improving cortisol replacement in adrenally insufficient patients, in first in man studies to Phase 3 registration studies. 

Other work focuses on the diagnostic and management strategies for patients with Cushing's syndrome, and those also for patients with neuroendocrine tumours.

Professor Michael Cork
M.J.Cork@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interests are inflammatory skin disorders including: atopic dermatitis (atopic eczema), psoriasis, alopecia areata and vitiligo. The group which includes both clinical and non-clinical staff has identified genetic variants associated with all of these diseases.

Internationally, the Academic Unit of Dermatology Research is one of the leading groups translating basic dermatological science into new treatments for the clinic. Examples include `Skin Protease Inhibitors´ and `Vitamin A Metabolic Pathway Inhibitors´. In 2001, with help from The Wellcome Trust, the group formed a `spin-out´ company called `Molecular SkinCare´, with the aim of developing these treatments.

Another major focus of the group is the effect of topical pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and oils on the structure and function of the skin barrier. Research in this area comprises investigation of the skin barrier defect associated with skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis, how skin barrier defects develop and how to treat or repair the skin barrier defect. This includes the determination of the effect of topical agents/products on the skin of volunteers visiting our clinical diagnostic `skin laboratory´, where we can measure specific properties of the skin barrier, non-invasively, using an array of specialised equipment. These results are then correlated with variants in the genes that determine the structure and function of the skin barrier.

Research conducted by the AuDR is at the interface between the clinic, academia and industry. Work has been funded by charities, including: The Wellcome Trust, British Skin Foundation and Psoriasis Association; also by the Kuwait Ministry of Health; and by pharmaceutical/cosmetics companies; including Astellas, Johnson & Johnson and Stiefel-GSK.

Professor Ingunn Holen
i.holen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

My main research interest is understanding how cancer spreads to the skeleton, in order to identify new therapeutic approaches that will prevent this from happening. Around 80% of patients with advanced breast and prostate cancer will experience that their cancer spreads to the skeleton, resulting in pain, weakening of the bone and sometimes fractures. At this stage the cancer is incurable, with patients living an average of 2 years. In order to improve patient outcome we need to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underpin cancer progression in bone, which is the focus of my research.

The research in my team is focussed on tumour cell dissemination in bone, and how this is influenced by the microenvironment in breast and prostate cancer. We use cutting edge technology to study the early stages of bone metastasis and how single cancer cells may remain dormant or start to proliferate when encountering different environments. We work to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in tumour cell-bone cell interactions, and how these can be targeted by anti-cancer therapies, including CDK4/6 inhibitors. We also investigate the role of the microenvironment in driving progression of bone metastases, the effects of female hormones, and how therapeutic agents affect the bone and tumour vasculature.

I have several collaborative projects both with other researchers in the medical school, nationally and internationally. I work closely with my clinical colleagues on translational research projects, transferring the results from our laboratory projects into clinical feasibility studies.

Students will be part of a enthusiastic team of post docs, technicians and clinical fellows that all work on related projects, have the opportunity to use a range of techniques and to present their work at workshops and conferences.

Dr Charlotte Elder
c.j.elder@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

My main research area is adrenal insufficiency, with the development of a non-invasive Short Synacthen Test (diagnostic test for adrenal insufficiency), with a novel formulation of Synacthen (Nasacthin) for nasal administration and the measurement of the glucocorticoid response in saliva samples. I have led a team over five pharmacokinetic studies in adults and children and am currently working up the next phase of clinical trials. There is a patent application filed for the novel formulation and both commercial and research arms to the current workstream. I am involved with other related projects, particularly iatrogenic adrenal insufficiency caused by prescribed corticosteroids. 


My other research interests include a cross-discipline bioengineering project developing pubertal simulation tools for training purposes.

Dr Mark Fenwick
m.a.fenwick@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

My current research is focused on the regulation of follicle development in the mammalian ovary. In particular, I am interested in the early, gonadotrophin-independent stages and how various signalling pathways are used to establish gradients and communication networks in a three-dimensional context. 

The aim of these projects is to understand how the ovary, with its limited supply of oocytes, is able to selectively encourage some follicles to develop in a timely manner, while others remain in a relatively quiescent state. We use molecular tools and 3D imaging to investigate these processes in ex vivo cultures and draw novel insight from mathematical models. Part of this research is being investigated within the clinical context of disorders of follicle development such as Premature Ovarian Failure and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Professor Roger Moore
r.k.moore@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Prof. Moore has over forty years experience in speech technology R&D, and much of his research has been based on insights derived from human speech perception and production.  In recent years, he has been working on a unified theory of spoken language processing in the general area of 'Cognitive Informatics' called 'PRESENCE' (PREdictive SENsorimotor Control and Emulation). PRESENCE weaves together accounts from a wide variety of different disciplines concerned with the behaviour of living systems - many of them outside the normal realms of spoken language - and compiles them into a new framework that is intended to breathe life into a new generation of research into spoken language processing, especially for Autonomous Social Agents and Human-Robot Interaction.

Prof. Moore is involved in collaborations aimed at Clinical Applications of Speech Technology (particularly for  individuals with speaking difficulties) as well as Creative Applications of Speech Technology through interactions with colleagues from the performing arts.

Dr Venet Osmani
v.osmani@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School
The Medical School

Research Interests

My research interests are in developing machine learning methods, to address some of the fundamental questions in medicine. These include:

- predictive modelling

- explainable AI

- generative adversarial approaches (GAN)

- causal inference

- health inequality and bias

My work focuses on analysis of large-scale, longitudinal health records, including:

- biomarkers

- imaging

- multi-omics

- routine care data 

The aim is to optimise treatment strategies, improve patient care, and provide novel insights to health institutions.

Apart from clinical data, I also work on incorporating human behaviour data, such as those generated from wearable devices, with a particular focus on mental health.

The overarching objective of my research is to integrate predictive modelling in the bedside and bring the acquired evidence back, in a continuously improving feedback loop, consequently establishing a learning health system.

 

PhD Supervision

I will consider project proposals that relate to the aspects mentioned above.

Professor Chris Burton
chris.burton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Academic Unit of Medical Education
Division of Population Health

I am an academic GP with a particular interest in how doctors and patients deal with persistent physical symptoms. My work aims to help doctors explain symptoms constructively. We recognise that symptoms have both peripheral (body) and central (brain) processes and the challenge is to translate developments in science, particularly neuroscience, into explanations which safely make sense of symptoms for patients and lead to better management

I have other interests around diagnosis, testing and reassurance, and healthcare use in relation to both mental and physical ill-health. I use a variety of methods including analysis of large data, development and evaluation of clinical interventions, and technological innovation.

Within the university I lead the Academic Unit of Primary Care, and represent the Academic Unit of Medical Education on faculty research committees. I am a member of the Centre for Urgent Care Research within ScHARR.

Dr Shannon Li
xinshan.li@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr Li's research interest is in the human musculoskeletal system, particularly on personalised finite element modelling of bones and skeletal muscles. Dr Li is particularly interested in applying these modelling methods to study a range of clinical problem, from bone fracture to improvements on female health. Dr Li is currently creating a database for bone strength in young children, in order to create a tool for the diagnosis of unexplained fracture in children. She is collaborating with Sheffiled and Germany to improve women's health using computational modelling. Dr Li is also interested in the biomechanics of skeletal muscles to understand the healthy and diseased states.

Research keywords
  • Biomechanics of bones and skeletal muscles
  • Nonlinear finite element analysis
  • Organ-level modelling of the musculoskeletal system
  • Continuum mechanics
Professor Ray Wilkinson
ray.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Human Communication Sciences
School of Allied Health Professions Nursing and Midwifery

Research Interests

Ray Wilkinson’s research focuses on human communication within everyday social interaction, and in particular how participants manage communication when one or more of them do not have the full set of linguistic or cognitive resources available to a neurotypical adult native language speaker. Much of his work investigates the nature of atypical interaction, in particular social interactions involving people with acquired brain damage such as aphasia and the communicative impairments secondary to dementia or traumatic brain injury. He has also published on the development of interactional competence in normally-developing children, and on the communicative conduct of non-human primates. He is a co-author of SPPARC (Supporting Partners of People with Aphasia in Relationships and Conversation), a clinical assessment and intervention resource for speech and language therapists, and has published a number of papers on how interaction-focused intervention can improve everyday communication for people with aphasia and their significant others.

Professor Ray Wilkinson
ray.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Human Communication Sciences (old code)

Research interests

Ray Wilkinson’s research focuses on human communication within everyday social interaction, and in particular how participants manage communication when one or more of them do not have the full set of linguistic or cognitive resources available to a neurotypical adult native language speaker. Much of his work investigates the nature of atypical interaction, in particular social interactions involving people with acquired brain damage such as aphasia and the communicative impairments secondary to dementia or traumatic brain injury. He has also published on the development of interactional competence in normally-developing children, and on the communicative conduct of non-human primates. He is a co-author of SPPARC (Supporting Partners of People with Aphasia in Relationships and Conversation), a clinical assessment and intervention resource for speech and language therapists, and has published a number of papers on how interaction-focused intervention can improve everyday communication for people with aphasia and their significant others.

Professor Dilichukwu Anumba
d.o.c.anumba@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

I am Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Sheffield and Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I am Training Programme Supervisor for the Maternal and Fetal Medicine subspecialty in Sheffield. I run clinical services addressing high risk pregnancies, prenatal diagnosis and therapy and prematurity prevention.

I am Principal Investigator on several Project Grants funded by the UK’s Department of Health, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Medical Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), developing technologies for preterm birth risk assessment and interventions to mitigate preterm birth and other pregnancy complications.

I am Director of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Preterm Birth Prevention and Management (PRIME) - an interdisciplinary research alliance working across UK, Africa (currently South Africa - Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg; Nigeria – Kano, Benin and Ilishan), and South East Asia (currently Bangladesh and Karnataka India).

My translational research projects have attracted over £8million of grant income in the last 8 years and mainly focus on the physiology of human birth, reproductive immunology and reducing health inequalities.

I have supervised 18 PhD/MD students, and 10 Postdocs in the last 10 years amongst other. Areas in which I am able to supervise PhD/MD studentships and include:

·      Molecular biology of human parturition
·      Reproductive immunology of high-risk pregnancies and recurrent pregnancy loss
·      Global maternal and Newborn health
·      Health inequalities in maternal newborn health
·      Premature birth, still birth, pre-eclampsia, placental disorders.
·      Clinical and laboratory Maternal and Fetal Medicine

Dr Ilida Ortega Asencio
i.ortega@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

I specialize in developing advanced tools to study cell behavior through topographically controlled scaffolds created via biofabrication techniques, including electrospinning and additive manufacturing. My expertise extends to dental materials and the design of intelligent scaffolds for tissue regeneration, encompassing hard and soft tissues like bone, cornea, and skin.

My educational journey includes a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from The University of Alicante, a Master's degree in Biomaterials from The University Autónoma of Madrid, and a Ph.D. earned at The Institute of Bioengineering, University of Elche, Spain. After completing my Ph.D., I conducted research as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, supported by the Wellcome Trust. Subsequently, I secured a competitive EPSRC E-TERM Landscape Fellowship. Since 2014, I have been part of The School of Clinical Dentistry in Sheffield, initially as a Lecturer and now as a Senior Lecturer in Dental Materials and Manufacturing Science.

Dr Richard Mead
r.j.mead@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Dr Mead has developed and implemented a strategy for small molecule drug development within SITraN. This has enabled the identification of a CNS penetrating Nrf2-ARE pathway activating molecule with activity in MND/ALS preclinical models which is suitable for further clinical development (figure 1). This compound has gone from discovery through to orphan designation, with the European Medicines Agency, for treatment of MND/ALS.

Dr Mead is also interested in refining the screening methodology in preclinical models of ALS with particular regard to addressing variability issues, improving readouts, and reducing numbers and the time required to obtain robust data (PLoS One 2011. 6(8), e23244). Dr Mead has assessed a range of therapeutic approaches in this model over the past 7 years.

Research focused on drug discovery in motor neurone disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (MND/ALS), from target identification, through in vitro screening to in vivo disease model testing. Specific areas include:

  • Pharmacological manipulation of in vitro and in vivo model systems to dissect mechanisms in MND
  • Improving screening methodologies, evolving new in vivo screening paradigms with improved welfare, reduced biological variation and faster throughput
  • Target identification and traditional high throughput screening
  • Development and screening of phenotypic assays using high content imaging
  • Identification of ‘translational’ biomarkers, applicable in both preclinical and clinical settings
  • Investigating novel cell therapy paradigms in MND/ALS
  • Assist in the design and execution of therapeutic studies in the spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) preclinical model.
Dr Nicola Green
n.h.green@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

 Nicola's research portfolio can be divided into these main areas:

The generation and testing of biohybrid scaffolds for tissue engineering

Biohybrid scaffolds are synthetic scaffolds enhanced with biological components derived from the extracellular matrix (ECM). Nicola's research focuses upon using cells to generate this ECM, enhancing the process through environmental cues and evaluating the efficacy of the resulting scaffolds.

Characterisation and modulation of the cellular response to biomaterials at multi-length scales

This research investigates the heterogeneity of scaffolds and assessing the cellular response to this at a range of length scales. This work aims to allow a targeted development of biomaterials to modulate cellular behaviour through specific changes in the biomaterial properties.

Creation of scaffolds for replacement and repair of multiple tissue types

Scaffolds to replace or repair one cell or tissue type only do not fit many clinical needs. This research area centres around developing scaffolds structured to fulfil the needs of the different cell types that make up more complex structures, and the creation of localised environments to promote particular cellular responses, with a focus upon the musculoskeletal system.

Tissue engineered constructs as in vitro models

This aspect of the portfolio considers the development and use of tissue engineered constructs as models of disease pathogenesis and progression, and for drug pipeline testing. It has included the development of a models for the early events in cancer, and investigation of metastasis and invasion.

Professor Janine Kirby
j.kirby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School
Research Interests

My research interests are the genetics of MND and how gene expression profiling can be used to investigate the pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegeneration and to identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. MND is genetically heterogeneous, with over 25 loci identified for the most common form of the disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the causative genes have been identified at most of these through the application of next generation sequencing. ALS can also be associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and some of the ALS genes are also associated with familial FTD.

Since individuals with known genetic variants of MND are generally indistinguishable from sporadic patients in the clinical setting, the disease is thought to progress along common pathways which result in the death of the motor neurones. Therefore, by understanding the pathogenic mechanisms in the genetic variants of the disease, it is hoped that the results will be widely applicable to other cases where the cause is currently unknown.

My research therefore focuses on obtaining gene expression profiles from experimental models of the disease and from patient and control samples, in order to both elucidate the reasons why the motor neurones are dying and to also identify useful diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of ALS. More recently, my research has focused on looking at the impact of therapeutic treatments by profiling the blood transcriptome.

Dr Chen Chen
chen.chen2@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Computer Vision for Healthcare

Dr. Chen Chen Chen is a Lecturer in Computer Vision at the University of Sheffield. Dr. Chen's research primarily revolves around the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare. Her work aims to develop and validate robust, data-efficient, and reliable machine learning algorithms that can enhance the scalability of AI-driven medical data analysis in practical applications. 

Dr Chen welcomes research students interested in the following areas:

  • Robust machine learning

  • Data-efficient learning: self-supervised learning, few-shot learning, semi-supervised learning

  • Multi-task and multi-modal learning, e,g., large language model guided representation learning

  • Adaptive machine learning, including unsupervised domain adaptation at training/test time

  • Algorithms with fairness, privacy, robustness, and interpretability in mind, including uncertainty-aware training, test time model calibration;

as  well as in their clinical applications including:

  • Medical image analysis (image segmentation, registration, motion analysis, and shape remodelling)

  • Quality control (e.g. topology preserving, uncertainty measurement, explainable AI for medicine)

  • Follow-up diagnosis, prognosis, survival/risk prediction, treatment planning

Please visit her personal website for more information.

Mr Matthew Franklin
matt.franklin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My current interests are in the use of routinely collected care data for the purpose of costing analysis, economic analysis and decision modelling. I also have an interest in the capability-approach and extra-wefarism and its conceptual and practical application to economic evaluations and decision making, and the conceptual and practical use of outcome measures in general.

I can supervise students interested in the use of large databases of rountinely collected care data for health economic analysis and decision modelling problems. These databases include, but are not limited to:

  • Secondary Uses Service (SUS)
  • Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)
  • Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)
  • ResearchOne
The aforementioned are some of the more commonly used databases, but I have experience using rountinely collected care data from primary, secondary, intermediate, mental health, ambulance and social care services. 
 
I can also supervise students interested in the conceptual and practical basis of using outcome measures for the purpose of economic evaluation; this includes those students interested in the extra-welfarist approach to welfare economics in relation to the market for health and healthcare.
 
I have more specific interests in research focussed on frail older people, dementia, cognitive impairement and more generalised mental health conditions.

 

Professor Rob Short
rob.short@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemistry

Rob studied Chemistry (BSc) and Physical Chemistry (PhD) at the University of Durham (UK) and joined the Department of Engineering Materials at the University of Sheffield in 1988, where he held the Chair of Material and Biomaterial Chemistry from 2001. During this period, Rob helped develop a materials-cell technology (myskin) for treating severe burns and scalds; adopted in the UK by the NHS, this technology was used over a decade in all the UK’s major burns centres. Rob also established Plasso Technology, an advanced materials for life science research company. Plasso developed technology that now underpins a range of products (PureCoatTM) sold globally for cell culture and cell therapy.  

In 2006, Rob joined the University of South Australia, where he held the positions of Director of an advanced manufacturing research institute, Dean of Research and Pro Vice Chancellor and Vice President. At the invitation of the Minister of Education he served on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts for three years.  

In Australia, he successfully co-led bids for an A$110M national centre for wound management innovation and a A$60M national centre for cell therapy manufacturing. Both have resulted in successful innovations in wound care and cell therapy. These include the companies, Carina Biotechnology (www.carinabiotech.com), which is developing a novel CAR-T cell therapy for solid (cancer) tumours and Tekcyte (www.tekcyte.com), whose products include a cell-based therapy for non-healing wounds, which entered clinical trials at the beginning of 2022.   

Rob returned to the UK as the Director of the Lancaster Material Science Institute, where he helped establish the Material Social Futures Centre for Doctoral Training, focusing on how materials’ innovations shape society (and vice versa). See Material Social Futures | Lancaster University.  This centre is training 22 PhD students. 

Last year, Rob cofounded with Dr Endre Szili (UniSA) Plasma-4 (www.plasma-4.com) a company that is developing novel plasma (ionised gas)-materials technology for the treatment of a range of clinical indications.  

Over his career, Rob has won over A$250M of grants and investments, including ARC Discovery, Linkage etc, CRC, and in the UK, EPSRC, Wellcome, Leverhulme, Royal Society etc. He has supervised to completion 25 PhDs and 30 post-doctoral researchers. He has published over 250 substantive peer reviewed papers. 

In 2013, Rob was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.  

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. 

Rob rejoined the University of Sheffield in October 2022.

Professor Richard Ross
r.j.ross@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

Research Interests

The focus of both my clinical and basic research is on optimising pituitary hormone replacement. My group have identified and characterised uncommon mutations in the growth hormone receptor which have led to fundamental observations on the mechanism by which the growth hormone receptor signals through a pre-formed dimer. This work has led to a greater understanding of the regulation of growth hormone secretion and recently the group have developed a long acting form of growth hormone which has exceptional pharmacokinetic properties that means administration may only be required once a fortnight or once a month. This work was published in Nature Medicine in 2007.

The Clinical Research Programme has been investigating different regimens for replacing cortisol, testosterone and oestrogen in hypopituitary, hypogonadal and adrenal insufficient patients. The group have designed a new modified release form of hydrocortisone, Chronocort, which in phase 1 studies has proven to replicate the normal circadian rhythm of cortisol. This work is currently being taken through to phase 2 studies in congenital adrenal hyperplasia patients. Other work has examined the incidence of hypogonadism in cancer survivors and optimising oestrogen replacement in young women of fertile years.

I co-chair the Endocrine Unit Management Team which consists of 6 Consultant Endocrinologists and runs a number of unique and innovative specialist clinics in the Health Care Trust including: Pituitary Clinic, Transition Clinic for Paediatric Endocrinology, Late Effects Clinic for Cancer survivors, Joint Surgical Endocrine Clinics, Obesity Clinic, Genetic Endocrine Clinic and a Pituitary Multidisciplinary Team.

Publications and Patents: 234 publications during career, 34 publications in the last 5 years, Scopus h-index of 34, 7 papers cited over 100 times, 2 over 200 times and 1 over 300 times.  35 patents granted from 7 independent patent families.

  1. Patent granted 2010: C Strasburger, M Bidlingmaier, Z Wu, G Matarese, R Ross. Leptin antagonist and method for quantitative measurement of leptin. US 7,807,154 B2
  2. Patent granted 2012: R Ross, P Artymiuk, J Sayers.  Fusion protein compromising growth hormone and growth hormone receptor. US 8,173,782 B2
Dr Simon Danby
s.danby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

The skin serves as an important barrier that keeps moisture in the body and prevents the incursion of harmful exogenous agents, such as irritants and allergens, and resists the invasion of pathogens. A growing body of evidence suggests a primary role for the ‘skin barrier’ in the pathogenesis of a broad range of inflammatory skin disorders, including contact dermatitis, ichthyosis, psoriasis, rosacea and atopic dermatitis (AD). Repeated barrier disruption for instance induces epidermal hyperplasia and inflammation. Current medicine is based on the reactive treatment of these downstream consequences of skin barrier dysfunction, and includes the use of both anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative compounds. My research focuses on increasing our understanding of the skin barrier defect and developing treatments to correct it under the following core themes:

  • Gene-environment interactions in the development of atopic dermatitis
  • Development of treatments for atopic dermatitis
  • The improvement of neonatal skincare
  • Interaction of topical pharmaceutical and cosmetic agents with the skin barrier

A greater understanding of the underlying skin barrier defect promises to firstly identify susceptible individuals early on, and secondly to deliver novel therapeutic options for targeted skin barrier repair with the potential to prevent the development of clinical disease.

Dr Hualiang Wei
w.hualiang@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
Research interests:
  • Identification and modelling for complex nonlinear systems
    • NARMAX methodology and applications.
    • Artificial neural networks (ANN), radial basis function networks (RBFN), wavelet neural networks and multiresolution wavelet models, computational statistics, machine learning, intelligent computation and data mining.
    • Regression analysis, parameter estimation and optimization, sparse representation.
    • Nonlinear and nonstationary (time-varying) signal processing, system identification and data modelling.
    • Spatio-temporal system identification and modelling.
  • Bioscience signal processing and data modelling
    • Neurophysiology and neuro-imaging data modelling and analysis.
    • EEG, fMRI and ECG data processing, modelling and analysis.
    • Data based classification, pattern recognition, anomaly detection, with applications in clinical and medical diagnosis and prognosis.
  • Forecasting and analysis of complex stochastic dynamical processes with applications in
    • Space weather systems.
    • Environmental systems.
    • Computational economics and finance.
  • New concepts and methodologies developments for the identification and analysis of nonlinear complex systems.
  • Applications and developments of signal processing, system identification and data modelling to control engineering, bioengineering, neuroscience, systems/synthetic biology, environments, space weather and other emerging areas.
Professor Colin Bingle
c.d.bingle@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My long-standing research interests have been focused on cellular differentiation and regulation of gene expression within the developing and adult pulmonary epithelium. This work involves the isolation of pulmonary epithelial cell specific genes (principally the BPIF/PLUNC and WFDC families) as well as the transcription factors, which regulate their expression. This work also involves studies of epithelial cell specific differentiation and understanding the role of distinct stem/basal cells in this process. This work has allowed me to use disease models, human clinical material and our novel genes to study aspects of pulmonary cell plasticity in the lung and changes that occur in IPF and COPD

Over the past few years my interests have also expanded into the fields of the genetics of complex diseases, pulmonary immunology, innate immunity and host defence and now a major focus of my work is on pulmonary innate immunity, the control of pulmonary inflammation and the role of innate defence pathways in the development of chronic lung disease.

I also work extensively with primary human and mouse airway epithelial cells in differentiated air liquid interface cultures using them as tools to understand the regulation of airway epithelial cell specific genes. At a more clinical level we are also studying host/pathogen interactions using both viral (RSV, flu, MHV68) and bacterial (Pseudomonas, Staph, NTHi) infections. This work has allowed me to align myself with the work of the Florey Institute for Host/Pathogen Interactions. In addition to our airway studies we have also developed primary middle ear epithelial cell cultures for our work on infections in Otitis Media which complements my developing interest in middle ear biology.

This applied work has allowed me to continue to study the role of epithelial differentiation in the airways and to use disease models and our novel genes to study aspects of pulmonary cell plasticity in the lung. This is particular focused on epithelial changes in the lungs of patients with IPF and COPD. Our recent work has begun to uncover a role for BPIF proteins in the pathogenesis  of lung disease using both human material and murine models. It has also led to new avenues of work that focus on the epithelial responses in nasopharyngeal infections and in Otitis Media.


Professor Gwendolen Reilly
g.reilly@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Our research has applications in orthopaedic and dental medicine, where clinicians are looking for improved methods to repair skeletal tissues; bone, tendon and cartilage.

Bone tissue engineering.
The aim of bone tissue engineering is to create bone matrix in the laboratory for clinical implantation and as an experimental tool. Our research in this area focuses on two main themes; the effects of mechanical stimulation on differentiation and matrix formation by bone cells and the interactions between precursor bone cells and their biomaterial substrate. Mechanical stimuli examined include dynamic compression, stretch and fluid flow induced shear stresses using a range of bioreactors (including a collaboration with Bose ElectroForce systems group).

Musculoskeletal cell mechanobiology.
We are interested in how skeletal cells respond to extrinsic and intrinsic stimuli by organizing the proteins and mineral they secrete in a way which enhances the strength of the matrix. This information can then be used to manipulate tissue engineered structures in order to induce structurally sound matrix formation. We specifically focus on mechanosensation mechanisms found on the cell membrane; the cell’s proteoglycan (sugar-based) coat and a small organelle that protrudes from the cell membrane – the primary cilia.

Orthopaedic biomaterials.
We investigate the interactions between musculoskeletal cells and orthopaedic and dental materials that are implanted into bone. Materials investigated include porous metals, polymer scaffolds and peptide coated surfaces (in collaboration with Orla Protein Technologies). This research encompasses study of the mechanical properties of biomaterial scaffolds, cell-material interactions, cell mechanics and cell signalling.

Professor Helen Bryant
h.bryant@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

A key stage in cell division is the copying of DNA (DNA replication). The proteins involved in replication (the replication complex) move along DNA copying it, however, if they come across a section of DNA that is damaged, replication stops. At this point multiple proteins are activated, they serve to stabilise the replication complex and help by-pass or correct the problem. If the damage is too great to repair, normal cells have a self-destruct mechanism called apoptosis. Through repair and apoptosis normal cells ensure that damage in DNA is not passed to their daughter cells, this is important as damage can lead to dysfunction of the proteins encoded in that section of DNA and thus to cellular dysfunction and disease.

In cancer cells there can be defects in the repair and apoptosis pathways which cause inaccurate copying of DNA and further contribute to the cancer. Chemotherapy causes massive damage to DNA at the point of cell division, in this way in dividing cells it triggers cell death (hence the tumour dies and we see side effects in normal tissue). Some cancers can also become resistant to chemotherapy as they no longer have a functional self-destruct mechanism. In these cases the tumour continues to grow with increasing amounts of damage being passed onto the new tumour cells.

The aim of my research is to understand what happens in a cell when DNA replication is slowed or stopped by damage in DNA. I want to understand which proteins bind to the arrested DNA, whether they are modified in any way and what significance this has on the reestablishment of replication.
By understanding the normal control mechanisms in cells I aim to understand why defects in the proteins involved are associated with cancer. I want to pinpoint differences between dividing tumour cells and dividing normal cells and determine which are important in cancer development. This will enable us to develop drugs which can specifically kill the tumour cells rather than just all dividing cells.

We have particular interests in the mechanisms of genetic instability in bladder, breast and uveal cancer and enjoy close ties with our clinical colleagues in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (including several joint projects). This enables us to translate our research quickly into potential therapies.

Professor Nicolas Martin
n.martin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Synthesis and application of nano-particulate materials for dental applications.

The application of nucleating agents for the remineralisation of dentine

Integrity of structurally compromised restored teeth as compound systems

Optimisation of ceramic crown-tooth compound systems

Development and characterisation of novel restorative systems.

Remote digital communication for the provision of health care in dentistry

Development of L&T in restorative dentistry

Clinical evaluation of restorative systems

Dr James Meiring
j.meiring@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

I originally came to Sheffield in 2003 for medical school. I stayed in South Yorkshire for my junior doctor jobs and then started specialist training in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. I went to Oxford University in 2015 to work on typhoid human challenge models and then got my PhD, based in Malawi studying typhoid epidemiology and vaccination in Africa and Asia. I have worked across Africa and Asia including the West Africa Ebola Virus Outbreak in 2014.

I am currently an academic clinical lecturer in the department of infection and immunity interested in measuring the vaccine preventable burden of infectious diseases in at-risk populations and using vaccines to prevent antimicrobial resistance.

Dr Susan Cartwright
s.cartwright@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics
Dr Martin Grell
m.grell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Organic semiconductors
Professor Tom Stafford
t.stafford@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

Learning and decision making


Dr Lesley Uttley
l.uttley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Systematic review and meta-analyses
  • Research integrity and developing healthy research cultures
  • Human influences that lead to questionable research practices such as bias, conflicts of interest and researcher allegiance
Dr Jane Fearnside
j.fearnside@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are investigating the long-term consequences of cancer treatment.

Dr Richard Jacques
r.jacques@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Application of statistics in medical research
  • Analysis of routinely collected data
  • Multivariate data analysis
Dr Praveen Thokala
P.Thokala@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are:

  • Healthcare modelling
  • Health economics
  • Multi-criteria decision analysis
  • Optimisation
Dr Ruth Hamilton
r.hamilton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests

My research interests are in the geographic analysis of commuting patterns and labour markets, the use of social media and volunteered geographic information as a research tool, and methodological innovations in GIS.

Professor Alastair Buckley
alastair.buckley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Organic semiconductor devices
  • Spectroscopy of organic semiconductors
Professor John Cockburn
j.cockburn@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Mid infra-red physics and devices
Professor Paul Crowther
paul.crowther@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Stellar winds
  • Massive stars
  • Starburst galaxies
Professor Mark Hawley
mark.hawley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Assistive Technology
  • Telecare & telehealth
  • Digital Healthcare
Dr Emma Hock
Emma.Hock@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.

Professor Matthew Johnson
matt.johnson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Structure and function of the higher plant photosynthetic membrane

Professor Ravindra Maheswaran
r.maheswaran@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

My main research interest concerns the application of geographical information systems and science (GIS) to public health research and practice. Research fields within this area include (i) geographical and environmental epidemiology; (ii) geographical variations in health and health care; and (iii) methodology for spatial studies.

Professor Nick Monk
N.Monk@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Research interests

Mathematical biology; regulatory networks; pattern formation.

Professor David Mowbray
d.mowbray@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Optical spectroscopy of semiconductor nanostructures and devices
Mr Peter Odell
p.odell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

  • Equity & Trusts
  • Intellectual Property
  • Land Law
Professor Neil Spooner
n.spooner@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Research interests

  • Dark matter searches
  • Neutrino physics and astrophysics


Dr Marek Szwejczewski
M.Szwejczewski@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Research Development Director for Operations Management and Decision Sciences

Professor Clive Tadhunter
c.tadhunter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Active galaxies, quasars and galaxy evolution
Professor David Whittaker
d.m.whittaker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Photonic crystals and polantons in microcavities
Professor Lucy Wyatt
L.Wyatt@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Research interests

HF Radar oceanography, ocean surface waves

Dr Paloma dos Santos
p.l.dossantos@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Research interests
  • Organic semiconductors
  • Optical Spectroscopy
  • OLEDs
Dr Ansgar Allen
a.allen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

Ansgar welcomes applications to study for doctoral research degrees, in particular from those wishing to undertake research in the areas of educational philosophy, history and theory.

Professor Jonathan Gibbins
j.gibbins@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Jon is the Centre Director of the Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre and member of the Centre's Coordination Group and is the Research Area Champion for Solvent Post-Combustion.

Ms Annette Haywood
a.haywood@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

I am a qualitative researcher and my research interests include older adults, health inequalities and the integration of health and social care.

Professor Fay Hield
f.hield@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Musical Communities
  • Folk Singing Style
  • Composition within Tradition
  • Audience and Participant Development through Applied Research
Dr Zuhal Ozdemir Kilinc
z.ozdemir@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Dr Ozdemir’s main research interests are Earthquake Engineering, Structural Dynamics, and High-Strain Rate Behaviour of Materials.

Dr Beckie Simpson
r.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Application of statistics in medical research
  • Urgent and Emergency Care
  • Analysis of routinely collected data
  • Asthma Epidemiology
Dr Katie Sworn
K.Sworn@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My research interests are systematic review methodology, including Complex Intervention development. I am also interested in dementia research.

Professor Christoph Thoenissen
c.thoenissen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

His research interests are in the areas of open economy macroeconomics, monetary economics, business cycle fluctuations and financial crises.

Dr Thomas Clark
t.clark@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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.

Professor Jennifer Rowsell
j.rowsell@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Education

Jennifer welcomes applications for doctoral research degrees in literacy and language education
with a focus on digital literacy, multimodality and makerspace research. Jennifer is a multimodal
ethnographer who researches in formal schooling contexts like primary and secondary schools and
in informal learning contexts like community and welcome centres. Her research interests include:
theorising digital reading; the platformisation of literacies; digital materiality in teaching and
learning; makerspace research across formal and informal contexts; digital perspectives on language
teaching and learning; research that applies posthumanism and sociomateriality; digital inequalities
and digital divide research; post-qualitative methods and approaches to literacy; and, activist
disruptive literacies research.

Dr Xavier L'Hoiry
x.lhoiry@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

My research interests are centred around the following:

  • Organised crime
  • Illicit enterprise and entrepreneurship
  • The illicit economy
  • Policing
  • Surveillance studies

I am actively pursuing various research interests and developing further publications in the fields of organised crime, policing and surveillance. I welcome any research-related enquiries in these areas with a view to building greater partnerships with key stakeholders and research end-users and developing future research.

Dr Konstantinos Tolikas
k.tolikas@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Finance

I have obtained significant research experience by conducting research in the area of empirical finance and in particular in the fields of financial risk measurement, market efficiency, asset pricing, and the risk-taking behaviour of investment funds. My research aims are to (i) sustain research excellence in empirical finance, (ii) publish in high quality journals, including AJG 4*, (iii) attract research funding, (iv) attract and supervise promising doctoral students, and (v) engage with the public, local businesses and government agencies.

Professor Sumon Bhaumik
s.k.bhaumik@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Research Development Director for Accounting and Financial and Management

Research Interests

  1. Ownership, corporate governance and firm performance
  2. Banking and credit markets
  3. Impact of economic reforms

Areas of Research Supervision

  1. Corporate governance
  2. Corporate finance
  3. Financial sector regulations
Professor Iman Hajirasouliha
i.hajirasouliha@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Dr Hajirasouliha’s main research interests are Earthquake Engineering, Structural Dynamics, Performance-Based Design, Optimisation, Structural Strengthening, and Soil-Structure Interaction. He is currently a member the department's  Concrete and Earthquake Engineering research group.

Professor David Hyatt
d.hyatt@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

David's research interests have a focus on pedagogy, particularly in a higher education context. As a result, his research currently centres around three major interlinked research areas of interest:

  • Doctoral Pedagogies (specifically decentred and decolonising doctoral pedagogies)
  • Higher Education Policy and Pedagogies
  • The Impact of Language on Educational Processes.
Dr Agnes Lehoczky
A.Lehoczky@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My research focuses on modernist and contemporary poetry and post-modern prose, particularly on the correlation between the psyche and urban landscapes, between (inner and outer) geographies and the stratigraphy of language. My main interest and research focus on the structural, poetic, psychological space of the prose poem.

Dr Jaqui Long
jaqui.long@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

I am interested in qualitative research, particularly the grounded theory methodology used in my PhD. I am also interested in research into long-term conditions, and interventions to improve coping and self-management, including mindfulness.

Current projects

  • DEUCE (Drivers of Demand for Emergency and Urgent CarE services)
Miss Frances Pick
f.pick@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research Interests

I am a Research Associate in biofilm management and monitoring within drinking water distribution systems at The University of Sheffield. My research interests include analysing and characterising biofilms, specialising in how nutrients, including assimilable organic carbon, impact the bulk water and biofilm microbiology.

Professor Tony Ryan
t.ryan@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

Research interests

I undertake research and teaching activities in the field of long-term conditions and ageing. Specifically I work in the fields of dementia care and family caregiving. In particular I am keen to continue these activities in the context of applied, translational research.

Professor Michael Thelwall
m.a.thelwall@sheffield.ac.uk

Information School

Research Interests

I have two main research interests: bibliometrics and social media analysis.

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.

In terms of social media analysis, I am interested in the development and applications of mixed quantitative-qualitative methods to analyse social web data for social science research goals. I am particularly interested in YouTube at the moment because of the availability of large scale data.

Research supervision

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

  • Bibliometrics and research evaluation, whether methods development, broad applications, or the assessment of the influences of factors like gender and collaboration.

  • Altmetrics for research evaluation: either developing new altmetrics or assessing existing altmetrics in new contexts.

  • The accuracy and limitations of various types of scholarly peer review in research assessment.

  • Artificial intelligence 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.

  • Parasocial interaction between YouTubers and followers.

  • Artificial intelligence methods for social media analysis.

Dr Zhong Zhang
zhong.zhang@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of East Asian Studies

Research interests

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on Chinese corporate governance from a legal perspective. Related to this, his research interests lie in two broader areas: Chinese (business) law and Chinese business and management. He is also interested in the subjects of law and development, and law and finance. 

Dr Matthew Bacon
M.Bacon@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law
Research interests and areas of supervision
  • 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
Dr Jennifer Burr
j.a.burr@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Broad area of interest:

  • Sociology of health and illness

Research methods I am able to supervise:

  • Qualitative

Specific areas of interest:

  • Reproductive technology
  • Research ethics
  • Gender and sexuality
Professor Rob Gaizauskas
r.gaizauskas@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Rob's research interests are in natural language processing, specifically in information extraction from natural language texts, software architectures for natural language processing and evaluation of language processing systems.

Dr Simon Hayes
s.a.hayes@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

His research interests primarily concern the development of `SMART´ systems for health monitoring and mitigation in composite materials. He also has an interest in the nanomechanical testing of polymeric and other viscoelastic materials.

Professor Nigel Hoggard
n.hoggard@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interests remain primarily centred on the diagnostic applications of MR imaging in radiology with a particular emphasis on neuroscience and head and neck imaging.

Dr Steve Maddock
s.maddock@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Dr Steve Maddock's research interests include computer facial modelling and animation, surface deformation, AR and VR technology and applications, and sketch-based interfaces for simulation.

Professor James Marshall
james.marshall@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Professor Marshall's research interests cover modelling of collective behaviour, particularly in social insects, evolutionary theory, decision theory, robotics, and theoretical neuroscience

Dr Philip Mitchell
P.J.Mitchell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

The lab’s research addresses the nature of mRNA surveillance processes in eukaryotic cells. These are quality control systems that identify and degrade incorrectly transcribed, processed or assembled mRNAs.

Ms Permala Sehmar
p.sehmar@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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 
Professor Joanna Shapland
J.M.Shapland@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

My research interests span victimisation and victimology, restorative justice, business and crime, the informal economy, desistance, crime prevention and social control, and comparative criminal justice.

Currently, I am engaged in research for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) on what is quality in probation supervision, as well as continuing to analyse our work on how offenders stop committing offences (desistance). I am also writing about worldwide trends in restorative justice.

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research (University Research Centre)
Member of the Centre for Well-Being in Public Policy (University Research Centre)
Member of CRISP – the centre for research on the informal economy

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Criminal justice
  • Victimisation, victimology and victims in the criminal justice system
  • Restorative justice
  • Business and crime
  • Offending, desistance and offending careers
Professor Matt Stevenson
m.d.stevenson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

  • My research interests are discrete event simulation, individual patient modelling and mathematical modelling in the field of health technology assessment and cost-effectiveness
Professor Lee Thompson
l.thompson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests

My research interests fall into 2 broad areas, namely neutrino physics and applications of experimental particle physics. For futher detailed information please refer to this link
Professor Jennifer Walsh
j.walsh@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

Research Interests

My research interests are in bone microarchitecture in skeletal maturation and ageing, the interactions of fat and bone, and treatment of osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases.

Ms Ziyi Wei
z.wei@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of East Asian Studies

Research interests

Her current research interests include the internationalisation strategies of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs), Chinese MNEs’ entry strategies and headquarters-subsidiary relationships.

Professor Jan Windebank
j.windebank@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

French Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

Sociological and social policy research on gender divisions of domestic labour, domestic services, work-family reconciliation policy, social exclusion and the informal economy and undeclared work in Europe.

Professor Ruth Blakeley
r.blakeley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

Professor Blakeley’s research and teaching focus on international security, terrorism and political violence, and human rights.

Dr Chris Booth
c.booth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Neutrino physics
  • Muon accelerator techniques
  • High power targets
Professor Dom Broomfield-McHugh
d.mchugh@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • American musical theatre
  • The Hollywood musical
  • Opera studies
  • The classical music recording industry
Professor Bojan Bugaric
B.Bugaric@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Comparative Law
  • Law, Democracy, and Populism
  • International Economic Law and Development
  • EU Law
Dr Ryan Byerly
t.r.byerly@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Philosophy

His primary research interests are in Philosophy of Religion, Epistemology, and Virtue Ethics.

Dr Heather Clarkson
h.l.ellis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

Heather is interested in supervising research students looking to work in the history of knowledge, intellectual history and the history of higher education

Professor Alasdair Cochrane
a.cochrane@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • Contemporary political theory
  • Human rights
  • Nonhuman rights
  • Bioethics
  • Environmental ethics
  • Animal ethics
Professor Davide Costanzo
d.costanzo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Third generation Supersymmetry searches at the Large Hadron Collider
  • Computing at the Large Hadron Collider
Professor Edward Daw
e.daw@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Dark matter searches
  • Gravitational radiation
  • Axions
  • Signal processing
  • Vibration isolation
Professor Vikram Dhillon
vik.dhillon@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Interacting binary stars
  • High time-resolution astrophysics
  • Astronomical instrumentation
Dr Stephen Ebbens
s.ebbens@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Nanoswimming Devices
  • Polymers
  • Microscopy
  • Surface Analysis and Modification
Dr John Fenner
j.w.fenner@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School
Research interests
  • Radiation physics (ionising and non –ionising).
  • Imaging.
  • The Virtual Physiological Human.
Professor Lee Ford
l.ford@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

  • Direct antenna modulation
  • Reconfigurable antennas for cellular applications
  • Metasurface and metamaterial design


Professor Simon Foster
S.Foster@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity and stress resistance. Bacterial cell wall structure, function and dynamics.

Professor Mark Fox
mark.fox@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Quantum optics
  • Ultrafast laser spectroscopy
  • Optical properties of semiconductors
Professor Mark Geoghegan
mark.geoghegan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Polymers at surfaces and interfaces
  • Polymer gels and diffusion
  • Cell-surface interactions
  • Soft nanotechnology
Dr Rhoda Hawkins
rhoda.hawkins@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Biological physics
  • Soft matter physics
  • Active matter
Professor Naomi Hawkins
n.l.hawkins@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

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

Research interests
  • Intellectual Property and Innovation Law
  • Patent Law
  • Biotechnology Law and Ethics
  • Health Law and Bioethics
 
Professor Andrew Hindmoor
a.hindmoor@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • The financial crisis and financial reform
  • Governance and public policy
  • British politics
  • Political analysis and explanation
Professor Jamie Hobbs
jamie.hobbs@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Scanning probe microscopy
  • Biological Physics
  • Soft matter Physics
  • Polymer Crystallization
Professor Mark Hopkinson
m.hopkinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

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


Professor Jonathan Howse
j.r.howse@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Nanoswimmers
  • Understanding Spin-Coating
  • Polymer Vesicle Formation
  • Phase Separation in Polymer Blends
Professor Neil Hunter
C.N.Hunter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Biogenesis, structure and function of photosynthetic membrane proteins. The enzymology of the chlorophyll and carotenoid biosynthetic pathways

Professor Peter Jackson
P.A.Jackson@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

Social and cultural geography, consumption and identity, sustainability, families and food.

Dr Myles Jones
M.Jones@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

The coupling between neural activity and the changes in blood flow, volume and oxygenation.

Dr Esther Karunakaran
e.karunakaran@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Biofilms  
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Wastewater Microbiology
  • Synthetic Biology in Cyanobacteria
Dr Zeynep Kaya
z.kaya@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

Her main research areas involve borderlands, territoriality, conflict, peace, political legitimacy and gender.

Professor Vitaly Kudryavtsev
v.kudryavtsev@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Dark matter search
  • Neutrino physics and astrophysics
  • Cosmic rays
Dr Natalie Langford
natalie.langford@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

Dr Natalie Langford holds the position of Lecturer in Sustainability at the Department of Politics and International Relations. She joined the department in 2022 having previously worked at Durham University. Dr Langford is a member of the Political Economy Research Group (PERG) and a Research Associate at Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). Dr Langford's research focuses on the politics of sustainability in the global political economy, with a particular focus on how states, firms and civil society in the global South seek to shape norms around the global governance of labour and the environment.

Dr Pamela Lenton
p.lenton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Pamela's research interests lie in the economics of education, labour economics and health. Pamela's primary interest is education economics. More recently Pamela has focused on the areas of household debt and health and the problems faced by the financially excluded. This is joint work with Paul Mosley and a book of the empirical research undertaken in UK cities will be published later this year. Pamela has also just completed an economic analysis of the Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (with Jenny Roberts and John Brazier) which was funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

Professor Danielle Matthews
danielle.matthews@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

Developmental Psychology & Language Development. Current focus on pragmatic and lexical development in infancy.

Professor Adrian Moore
a.j.moore@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Electroacoustic music composition, performance, history and analysis
  • Composition tools for composers
Professor Jo Ng
j.s.ng@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

  • Avalanche photodiode
  • Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode
  • Material characterization
Dr Jonna Nyman
j.nyman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

Dr Nyman’s research centres on the politics of security, with particular interests in energy security, climate politics, and China.

Professor Alicia O'Cathain
a.ocathain@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

Mixed methods, evaluation of new health services, patient views of health care, urgent care.

Professor Efstathios Paganis
e.paganis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Searching for the origin of mass with the ATLAS experiment at LHC
  • Particle detector technologies
Professor Glenys Parry
G.D.Parry@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.

Professor Gareth Phoenix
g.phoenix@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

My research focuses on the impacts of environmental change on vegetation and ecosystem processes, including carbon cycling a feedback to climate.  This research is mainly conducted in arctic, boreal and upland ecosystems.

Current research areas include:

• Effects of climate change on Arctic vegetation and biogeochemical cycling
• Consequences of global warming on Arctic and Boreal permafrost, and carbon flux
• Effects of pollutant nitrogen deposition on plant biodiversity, nutrient cycling and plant nutrient acquisition

Dr Gurleen Popli
g.popli@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Gurleen´s primary research interest is in Applied Econometrics. Her research has focused on the effects of economic growth and labour market institutions on the wage structure, distribution of income, and poverty in both the formal and the informal sectors of the economy. An example of a recent project is the effects of free trade on labour market outcomes for women in developing countries. Her current research focuses on the impact of poverty and inequality on early childhood development. Gurleen is interested in supervising students in applied micro- and macro-econometrics.

Professor Leszek Roszkowski
l.roszkowski@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Particle physics theory
  • Theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology
Professor Michael Ruderman
M.S.Ruderman@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Research interests

Hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics. Waves and instablities. Applications to solar and space physics.

Dr Luke Seed
n.seed@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

Working in the area of VLSI and System Design, Computer Vision, and 3-Dimensional System Packaging.

Professor Evgeny Shinder
E.Shinder@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Research interests

Algebraic Geometry, Number theory and Algebraic K-theory

Professor Maurice Skolnick
m.skolnick@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Semiconductor nanostructures
  • Quantum dot physics
  • Polariton physics
  • Photonic structures
Dr Catherine Tattersall
c.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Human Communication Sciences
School of Allied Health Professions Nursing and Midwifery

My main research interests are acquired communication disorders due to stroke, dementia or other neurodegenerative condition.

Professor Daniel Tovey
d.r.tovey@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Supersymmetry searches with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC
  • Grid computing
Professor Gill Valentine
G.Valentine@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

Social Identities and Belonging; Childhood, Parenting and Family Life; Urban Cultures and Consumption

Dr Antony Williams
Anthony.Williams@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

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.

Dr Mallory Yeromonahos
m.yeromonahos@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Mallory's research interests lie in the area of macroeconomics, in particular heterogeneous DSGE modelling, household finance, and business cycles.

Professor Mohammad Zandi
m.zandi@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Environmental Engineering & Monitoring
  • Energy Engineering
  • Alternative Fuels, Biomass and Biofuels
  • CO2 Sequestration Technologies
Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen
R.von.Fay-Siebenburgen@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Research interests

Solar, space and plasma physics, MHD waves, linear and non-linear waves

Dr Paraskevi Katsiampa
p.katsiampa@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Financial Management

Paraskevi’s primary research interests include Financial Econometrics, Time Series Analysis, Forecasting, Spillover effects, Cryptocurrencies, Commodities, House prices, and Financial Crises, among others.

Her secondary research interests include Pedagogy in Higher Education. She is also interested in interdisciplinary research projects involving quantitative methods.

She regularly acts as a reviewer for several refereed academic journals, such as Annals of Operations Research, Economics Letters, Economic Modelling, Finance Research Letters, International Journal of Finance and Economics, International Review of Financial Analysis, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, and Research in International Business and Finance, among others.

Paraskevi would welcome proposals from potential doctoral students wishing to work in any of the fields of her research interests.

Dr Sophie Rutter
s.rutter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

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.

Research supervision

I am particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

The design and evaluation of health communications (text, images, different technologies and so on) and interventions

How different people (i.e. children, professionals and so on) search for, and use, information, as well as the influence of the environment and the context of use

The design of inclusive research methods / methodologies


Ms Sheila Webber
s.webber@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests focus on investigating information literacy and information behaviour in context. Contexts include:

  • Virtual contexts e.g. information behaviour in computer gaming; information literacy in virtual worlds

  • Cultural and lifestage contexts, e.g. information behaviour of carers; Media and Information Literacy of older people; information literacy as experienced in different countries; information behaviour in the workplace

  • Educational contexts e.g. information literacy at different stages of education, and in different disciplines; information behaviour in distance learning

I am also interested in research investigating the pedagogy of information literacy.  

I am a qualitative researcher, with particular expertise in phenomenography, autoethnography, action research and case study research.


Research supervision

I am interested in supervising PhDs in all the above areas. Potential research topics include:

  • A case study investigating whether a specific university is information literate (using Webber & Johnston's indicators of the Information Literate University)


Dr Sophie Whyte
Sophie.Whyte@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My broad research is focused on mathematical modelling within health economics. I have gained significant expertise and experience in two related areas:

  • Bayesian calibration of cancer natural history models: This is my main methodological research theme, please see MDM publication http://mdm.sagepub.com/content/31/4/625 and Example Excel model using the Metropolis Hastings algorithm to calibrate a state transition model available to down load from the Downloads box)
  • Early diagnosis of cancer: I have substantial experience having worked on more than 15 projects in this area of applied research.
  • In addition to these main research themes I have undertaken research to inform policy making: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for NICE (https://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/sections/heds/collaborations/tag) , and research as part of the Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Interventions (EEPRU) for DH (http://www.eepru.org.uk/)
Professor Sarah Brown
sarah.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Sarah's research interests lie in the area of applied microeconometrics focusing on labour economics, the economics of education and, more recently, household financial decision-making. Her research has focused on individual, household and firm-level data as well as matched workplace-employee data.

Examples of research projects include empirical analysis of the reservation wages of the unemployed (funded by the ESRC) and empirical analysis of wage growth, human capital and risk aversion (funded by the Leverhulme Trust). Her current research focuses on household financial decision-making and attitudes towards risk. Sarah is interested in supervising PhD students in applied microeconometrics.

Dr Richard Craven
richard.craven@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

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
Professor Buick Davison
j.davison@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Prof. Davidson's research interests are in the behaviour of steel-framed structures, in particular the influence of connections on frame response, and sustainability issues in structural engineering. He has authored more than 120 refereed journal and conference papers and held research grants from the EU, EPSRC, Building Research Establishment, Steel Construction Institute and Corus.

Current research projects include:

  • Development of a component based model of the behaviour of steel beam-to column connections in fire
  • Steel connections subject to dynamic loading
  • Robustness of steelwork connections in multi-storey buildings at elevated temperatures
  • Structural Bolting Assemblies in Fire
  • Deconstruction of framed buildings
  • Retrofitting hard to treat homes
Dr Anita Ratcliffe
a.ratcliffe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Anita's research interests are in applied microeconomics, with a focus on individual (household) decisions and well-being. Her current research focuses on the links between house prices, consumption and happiness as well as the effect of economic conditions on retirement decisions. She has previously carried out research into fertility decisions and on the role of pro-social behaviour in the delivery of public services. Her research uses individual or household level data, frequently matched with data on local area conditions. She is interested in supervising students in applied microeconomics.

Professor Neil Sims
n.sims@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

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

Dr Joanne Britton
n.j.britton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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
Professor Laurence Brooks
l.brooks@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests sit around the area of ICT and people, whether at the individual, group or societal level. 

My research has examined:

  • The ethics of current and emerging technologies, so not just that technologies such as AI or digital extended reality can be developed and applied, but should it and if so in what ways?

  • Using and working with a range of social theories (ie. Sociomateriality, Structuration Theory, Actor Network Theory) to gain insights into how we and the world interact with and reflect ICT and other emerging technologies.

I have engaged with research in a number of areas, including:

  • social media

  • eGovernment

  • ICT4D (ICT with and for development)

  • Healthcare


PhD supervision

Research is a vital part of the academic world and I am always keen to discuss possible research opportunities. If you are interested in a PhD studentship in Information Systems, Technology and Social Responsibility, ICT4D, eGovernment, eHealth, eEthics, etc.


Professor Steve Fotios
s.fotios@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Architecture

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.

Professor John Haycock
j.w.haycock@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

John´s research spans three interdisciplinary themes:

  1. Nerve tissue engineering. The design of nerve guidance channels for repairing traumatic peripheral nerve injury – combining biomaterials, 3D fabrication, neuronal, glial and stem cell research.
  2. 3D In vitro models of nerve. The use of 3D scaffolds and neuronal / glial co-cultures for 3D in vitro models of nerve as an alternative to animal models for disease, disorder and testing research.
  3. 3D In vitro models of skin - The use of 3D scaffolds and keratinocyte / fibroblast co-cultures for 3D in vitro models of skin as an alternative to animal models for inflammatory testing.

John also has an interest in single and 2-photon laser scanning microscopy for supporting a number of interdisciplinary research programmes, including tissue engineering. He was responsible for establishing the confocal and multiphoton imaging facility in the Kroto Research Institute funded by the BBSRC with support from Carl Zeiss.

Professor Visakan Kadirkamanathan
visakan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research interests:

My research interests belong to the broad category of signal and information processing. My research activities are partly in the Intelligent Systems, Decision and Control related research carried out within the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre and partly in the Centre for Signal Processing and Complex Systems. They include both theoretical and applications research, and also external collaborations with other Sheffield Departments and Industries.

The main research themes are:

  • Modelling and Identification of natural and engineered complex systems
  • Spatiotemporal system identification with applications in life, physical and social sciences
  • Fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis with application to aircraft engines
  • Intelligent systems decision support and applications in aerospace and biomedicine
  • Autonomous and self-organised swarms and agent systems
Professor Paul Latreille
p.latreille@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Professor of Management

Research interests

An economist by background, Paul's research interfaces applied labour economics and employment relations, and focuses on the management and resolution of workplace conflict, including mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and Employment Tribunals. More recently this has included funded work on the role of line managers and how an online training intervention might impact conflict confidence and competence. 

Other areas of research interest include the relationships between disability and work; occupational health and safety; vocational training; self-employment/entrepreneurship; and economic inactivity.

Paul would be willing to consider supervising PhDs in relation to any of his research interests or related areas. Students wishing to explore research that draws on a variety of disciplinary perspectives are very welcome, as are those wanting to undertake pedagogical research.

Professor Layla Skinns
l.skinns@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

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
Professor Mark Bateman
M.D.Bateman@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

Research focusses on past aeolian landscapes as an archive for better understanding past depositional processes and environmental changes.  Research in this area thus far has helped understand sediment ‘memory’ and dune dynamic responses to climate changes critical understanding regional palaeoenvironmental records. In the case of coastal areas storm records and sea level change.  Research has also highlighted the complexities of past environmental aeolian responses to climate and helped understand the wider environmental associated with palaeolithic archaeolocial sites.

A related research strand has been the looking at theintegrity of preserved sandy sediments and the effects of bioturbation.  Technological advances in single grain luminescence combined with detailed particle size analysis can provide key information on sediment and site integrity.  Research has been undertaken in South Africa and USA to better understand the effects of bioturbation allowing for a better understanding of archaeological site and sedimentary archive integrity within sandy mantles.

Research is also extending the application of luminescence dating to glacial and ice marginal sediments.  Previous research has investigated cold-climate aeolian sediments and periglacial features to understand past glacial environments in Canada and NW Europe.  This has now been extended to looking at past ice-marginal lakes and associated sediments in the UK to understand ice-dynamics and their relationship to climate.


Dr Mark Brown
mark.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

I welcome enquiries from students thinking of undertaking research in any of these areas:

  • Prisons and penal policy
  • Colonial and post-colonial law and justice
  • Comparative jurisprudence
  • Fragile and post-conflict states
  • Global criminology
  • Penal history and theory
  • Security sector reform
  • Transnational organised crime
Dr Christopher Carroll
c.carroll@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Systematic review and evidence synthesis of medical, health and social science topics, including qualitative and mixed method evidence synthesis
  • The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process
  • Information retrieval and programme evaluation (implementation fidelity) research
Dr Samantha Caton
s.caton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Broad area of research interest:

  • Obesity
  • Appetite regulation
  • Nutrition

 Research methods I am able to supervise:

  • Quantitative

Specific areas of interest:

  • Infant feeding behaviour
  • Promotion of healthful diets in pre-school children
  • Effect of alcohol on appetite and body weight regulation
Dr Ding Chen
law@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

  • Law and development
  • Corporate governance
  • Company law
  • Financial regulation
  • New Institutional Economics

Areas of Research Supervision 

  • Law and development
  • Corporate governance
  • Financial regulation

 

Member of Sheffield Institute of Corporate and Commercial Law.

Dr Ian Dawson
I.Dawson@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Research Interests

  • Radiation simulation, measurement and mitigation
  • Modelling silicon detector radiation damage
  • Particle detector technologies
  • Soft QCD physics at the Large Hadron Collider

Research Projects

Dr Joshua Forstenzer
j.i.forstenzer@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Philosophy

His main research interests are in the philosophy of education, political and social philosophy, and American Pragmatism. His current project focuses on the democratic role of higher education. His work benefits from support from the British Academy, the Thailand Research Fund, and Yale's Center for Faith and Culture.

Professor Clare Gardiner
c.gardiner@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

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

Professor Graham Gee
G.Gee@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

  • Constitutional Law
  • Constitutional Theory
  • Comparative Constitutional Law   
  • Public Law and Political Ideologies (Especially Conservatism)
  • Judicial Independence
  • Judicial Appointments

Areas of Research Supervision

  • UK Constitutional Law
  • Constitutional Theory
  • Judicial Independence
  • Judicial Appointments
Professor Matthew Gilbert
m.gilbert@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

From 2004-2009 Prof. Gilbert held an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship, focusing on the development of novel computational limit analysis and design optimization techniques for application to a wide range of problems. He also has a continuing interest in the static and dynamic performance of masonry structures, particularly masonry arch bridges.

Dr Kristian Groom
k.m.groom@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

Kristian´s research interests include design, manufacture and characterisation of optoelectronic components (eg. laser and superluminescent diodes) and photonic integrated circuits and their ability to provide solutions in emerging applications such as those in advanced manufacturing (eg. additive manufacturing and metrology) and healthcare (eg. tissue imaging).

Mr Maurizio Guadagnini
m.guadagnini@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Dr Guadagnini has extensive research experience in the experimental investigation and use of advanced composites as reinforcing materials for concrete structures, in design philosophy and in the development of design recommendations for the ongoing improvement of codes of practice used in Europe and throughout the world. 

Dr Kristin Hildenbrand
K.Hildenbrand@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour

Research interests

Kristin is highly interested in the effect of leadership on employee well-being and work-family balance. She has conducted research at multiple levels of analysis (e.g., teams, diary). 

Professor Kirill Horoshenkov
k.horoshenkov@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Professor Horoshenkov’s main research interests are in novel sensors for water industry, novel acoustic materials and material characterisation methods. His other area of work relates to noise control, audio-visual interactions and design of nature-inspired noise control solutions.

Dr Jiao Ji
jiao.ji@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Finance

Research

Corporate Finance and Governance, Empirical Finance, Financial Disclosure using Text Analysis, Emerging Market Economies, Corporate Social Responsibility

PhD Supervision

Jiao welcomes PhD applications in the areas of her research interests.

Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford
h.lambie-mumford@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

Her research focuses on food insecurity, emergency food systems and the role of public policy. Her work has been at the forefront of the emerging evidence base on the growth of food charity in the UK and comparative research across Europe. 

Professor Haiping Lu
h.lu@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Professor Lu’s current research focuses on machine learning, brain imaging, and tensor analysis. His research also covers related areas such as big data, biomedical engineering, computer vision, and signal/image processing. His core expertise is tensor analysis and learning.

Professor Suzanne Mason
s.mason@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

My research interests relate to the evaluation of complex interventions and systems in emergency care settings. I have extensive experience in multi-centre mixed methods studies which can directly inform the delivery of high quality emergency care to patients.

Dr Jolian McHardy
j.mchardy@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Jolian´s research interests lie primarily in the area of theoretical economics. He is currently working on oligopoly theory especially with applications in networks, corruption, regulation, uncertainty and welfare. He is interested in supervising doctoral work in network theory, regulation and welfare loss due to the exercise of monopoly power.

Dr Stephane Mesnage
s.mesnage@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

My work is focused on the study of the bacterial cell wall using essentially two Gram-positive pathogens (Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus) as models. I am interested in three major areas of research.

Professor Lyudmila Mihaylova
L.S.Mihaylova@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

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.

Professor Gail Mountain
g.a.mountain@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests are focussed upon improving the quality of life of older people through provision of appropriate interventions, good design and by facilitating participation. I am particularly interested in improving the lived experiences of people at all stages of the dementia trajectory.

Professor Andrew Peden
a.peden@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests

Constitutive secretion is a conserved process required for the delivery of newly synthesised proteins and lipids to plasma membrane as well as the exocytocis of extracellular factors such as cytokines, lipoproteins and antibodies. My lab is interested in identifying and characterising the pathways and machinery involved in constitutive secretion. Read more on our research.

Ms Katie Powell
K.Powell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Broad areas of research interest:

  • Health Inequalities

Research Methods I am able to supervise:

  • Qualitative

Specific areas of interest:

  • Community development/engagement
  • Voluntary sector
  • Geographical areas of deprivation
  • Health improvement initiatives
  • Social exclusion
Dr Henry Roehl
h.roehl@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

The Roehl Laboratory uses zebrafish as a model organism to study musculoskeletal development and disease.

Professor Elizabeth Smythe
e.smythe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Our lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms of cargo sorting along the endocytic pathway with particular emphasis on the regulation of the clathrin coated vesicle cycle by rab5 and reversible phosphorylation. We are also interested in the interplay between endocytic trafficking and signaling pathways.

Read more on research in the Smythe laboratory

Dr Andrew Sole
A.Sole@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

Andrew's research is focused on furthering our understanding of the mass balance and dynamic stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) in a changing climate through the use of numerical modelling, satellite and airborne remote sensing and fieldwork.

Dr Ross Summers
r.bellaby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

His main areas of research involve the ethics of intelligence. His research therefore broadly includes looking at historical and contemporary use of intelligence along with the rise of the surveillance state as well as ethical theory, ethics in war and violence and the development of a cosmopolitan ethic and its limits.

Professor Markus Szymik
M.Szymik@Sheffield.ac.uk

School of Mathematics and Statistics

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.

Dr Jill Thompson
jill.thompson@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

Research Interests

  • Health service access
  • Participatory approaches
  • Patient and Public involvement
  • Health Literacy

I am a qualitative researcher and my research interests centre on working with vulnerable groups to explore ways in which they are enabled to actively participate in their health/health systems.

 

Dr Jim Uttley
j.uttley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Architecture

My research applies principles of behavioural research and environmental psychology to the built environment. One of my main interests is the influence of the built environment, particularly lighting, on active travel. I aim to support students by helping them understand how humans influence and are influenced by urban design.

Dr Matthew Bishop
m.bishop@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

His primary area of research interest is the political economy of development, with a particular focus on small states in general, and the Caribbean specifically.

Mr Luke Blindell
l.blindell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

  • Company Law
  • Corporate Governance
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Corporate Governance & Sustainability
  • International Human Rights
Professor Jill Carlton
J.Carlton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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
Dr Daniel Carroll
d.carroll@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

Executive function and inhibitory control in preschool children; Children's rule use and symbolic understanding; Conflict monitoring and conflict resolution.

Professor Nigel Clarke
n.clarke@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Theoretical Polymer and Soft Matter Physics
  • Rheology of Polymers and Gels
  • Neutron Scattering from Polymers under Flow and Polymer Nanocomposites
Dr Karl Evans
karl.evans@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

My research tests hypotheses concerning the mechanisms driving biodiversity responses to natural environmental gradients (e.g. environmental energy availability), and environmental change (primarily climate change, urbanisation and agricultural intensification). This is achieved by combining large scale macroecological approaches with intensive fieldwork to assess biodiversity responses at the assemblage level and the ecological and demographic traits of individual species. This research programme primarily uses avian case studies but also involves plants when these provide more tractable systems. Most of my research is funded by NERC and the Leverhulme Trust.

Dr Alexis Foster
alexis.foster@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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. 

Dr Maxime Goergen
Maxime.Goergen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

French Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

19th-century French literature and cultural history, including representations of the city (with special interest for Hugo, Zola and utopian socialists).

Professor Jon Heffernan
jon.heffernan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

  • Epitaxy of novel semiconductors materials and devices
  • Molecular beam epitaxy
  • Semiconductor nanostructures and their applications
  • Nitride-based semiconductors and their applications


Dr Nicola Hemmings
n.hemmings@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Nicola's research group studies how and why animals vary in their ability to reproduce, with particular focus on the causes of infertility and embryo death.

Dr James Hughes
j.hughes@amrc.co.uk

Advanced Manufacturing Research Group

James Hughes heads up NAMTEC, the National Metals Technology Centre, which is part of the AMRC.  His research interests are materials and additive manufacturing.

Dr Joe Hulin
j.hulin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My main interests centre on the impact of mental health and physical co-morbidities and the analysis of routinely collected datasets in health services research.

Dr Daniel Humphreys
d.humphreys@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Manipulation of mammalian host cell biology by bacterial toxins and virulence effectors.

My research group is part of the Centre for Membrane Interactions and Dynamics (CMIAD)

Dr Henriette Jensen
h.s.jensen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Sewer Process Modelling
  • Hydrogen Sulphide Induced Corrosion
  • Microbial Ecology in Urban Water Systems
  • Synthetic Biology
  • Odour Problems


Professor Mikko Juusola
M.Juusola@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

  • Neural processing, particularly in the visual system of Drosophila
  • Efficient codes and circuitry, form-function relationships, attention, learning and memory
Professor Simon Keefe
s.keefe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Mozart
  • Late 18th-Century Style and Aesthetics
  • Haydn, Beethoven
  • Reception history
  • 20th-Century French Song
  • The Concerto
  • Wagner
  • Musical Biography
Dr Salam Khamas
s.khamas@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

  • Electromagnetics and mathematical modelling
  • Software development
  • Mobile communications
  • High temperature superconducting antennas
  • Optical communications


Professor Majella Kilkey
m.kilkey@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Research interests / Areas of Supervision

International migration

Intra-EU mobility

Transnational families

Migration and care

British emigration

Citizenship

Fathering

 

Professor Stuart Littlefair
s.littlefair@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Interacting binary stars
  • Brown dwarfs and low-mass stars
  • Star formation
  • High time resolution Astrophysics
Professor Hui Long
h.long@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Professor Hui Long specialises in mechanics of materials, contact mechanics, structure integrity, structure dynamics, and Finite Element Analysis. Her current research of applications is centred on two broad areas, wind energy and metal forming technology.

In wind energy, the current research areas include:
-       Reliability & damage analysis of gears & bearings;
-       Drivetrain dynamic and transient load modelling;
-       Failure analysis using field recorded SCADA data.

In metal forming, the current research areas include:
−       Metal spinning process formability;
−       Incremental sheet forming for hard-to-deform metals;
−       Non-linear finite element analysis and modelling.


Dr Henriette Louwerse
h.louwerse@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Germanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

Contemporary literature in Dutch, literary, cultural and political issues of multiculturalism, postcolonialism and identity, translating cultures, cultural community studies.

Professor Felicity Matthews
f.m.matthews@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • Government and governance
  • State capacity
  • Public policy and delivery
  • Climate change
  • Citizen engagement
  • Political leadership
  • British politics
Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar
s.mazumdar@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research explores developing scalable techniques and mechanisms for reducing the barrier for user communities in understanding very large complex multidimensional datasets. I conduct inter-disciplinary research on highly engaging, interactive and visual mechanisms in conjunction with complex querying techniques for seamless navigation, exploration and understanding of complex datasets.

Research supervision

Areas of PhD supervision:

  • Large scale visual analytics of real-time multidimensional heterogeneous datasets

  • Visualisation of large graph-based datasets using Augmented / Mixed / Virtual reality

  • Citizen science and crowdsourcing techniques for complementing traditional sources of data (e.g. mobile, wearable sensing) using multimodal interactions

Dr Kate Miltner
k.miltner@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests focus on issues of power and inequality in digital systems, institutions, and cultures. This includes:

  • Critical analysis of tech/digital industries

  • Critical analysis of digital/technical practices 

  • Critical analysis of sociotechnical discourses

  • Politics of digital platforms

  • Politics of inclusion/exclusion/belonging in digital cultures, particularly concerning gender and race

  • Inequality & digital labour


Research supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD research projects that contend with power relations and the digital. This includes, but is not limited to, projects relating to:

  • Politics of digital technologies

  • Inequality and the digital

  • Digital identities and online communities

  • Technical industries and cultures

  • Sociotechnical practices and assemblages

Dr Thach Nguyen
thach.nguyen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Finance

Thach welcomes PhD applications in the areas of his research interests including Empirical Banking, Corporate Finance, Financial Technology.

Dr Caroline Oates
c.j.oates@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Reader in Responsible Marketing

Research interests

My main research efforts are focused on challenges in marketing, including sustainable marketing and marketing to children. My particular interests are centred on consumer behaviour, for instance how individuals make choices around sustainable consumption. My current research with colleagues from Scotland and Ireland investigates influences on sustainable consumer behaviour. My other research interest is marketing to children and here I am interested in what children understand when encountering marketing episodes across different media and in different contexts. I mainly work with qualitative methods.

 

Professor Paul Overton
P.G.Overton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

Dopamine; Neuropharmacology; Drugs of abuse; Basal ganglia function and dysfunction; Neurobiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Dr Carmen Ramos Villar
c.ramosvillar@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Hispanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

Contemporary European and African literature written in Portuguese, especially the literary production of emigrants in all their expressions. 

Professor Tim Shephard
t.shephard@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Renaissance music
  • Music and identity
  • Music and visual culture
  • Music patronage
  • Music manuscripts and early music printing
Dr Matthew Sleat
m.sleat@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • Liberal political theory (and its critics)
  • Realist political theory
  • International political theory
  • The history of modern political theory
Dr Lisa Stampnitzky
l.stampnitzky.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

My research focuses on political discourse in the war on terror.   My first book addresses the history of "terrorism" and terrorism expertise.  My current research focuses on debates over the permissibility of torture in the U.S. after 9/11.  I have used a variety of methods, including interviewing, discourse analysis, and archival research. 

I am particularly keen to hear from research students focusing on

  • the intersections of knowledge, violence, and power
  • the politics of expertise
  • historical and sociological approaches to politics and the state
  • terrorism and the war on terror
  • the politics of human rights
Professor Paul Tappenden
p.tappenden@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

  • Health economic modelling
  • Economic analyses of therapies for multiple sclerosis
  • Economic analyses of cancer therapies
  • Whole disease modelling
Professor Karl Taylor
k.b.taylor@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Karl's research interests lie in the area of applied microeconometrics focusing on labour economics, the economics of education and, household financial decision-making. His research has focused on individual, household and firm-level data including matched workplace-employee data. Examples of research projects include empirical analysis of the reservation wages of the unemployed (ESRC) and empirical analysis of wage growth, human capital and risk aversion (Leverhulme Trust). He has been involved in advisory reports for the Home Office and more recently the Department of Health looking at the minimum pricing of alcohol. Karl is interested in supervising PhD students in applied microeconometrics.

Professor Jenny Thomson
j.m.thomson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Human Communication Sciences
School of Allied Health Professions Nursing and Midwifery

Research interests

• Developmental dyslexia and digital literacies
• The neuroscience of specific learning disabilities 
• Relationships between music, rhythm and literacy

Professor Jenny Thomson
j.m.thomson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Human Communication Sciences (old code)
Research interests
  • Developmental dyslexia and digital literacies
  • The neuroscience of specific learning disabilities 
  • Relationships between music, rhythm and literacy
Professor Renee Timmers
r.timmers@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Music and emotion
  • Embodied cognition and cross-modal correspondences with music
  • Music for health and wellbeing 
  • Expressive performance of music and ensemble communication 
Dr Luke Ulas
l.a.ulas@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

I have research interests in the political theory of cosmopolitanism and global political theory more widely, as well as in methodological questions in political theory.

Dr Bert Van Landeghem
b.vanlandeghem@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

His main research areas include economics and well-being, labour economics, applied microeconometrics and development economics.

Professor Craig Watkins
c.a.watkins@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests

My current and recent research focuses on the structure and operation of property markets, particularly local housing systems, and the impact of public policy on real estate market performance. This research addresses theoretical and empirical issues and is generally, although not exclusively, located within a quantitative economic framework. There are four main sub-themes to this work:

  • Analysing the submarket structure and operation of local property markets. 
  • Measuring and modelling property market performance. 
  • Exploring the interaction between planning, public policy and property market behaviour. 
  • Methodological advances in property research.
Dr Adam White
adam.white@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

My research focuses on four interconnected themes: (i) the rise of the private security and private military industries in the postwar era; (ii) corresponding issues of governance, regulation and legitimacy in the security and military sectors; (iii) the conceptual and empirical connections between war and crime; and (iv) the changing nature of state-market relations. These interests are multidisciplinary, lying at the intersection of criminology, politics, international relations and socio-legal studies.

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research Cluster

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Policing
  • Soldiering
  • Privatisation
  • Regulation
  • War
Professor Mike Williamson
M.Williamson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Protein structure determination by 2D and 3D NMR, and interactions with ligands. Methods for characterising protein mobility on multiple timescales.

Professor Luke Wilson
luke.wilson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Semiconductor nanowire quantum dots
  • Semiconductor nanowires for photovoltaics
  • Applications of surface plasmons in semiconductor physics and biology
Professor Lynda Wyld
l.wyld@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

Tumour microenvironment and the unfolded protein response, breast cancer in the elderly, psych-oncology, familial breast cancer, breast screening.

Professor Sue Yeandle
s.yeandle@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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.

Dr Sarah Barnes
s.barnes@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My primary research interest is in 'improving the quality of life of older people'. Key research areas arising from this are:-

  • The impact of the physical environment on the quality of life of older people
  • Evaluating the housing needs of older people
  • Assessing the palliative care needs of older people with life-limiting illnesses
  • Improving communication between patients with life-limiting conditions and their health care professionals
  • Improving hospital environments for the end of life care of older people
Professor Neil Bermel
n.bermel@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Russian & Slavonic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

My research explores language variation and the emergence of linguistic structure through corpora and experimental work; I also have conducted research in the areas of language planning, language management, linguistic landscapes and multilingualism. I ground my work in data from the Slavonic languages and nations, and more specifically Russian and Czech, but am also interested in supervising work on these topics that has a broader focus.

Professor Briony Birdi
b.birdi@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests and experience are broadly focused in the following areas:

  • Public library services
  • Library services for children and young people
  • Reading research and the promotion of literature and reading.

More specifically, my work relates to the social, political and educational roles of public and youth libraries in society, with a particular focus on diversity, social justice and reading. I am happy to supervise PhD projects related to any of these areas.

Professor Alan Brennan
a.brennan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My fundamental interest is in mathematical modelling approaches to inform decision making in health and healthcare.

I am currently principal investigator or co-investigator involved in over 19 research programmes and projects. Current government / national policy research.

Alcohol Policy

I have been involved in modelling alcohol behaviours and policy since 2008, when we began a programme of research for UK research bodies and policy makers. With Prof Meier, we have developed the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group, a leading international centre for alcohol policy and epidemiological modelling research. Our work has influenced government policy on minimum unit pricing for alcohol; shaping and informing policy in UK, Scotland, Canada, Wales, EU Commission, and Republic of Ireland.

Public Health - Health Economics and Decision Modelling

I am co-applicant (Health Economics and Decision Modelling leader) on large research grants for the NIHR School of Public health research and the ESRC funded UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies.

I have a wider portfolio of public health work including work around screening and prevention of diabetes, linking smoking and alcohol behaviours and developing a joint smoking and alcohol policy analysis model, encouraging behaviours in physical activity and general lifestyle risk reductions. This entire programme relates to the central methodological interest which is in developing and using novel mathematical modelling approaches to support and inform decision making around health and healthcare for international impact.

Health Technology Assessment

I have been heavily involved in health technology assessment and health economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals and interventions for both government bodies in the UK eg NICE and internationally, and also with the pharmaceutical industry.

I direct a programme of research in Health Economic Modelling / Health Technology Assessment which involves a large team of modelling staff and their collaborators. We are recognized as a leading national and international centre for HTA modelling research. I have been involved in direct leadership of over 30 research projects within the last five years, working closely with ScHARR-TAG and DSU.

Professor Andrea Brini
a.brini@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Research interests: My research field lies at the intersection of Geometry and Mathematical Physics. I work on the mathematical aspects of String Theory and their interface with Integrable Systems and Algebraic Geometry. My main research topic is the theory of topological strings and Gromov-Witten invariants, with emphasis on its connections with gauge theory, matrix models, integrable systems, and other moduli space problems.

Dr Janet Chamberlain
J.Chamberlain@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

My research career has focused on the understanding and prevention of restenosis and atherosclerosis, using several different experimental models, including research to develop a miniature stenting device for use in small calibre vessels.

My current areas of research relate to the mechanisms by which IL-1 is released from endothelial and smooth muscle cells, the role of IL-1 in the development of atherosclerosis, and the use of IL-1 antagonists to inhibit disease progression.

In addition, I am currently involved in investigating the role of carbon monoxide as a possible therapeutic for restenosis and myocardial infarction.

Dr Andrew Chantry
a.d.chantry@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

Research Interests

His principal research interests are anabolic strategies in the treatment of myeloma bone disease and novel strategies to target myeloma tumour. He also has holistic research interests including life with cancer – holistic care and quality of life studies, computational modeling of cancer including using digital simulations and game technology.

Dr Jonathan Collinson
j.collinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

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
Dr Spencer Collis
s.collis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

The overarching research goal of the Collis laboratory is to identify and functionally characterise novel factors that are important for the maintenance of genome integrity in human cells. This research also aims to establish if such factors are novel drug targets and/or biomarkers that can be exploited to improve the treatment of diseases such as cancer, either alone, or in combination with existing chemo- and/or radio-therapeutic regimes. To achieve this, the Collis group collaborates with a range of national and international scientists and clinicians to maximise the potential therapeutic impact of their basic biological discoveries.

Dr Andrew Cox
a.m.cox@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests focus on a number of areas:

  • The development of the information profession

  • Artificial intelligence for information professionals

  • Self tracking

 

Research supervision

Some topics I am particularly interested in supervising PhD work related to those themes:

  • The changing role of the information profession

    • The use of library and informal space in learning

    • Impact of data and artificial intelligence

    • Roles in user mental health and wellbeing

Dr Jackie Elliott
j.elliott@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interest in Diabetes started whilst I was a medical student, and has continued ever since. My current research interests include complex interventions for patients with diabetes. I’m involved in interventions to examine the best way in which to deliver education to different patient groups, for example those with hypoglycaemia unawareness, or young people, and how best to integrate technology, e.g., the use of insulin pumps, physical activity monitors etc.

Dr Nwanneka Ezechukwu-Anekwe
n.v.ezechukwu@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

My core research interest is in consumer law and policy. My current research projects focus on the regulatory mechanisms protecting consumers in the face of rapidly changing technology. I have also recently started looking at the linkage between consumer protection and trade governance. 

Research Interests

  • Consumer protection law and policy
  • The regulation of financial services innovation
  • The impact of regulation on financial inclusion
  • The regulation of online platforms
  • Regulatory compliance
Dr Duncan Gillespie
duncan.gillespie@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My fundamental interest is in informing decision making in health and healthcare.
  • Health economic modelling of public health policies, particularly relating to tobacco and alcohol.
  • Social inequalities in the effects of policies and interventions.
  • Demographic change and forecasting, particularly trends in cause-specific mortality.
  • Lifecourse dynamics of health and the social determinants of health
  • Commercial determinants of health.
  • Individual-based modelling methodologies.
  • Methods for improving the reproducibility and transparency of modelling research.
  • The integration of qualitative research with mathematical modelling methods.
Professor Elizabeth Goyder
e.goyder@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.

Professor Shuisheng He
s.he@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Shuisheng and his group conduct research in the field of fluid mechanics and heat transfer combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with experimental studies. Their research activities often fall in one of the following areas:

  • Nuclear thermal hydraulics
  • Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and flow of supercritical CO2
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Turbulence modelling
  • Unsteady turbulent flow
  • Buoyancy-influenced flow
  • Biofluids
Professor John Holmes
john.holmes@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research focuses on alcohol and public health.  I have particular interests in trends and patterns in alcohol consumption, alcohol policy analysis, and the relationship between alcohol use and other health-related behaviours.  Recent projects focus on alcohol pricing, trends in drinking occasions, cultures and practices, youth drinking trends, the development and evaluation of drinking guidelines, and the equity implications of alcohol policy. 

I would be interested in supervising doctoral research related to any of the topics above using quantitative or mixed methods.  

Dr Zhe Hui Hoo
z.hoo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

My general research interests are in the area of health services research essential to deliver a better performing healthcare system. More specifically, I am interested in using time series analysis of electronically captured behaviour data to understand habit and to support behaviour change among people with CF and healthcare professionals.

Professor Kristine Horner
k.horner@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Germanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

My research is mainly in the field of sociolinguistics with an emphasis on linguistic anthropological approaches to the interface between language, society and identity; language politics and policy; language, migration and citizenship; language and cultural heritage. I lead a WUN research network on multilingualism and mobility. Also, I am currently working on a collaborative project on European migration, language policy and small states with my strand on the project focused on multilingual Luxembourg.

Professor Martin Jackson
martin.jackson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

His research centres on the effect of solid state processes from upstream extraction technologies through to downstream finishing processes on microstructural evolution and mechanical properties in light alloys, and in particular Ti alloys. A major research interest is to provide a step change in the economics of titanium based alloys through the development of non-melt consolidation routes.

Dr Eirini Katsirea
i.katsirea@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

International Media Law

Irini's research interests are in the areas of European, international and comparative media law and policy. She has published extensively in these areas. Her current research projects include 'Examining the impact of IPSO on editorial standards and complaints handling', funded by IPSO, and "Press Regulation in the Digital Era."

PhD supervision

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

  • International, European and comparative media law and policy
  • Freedom of expression
  • Information law
Professor Richard Kirkham
R.M.Kirkham@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

My main research interest is administrative justice, with a particular specialism on the work of the ombudsman. I am a current holder of an 18 month Nuffield Foundation grant examining the procedural fairness in ombuds schemes.

Research Interests

  • Ombudsman
  • Constitutional theory
  • Administrative justice
  • Complaints mechanisms

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Administrative Justice
  • Ombudsmen
  • Public Law
Professor Claire Lewis
claire.lewis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

Our research is focused mainly on the role of inflammatory cells called macrophages in tumour progression and tumour responses to conventional anti-cancer treatments like chemotherapy and irradiation. We have also developed ways of using these cells to target therapeutic genes and viruses to tumours. Our work was reported in the national presshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20795977, and is mainly funded by grants from Cancer Research UK.

Dr Angela Lin
a.lin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests focus on:

  • information systems implementation
  •  use of IT in business
  • evaluation of information systems
  • the study of systems in use
  • users acceptance of systems
  • online consumer behaviours
  • information systems and technologies that support e-commerce
  • e-commerce business

Research supervision

I am interested in supervising PhDs in:

  • Management Information systems related projects.
Professor Martin Mayfield-Tulip
martin.mayfield@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

His research interests are in the Built Environment, City Systems and infrastructure interdependencies, in particular Urban Energy Systems and how they respond to stress and shock events.

Current research projects include:

  • Smart Grid evolution
  • Integrated infrastructure & devolution
  • Engineering challenges for Climate Change adaptation in retail buildings
  • Reducing end use energy demand through multi channel information streams
Professor Alberto Montagnoli
a.montagnoli@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Alberto’s research interests lie in the area of financial markets and banking. A central theme of his work has been the interaction between financial markets, monetary policy and the real economy at both a national and regional level. Recently his work has focused on various areas of behavioural finance and macroeconomics.

Alberto is interested in supervising PhD students with topics that are in line with the research interests described above.


Dr Antonio Navas
a.navas@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Antonio's research is mainly in two fields: international trade, and growth and economic development. His interests cover a broad variety of research topics in these areas. Others include:

  • trade liberalisation and trade policies in models of trade with firm heterogeneity
  • foreign direct investment
  • technology adoption
  • trade and innovation
  • unified growth theory.


Dr Marcus Nevitt
m.nevitt@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

I specialise in seventeenth-century literature. I have written principally on cheap print and my monograph, Women and the Pamphlet Culture of Revolutionary England was published by Ashgate in 2006. I have written articles on Ben Jonson and news writing in the seventeenth century, as well as numerous pieces on interregnum royalism and its connection to Restoration culture.

I welcome applications from potential research students in all of my research areas.

Professor Timothy O'Farrell
T.OFarrell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

Physical Layer Research:

  • Turbo Codes and Iterative Decoding
  • Adaptive Coding & Modulation
  • Multiple-Access (CDMA, MC-CDMA & OFDMA)
  • MIMO Techniques
  • Spreading Sequence Design
  • Wireless Visible Light Communication

Wireless Network Research:

  • MAC and Packet Scheduling Techniques
  • Energy and Spectrum Efficient Wireless Networking
  • Radio Access Network Planning & Optimisation
  • Large Scale Dynamic System Level Simulation (WCDMA, HSPA, LTE, LTE-Advance)
  • Video Quality of Service


Dr Juan Paez-Farrell
j.paez-farrell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Juan's research interests are in the areas of macroeconomics and monetary economics, especially business cycles. His recent research focuses on:

  • determinants of the sacrifice ratio in the OECD economies
  • analysing the behaviour of central banks when setting interest rates
  • exploring whether central banks are concerned about exchange rate stabilisation 


Dr Mark Pendleton
m.pendleton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of East Asian Studies

Research interests

My research is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from history, cultural studies, memory studies, literature, geography and critical theory. While my core interest lies in the history of twentieth century Japan, I also maintain active research interests in the histories of gender and sexuality, transnational social movement histories, the politics of violence and the relationship between memory and history.

Dr Aneta Piekut
a.piekut@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

Dr Aneta Piekut (she/her) is Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Methods Institute at the University of Sheffield, UK. Aneta also co-directs the Migration Research Group at the University of Sheffield. She is a mixed methods sociologist and her research spans disciplinary boundaries. Her research focuses on ethnic diversity, socio-spatial segregation and social cohesion, attitudes towards immigration and ethnic minorities, including their measurement and the problem of survey nonresponse.

Dr Peter Portius
p.portius@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemistry

Research Interests

My scientific interests are in the field of high energy compounds, from preparation to understanding and controlling reactivity, and practical applications.

Research is directed towards the synthesis and characterisation of nitrogen rich polycycles and the study of their stability and reactivity towards transition metal complexes. Another current area of research is the synthesis and characterisation of main group element polyazides with an emphasis on understanding the factors which govern their stability and energy release (thermal, mechanical shock, light).

Dr Anthony Powis
a.powis@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Architecture

I am interested in the interrelation of spatial production, knowledge production, and climate production, including: boundaries of architectural knowledges; futures of architecture, urban design and creative practice; and responses to the climate crisis. Intra-actions of climate and urbanisation (especially in relation to the South-Asian monsoon); architecture and (hydro-)geology; more-than-human research methodologies; participatory design and research; the production of space of urban protests; drawing as a research method.

Dr Joe Purshouse
j.purshouse@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law
My research focuses on the disruptive impact of innovations in technology and society on the law. I have published in leading journals such as the Legal Studies, Journal of Law and Society, Modern Law Review, Public Law, and Criminal Law Review. This research has contributed to policy debates on the application of law to new technologies in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Research Interests
  • New technologies
  • Criminal justice
  • Criminal process
  • Facial recognition technology
  • AI
  • Online child abuse activism
  • Citizen-led policing
  • Privacy
Dr Helen Quirk
h.quirk@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health
I am interested in supervising Research Students in topics/areas such as:
  • community-based physical activity promotion and/or associated health inequalities
  • physical activity for people living with long-term health conditions
  • physical activity among children and young people
  • research exploring the public health potential of parkrun
Research methods I can supervise:
  • qualitative methods
  • mixed methods
  • evaluation 
Professor Jonathan Rayner
j.r.rayner@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My current research centres on connections between cinema and landscape and the representation of navies, naval combat and naval history on film. From my PhD onwards my interests also include Australasian cinema (particularly Australian Gothic horror films), genre films and auteur studies.

I welcome applications from researchers working on film, particularly in my research areas. I have supervised film studies PhD students in British, European, American and Japanese cinema and maritime films.

Dr Lindsey Rice
L.Rice@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

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

Professor Louise Robson
l.robson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Our research is focused on the role of ion channels in the physiology and pathophysiology of epithelial cells, particularly renal, intestinal and airway cells. In the kidney our work has concentrated on the role of K+ channels and the K+ channel regulator KCNE1. In collaboration with R Muimo (Medical School) we also have a particular interest in cystic fibrosis and the role of CFTR in airway, gut and kidney.

Read more on research in the Robson laboratory

Dr Andrey Rosowsky
a.rosowsky@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

Andrey's research interests include language and education, sociolinguistics, multilingualism and faith-based complementary schooling. He has published in the fields of multilingualism, the sociology of language, the sociology of language and religion, language and education and language and identity. Much of his recent research is located within theoretical frameworks which view language as a social practice and language as performance. He recently led an AHRC-funded international research network on performance and faith: Heavenly Acts – aspects of performance through an interdisciplinary lens.

Dr Jennifer Rowson
j.rowson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Jennifer's research interests are focused on investigating the development and use of uncertainty analysis within the simulation environment.  Applications of this are split into two areas, human to environment interaction and computer simulation of biomechanical systems. The research themes are wide ranging and include:

  • Bayesian uncertainty analysis
  • Optimisation under uncertainty
  • Ageing and its influence on design
  • Measuring consumer opening strengths
  • Design for sustainability
  • Inclusive design
  • Consumer packaging
  • Inclusive design methodologies
Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole
k.runswick-cole@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

Katherine's research is rooted in critical disability studies scholarship and activism. Her research spans inclusive education, disabled children's childhood studies, as well as matters of health and social care in the lives of people with learning disabilities and their families. Her work draws on Feminist, Crip, Critical Psychology, Posthuman and DisHuman studies.

She engages with qualitative research approaches including: ethnography, narrative inquiry, arts-informed approaches, carried out in co-production with disabled people and their families and other allies.

Professor Sarah Salway
s.salway@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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
Professor Sarah Salway
s.salway@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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
Dr Mike Stannett
m.stannett@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Dr Stannett is interested in many areas of research, including Heterotic Computing, Unconventional Computing, Physics and Computation, Hypercomputation Theory, and First-Order Relativity Theories. He also has strong research links with members of the Algebraic Logic group at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest).

Professor Andrew Tyas
a.tyas@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Dr Tyas is head of the blast and impact research group in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, managing the testing laboratory at Harpur Hill, Buxton where research into blast physics and the response of structures to rapid dynamic loading is conducted. He is also a Director of Blastech Ltd, a University spin-out company offering consultancy and commercial testing services to industry in the field of blast and impact loading of structures. Additionally, he collaborates with Dr Matthew Gilbert in the development of computational optimisation-based methods for the design of structures. 

Dr Meredith Warren
m.j.warren@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies
Department of English Literature

Meredith Warren's primary research interests lie in the cultural and theological interactions among the religions of the ancient Mediterranean, especially early Judaism and Christianity. Her current research focuses on the sense of taste and heavenly food in ancient Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman narratives. Warren's first book examined the tropes of anthropophagy, sacrifice, and divinity in the Gospel of John and the Ancient Greek novels.

 

Please Note:

Research applicants proposing Dr Meredith Warren as a supervisor should select the Arts and Humanities IPO on the application form.

Dr Meredith Warren
m.j.warren@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature
Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies

Meredith Warren's primary research interests lie in the cultural and theological interactions among the religions of the ancient Mediterranean, especially early Judaism and Christianity. Her current research focuses on the sense of taste and heavenly food in ancient Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman narratives. Warren's first book examined the tropes of anthropophagy, sacrifice, and divinity in the Gospel of John and the Ancient Greek novels.

 

Please Note:

Research applicants proposing Dr Meredith Warren as a supervisor should select the Arts and Humanities IPO on the application form

Dr Lauren White
l.e.white@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

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.

Professor Paul Clough
p.d.clough@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests focus on developing effective retrieval technologies that support users as they seek to fulfil their information needs. Specifically I have carried out research in the areas of:

  • multilingual search
  • retrieval of images
  • geo-spatial search
  • analysis of transaction logs
  • text re-use and plagiarism detection 
  • the evaluation of search systems

My background in natural language processing has allowed me to develop more sophisticated approaches to accessing information. In addition to developing techniques, I have also built up an understanding of the users of information access systems and their information needs, taking a more user-oriented view to my research. I am also interested in the creation of re-usable evaluation resources (corpora and test collections) for the wider research community, such as computational linguistics and information retrieval.

Professor Elizabeth Cross
e.j.cross@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Elizabeth’s main research interests are in the field of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), specifically vibration based SHM, which uses monitored dynamic properties of a structure for condition assessment and damage detection. SHM is still a relatively young field and so much of the research that goes on is confined to the laboratory. While it is true that research into SHM is becoming increasingly popular, it has failed, so far, to be taken up in any major way by industry, despite the obvious economic and safety benefits it could offer.

Elizabeth’s current research is broadly concerned with how SHM can be made to work for the real world and encompasses the application of statistics and machine learning technology, as well as mathematics from other disciplines such as econometrics.

Dr Beatriz González-Fernández
b.gonzalez-fernandez@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Language and Linguistics

My research focuses on the acquisition and teaching of vocabulary in second and foreign languages. In particular, I am interested in looking at how second or foreign language users acquire multiple aspects of vocabulary knowledge and how this data can inform second language vocabulary theory and pedagogy. My research interests also involve examining the relationships between vocabulary and other linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, and their effect on second language lexical development.

My recent research has explored second language learners’ knowledge of various components involved in mastering vocabulary and their interrelationships, in order to establish a developmental order of acquisition of these components and a data-supported conceptualisation of vocabulary knowledge in second languages. 

My research interests also include exploring the acquisition of meaning in a foreign language, and I am currently involved in a research project investigating the learning of polysemy and homonymy under deliberate and incidental conditions.

Professor Damian Hodgson
d.hodgson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Professor of Organisational Studies

Damian's research focuses on issues of power, knowledge, identity and control in complex organisations and on the management of experts/professionals in these settings. He has developed these interests through research in a range of industries including financial services, creative industries, R&D and engineering. However, his primary research interest is on the transformation of health and care, with a particular focus on the organisational and policy dimensions of this transformation. He is committed to engaged research which is pragmatic but theory-driven, with a focus on supporting and informing real change in practice.

Damian is currently supervising several PhD students. He is interested in supervising doctoral research in the following areas:

  • Organisation and policy change in health and care
  • The devolution of health and care
  • Workforce challenges in health and care
  • Professional and managerial identity work in healthcare
  • Critical analyses of project management and project organising
  • Power and identity in the workplace
Professor Jason King
Jason.King@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests

We study pathways of lysosomal degradation. Lysosomes act like the stomach of the cell and contain all the enzymes required for digestion. We study three interlinked pathways: autophagyphagocytosis and macropinocytosis

These enable cells to digest unwanted or damaged components from inside themselves, as well as capture nutrients or harmful pathogens from the environment. We study the fundamental mechanisms underlying these processes and therefore our work has is relevant to a wide range of human diseases and conditions.Please see our research pages for more information.

Activities and distinctions:

  • Vice-Chair Gordon Research Seminar on Autophagy in Stress, Development and Disease 2012
Professor Lorraine Maltby
l.maltby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

The human global population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050 and managing landscapes to provide the food, water, fuel, housing and other resources required by this growing population, whilst protecting the ecosystems that provide them, is a major challenge. My research addresses this challenge and is concerned with understanding the impact of anthropogenic activities on freshwater ecosystems and their catchments. A major research aim is to gain a mechanistic understanding of key ecosystem services and the ecological processes that underpin them, and to investigate how they are affected by anthropogenic inputs and activities. The output from this research is used to inform environmental decision making and to influence policy development and implementation. Current research topics include:

  • Ecological risk assessment of chemicals
  • Chemical risk and climate change
  • Ecosystem services and environmental stressors
  • Agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Environmental plastics
  • Spatial variation in vulnerability to chemical risk
Dr Chris Montgomery
c.montgomery@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Language and Linguistics

Research interests

My research interests are primarily in the field of perceptual dialectology, and specifically the methodological approaches to the study of non-linguists' perceptions. My research has focussed on locations in the north of England and southern Scotland, and has discussed the role of (real and imagined) borders in perception.

My research is not restricted to perceptual dialectology and I am also interested in the wider field of folk linguistics and language attitudes, that is to say, how linguistically naive informants respond to language, and the reasons behind these responses.

My research has investigated ways of integrating techniques used in the field of Geographical Science with those used in the study of language variation and perception, with a particular focus on the possibilities offered by GIS technologies.

I am also generally interested in sociolinguistic and dialectological methodologies, lexical erosion and language variation and change.


Dr Kanchana Nadarajah
k.nadarajah@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Research Interests

Kanchana’s research focuses on time-series Econometrics with applications in economics and finance, semi-parametric and non-parametric statistics, and partial identification and related matters in average treatment effects.

Her research interests are directed towards developing new techniques of estimation and inference in linear stationary and non-stationary fractionally integrated models. She investigates the impact of mis-specification in these time series models.

Further, her research focuses on developing a new theoretical and methodological framework for estimating the fractional differencing parameter. She is also working on estimation and inference on partial identification-related matters in conjunction with average treatment effects.

Kanchana is interested in supervising PhD students willing to work in time series Econometrics inline with her research interests.

Dr Sabrina Thornton
sabrina.thornton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Marketing

Dr. Sabrina Thornton's research is predominantly in the area of business-to-business marketing and inherently interdisciplinary, spanning across marketing, strategy and innovation. She has extensive experience of undertaking research quantitatively as well as qualitatively, using different research designs and analytical approaches. Her current research includes two main strands: a substantive strand, namely strategic relationships/business network and innovation, and a methodological strand, namely the applications of qualitative comparative analysis in a configuration theoretical framework. Her recent research has covered topics, such as:

• How technologies and information systems enhance customer relationship management
• How market intelligence and customer insight contribute to innovation success
• How companies align their capabilities with innovation to deliver customer values
• How companies integrate and embed collaborative relationships in the innovation process
• How business network and networking influences innovation outcomes

Professor Ashutosh Tiwari
a.tiwari@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Professor Ashutosh Tiwari is Airbus/RAEng Research Chair in Digitisation for Manufacturing at the University of Sheffield. The vision of his research is to develop a digitised factory that requires no setups for manufacturing part variants (zero-setup) and no measurements on parts for ensuring quality (zero-measurement). Over the last eighteen years, he has developed three novel internationally recognised research themes to achieve this vision: (i) Digitisation of skill-intensive manufacturing processes, such as wing manufacture and engine assembly. His research is one of the first to focus on simultaneous digitisation of human actions and their impact on workpieces. (ii) Multi-level optimisation of manufacturing processes. He has developed new techniques for optimising the parameters of a manufacturing process at various levels (machine, multi-machine sequence, assembly and manufacturing system). (iii) Real-time simulation of manufacturing processes. His research has introduced the use of live shopfloor data to update factory simulation models in real-time.

Dr Gareth Walker
g.walker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Language and Linguistics

Research interests

To date, all of my research has been directed at trying to reach a more complete understanding of how we use linguistic resources when we engage in everyday conversation. In my research I use auditory and acoustic phonetic techniques in combination with Conversation Analysis (CA) in analysing audio and video recordings of unscripted interaction.

I have published work on topics including turn-taking, turn construction, turn continuation and the signalling of attitude and emotion in conversation. As a development of this work I have examined visual aspects of interaction (gaze and gesture) in addition to phonetic detail and sequential organisation. In my research I have studied interactions between adults, and between parents and young children.

I would be pleased to hear from anybody interested in conducting research into everyday talk, especially if that work involves (or might involve) phonetics and/or conversation analysis.

Dr Erica Ballantyne
e.e.ballantyne@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management

Research

Erica is a member of the Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) Research Centre, and the Centre for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES), and the Advanced Resource Efficiency Centre (AREC) here at the University of Sheffield.

Research interests include: Sustainable urban freight transport and logistics operations; city logistics; sustainable urban supply chains; and local authority freight transport planning and policy decision making. She welcomes exploring future collaborations with industry partners and research academics.

Prospective PhD candidates

Erica is interested in supervising doctoral students in the field of logistics, freight transport and supply chain management. In particular, she is keen to supervise students who have an interest in using qualitative methods in logistics related research. Prospective PhD students with related research interests are invited to send a research proposal and a CV for consideration.

Publications

Ballantyne, E.E.F., Lindholm, M. and Whiteing, A.W. (2013). A comparative study of urban freight transport planning: addressing stakeholder needs. Journal of Transport Geography, 32 93- 101.

Ballantyne, E.E.F. and Boodoo, A. (2010). Freight in an Eco-town: How does freight fit into eco-town planning? Logistics and Transport Focus, 12(6) 28-32.

Full list of publications

Dr Abigail Hathway
a.hathway@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Abigail’s research focuses on fluid flow in the built environment, incorporating building simulation, particularly CFD, with experimental and field work.

Her PhD considered CFD modelling of bioaerosols released in hospital environments due to nursing activities and was completed at the University of Leeds. The research involved the combination of both airflow modelling with bio-aerosol experiments and field sampling. The role of human activity on indoor air continues to be an active research interest, and has developed to consider a variety of built environments, and is often developed through interdisciplinary collaboration. Her main interest is in the interactions of people with their building and the resulting impacts on air flow across the building envelope and between interior spaces. Such research is important for understanding indoor air quality and the transport of contaminants in indoor spaces, as well as the evaluating the true potential for natural ventilation in buildings.

Further research into urban microclimates complements the indoor air research by considering the role of urban design on pedestrian comfort and the implications for the fresh air entering buildings.


Dr Susan Oman
s.m.oman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research Interests 

I research how data and evidence work in practice, looking at particular policy issues, such as well-being, loneliness, inequality and class. My research focuses on the role of knowledge and information in social change and revealing the positive and negative effects of practices assumed benevolent and robust. I am particularly interested in projects which research data, tech, knowledge and policy issues in the creative and cultural industries, Higher Education, local or national governance, as well as social and cultural policy more generally. 

 

Potential Projects

  • How data ‘work’ - in context: everyday data practices in organisations

  • People’s perceptions and experiences of data practices 

  • Media representations of data practices and processes 

  • Issues related to processes of categorisation, i.e. census, demographic data or processes, such as segmentation

  • History and philosophy of social science 

  • Research on, in, or with, the cultural sector - particularly evaluation of projects with a social impact aim

  • Critical inequality research

  • Critical well-being research 

  • Critical policy studies (document analysis, discourse analysis, historical analyses)

  • Cultural and social policy studies

Dr Gillian Sharpe
law@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

My research interests centre on the intersections of criminal and social justice, in particular the extent to which criminal and youth justice policies and interventions, as well as welfare policies, often fail, in spite of their good intentions, to advance justice or ameliorate the life circumstances of poor, marginalised and vulnerable groups.

My current research focuses on two areas. The first of these is youth justice policy and practice - in particular the assessment, criminalisation and penal governance of young women - and the second concerns (ex-) offenders' experiences of life after punishment and their transitions into adulthood.

Previous empirical research has focused on desistance from crime amongst men and women previously on probation, the community supervision of women lawbreakers, housing provision and social support for women ex-prisoners and their dependent children, domestic violence advocacy, and the supervision and surveillance of persistent and serious young offenders. I am experienced in qualitative research methodologies and in conducting research with vulnerable groups.

Areas of Supervision

I would be interested to hear from prospective research students in the areas of youth justice, the punishment of, and provision for, women who offend, and desistance from crime.

Dr Shilpa Taneja
s.taneja@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Marketing

Shilpa has earned a doctorate in management and a postdoctoral fellowship in marketing. Her research interests include sustainability, digitalization, marketing, strategy, branding, sustainable business and consumerism, the digital platform ecosystem, behavioural operations, and FinTech.

Her research has appeared in high-impact and internationally reputed journals, including Business Strategy and the Environment, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, among others. Along with this, she has a strong pipeline of research to her credit. She is serving as a reviewer for reputed high-impact journals, including the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Business Strategy and the Environment, International Journal of Consumer Studies, International Journal of Bank Marketing, to name a few, and global conferences, namely the Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meetings and the Academy of International Business (AIB) conferences, among others.

She is a professional member of reputed bodies including the Academy of Marketing Science, the Association for Consumer Research, IEEE, the MIS Quarterly (MISQ) Insider Community, and the Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN) Community.

Currently, she is actively engaged in different research projects aimed at promoting sustainable consumption, such as working as a Fellow in the COMFOCUS project funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme.

Professor Keith Worden
K.Worden@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Keith's research is concerned with applications of advanced signal processing and machine learning methods to structural dynamics. The primary application is in the aerospace industry, although there has also been interaction with ground transport and offshore industries.

One of the research themes concerns non-linear systems. The research conducted here is concerned with assessing the importance of non-linear modelling within a given context and formulating appropriate methods of analysis. The analysis of non-linear systems can range from the fairly pragmatic to the extremes of mathematical complexity. The emphasis within the research group here is on the pragmatic and every attempt is made to maintain contact with engineering necessity.

Another major activity within the research group concerns structural health monitoring for aerospace systems and structures. The research is concerned with developing automated systems for inspection and diagnosis, with a view to reducing the cost-of-ownership of these high integrity structures. The methods used are largely adapted from pattern recognition and machine learning; often the algorithms make use of biological concepts e.g. neural networks, genetic algorithms and ant-colony metaphors. The experimental approaches developed range from global inspection using vibration analysis to local monitoring using ultrasound.

Dr Philipp Horn
p.horn@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

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. 

Projects

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who have interests in the following areas:

  • Indigenous urbanisation and promoting marginalised groups in urban policy and practice;

  • Participatory and citizen-led approaches to planning in cities of the global South;

  • Alternatives to (urban) development in practices

  • Collaborative and co-productive urban studies research approaches

Dr Harry Kai-Ho Chan
h.k.chan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research Interests

My research interests include data mining and analytics, data science, and big data. My research concerns foundations for efficient information retrieval, data management and knowledge discovery from different types of data, in particular those with spatial dimension such as spatial data, spatio-textual data, and spatio-temporal data.

I worked on the problems of query processing on spatio-textual data, spatial co-location pattern mining, and in the area of indoor location-based services (LBS). I am also interested in applying machine learning models in databases to improve the quality and query efficiency of spatial data.

  • Spatial database

  • Data mining

  • Indoor Location-based services

My research has been published in top journals and conferences such as IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE),  International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) and IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE). You can find more about my research on my personal webpage.

Research supervision

I would welcome proposals related to any of the above areas. I am also interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas:

  • Data mining and analytics for big data

  • Machine learning for databases

  • Spatial data science, data management and data querying

Professor Paul Martin
paul.martin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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'.

Professor Stephen Pinfield
s.pinfield@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

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.

Professor Gwen Robinson
G.J.Robinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Since joining the University of Sheffield I have been involved in a number of empirical research projects and have published in the areas of: probation service reform; offender rehabilitation and management; community sanctions/penalties; and restorative justice.

In the last 10 years my research has focused on the implementation, experience and consequences of a series of criminal justice reforms which saw the part privatisation of probation services in 2014, and their renationalisation in 2020. In 2014-16 I was part of a research team which successfully applied for an ESRC Urgency grant to examine the transition of probation staff from a public sector Probation Trust to a privately owned Community Rehabilitation Company in one case study area. In 2020 we won a further ESRC grant, enabling us to examine the reunification of probation services in an expanded National Probation Service. This study is a collaboration with colleagues at the Universities of Nottingham, Southampton and Liverpool John Moores.

I have also conducted research on the role of probation in the magistrates' courts (2017-18) and I am co-editing a book (with Dr Nicola Carr, University of Nottingham) on Time and Punishment.

Research Interests

  • Community sanctions/penalties
  • Offender rehabilitation and management
  • Restorative justice

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Community sanctions/penalties and their administration
  • Offender management and rehabilitation
  • Restorative Justice
Dr Richard Thackray
r.thackray@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Sustainable steelmaking
Research is focussed on identifying strategies to produce more energy efficient steelmaking processes and to improve material efficiency. We work with industrial partners such as Siemens to investigate sustainable plate manufacture, and with Tata Steel to conduct research in areas as diverse as alternative materials for ironmaking, dephosphorisation mechanisms in oxygen steelmaking, the effect of reduced niobium content on microstructure of pipeline grades, life cycle analysis and substance flow analysis of critical elements used in steelmaking, use of alternative waste streams in primary steel production, and improved reuse and recycling of by-products.

Secondary steelmaking and continuous casting
Research is centred on understanding the effect of thermomechanical processing on inclusion formation and behaviour as well as developing new methodologies for characterising inclusions. Casting research focuses on understanding the role of mould powders on the both the internal and surface quality of cast products, particularly casting of next generation (TRIP, DP) steels.

Other
Other areas of active research include modelling and design of castings for the nuclear supply chain in partnership with Sheffield Forgemasters, modelling of the behaviour of steel in fire, and the development of new modelling methodologies for predicting microstructure and segregation in continuously cast steels.

Dr Sharon Wagg
sharon.wagg@sheffield.ac.uk

Information School

Research Interests

My principle research interest lies in digital inclusion and exclusion, access and use of information, and the influence of digitalisation on organisations, work and society:

My current research investigates digital transformation, digital connectivity, and digital poverty, and the assemblage of situated and entangled sociomaterial practices within organisations and communities operating in this space. I am specifically interested in the conditions and practices that configure inequalities in accessing and using ICTs in the context of underserved or vulnerable populations.

Other research interests include: organisation studies, digital divides, ICT4D, digital skills development, social dimensions of information systems, knowledge sharing and boundary spanning practices, and the future of work agenda with an emphasis on social inclusion.

I have an interest in the application of Activity Theory, Arenas/Social Worlds Theory and Practice Theory to theorise the complexity of digital adoption, access to information, and the utilisation of  responsible research and innovation in projects.


Research supervision

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

  • Digital exclusion and remote working/learning

  • Digital inclusion and the public library sector

  • Mis/dis-information as connected to information literacy and access to information

  • School libraries

  • Digital infrastructure in rural communities

  • Digital inclusion practices and management in organisations

  • Organisational culture and digital adoption

  • Digital skills development and future work practices

Professor Charles Wellman
c.wellman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

My research addresses the highly topical and controversial problem of the origin and early evolution of land plants. My research integrates evidence from both fossil and living plants. Fossil evidence is in the form of early land plant megafossils and dispersed microfossils—spores and fragments. I am currently working on material from China, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Kazakhstan and Spitsbergen. I study living plants in order to interpret the earliest land plant fossils [specifically through: (i) cladistic analyses of evolutionary relationships; (ii) molecular clock analyses of evolutionary divergence times; (iii) analysis of physiological adaptations required for plants to invade the land (particularly Evo-Devo studies on the molecular genetics of spore/pollen wall development)]. I am also exploring the impact of the invasion of the land by plants on global change. This has led to research into developing a novel (and currently only) proxy for past UV-B radiation. In recent years I have also extended my research back in time to examine a previously neglected research area considering the ‘algal scum’ that inhabited the land before it was invaded by plants.

Professor Umberto Albarella
u.albarella@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Archaeology

Research interests:

I am specialised in the study of animal bones from archaeological sites (zooarchaeology), but my research is wide-ranging and strongly oriented towards the integration of different aspects of archaeology. My work is predominantly based in Britain and Italy, but I have also worked in Armenia, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Portugal. My main areas of research include:

  • Animal domestication and husbandry intensification
  • Ethnoarchaeology
  • Ritual use of animals
  • Husbandry evidence of Romanization
  • Animals and medieval life
  • Integration in archaeology
  • Archaeology and politics
Professor Umberto Albarella
u.albarella@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

I am specialised in the study of animal bones from archaeological sites (zooarchaeology), but my research is wide-ranging and strongly oriented towards the integration of different aspects of archaeology. My work is predominantly based in Britain and Italy, but I have also worked in Armenia, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Portugal.

My main areas of research include:

  • Animal domestication and husbandry intensification
  • Ethnoarchaeology
  • Ritual use of animals
  • Husbandry evidence of Romanization
  • Animals and medieval life
  • Integration in archaeology
  • Archaeology and politics
Dr Raslan Alzuabi
raslan.alzuabi@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Research Interests:

Raslan’s research interests lie in the field of household finance. His work focuses on linking households’ financial behaviour to the macroeconomic environment and on exploring the drivers of household financial decisions at the micro level. 

Raslan's current research explores the relationship between trust in the financial system and households' financial decision making.  More broadly he is interested in factors that influence household financial portfolio allocations.  

In addition, Raslan's work on households’ financial behaviour has developed to consider the implications of housing affordability and whether it should be extended beyond objective economic criteria and include households’ subjective dimensions.

Dr Hadi Arbabi
HArbabi1@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research Interests

Hadi's work and research interests sit at the interface of data-driven urban analytics and planning. Their overall body of research focuses on the challenges relating to resource consumption and productivity in urban systems often in the context of planetary resource capacity and extreme climate change. Hadi has worked on spatially multi-scale examinations of urban systems and the extent to which their performance is influenced by their embedded physical infrastructure. Their other interests include urban complexity, population scaling and allometry, city morphology and infrastructure planning for agglomeration, network analysis of urban flows, stocks, and metabolism.

Professor Frances Babbage
f.babbage@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

I welcome PhD applicants who wish to undertake research in fields that include contemporary theatre practice; devising; theatrical adaptation and rewriting; performance documentation and archive studies; and applied theatres. Sheffield University encourages practice-based as well as traditionally framed PhDs; I have supervised and examined several practice-based doctorates and am very happy to discuss such applications from potential research students. I currently supervise or co-supervise PhD projects in: aerial performance as critical practice; representations of ageing in contemporary British theatre; new models of performance dramaturgy; paratext and contemporary theatre; the methods of Maxwell and the New York City Players.

Professor Kalina Bontcheva
k.bontcheva@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

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
Professor Hugo Dobson
h.dobson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of East Asian Studies

Research interests

Professor Dobson’s research interests are broadly divided into two strands. The first strand focuses upon Japan's role in international relations, multilateral organisations and global governance, especially the G8 and G20. The second strand of his research explores the role of images in shaping our understanding of international relations and Japan’s role in the world, from postage stamps and logos to TV programmes such as The Simpsons. He is currently developing a new, third strand on the role of informal political actors, such as former presidents and prime ministers.

Dr Georgios Efthyvoulou
g.efthyvoulou@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Georgios' research interests lie in the areas of political economics, international industrial economics, and applied econometrics. In particular, his research focuses on:

  • the role of political motivations in shaping economic policies and outcomes
  • the linkages between external economic constraints, institutions, strategic incentives, and domestic policy decisions
  • the drivers of innovation and productivity
  • the relationship between financial constraints and firm/bank performance.

Georgios is actively involved in presenting his work to the academic and policymaking community through seminars, policy workshops, and world-leading international conferences.

Dr Inaki Esnaola
esnaola@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research interests:

My research interests include information theory and communication theory with an emphasis on application to electricity grid problems. My research focuses on understanding the fundamental limits governing systems with incomplete or mismatched system information. Today, we are seeing a growing amount of stored electronic data, and larger more diverse networks whose agents interact with limited information. However, many of the fundamental questions are still open. Tools from assorted communities such as information theory, probability theory, and random matrix theory among others, are proving useful but we are still lacking in our understanding of these systems and how to provide constructive guidelines for optimal algorithm design.

Dr Katherine Fish
k.fish@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research Interests

I am an applied environmental microbiologist with inter-disciplinary research interests regarding understanding the microbial ecology of natural and engineered environments, particularly with respect to microbial biofilms.

Specifically, I am interested in understanding how microbial management approaches impact biofilms and, in turn, how biofilms respond to these practices, predominantly (but not exclusively) in aquatic systems.

My current research involves collaborative projects which incorporate (micro)biological, physical and chemical analyses to explore the influence of management approaches, such as disinfection concentration, on biofilm physical (EPS and cells) and community structure (using molecular analysis), with consideration of impacts on public health and water quality.



Professor David Forrest
d.forrest@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My main research area is British social realist cinema, with a particular interest in the functions of space, place and landscape in realist texts. I have also published work on British television drama, the British New Wave and contemporary British cinema.

My work is currently focussed on the film and television writer and novelist Barry Hines, perhaps best known of the novelA Kestrel for a Knave (1968) and the TV play Threads (1984). Together with Professor Sue Vice, I am developing a delivering a number of research and public engagement projects around Hines and working-class film, television and literature more broadly.

Dr Caitlin Fox-Hodess
Katy.Fox-Hodess@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer

Katy's research interests include global trade unionism and international solidarity; the theoretical foundations of worker power; and labour in the logistics industry.

Her current project draws on case studies of recent dockworker union labour disputes in Greece, Portugal, England, Sweden, Chile and Colombia to formulate a novel theory of worker power as grounded simultaneously in the economy, state and society.

A second research project investigates the global 'Block the Boat' protests which brought together labour and community activists at ports in solidarity with Palestine.

Additional domestic research projects in partnership with UNISON and Unite the Union have investigated trade union organising in public services and in UK freeports respectively.

Dr Laura Gray
laura.gray@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My main research interests lie in applied micro-econometrics and health. I am interested in supervising students using econometric methods to analyse individual behaviour. My previous research has included a range of quantitative methods including factor analysis, structural equation modelling, growth models and mixture models as well as methods for dealing with missing data.

I am particularly interested in obesity across different stages of life and how and why BMI changes over time. My current fellowship focuses on the causes and consequences of risky BMI trajectories in older adults.

Professor Robert Hierons
r.hierons@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

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
Dr John Israilidis Antoniou
j.israilidis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research interests currently focus on ignorance management, organisational learning and strategic decision-making. I am particularly interested in studying how our mind operates under bounded constraints, exploring the interplay between knowledge and ignorance to optimise the way in which we make decisions. My work also looks at strategies for enhancing knowledge sharing in organisations.

Research supervision

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

  • Strategic knowledge management

  • Interproject and cross-organisational learning

  • Managing knowledge in project environments

  • Knowledge networks and boundaries

Dr Graeme Manson
Graeme.Manson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

The main concern of Dr Manson´s research has been, throughout, the development of robust structural health monitoring strategies for the purposes of damage identification. Over the years, this has taken on various approaches beginning with the examination of the response of nonlinear mechanical systems before moving into the fields of signal processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and multivariate statistics for damage identification. More recently, with the questions of damage prognosis and robustness of structural health monitoring systems, the research has led toward the investigation of the propagation of uncertainty through systems and structures.

Dr Adriana Massidda
a.l.massidda@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Architecture

I am currently working in two main research areas. First, for twelve years I have been studying and reconstructing the history of Buenos Aires shantytowns. Second, in my most recent research I have started to interrogate the intersection between ecological vulnerability and urban poverty. I explored this through the environmental history of waste in two social housing sites in London and Leicester. My forthcoming research project will look at floods and water displacement in low-income South West Buenos Aires. I welcome PhD inquiries focused on these or related topics, on any geographical area of the candidate’s expertise.

Dr Martina McGuinness
m.mcguinness@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Risk Management and Strategy

Research interests

My research focuses upon two broad, but overlapping areas, namely business risk and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). More particularly, these can be broken down into distinct research strands: the influence of corruption upon organisational strategic decision-making in multinational enterprises; organisational preparedness and business continuity practice; strategy practice in SMEs.

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

  • organisational risk and resilience
  • business continuity management
  • flood risk management
  • corruption


Professor Steven McIntosh
s.mcintosh@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Steve researches in the areas of Labour Economics and the Economics of Education. Much of his research examines the labour market outcomes of education, considering for example the wage returns to particular qualifications, and the incidence and implications of mismatch between the demand for and the supply of skills. Steve´s current research projects involve a study of the wage returns to apprenticeships, an examination of the relationship between vocational qualification subjects and job tasks, the effects of the polarisation of the labour market on worker transitions, and an evaluation of a government training provision policy. Steve is interested in supervising any applied microeconometric PhD in the areas of labour or education.

Dr Subhasish Modak Chowdhury
subhasish.chowdhury@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Research Interests

Subhasish M. Chowdhury joined Sheffield as Professor of Economics in 2022. His areas of research interest cover both theoretical and applied investigations of problems in Conflict, Industrial Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Political Economy. Subhasish serves as a Co-Editor of the journals ‘Frontiers in Behavioral Economics’, and ‘Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy’ and is an editorial board member of ‘Studies in Microeconomics’. He has also served as a guest-editor for ‘Economic Inquiry’ and the ‘Journal of Economics Psychology’. His research has been published in journals such as the Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Public Economics, Economic Theory etc.

Dr Mohammed Nassar
m.nassar@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

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.

Dr Monica Paramita
m.paramita@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research focuses on the study of fairness and transparency in Artificial Intelligence, and information retrieval (search engines) more specifically. I am also interested in investigating information access across languages and different countries.


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

Dr Brian Rice
b.rice@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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
Professor Jennifer Roberts
j.r.roberts@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Jenny's research interests centre on applied microeconometrics, particularly the interaction of health and labour market outcomes, health-related behaviours, health valuation, the economics of well-being and travel behaviours. She is currently leading a large, innovative, EPSRC-funded project, 'Reflect: Experienced utility and travel behaviour, a feasibility study', which uses smartphones to gather real-time data on commuting experiences, and to feed this back to them in various ways. The ultimate aim is to influence travel behaviour by encouraging people to reflect on their experience and those of other people.

Jenny is interested in supervising PhD students in applied microeconometrics, especially those with topics that are in line with the research interests described here.


Professor Darren Robinson
d.robinson1@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Architecture

My main passion is for research that makes a difference. Much of my research is conducted at the interface between social physics (people), building physics (buildings) and urban physics (city): people – buildings – city. This research is conducted at multiple scales: from the performance of individual buildings in their urban context and the how this performance is influenced by occupants; to the performance of entire complex urban systems and how their spatial and functional structures can be improved upon to maximise metabolic efficiency. Increasingly, I am interested in understanding how the implications on resource use of individuals, firms and institutions can be influenced and how this understanding can be embedded into predictive models.

Dr James Shucksmith
j.shucksmith@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Dr Shucksmith's primary research focus is the physical processes that drive water quality transformations within urban drainage and surface water environments. This includes developing techniques for understanding and mitigating the likely pressures on water management caused by climate change, population growth and asset deterioration. His work ranges from experimental based research into solute mixing processes within open channels, vegetated flows and urban flood waters to more applied work in collaboration with industry on integrated water quality modelling and real time control systems. In collaboration with colleagues James also works in fields such as eco-hydraulics, urban flooding and sustainable urban drainage systems.

Dr Anthony Simons
a.j.simons@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Dr Simons’ research focuses on turning formal results from verification and testing into practical benefits for software engineering. His current research areas include model-based testing and model-driven engineering, with applications to Cloud computing. He has also published widely in object-oriented software engineering, including type theory and software development methods. He is inventor of the JWalk automatic software testing tool for Java; and the JAST library for processing XML in Java. He is co-author of the OPEN Toolbox of Techniques.

Dr Karen Sisley
k.sisley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

My research interests are the genetic and biological behaviour of uveal melanoma.  Initial studies have lead to a good understanding of some of the principle genetic changes in uveal melanoma and how they correlate and can be used to predict prognosis.  My research continues to investigate the genetic basis of uveal melanomas but has broadened in recent years to consider how the interaction with the environment affects the way these melanomas develop.  In addition I have become actively involved in investigating the genetic characterization of sarcoma and developing a molecular pathological classification suitable for all subtypes.

Dr Iulia Statica
i.statica@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Architecture

Dr Statica’s work focuses on the relationship between gender and domesticity in the development and transformation of housing infrastructures and urban landscapes in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Her research interests are in the feminist practices of care, intersectional feminism, theories of infrastructure and the anthropology of socialism, and urbanism, specifically the comparative investigation of urban contexts in postsocialist and postcolonial geographies. She employs documentary film as an integral aspect of both research and practice.

Research interest and PhD Supervision areas: (Post)socialist architecture and urbanism; global urbanism and postcolonialism; gender and architecture; documentary and ethnographic film; domesticity/housing infrastructures/care; intersectional feminism and urbanism.

Dr Kevin Thwaites
k.thwaites@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Landscape Architecture

My research interests and activities focus on two main themes, which are integrated into approaches to research-led-teaching: the theory and philosophy of urban landscape design and their impact on the intellectual underpinning and conceptual development of design processes and spatial languages; socially sustainable approaches to planning and design in urban open spaces, particularly how spatial and experiential dimensions converge to influence psychological health and well-being.

These general areas of interest converge in Experiential Landscape and Socially Restorative Urbanism, a research stream concerned with applying an integrated approach to human-environment relations to place making in urban open space settings. Along with Dr James Simpson, I lead the Socio-Spatial Urbanism Unit.

Dr Bo Wang
b.v.wang@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

I am a lecturer at the School of Law, University of Sheffield. My research focuses mainly on English criminal law and comparative criminal law. I also have broad interests in philosophy of criminal law, Chinese criminal law and justice and criminal policy. My doctoral research focused on derivative complicity liability in English criminal law and a monograph based on this has been returned for REF2021.

Research Interests

  • Theories of Criminalisation
  • English Criminal Law
  • Chinese Criminal Law and Justice
  • Cyber Security and Criminal Law
  • White Collar and Financial Crimes
  • Gender and Law
Professor Angela Wright
a.h.wright@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My main research focus lies in the publication, reception and translation of Gothic literature published between 1764 and 1820. Gothic literature seized my imagination from a very early age, and I began to develop this interest in academic directions when studying for my undergraduate degree in English and French at Stirling University. I continued to focus on eighteenth-century French and British Gothic literature in my doctoral thesis, and spent a year in Paris working at the libraries of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Sorbonne developing the French side of my research.

Dr Andrea Zappalaglio
a.zappalaglio@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law
Andrea is an academic researcher and teacher specialised in Intellectual Property Law.

Before joining the School of Law of the University of Sheffield, he worked as Senior Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (Munich, Germany) where he coordinated the research team on the Law of Geographical Indications. He also worked as 'Adjunct Professor in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Sustainable Development' at the University of Milan.

Research Interests
  • Geographical Indications
  • Trademarks and International Trade
  • International IP Law
  • Traditional Knowledge and Heritage
  • Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development
  • Intellectual Property and Food Law
Dr Kayode Akintola
k.akintola@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research interests 

  • Corporate Insolvency
  • Corporate Restructurings
  • Corporate Finance Mechanisms
  • Debt Finance and Secured Transactions Regimes
  • Corporate Control and Corporate Governance Structures
  • International Commercial Arbitration
Dr Sean Anderson
s.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
Research interests:
  • Identification of continuous- and discrete-time dynamic systems
  • Nonlinear systems modelling
  • Adaptive and optimal control in biological systems
  • Neurorobotics
  • Oculomotor plant dynamics
  • Cerebellar function
Professor Ian Bache
i.bache@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • The politics of wellbeing/ quality of life and related topics (eg health, mental health, social exclusion, social class and inequality)
  • Governance and public policy
  • Multi-level governance
  • Europeanization
Dr Andrew Barr
a.barr@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research Interests

  • Strain rate effects in soils
  • High strain-rate material behaviour
  • High pressure material behaviour
  • Hopkinson pressure bars for blast measurement
  • Dispersion effects in pressure bar measurements
Dr Claudine Bowyer-Crane

Personal Webpage

School of Education

Claudine's research focuses on the development of language in young children and how this supports literacy development. She has been involved in a number of projects designing and evaluating early interventions including the Nuffield Early Language Intervention Home | Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) (teachneli.org). She is theme lead for the Communication and Language strand of the Better Start Bradford project Home | Better Start Bradford, leading on evaluations of commissioned services in the Better Start Bradford reach areas.  

As Associate Research Director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Claudine was involved in a broad range of evaluation projects from pilot studies to RCT's.  Currently Claudine is investigating the impact of COVID-19 on children's educational outcomes in the Early Years and early stages of primary school Home | ICICLES (iciclesproject.com)

Claudine is particularly interested in making links between research, policy and practice.

Professor Joby Boxall
j.b.boxall@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Prof. Boxall´s research interests are concerned with understanding and modelling hydraulic, water quality and infrastructure performance throughout the natural and urban environment. His research interests are multi-disciplinary and have a number of cross cutting themes that include research in full-scale live systems, pilot and laboratory systems, with the application of theoretical, computational and analytical approaches, including software development. Specific themes include:

  • The monitoring, modelling, operation and management of potable water distribution systems for both quantity, with an emphasis on leakage, and quality encompassing physical, biological and chemical changes and interactions
  • The dynamics and impacts of pollutants in open channel systems
  • The hydraulic and pollution performance of urban drainage systems
  • Application of ICT for data collection from disparate urban water systems, together with computation (soft computing) techniques to turn data to information to knowledge
  • Asset management and whole life costs, including energy and carbon, associated with water distribution and sewer systems
Dr Robert Bryant
R.G.Bryant@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

I am a geomorphologists who undertakes research into the global dust cycle, with particular emphasis on [aeolian] processes within arid systems and dust emissions from pro-glacial regions. I also have interests in  remote sensing of mineral and volcanogenic aerosols. I can also supervise projects dealing with applications of airborne remote sensing and field spectroscopy to a range of environments (rivers, wetlands, coasts).

As an example of my current research, I am currently part of the DO4 Models team, involving collaboration with Oxford, Imperial and UCT. The overall aim of this research is to collect the first dust source-area process data tailored to climate model grid-box resolution from targeted remote sensing and fieldwork in order to develop a new generation of model dust emission schemes.


Professor Per Bullough
P.Bullough@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Interests include structure of membrane proteins and complexes by high resolution electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography: photosynthesis, bacterial transport proteins, membrane complexes.

Dr Harriet Churchill
h.churchill@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Research interests

My research interests bridge social policy and sociology with a focus on the analysis of policies, services and everyday lived experiences in relation to childhood, young people, parenthood and family support. I am interested in the relationship between child, family and social policy, and engage in critical policy analysis for improvements in child welfare and family support entitlements, provisions and services. I have completed qualitative research about lone mothers’ experiences of negotiating motherhood and paid work, parental empowerment in Sure Start Children’s Centres and parents of teenagers’ experiences of participating in group parenting programmes.

Students who share similar research interests to those listed below are welcome to discuss the possibility of postgraduate supervision:

  • Contemporary parenting and childhoods
  • Social constructionist perspectives on families, childhood, youth and family orientated policies
  • Family support
  • Social exclusion, families and children
  • Feminist family sociology / social policy


Professor Christopher Clark
C.Clark@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

Palaeoglaciology (the extent and dynamics of former ice sheets) and palaeo-ice stream signatures and ice-stream operation. Remote sensing, digital elevation models (DEMs), glacial geomorphology.

Dr Angela Colvert


School of Education
Topics: 
 
Digital Games and Learning
Theories of Play
Curriculum Development 
Media Education 
STEAM education 
Immersive Theatre Practices 
Applied Drama
Transmedia Storytelling 
 
Methodologies: 
 
Participatory Research 
Co-Design Practices 
Socio-Semiotics 
Multimodality 
Professor Claire Corkhill
c.corkhill@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Claire's research is focused on processes that occur at the interface between aqueous solutions in the environment and material and mineral surfaces. She uses a wide range of surface and aqueous analytical techniques to understand the mechanisms of material dissolution and also the kinetics of dissolution and sorption processes.

The current focus of Claire's research is on the durability of nuclear waste materials destined for disposal within a geological disposal facility, several hundreds of metres below the ground, which will eventually and slowly dissolve in groundwater. Her main research areas include:

  • The role of nanostructure (grain boundaries, surface defects) on the dissolution mechanism and kinetics of ceramic nuclear wasteforms and spent fuel;
  • State-of-the-art determination of nuclear waste glass durability in simulant and analogue geological disposal environments;
  • High resolution spectroscopic determination of radionuclide - cement interactions.
Professor Patricia Cowell
p.e.cowell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Human Communication Sciences (old code)
Research interests
  • Ovarian hormone effects on speech, language and cognition
  • Cerebral asymmetries and interhemispheric relationships
  • Sex differences in cortical development and aging
  • Modelling mechanisms of neurocognitive plasticity
Dr Rhian Davies
rhian.davies@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Hispanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

19th and 20th-century Spanish culture, literature and history (with a particular interest in the fin de siglo press and the works of Benito Pérez Galdós). Contemporary Canarian literature and identity.

Professor Kurt De Vos
k.de_vos@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

Research in the laboratory focuses on the mechanisms of nerve cell death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig disease), hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). We are especially interested in the involvement of axonal transport, mitochondria and ER.

Current research themes include:

  • The mechanisms causing defective axonal transport of mitochondria in ALS, PD and HSP.
  • The cellular roles of C9ORF72 protein and their role in ALS and FTD
  • The biology of close contacts between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria and their involvement in health and disease

Work in the lab is funded by grants from the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Thierry Latran Foundation, the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation, and the Moody Endowment Fund.

Professor Nicola Dibben
n.j.dibben@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Applied psychology of music: The influence of background music on human behavior in everyday and commercial settings
  • Music and sociability
  • Music listening and subjectivity
  • Contemporary popular music
  • Music, digitalisation and new media
Professor Pauline Dibben
P.Dibben@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Professor of Employment Relations

Research interests

Pauline's research focuses on employment security, with two main sub-themes. The first is employment security and the role of the trade unions in emerging economies. This research programme has considered different dimensions of work and employment and includes the development and analysis of large scale surveys in South Africa, Brazil and Mozambique in addition to in-depth qualitative research. The second is job security for those with disabilities and health conditions. Pauline continues to explore disability and employment, the dynamics of sickness absence and return to work, and the policies and practices surrounding this. Pauline has published in journals including British Journal of Management, Human Resource Management Journal, Public Sector Management, Industrial Relations, International Journal of HRM, Journal of World Business, and Work Employment and Society.

PhD supervision:

Pauline would be interested in supervising students who wish to investigate disability and employment.

Professor Andrew Dickerson
a.p.dickerson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Andy's research interests are mainly applied, and are focussed on the operation and functioning of labour markets, the interaction between financial and product markets and the labour market, and the analysis of micro and longitudinal data, including matched datasets. Recent research has been funded by the Low Pay Commission, DfES, DEFRA, DCFS, Department for Food and Rural Affairs, and the Scottish Executive. His current research includes: examining variations in returns to qualifications of various kinds in the UK; the incidence and intensity of workplace training; on child poverty; and the measurement of subjective expectations using survey data.

Andy supervises PhD students across a broad range of applied labour economics topics. Currently, these include: wage inequality, work and life satisfaction, commuting behaviour, skills and employment outcomes, and international gender inequality.

Dr Jon Dickson
j.m.dickson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Academic Unit of Medical Education
Division of Population Health

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

 

Dr Niall Docherty
n.docherty@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research Interests

My research interests are:

  • Critical Algorithm and Data Studies

  • Critical HCI and Interdisciplinary Theory

  • Cultural Studies and Responsible Computing

  • Capitalism

  • Sociotechnical theory

  • Digital Well-Being

  • The digital good life and discourses of wellness

  • Neoliberalism

  • Power/Knowledge


Research Supervision

I can supervise a wide range of interdisciplinary topics that could involve, for instance, mixed method studies of platforms and their use, qualitative digital research, digital well-being, power, advancing sociotechnical theory, and responsible computational design. I would be interested in supervising PhDs in the following and related areas:

  • Sociotechnical systems and responsible computing

  • How people manage their digital well-being online

  • The politics of data and platforms

  • The production of ideal users in HCI

  • Normative and exclusionary technologies

  • Nudge technologies and their links to neoliberalism

  • The digital good life and discourses of wellness

  • The relationships between mediation, digital materiality and discourse

Dr Ross Drummond
ross.drummond@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
Research description: Dr Drummond's research has three main focus areas: the management and control of energy storage devices, nonlinear systems analysis and the robustness analysis of neural networks. A primary concern is the use of control theoretic techniques to optimise the performance of energy storage devices such as lithium ion batteries. This includes the design of fast charging protocols, model development and advancing battery manufacturing methods. The need to understand battery dynamics has motivated his research into nonlinear systems, in particular searching for novel Lyapunov functions. Finally, using these advances in nonlinear systems, he has been applying these methods to quantify the robustness of neural networks and relate them to control theoretic techniques such as model predictive control. Together, these three research streams emphasize how effectively utilising modelling, control and optimisation can improve the performance of several leading technologies such as batteries and neural networks.
Dr Alan Dunbar
a.dunbar@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Polymer Based Solar Cells
  • Experimental Techniques to Characterise Nano-Scale Phase Separation in Polymers
  • Thin Film Toxic Gas Sensors
  • Electrical Properties of Nano-Structured Systems
Dr Jayne Finlay
jayne.finlay@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research Interests

My research focuses on the provision of library services to people affected by incarceration. I have carried out research on family literacy initiatives in prison, prisoners’ engagement with library services, staff experiences of prison library provision, and policymaking in the prison library context. I am interested in supervising PhD students in the area of prison librarianship and prison education. 

I would welcome proposals related to:

  • Information needs and/or information behaviour of people in carceral settings

  • Collaboration between prison libraries and other library sectors such as public, health or academic libraries

  • Training and professional development needs of prison library staff

  • Prison library policy and how it has been implemented in different countries/contexts

  • Participatory action research studies which allow those with lived experience of prison to help facilitate change in library policy and practice

Professor Martin Foster
m.p.foster@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

  • Resonant power supplies
  • Piezoelectric transformers (PTs)
  • Power electronics packaging and thermal management
  • Multilevel power converters
  • Battery management technologies


Professor Megan Freeth
m.freeth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Research interests

  • Autism Spectrum Disorders (including the broader autism phenotype)
  • Visual attention,
  • Eye movements, 
  • Gaze cues, 
  • Social cognition,
  • Neural correlates of visual attention
Dr Ali Gerged
a.m.gerged@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Accounting

Ali's research interests primarily focus on exploring a variety of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. For instance, Ali is a leading figure in the realm of research exploring the causes and outcomes of corporate environmental disclosure in both developed and emerging markets. Additionally, Ali leads research initiatives that examine the influence of various gender diversity-related criteria on improving the pro-sustainable performance of companies. Furthermore, his research interests extend to include Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ethical accounting, global sustainability initiatives, Corporate Governance, and other relevant subjects.

Ali is available to supervise PhD students in the following areas:

• Corporate Environmental, Social and Ethical Disclosure and Performance.
• Climate Change Risk Management disclosure
• Corporate Sustainability and Governance.
• R&D and Eco-innovation.
• Corporate Energy Efficiency Policy and Renewable Energy Consumption

Professor Daniel Gladwin
d.gladwin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research interests

  • Control – power systems
  • Power electronics
  • Embedded systems
  • Energy storage and management
  • Intelligent systems
  • Telematics
  • Optimisation and Modelling
  • Evolutionary computing


Professor Simon Goodwin
s.goodwin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Hydrodynamic simulations of star formation
  • The formation of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs
  • The formation and evolution of multiple star systems
  • The formation and early evolution of star clusters
Dr Yoshi Gotoh
y.gotoh@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Yoshi has been working in the field of speech and spoken language processing for years. His current interests include audio visual processing, in particular, video analysis and video information retrieval.

Dr Lingzhong Guo
l.guo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research interests:

  • Identification of spatio-temporal systems and partial differential equations
  • Frequency domain analysis of nonlinear infinite dimensional systems
  • Proxy measurement, surrogate modelling, and model reduction
  • Multiscale modelling of biomedical system
Professor Jacqueline Harrison
j.harrison@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Public Communication & Media Freedom

Jackie's area of expertise is the civil role and power of the news. Her research examines three particular aspects of this: the architecture and culture of the news; the mediation of civil society and social identity by the news; and issues of news freedom and standards. She has written extensively in these areas.

Jackie also chairs the interdisciplinary research body Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM). CFOM seeks to research and evaluate the role of free and independent news media in building and maintaining political and civil freedoms.

PhD supervision

Due to her numerous other commitments Jackie is unable to supervise new PhD students at present.

When her workload permits, Jackie will be interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • The relationship between the news and civil society
  • Post conflict reconstruction via the factual mass media
  • Constraints and restraints on freedom of expression
Dr Morgan Harvey
m.harvey@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research Interests

My research focuses on the following main areas:

  • (Interactive) Information Retrieval, particularly mobile IR - how situational context and distractions impact search behaviour/performance and how this can be mitigated
  • Recommender systems and personalisation, particularly to help improve people’s nutritional intake, meal planning and overall health
  • Conversational agents and how these can be used to solve problems in search, recommender systems and health

PhD Supervision

I would welcome proposals related to any of the above topics and have experience working with a wide range of research methods. I am particularly interested in work that seeks to tackle problems with a mixed methods approach and that directly involves target users in research via co-design and user studies.

Professor David James
d.c.james@sheffield
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Production of High-Value Therapeutic Recombinant Protein Biopharmaceuticals
  • Systems Biotechnology for Rational Bioprocess Engineering
  • Cell Factory and Gene Vector Engineering
  • Process Analytical TechnologyCPE412 – Molecular Biotechnology
Professor Geraint Jewell
g.jewell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Research interests
  • Self-bearing electrical machines
  • Power dense electrical machines and actuators for aerospace and marine applications
  • Valve actuation
  • Electromagnetic modelling of novel devices
Dr Thomas Johnson
thomas.r.johnson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

My research focuses on Chinese politics. Specifically, I am interested in how people in China respond to pollution and in the interplay between regulation and contentious politics.

Mr Morgan Jones
morgan.jones@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

My research interests are in the development and use of convex optimisation techniques to control and analyse nonlinear dynamical systems. I have particular interests in the stabilisation of power systems and optimal battery charge scheduling.

Dr Abbi Kedir
a.m.kedir@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in International Business

Research interests 

  • International trade
  • International development
  • Foreign direct investment
  • Privatisation
  • Firm performance
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Development finance (e.g. fintech, sovereign debt, saving, credit)
Dr Anju Keetharuth
d.keetharuth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My research interests include outcome measurement,  psychometrics, economic evaluation and current health policy analysis including PROMs. I am also interested in economic evaluation of mental health policies and community services.

Dr Andrew Killick
a.killick@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Korean traditional music and musical theatre since 1900
  • Popular musical theatre worldwide
  • The Northumbrian smallpipes
  • Music and place
  • Solitary music-making
Professor Pieter Kok
p.kok@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Measurement-based quantum computing
  • Linear optical quantum computing
  • Quantum parameter estimation theory
  • Quantum lithography and quantum state preparation
  • Relativistic quantum information theory
Dr Amir Konjani
a.konjani@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music

Research interests

  • Performance art
  • Composition and Performance design
  • Contemporary classical music and acoustic music
  • Sound installation, living sculpture, kinetic art, and spatialisation
  • Conceptual art
  • Music for media and films
Dr Anton Krynkin
a.krynkin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Research interests
  • Wave problems in linear and non-linear elastic materials
  • Thermoelasticity
  • Wave problems in periodic/random media and graded materials
  • Wave scattering from rough surfaces
  • Asymptotic techniques and homogenisation
Dr Kevin Kuykendall
k.l.kuykendall@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Archaeology
Research interests:
  • Plio-Pleistocene hominid fossil site survey and excavation
  • evolution of early hominid life history
  • the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa
  • evolution and variation of the paranasal sinuses in primates
Dr Yi Li
YiLi@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics
Dr. Yi Li's main research interests are in the field of fluid mechanics, in particular turbulent flows. Topics include turbulent flow optimization, chaos synchronisation, data assimilation, and data-intensive fluid mechanics problems.
 
Professor David Lidzey
d.g.lidzey@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
  • Development and evaluation of solution processed photovoltaic devices
  • Organic photonic devices and structures
  • Organic polaritons
  • Spectroscopy of functional organic materials
  • Hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductor materials and devices
  • Plasmonic structures
Dr Jennifer MacRitchie
j.macritchie@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Music and healthy ageing
  • Music and dementia
  • Music, health and wellbeing
  • Music learning and cognitive skills
  • Music technology and new musical instruments
Dr Andrew Maiden
a.maiden@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Research interests
  • Coherent Diffractive Imaging (CDI)
  • Ptychography
  • Computer-generated holography
  • Phase imaging in the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)
  • Inverse Problems
  • Image Processing
Dr Paul Mitchener
P.Mitchener@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

My research spans algebraic topology and functional analysis. I am particularly interested in area where the two fields intersect, such as non-commutative geometry, K-theory, index theory and coarse geometry.

Professor Kirsty Newsome
k.j.newsome@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Associate Dean Research

Research

Kirsty’s research interests are focussed around three interconnected core themes: the changing character of employment regulation; the shifts and transformations in the politics of production; and the dynamic interplay of global value chains and the labour process. In recent years the empirical focus of her research has been two-fold. First with Professor Paul Thompson and Johanna Commander (University of Strathclyde), she has been concerned with exploring labour process change in the supermarket supply chain. Second, funded in part by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation, Kirsty has focussed on examining the interplay of internal and external forces in the restructuring of the employment relationship, the labour process and value chains in retail distribution and logistics. She is currently co-editing a book entitled ‘Putting Labour in its Place’: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains with Professor Phil Taylor, Dr. Jennifer Bair and Professor Al Rainnie published by Palgrave Macmillan. Kirsty’s current research focus is to explore changing work and employment within the logistics sector.

Kirsty is a member of the team (with Professor Paul Stewart, Professor Dora Scholarios and Ms Claire Scott, University of Strathclyde) which co-ordinates the research network "The changing nature of employment in Europe in the context of challenges, threats and opportunities for employees and employers". This is an international comparative European FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) and Experienced Researchers (ERs). It is amongst a small number of multi-disciplinary social science programmes to be awarded funding in the current Marie Curie awards under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7). The ITN, brings together new and recent post graduate researchers working on an international post graduate research programme supervised by internationally renowned senior academics.
http://www.changingemployment.eu/Home/tabid/2066/Default.aspx.

PhD Supervision

Kirsty is currently supervising a number of PhD students. She is interested in supervising doctoral research in the following areas;

  • Factory work and the politics of production
  • Labour process change in retail and retail supply chains
  • Work and Employment in the logistics sector
  • Labour and Global Value Chains.
Professor Paul Norman
P.Norman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Not currently taking new PhD students


Research interests

Health Psychology; predicting and changing health behaviour; habit and health behaviour; intention-behaviour relations; planning and implementation intentions; self-affirmation; binge drinking.

Dr Gabriel Ozon
g.ozon@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Language and Linguistics

Research interests

Both my teaching and my research have engendered a keen interest in linguistic variation, a significant influence in my current projects. My interest in language favours the application of quantitative (corpus linguistics) techniques in order to extract patterns and conditions of use from authentic data. My research looks into the sociolinguistics of grammar, i.e. how and to what extent the wider (sociolinguistic) context of language use impinges on formal grammatical structures. In this regard, my research is amenable to areas such as syntax (especially verbal complementation), (recent) variation and change, spoken language, dialect variation, World Englishes, creole languages, language contact, and language acquisition.

This year I have obtained (with colleagues from the University of Sussex and the University of Yaounde I) a British Academy Small Grant to build a small corpus of Cameroon Pidgin English).


Dr Panagiotis Panagiotou
p.panagiotou@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Research interests
  • Electrical Machines & Drives
  • Condition Monitoring of electrical machines
  • Fault detection & diagnostics
  • Digital Signal Processing for industrial diagnostics
  • Inspection, testing & repair of electrical machines
  • Powertrains for electrified transportation
Dr Lynda Partridge
L.Partridge@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Human leucocyte antigens, specifically the structure/function of tetraspanins; monoclonal antibody technology. Analysis of human antibody responses using phase display.

Dr John Rafferty
J.Rafferty@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Structural study of proteins and DNA primarily by X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy to gain 3-d insights of biological macromolecules and their assemblies. Structure and function relationships.

Dr Tim Rogers
Tim.Rogers@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Current research interests include:

  • Machine learning for structural dynamics and Structural Health Monitoring
  • Bayesian statistical modelling of structural systems
  • Probabilistic nonlinear system identification
  • Joint input/state/parameter identification
Dr Cyril Sanders
c.m.sanders@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

Replication and gene regulation in papillomavirus.
Structure and function of helicases and replication/transcription control proteins.
DNA helicases involved in the DNA damage response and their potential as therapeutic targets in cancer.

Professor Tom Slatter
tom.slatter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Dr Slatter's main research interests are in tribology, particualrly when applied to manufacturing processes and automotive powertrain.

In manufacturing projects mostly involve investigating the design, performance and instrumentation of manufacturing machines, processes and tooling with organisations such as Sandvik Coromant, Primetals, Bremont, Rolls-Royce, BEP Surface Technologies, Hill Pumps, and the University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. 

In the automotive sector; projects include investigating valvetrain wear with a number of automotive OEMs, investigating the influence of novel combustion processes on valvetrain design, and assessing the performance of bio-lubricants. Collaborators are companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Caterpillar, JCB Power Systems, MWH, Hoganas, Nanovit, and McLaren. 

Outside of these applied areas, Tom works at a more fundamental level investigating topics including impact wear and the cryogenic treatment of metals.

Dr Patrick Smith
patrick.smith@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Dr Smith's principal research area is inkjet printing: he is interested in areas where it is used, areas where it can be used and the associated theories behind droplet ejection and drplet drying.

Dr. Smith's research has included printed electronics, tissue engineering, carbon fibre composites and additive manufacturing, with inkjet printing being the common theme. In addition to the above areas he has recently become very interested in digital printing, which is a growing market that makes much use of inkjet printing.

Dr. Smith is a leading figure in the area of reactive inkjet printing, which involves the use of inkjet to deposit reactants to form a product. His other research interests extend to additive manufacture, aerosol deposition, rapid prototyping, metal-organic decomposition inks and droplet behaviour on the substrate

 

Professor Carl Smythe
c.g.w.smythe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Career history

  • 2002 – present: Professor of Cell Biology, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield
  • 2004 – 2006: Head of Department, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield
  • 1992 – 2002: Principal Investigator at MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, University of Dundee
  • 1989 – 1992: American Cancer Society Senior Research Fellow, University of California, San Diego
  • 1985 – 1989: British Diabetic Association postdoctoral research assistant at MRC Protein Phosphorylation Group at University of Dundee
  • 1981 – 1985: PhD Department of Biochemistry, Trinity College, University of Dublin

Research interests

Chromosome Integrity - Chromosomes in eukaryotes control their environment to ensure that genomic integrity is maximised. We are interested in understanding mechanisms of genomic integrity operating at the molecular and cellular level, and determining the consequences when they fail.

Read more on research in the Smythe laboratory

Dr Mark Stevenson
mark.stevenson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

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
Professor Philip Swanson
p.swanson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Hispanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

Modern Latin American literature (with a particular emphasis on the New Novel and crime fiction) and external representations/imaginings of Latin America and 'Latinity' (with a particular emphasis on film and fiction).

Dr Darrel Swift
D.A.Swift@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

  • Glacial erosion and long-term landscape evolution
  • Glacial sediment systems and landform evolution processes
  • Luminescence as a process tracer in sediment systems
  • Glacier hydrology and fluvioglacial sediment systems


Dr Ashfaque Talpur
ashfaque.talpur@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery
My research spans the areas of ageing, ethnicity, elder mistreatment, social isolation and loneliness, CPD, palliative care. I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students.
Professor Alan Tennant
a.tennant@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Research interests
  • Radar signature management
  • Active radar absorbers
  • Phase modulating microwave structures
  • Antennas
  • Phased array antennas and systems
  • Adaptive optimisation techniques
  • Acoustic arrays and imaging systems
Dr Kostas Triantafyllopoulos
K.Triantafyllopoulos@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

My research lies on Bayesian time series analysis. Application areas that I am interested include finance, bioinformatics, medicine, signal processing and quality control.

Professor Aki Tsuchiya
a.tsuchiya@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics
Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • measuring, valuing, and modelling health, and other aspects of well-being
  • incorporating equity concerns into social welfare functions
  • normative economics of health and beyond


Dr Seetharaman Vaidyanathan
s.vaidyanathan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Algae Biotechnology
  • Systems and Synthetic Biology
  • Bioprocess Engineering
  • Bioenergy
  • Bioinformatics and Use of Machine Learning
  • Metabolomics and Proteomics
  • Mass Spectrometric Imaging
Dr David Vessey
d.vessey@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of History

Available to supervise history topics

David's research focuses on modern British political history, specifically the corresponding fortunes of the Labour and Liberal parties, and media history in the twentieth century.

Professor David Wagg
david.wagg@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Research interests
  • Nonlinear dynamics of flexible structures
  • Vibration suppression and isolation systems
  • Dynamics of composite materials
  • Experimental testing and measurement for nonlinear dynamics
  • Structural control techniques
Dr Dawn Walker
d.c.walker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

  • Agent (individual) based Modelling in predicting emergent properties of biological tissues
  • Multiscale Modelling in biological and biomedical applications
  • Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) for the diagnosis of early cancerous changes in epithelial tissues


Dr Ryan West
r.j.west@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience

My Research focuses on using Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) as a model organism to dissect the molecular mechanisms underpinning neurodegeneration in Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Motor Neurone Disease (MND), two overlapping neurodegenerative diseases. Current projects in the lab are looking at how toxic dipeptide-repeat proteins (DPRs), associated with the disease causing hexanucleotide expansion mutation in the C9Orf72 locus, contribute towards disease pathology. We are interested in how these abnormal protein species interact with each other and with other endogenous proteins leading to pathological cascades in the nervous system. In collaboration with other research groups in SITraN we combine the power of Drosophila genetics with the study of mammalian cell models, providing a translational research pipeline. Other research themes in the lab include Parkinson’s disease and the role of endosomal-lysosomal trafficking in neurodegeneration, with a focus of the FTD associated CHMP2BIntron5 mutation.


http://sitran.org/people/west/

Dr Graham Williams
g.t.williams@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Language and Linguistics

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.

Professor Stuart Wilson
Stuart.Wilson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

The regulation of Gene Expression in mammals. The transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Mechanisms of RNA interference. Large scale sequencing and gene function analysis in vertebrates.

Dr Stuart Wilson
s.p.wilson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Moving to Computer Science - not taking new students in Psychology


Research interests

Theoretical, computational, experimental, and robotic models of the development of brain function and the representation of physical spaces.

Dr Emily Wood
e.f.wood@sheffield.ac.uk

Division of Population Health
My research interests are primarily around mental health staffing and the nursing role in health services. Methodologies include qualitative and mixed methods and single case experimental design.
Dr Nicholas Woodrow
n.woodrow@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests:

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

Methods:

  • All qualitative methods 
Dr Robert Woolley
rob.woolley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

  • Laminar and turbulent premixed combustion – ignition, flame stability, high pressure combustion
  • Laser ignition
  • Engine combustion
  • Laser diagnostics
  • Regenerative heat transfer in Stirling engines
Dr Xiangbing Zeng
x.zeng@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

My research areas can be divided into two broad directions: one on polymer physics, in particular the polymer crystallization process; the other on self-assembly, which covers systems such as supra-molecules, liquid crystals, more recently LC covered nanoparticles. On the polymer side, we are involved in an eight-institution international collaboration supported under NSF-EPSRC Pire scheme, for developing new materials from natural sources for applications in sustainable energy industry. On the self-assembly side, a research project on “Liquid quasicrystals and their approximants”, supported by Leverhulme trust, started in 2013. Another important aspect of our research on self–organized systems is to develop new nano-materials for tailored optical and electrical properties. For example, metamaterials by self-assembled gold nanoparticles have been fabricated, by covering them with liquid crystal forming molecules.

Professor Yang Zhang
yz100@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Research interests
  • Digital image and signal processing of flame dynamics and structure
  • Flame and acoustic wave interactions
  • Combustion instability
  • Innovative flow diagnostics and data processing
  • Clean coal combustion
  • Future energy system
Dr Stevienna de Saille
S.deSaille@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Stevie’s research interests lie in the nexus of science and technology studies, social movement theory and heterodox economics, all through an intersectional lens. Her MA looked at women's adaptation of the architecture of Livejournal.com to maintain pre-existing online networks and question racial exclusion within the science fiction community. Her PhD, completed at the end of 2012, was a case study of knowledge production in the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering (FINRRAGE), which led her to larger questions about the global bioeconomy, and the governance of emergent technologies.

As a postdoctoral researcher at Sheffield, she worked with Prof. Paul Martin investigating 'Publics and the Making of Responsible Innovation' as part of the Leverhulme Trust Research Programme 'Making Science Public' and was involved in research on diversity in the biomedical system along with colleagues from ScHARR, as part of a Wellcome Trust project led by Prof. James Wilsdon.

Stevie is currently leading the 'Human Futures' theme in iHuman, where she is developing a programme of research on Robots in a Human Future and continues to publish in the area of human genome editing. She was PI on the multidisciplinary project 'Improving Inclusivity in Robotics Design' and is currently research lead on the UKRI-TAS pump priming project 'Imagining Robotic Care'. She is on the Executive of iHuman and Sheffield Robotics and continues her research on Responsible Stagnation as a founder member of the Fourth Quadrant Research Network, which considers responsible innovation through the lens of steady state economics as a way of maintaining social prosperity in a state of permanent slow growth. Stevie is also a certified facilitator in LEGO Serious Play, which she uses for research (presently as part of Imagining Robotic Care), teaching, and as a consultant on embedding responsible research and innovation into science and engineering projects. 

Dr Ahmad Abras
a.abras@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Accounting

Ahmad's current research interests include:
- NGO accountability
- Business ethics
- Counter accounts
- Social and environmental accounting
- Accounting and accountability in the local contexts of developing countries

Ahmad is interested in supervising qualitative research only and he is available to supervise PhD students in the following areas:
- NGO accountability
- Business ethics, accountability and communication
- Counter accounts
- Social and environmental accounting
- Accounting and accountability in the developing countries
- Accounting from an Islamic perspective

Professor Parveen Ali
parveen.ali@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

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  

Dr Gianna Ayala
g.ayala@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Archaeology

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
Dr Gianna Ayala
g.ayala@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

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
Dr Amy Barnes
a.barnes@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

I am  broadly interested in public health policy processes, partnership and wider determinants of health.

My more specific research interests focus on:

1. issues of power, participation and partnership in public health policy processes;

2. the role of civil society (community) organisations and community development approaches in the public health system and specifically in relation to addressing wider determinants of health and wellbeing; and

3. complex/systems approaches to policy evaluation.

 

Professor Anna Barton
a.j.barton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My primary research interests lie in nineteenth-century literature, particularly Victorian poetry, cultural formalism, print culture and nonsense literature.

I have supervised and examined doctoral work on the literature of the long nineteenth century and would welcome PhD applicants who are interested in Victorian poetry, with particular reference to its relationship with aspects of nineteenth-century identity and culture.

Professor Andrew Beckerman
a.beckerman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

We aim to link genetics, behaviour and life history to the distribution and abundance of organisms and the structure and dynamics of communities. We do so by combining empirical and theoretical tools with a range of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, in the lab and in the field. Our research centres around two study systems: Predator - prey dynamics & food webs (Daphnia and Theory) and Parrot Conservation and Behaviour in Bonaire.

Professor Ilaria Bellantuono
i.bellantuono@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

The focus of my research is on ways to reduce the onset of multiple age-related disease and frailty by preventing or reversing the ageing using medicinal drugs (geroprotectors). My primary interest is in the diseases of the musculoskeletal system such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. I work closely with many colleagues and experts in different age-related diseases to identify common mechanisms (DNA repair and senescence) involved in driving ageing and compounds which target those mechanisms and are able to benefit more than one disease at the same time.

Dr Alex Best
A.Best@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics
Research interests

I am a mathematical biologist who uses theoretical models to investigate the dynamics of infectious disease systems. I use tools from dynamical systems theory to explore disease dynamics at a range of scales. My research interests include:
  • models of host-parasite coevolution;
     
  • spatial structure in epidemic/evolutionary models;
     
  • immune processes in epidemic/evolutionary models;
     
  • within-host models of bacteria-cell dynamics.
Dr Caroline Bland
c.bland@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Germanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

My research focuses on women's contribution to political culture (feminism, class struggle, regional and national identity) using literary writing, the visual arts and associational activity. I am also interested in 19th and 20th century German literature more widely, especially Realist and Naturalist writing, and on constructions of gender in German society and culture in the same period. Recent successful doctoral students have worked on illness narratives in contemporary literature and on German and Dutch lesbian networks in the interwar era.

Dr Megan Blomfield
m.blomfield@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Philosophy

My research concerns global justice and the environment, focusing on the normative dimensions of climate change. I investigate the connections between climate change and injustices such as colonialism. Other of my research interests include human-land relationships, territorial rights, justice in migration, feminist philosophy and philosophy of race. I am also interested in questions of justice with respect to knowledge, uncertainty and learning.

Professor Joe Bray
j.bray@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

I welcome research students working in any area of literary stylistics (especially narrative style and point of view), as well as those working on any aspect of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century literature and culture (especially the novel from 1740 to 1818).

At Sheffield I have supervised PhDs on the following topics: Jane Austen´s use of narrated perception, the autobiographical fiction of the Brontes, the narrative style of Cormac McCarthy and 19th Century Adaptations of Shakespeare.


Professor Thomas Bridgeland
T.Bridgeland@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

I am an algebraic geometer with a particular interest in homological methods, enumerative invariants and topological string theory. My research is currently focused on a large programme which aims to use Donaldson-Thomas invariants to define geometric structures on spaces of stability conditions. Research projects in this area typically involve a mix of algebraic geometry and complex analysis.

Dr Adam Brown
adam.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Engineering synthetic genetic constructs for biopharmaceutical design and manufacturing.
  • Controlling and analysing mammalian gene/protein expression.
  • Engineering mammalian cell factories for biopharmaceutical production.
  • Whole system engineering for biomanufacturing of therapeutic mRNA, DNA, AAV and protein products.
  • Mammalian synthetic biology.

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students and PDRAs. If you are interested in projects in any of the above research areas, contact me for further information.

Professor Solomon Brown
s.f.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

My research focusses on mathematical modelling, process analysis and optimisation with a particular focus on clean energy processes, energy storage and energy systems. Key areas include:

  • The development of agent-based models for energy systems and technology adoption.
  • Techno-economic analysis of energy storage technologies.
  • Scheduling and supply chain analysis.
  • Uncertainty quantification and Gaussian processes.

I welcome applications from prospective PhD students. If you are interested in projects in any of the above research areas, please contact me for further information.

Dr Jon Burchell
J.Burchell@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Management

Research interests

Jon's primary research interests focus upon issues of corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and business ethics. He is particularly interested in the interactions between businesses and third sector organisations. In addition, he is involved in the school's commitment to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).

Professor Roger Butlin
r.k.butlin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

My research is concerned primarily with the origin of new species, especially the evolutionary genetics of reproductive isolation. I have used insect acoustic and chemical signals as model systems to investigate the controversial process of reinforcement, particularly in parapatry, and questions such as the inheritance of signal characters and the form of female preferences. I am currently working on local adaptation and speciation in winkles (Littorina), with Leverhulme Trust and Swedish Research Council funding.

Dr Olga Cam
o.cam@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Accounting

Olga's research investigates the teaching of accounting from the critical accounting angle.

Olga's research interest in this area has been driven by her work as an accounting lecturer and she is particularly interested in enquiring about the presence of social and environmental accounting dimension in the initial accounting education offered by a range of existing accounting education providers.

Professor Matt Carre
M.J.Carre@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Matt's research interests involve applying mechanical engineering concepts to situations that involve physical interactions between humans and products, devices and surfaces. This can be considered as five main themes (more details on each available on web page):

  • Behaviour of Human Skin and Tissue Under Loading
  • Development of Synthetic Simulants for Human Interactions
  • Hand-Object Interactions
  • Shoe-Surface Interactions
  • Design Methodologies for Products that Include Human Interactions
Dr Pablo Castillo Ortiz
P.Castillo-Ortiz@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Research Interests

  • Comparative constitutional law and politics, with a focus on constitutional jurisdictions
  • Theories and models of judicial decision-making
  • European legal/judicial integration
  • Configurational analysis
  • Historic Memory

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Comparative constitutional law and politics
  • Spanish constitutional law and politics
  • Comparative constitutional jurisdictions
  • Theories of judicial decision-making
  • European legal/judicial integration
Professor James Catto
j.catto@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research Interests

James currently runs a lab in the Academic Unit of Molecular Oncology, encompassing 2 post-docs, 2 technicians, 3 Phd students and 1 ACF.  They research the translational application of molecular biology to urological malignancies, and in particular Bladder and Prostate Cancer.  James's particular interest is in the epigenetic alterations seen within these tumours.

Dr Roy Chaudhuri
r.chaudhuri@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests:

Bacterial genomics.  Current research topics include:

  • Comparative genomics and phylogenetics of bacterial pathogens, particularly E. coli and Salmonella
  • Use of transposon insertion sequencing methods (TraDIS/TnSeq/HITS/InSeq) to identify essential bacterial genes and genes important for survival in particular environments such as during infection of a model system
  • Development of user-friendly software tools and online resources for exploring data from -omics technologies. Examples include coliBASE, Xbase and the recently-funded MicrobesNG.
Professor Tim Chico
t.j.chico@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interests are in the molecular and genetic mechanisms controlling blood vessel development and collateral vessel formation after arterial occlusion. My group particularly uses the zebrafish to study and manipulate blood flow to understand the effect on blood vessel growth and remodelling. We are also interested in studying heart failure using zebrafish models, especially formation of new coronary vessels after cardiac injury.

Dr Katerina Christofidou
k.christofidou@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research portfolio that focuses on multiple facets of high temperature physical metallurgy, alloy design and manufacturing. Projects have included the development of new polycrystalline Ni-based superalloys for turbine disc applications, as well as strategies for the design of high temperature materials amenable to laser-based additive layer manufacturing. In addition, a major area of her research interests is that of high entropy alloys and the possibilities that these materials offer for expanding our understanding of physical metallurgy beyond a single base element and the associated thermodynamic principles governing this behavior.

Professor Helen Colley
h.colley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is the 6th most common cancers worldwide. The survival rate for head and neck cancer is poor. This is largely due to late diagnosis and a lack of effective therapeutic agents.


My particular research interest is in the development of multi-cellular three dimensional in vitro models of the oral mucosa in health and disease. My current research utilises these models to develop; new methods of detecting oral pre-cancer, novel drugs to treat oral cancer and new modes of drug delivery systems.

Dr Richard Collins
r.p.collins@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

My current main research interests are involved in the assessment and mitigation of pressure transients in water distribution systems. Pressure transients are waves of rapidly altering pressures in pipe systems that have the potential to damage assets and cause water quality failures by intruding contaminants through, for instance, leaks. I have a further interest in the interaction of these pipe systems.

Dr Marco Conte
m.conte@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemistry

Research Interests

The aim of my research is the identification of structure-activity correlations in heterogeneous catalysis. The understanding of the catalyst structure under the reaction conditions as well as the knowledge of the intermediates generated during the catalytic process are essential factors to design catalysts with enhanced selectivity to the desired products.

To achieve this target an array of spectroscopic tools complemented with molecular modelling are used.

Target reactions are oxidation and halogenation reactions of hydrocarbons over metal oxides and metal nanoparticles in gas and liquid phase.


Dr Rebecca Corrigan
r.corrigan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research involves an in-depth characterisation of nucleotide signalling systems in the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. My previous research has led to the development of a genome-wide approach to analyse nucleotide-protein interactions. My current work focuses on utilising this methodology, in conjunction with biochemical assays, to identify binding targets for (p)ppGpp, nucleotides that are involved in promoting persistent and recurrent infections. The mapping of the (p)ppGpp signalling network will provide a greater understanding of how S. aureus can persist in the human host.

Mr Lee Crookes
l.crookes@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

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.

Dr Vincent Cunliffe
v.t.cunliffe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Our research is focused primarily on understanding the roles of chromatin regulatory proteins in the development of the zebrafish Central Nervous System (CNS) and in diseases such as cancer. In addition, we are exploiting the technical advantages of the zebrafish embryo to investigate the functions of other genes previously implicated in human neurological disorders. A third area of interest is in developing novel cell culture materials that are capable of supporting the expansion and directed differentiation of neural stem cells.

Dr Jonathan Davidson
Jonathan.Davidson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

I have a number of research interests and is particularly interested in areas that cross traditional subject boundaries. My research interests include

  • Resonant power conversion
  • Piezoelectric transformers for power converters
  • Thermal management and temperature estimation in power electronic and energy storage systems
  • Sensor technologies
  • Rapid impedance spectroscopy techniques
  • Power electronics

Please get in touch if you’d like to pursue a PhD in an area related to these themes.

Professor Mark Dickman
m.dickman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

My research focuses on the development and application analytical techniques to study biological systems. In particular, biological mass spectrometry in conjunction with bioseparations have been utilised to study a wide variety of biological systems. Using these analytical approaches we are interested in identifying and characterising protein complexes, protein-RNA/DNA complexes, protein post translational modifications and RNA post transcriptional modifications.

Research Interests:

  • Biological Mass Spectrometry
  • Bioseparations
  • Post-Translational and Post-Transcriptional Modifications
  • Proteomics
  • CRISPR Systems
Professor Simon Dixon
s.dixon@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Broad area of research interests:

  • Health economics
  • Economic evaluation

Methods I am able to supervise:

  • Economic evaluation
  • Preference elicitation

Specific area of research interests: 

  • Economic evaluation alongside controlled trials
  • Valuation of non-health outcomes
  • Process utility
  • Willingness to pay methodology
  • Decison rules for reimbursement
  • Transferability of economic evaluations
  • Global Health
Professor Nigel Dunnett
n.dunnett@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Landscape Architecture

My research activity is strongly interdisciplinary, focusing on the interface between ecology, design and horticulture in urban green space and built development, and has an active interaction with industry, national agencies, and local community groups. My research falls into four major areas:

  • development of sustainable and innovative vegetation and planting design techniques
  • the vegetation, planting and ecology of green roof systems
  • rain Gardens and other landscape rainwater management features; d) long-term ecological monitoring
Dr Katherine Ebury
k.ebury@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

I’m currently preparing a monograph, to be published with Palgrave in August 2014, based partly on my doctoral research. The project addresses representations of the new physics, specifically the science of cosmology, in the work of Yeats, Joyce and Beckett. I aim to explore each author's deliberate mapping of a changed relationship between the world and the artwork in the aftermath of revolutionary changes in the scientific perception of reality. Key texts for my project include Yeats's 'A Vision' and Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake', as well as Beckett's ‘Trilogy’.

Dr Becky Field
b.field@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

My research interests focus on how services can support health and well-being, particularly for people living with dementia or people at risk of developing dementia. I am an experienced qualitative researcher. I am also interested in approaches to support active aging, occupational therapy, assistive technology, knowledge translation/implementation and involving AHPs, particularly occupational therapists.  

Dr Mark Finney
m.t.finney@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies
Research interests:
  • Afterlife
  • Early Christianity in its Greco-Roman Environment
  • Judaism
  • Islam
  • Religion & Art
  • Religion, Conflict & Violence
  • Religion, Politics, & the Modern Middle East
  • Social-scientific approaches to interpreting ancient religious texts

Please Note:

Research applicants proposing Dr Mark Finney as a supervisor should select the Department of History on the application form.

Dr Alicia Forsberg
a.forsberg@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

I am interested in working memory and the development of memory and attention across the human lifespan, including both child development and cognitive ageing. Recently, I have been exploring the relationship between working and long-term memory and the development of object and feature memory. My research also examines lifespan differences in meta-cognition and how people approach cognitive tasks. I am very interested in open and reproducible science, Bayesian statistics, and research methodology

Dr Jonathan Foster
j.j.foster@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information 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.


Mr Daniel Franchini
d.franchini@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

My expertise lies in various areas of Public International Law with a particular focus on the settlement of international disputes. My doctoral research examined the interaction between the law of state responsibility, state jurisdiction, and state immunity, and passed with ‘no corrections’.

Research interests 

  • International Dispute Settlement
  • Sanctions and International Law
  • State Responsibility
  • Jurisdiction and Immunities of the State
  • International Investment Law
Professor Robert Freckleton
r.freckleton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

My research focuses on modelling population and community dynamics. I am particularly interested in large scale population dynamics, although have a range of interests, including:

  • Plant population ecology, modelling plant populations, modelling weed populations.
  • Evolutionary ecology, phylogenetic comparative methodology and its application to ecological problems.
  • Theoretical ecology, statistical methodology
Dr Daniel Gray
d.j.gray@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Daniel’s research interests include the area of subjective well-being with a particular focus on the role of the household’s financial position. In addition, he is currently interested in household financial portfolio allocation and the effects of education on financial decision making.

More generally he is interested in applied microeconometrics and, in future, he would like to further explore these areas in addition to developing new research interests.

Daniel is looking to supervise PhD students in the area of household finances and applied microeconometrics.

Dr Alys Griffiths
Alys.Griffiths@sheffield.ac.uk

Division of Neuroscience

I conduct qualitative research to understand the experience of living with long term conditions such as MND, dementia and cancer. I am particularly interested in the design and evaluation of complex interventions within social care.

Offering PhD opportunities in the following areas:

  • Improving social care for people with long term health conditions
  • Designing and evaluating complex interventions for social care
  • Assessment and diagnosis experiences for people with MND
  • Emotional labour of conducting research with people with long term health conditions
Professor Thomas Hain
t.hain@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Research interests

Thomas' research interests cover many areas in natural language processing, speech, audio and multimedia technology, machine learning, and complex system optimisation and design.

His interests include: large vocabulary continuous speech recognition, non-linear methods in speech processing, low bit-rate speech coding, machine learning, multi-modal systems, image classification, microphone arrays, system and resource optimisation.

Mrs Lena Hamaidia
l.hamaidia@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

My research interests include comparative syntax, literary translation, film adaptation of literary works, the relationship between translation, intercultural communication and international development, translation of cartoons and modern French cinema. I currently focus on linguistic approaches to spoken and written language and how pragmatic meaning is affected in the translation of spoken dialogue into subtitles.

Professor Sharron Hinchliff
s.hinchliff@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Nursing and Midwifery

My research spans the areas of ageing, gender and sexual/reproductive health, as well as the psychology of health and health care.

I have a strong focus on help-seeking for sexual issues, patient-practioner communication about sexual issues, and social attitudes around ageing, gender, and sex.

Methodologically, my expertise lies in qualitative research, vulnerable groups, and sensitive topics.

Professor Stephen Hincks
s.hincks@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests

My primary research interests focus on three interrelated themes:

Applied spatial analysis and GIS - developing and applying different conceptual, methodological and analytical frameworks to understand complex spatial structures and processes and their impacts on spatial development.

Housing and neighbourhoods - understanding spatial housing markets and their uneven structures and functionalities.

Urban-regional policy and planning - consideration of the policy frameworks and governance architectures that shape urban and regional development.

Professor John Hobson
J.M.Hobson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • The critique of Eurocentrism in IR/IPE/Historical Sociology
  • Historical Sociology of IR (1000-2010)
  • Historical Sociology of globalization (1500-2000)
  • Inter-Civilizational Relations, theory and practice (1000-2000

He is keen to supervise promising research students in a range of areas including: Historical sociology of international relations, global political economy and especially civilisational analysis (East/West relations) in the context of the critique of Eurocentrism.

Professor Jane Hodson
j.hodson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My research interests lie at the interface of language and literature, and I am interested in the way in which style is contested at an ideological level. As a linguist I am particularly concerned with the Later Modern English and historical sociolinguistics. As a literary scholar my specialism lies in prose of the Romantic period.

I welcome PhD applicants who wish to undertake interdisciplinary work in language and literature, particularly with reference to dialect representation, historical stylistics, and issues of power, politics and gender.

Dr Kaarina Hollo
k.hollo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My main areas of research include the literary culture of early medieval Ireland, broadly conceived, with a particular interest in the relationship between the reading and interpretation of scriptural texts / liturgy and the composition of prose narrative; early medieval Irish poetry, especially metrical structure; the Ulster Cycle of tales during the Old and Middle Irish periods; representations of female mourning and madness in medieval and early modern Irish texts; and literary translation in the Irish context, from the 18th century to the present.

Dr Jules Holroyd
j.d.holroyd@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Philosophy

My research focuses on topics in moral psychology and social philosophy. In particular, I am interested in the ways that our cognitions are influenced by, and complicit in, injustices that track social identity, such as gender and race. My recent work has focused on implicit racial bias. I am currently PI on a Leverhulme Trust project grant to pursue research on bias and blame. This grant runs for three years from February 2014-2017, and involves collaborative work with colleagues in psychology, to investigate the impact of moral interactions on the expression of implicit bias

Professor Robert Howell
r.howell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Dr Howell runs a large research group with nine current PhD students researching areas such as:

  • Wind turbine performance and aerodynamics (effects of unsteady winds, gust response and turbine start-up performance)
  • Tidal turbine performance and tidal farm layout
  • Aircraft wing stall control using synthetic jets and other forms of control
  • Dynamics of micro-bubble flows and fluidic oscillators
Dr Catherine Jackson
c.c.jackson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests

My research focuses on exploring the functioning of local property markets, from the perspective of improving the knowledge and information base for property investment decision-making. This focus highlights the role of local characteristics and context in market performance.

Specific interests include - local retail rental determination; retail policy and market performance; and the operation of office and industrial markets.

Dr Lianrui Jia
l.jia@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies
My research areas are platform studies, political economy of media, media policy and regulation. My research has a regional focus on China-based digital platforms, with a comparative lens on platforms across different regions, contexts, and increasingly, on regional mobile apps and platform "instances". I am interested in how state actors, private companies, as well as the capital market co-shape and influence the development, governance, and globalization aspects of digital platforms. 
Dr Berna Keskin
b.keskin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

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. 


Dr Georges Kesserwani
g.kesserwani@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

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


Dr Rosie Knight
rosie.knight@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of History

Available to supervise history topics

Rosie’s research focuses on women, race, and slavery in the American south. She has particular interest in the relationships between enslaved women and female slaveholders, mothering, and the slaveholding household. Her research also explores the uses of intersectionality in the history of women and slavery. She is happy to supervise students interested in the history of enslaved people and their enslavers in the American South; ideologies of race and gender; and in particular, women, mothering, the family, children, and the household under slavery.

Professor Vitaveska Lanfranchi
v.lanfranchi@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Her research has a fundamental interdisciplinary nature, and has developed both in industry and in academia. It concerns the intersection among ubiquitous computing, knowledge capture and visualization and human computer interaction in fields as diverse emergency response, mobility, smart cities, manufacturing, aerospace and more recently wellbeing. Her research focuses on user participatory design methods to develop novel methodologies and interfaces for ubiquitous and mobile computing.

Dr Jessica Langston
j.l.langston@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Jess completed an institutional ethnography of social work practice with children and young people, studying with Professor Dorothy Smith at the University of Toronto, exploring how institutional structures organise and coordinate social work practice often at odds with social work standards and values. Her previous research used a participatory approach to evaluate the Mellow Dads programme with men in prison.

Jess’ research interests continue to be focused on the role of organisations in the coordination of social workers activities and the subversion of professional values and ethics. 

Professor Stephen Laurence
s.laurence@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Philosophy

Research interests

Stephen's main research interests are in the philosophy of psychology and cognitive science and philosophy of mind. Some of the issues that interest him are: the nature of concepts and representations, the structure of the mind, the nativism/empiricism debate, cross-cultural cognitive variation, cultural transmission, and debates about different cognitive faculties including those involved in representing and reasoning about number, objects, minds, language, and morality.  He is also interested in broader questions about philosophical and scientific methodology.

Mr Russell Light
R.D.Light@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Architecture

My research interests include architectural theory, re-use of existing buildings, architectural drawing and perspective.

Published research includes subjects such 'The Architectural Legacy of Pliny the Younger', the restoration of Palladio's Villa Saraceno and papers about my own published design projects. I have presented papers at international conferences in Canada, Italy, India and the United States.

Professor Stephen Livingstone
S.J.Livingstone@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

My research interests are in reconstructing ice sheets and their dynamics from geological and geophysical evidence in both marine and terrestrial environments. They can be summarised as follows:

  • Investigating the drainage and storage of meltwater at the bed of palaeo and contemporary ice sheets.

  • The investigation of landforms and sediments and physical processes at the bed of palaeo-ice streams, and the controls governing their retreat.

  • Reconstructing the Late Quaternary history and dynamics of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet.

Dr Chris Martin
C.Martin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

Meaning of functional brain imaging signals; science communication, both with respect to neuroscience and science in general.

The main focus of my research is on the meaning of functional brain imaging signals: what do they tell us about brain activity and how might we best use this information to improve our understanding of normal brain function and neurological diseases? I am also interested in science communication, in particular the communication of brain imaging research findings beyond academic audiences and the impact of this upon public understanding of neuroscience.

Dr Alvaro Martinez-Perez
a.martinez-perez@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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.

Dr William Mason
w.j.mason@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

Will is a sociologist with interests in the study of childhood and youth, consumption, identities, inequalities and research ethics. Will’s research is driven by a commitment to social justice and the belief that progress towards more equal societies requires interdisciplinary scholarship and the co-production of responses, developed in partnership with experts by experience. He is specialist in engaged scholarship with a track record of successful community-led university partnerships.

Professor Emma Moore
e.moore@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Language and Linguistics

Research interests

My research examines the relationship between language and identity. In particular, I explore how individuals and communities use language to construct social styles, differences, and affiliations. I’m also interested in how and why language change occurs over time. This means figuring out which aspects of change can be explained by language-internal constraints and which are caused by social factors.

Dr Konstantinos Mouratidis
k.mouratidis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

My research focuses on two areas: Economic forecasting and Monetary Economics. In the area of economic forecasting, I evaluate the forecast performance of forecasters using survey data. Alternatively, in the area of monetary economic, I analyze monetary policy preferences and the policy decision of central banks. I would be interested in supervising PhD students in these areas.

Dr Panagiotis Nanos
p.nanos@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Panos’ research interests lie in the broad field of labour economics.

His work focuses on labour markets characterised by trading frictions. Using both applied theory and applied econometrics, often combined into structural modelling, Panos has examined a range of specific research questions, including the determinants of native-migrant wage differentials, the impact of the minimum wage on labour market outcomes, and the patterns of worker reallocation across firms and local labour markets.

Panos is interested in supervising PhD students in labour economics and applied econometrics.


Dr Andrew Narracott
a.j.narracott@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My research interest is the application of numerical techniques to the study of cardiovascular systems, with development of associated experimental validation methods. Application areas include coronary artery stenting, native and prosthetic valve function and venous haemodynamics. Such applications cover a range of technical areas including structural mechanics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluid-Structure Interaction and multi-scale approaches for biological systems.

Dr Alice Ngo
thi.ngo@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Entrepreneurship

Alice's research is interdisciplinary in nature, incorporating theories and insights from the economic geography of innovation, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and international business literature. Alice's research interests include but not limited to:
- The interaction of multiple sources of knowledge leading to innovation and entrepreneurship outcomes
- The role of gender in innovation and entrepreneurship outcomes
- Clusters and entrepreneurial support organizations (accelerators/incubator)
- Ambidexterity
- Digital entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurial ecosystem, and others

Dr Anton Nikolaev
a.nikolaev@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests

Our research is focused on investigating the neuronal circuits responsible for information processing in the visual system. The vertebrate visual system is able to recognize a remarkable number of objects of different appearances but the mechanisms and neural circuits underlying this ability are not known. To tackle this problem we use in vivo imaging of neuronal activity in zebrafish and follow the processing of visual information in different brain areas.

Dr Chiara Orsini
c.orsini@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Chiara ‘s research is in Applied Microeconometrics and lies at the intersection of Labor Economics, Health Economics, and Public Economics. Chiara studies the behaviour of individuals, firms, and governments, and her research tries to understand intended and unintended effects of public policies, effects of innovation, issues relevant for the design of markets, inequality, consumer response to information, and the transmission of human capital.

Chiara is interested in supervising dissertations in Applied Microeconometrics, especially on topics related to the production of health and impact of healthcare policies.

Professor Marysia Placzek
m.placzek@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

A major focus of our research is to understand the development of the vertebrate hypothalamus. We are aiming to characterise the signalling factor/transcription factor networks that mediate hypothalamic development, elucidate how hypothalamic stem cells progress into defined neuronal cells and how their axons project to different components of the hypothalamus. A second focus is the elucidation of the signalling factor/transcriptional networks that underlie development of the prechordal mesoderm.

Dr Preeti Raghunath
p.raghunath@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Preeti’s current research is on the Global Data Economy. One strand of this research historicises the making of the global data economy, looking at intertwined histories of imperial datafication and transnational labour involved in building colonial railways across Britain’s colonies. The second strand currently being developed focuses on technologies in the life course of Myelopathy (a degenerative neurological disease) and concomitantly, patient-centric health data governance.

Professor Pierre Ricco
p.ricco@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

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


Professor Marcelo Rivolta
m.n.rivolta@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Deafness is a major public health issue worldwide, with more than 3 million people in the UK alone enduring a moderate to profound hearing loss. The Rivolta laboratory is dedicated to study the biology and behaviour of auditory stem cells (primarily human) and to explore their potential to regenerate the damaged inner ear.

Read more on research in the Rivolta laboratory

Dr Steven Robertson
s.robertson@sheffield.ac.uk

Nursing and Midwifery

Steve has 25yrs research and evaluation experience in the field of men, gender and health with particular emphasis on health promotion/public health and men's mental wellbeing. More recently, he has been developing an additional portfolio of nursing research relating to safe and effective staffing, nursing education, nursing leadership and developing nursing roles (particularly Nursing Associates and Advanced Nursing Practice). He is primarily a qualitative researcher with expertise in Thematic Analysis, data integration and critical realism.

Dr Anthony Rossiter
j.a.rossiter@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research interests:

His technical research has predominantly been based around the area of predictive control and more specifically with a focus on modifying the basic algorithm to optimise computational efficiency and/or simplicity with minimal sacrifice to the expected performance. Currently he is looking at how the algorithm, more normally used at a high level and requiring substantial computing power and set up costs, might be effectively deployed on microprocessors and other low level implementation technologies with minimal set up costs.

Dr Julie Simpson
julie.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience

Research interests: 
My main research interests are identifying and understanding neuroinflammatory contributions to ageing and dementia, particularly age-associated white matter pathology, using the complementary approaches of human brain analysis, cell and animal models.

Current Projects:
- Neutrophil-derived microvesicle-induced blood brain barrier dysfunction
- Hypoxia-induced changes in glia and their role in the formation of age-associated white matter lesions
- Microglial-mediated mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of age-associated periventricular white matter lesions

 

Professor Timothy Skerry
t.skerry@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

My research falls into 2 areas. First, I have a long standing interest in bone biology, particularly the way that the skeleton responds to exercise and specifically the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind that response. My second area of interest is in the development of a new therapeutic target for cancer and other diseases targeting a receptor mechanism with novel chemical and biological agents.

Dr Sarah Spencer
sarah.spencer@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Human Communication Sciences (old code)
Research interests
  • Interventions and evidence-based practice for developmental speech, language and communication difficulties
  • Including service-users in developing, designing and evaluating interventions
  • Speech and language difficulties of older children and adolescents
  • Working in contexts of 'social disadvantage'
  • Facilitation of effective collaborations with education and families
  • Sociolinguistics and speech and language therapy
  • Service-level evaluation
  • Identity and language, particularly related to a) social class; b) adolescence; and/or c) speech, language and communication difficulties.
  • Qualitative and mixed research methods
Professor Steven Thornton
s.f.thornton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering

Research interests

Dr Thornton's research experience covers contaminant hydrogeology, with particular interests in the application and performance assessment of natural attenuation for pollution management, laboratory and field studies of biodegradation of organic contaminants in groundwater, the transport and fate of pollutants in dual porosity aquifers, geochemical reactive transport modelling, groundwater impacts from landfills, attenuation of landfill leachate in clay liners, aquifers and the design of reactive barriers for landfills, and hydrogeological processes and solute transport across the groundwater-surface water interface.

Professor Nicholas Tsagourias
Nicholas.Tsagourias@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

My teaching and research interests are in the fields of international law and the use of force, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, collective security law, peacekeeping, United Nations Law, international and European constitutional theory and law and cybersecurity. I am widely published in these fields.

Research interests

  • International Law and the use of Force
  • International Humanitarian Law
  • International Criminal Law
  • Collective Security Law
  • Cybersecurity
Dr Nicolas Van de Sijpe
n.vandesijpe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Most of Nicolas’ current research uses cross-country data to study the effectiveness of foreign aid. This includes work on the fungibility of education and health aid, and on a new method to identify the causal effect of aid in a panel data context, used to study the domestic absorption of aid. In addition, he is involved in research on the nexus between child labour and school achievement in Peru.

Nicolas would consider supervising PhD students with a focus on applied econometrics in a number of fields, including development economics and political economy.

Dr Sergio Vernuccio
s.vernuccio@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests:
  • Microkinetic Modelling of Complex Reaction Systems
  • Heterogeneous Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
  • Flow Chemistry and Multiphase Flow
  • Process Intensification 

I'm constantly seeking for creative and self-motivated students with skills in chemistry, chemical engineering, process engineering and related disciplines. If you are interested in any of the above research areas please contact me by sending your CV and application letter.

Professor Matt Watson
M.Watson@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

My research is concerned with understanding social change in relation to sustainability, through a focus on everyday life and the socio-technical systems that shape it. I engage with geographical and sociological theories of practice, materiality and everyday life, as well as with science and technology studies. I am a qualitative researcher. Different projects have covered issues relating to energy , mobility, food, waste and biodiversity.


Dr Emily Whitehouse
e.whitehouse@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics

Emily’s research focuses on time series and financial econometrics. Some of her current areas of interest are:

  • Explosive autoregressive processes with applications to the detection and dating of asset price bubbles
  • Real time monitoring of economic and financial time series
  • Structural breaks in volatility
  • Forecast evaluation
  • Nonlinear unit root testing

Emily is interested in supervising graduate research in the areas of time series and financial econometrics (both theoretical and applied).

Dr Hugh Willmott
H.Willmott@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Archaeology

Research interests:

My research interests lie in the the medieval and early modern periods in Europe, and the archaeology of monasticism in particular.

Currently, I am focused upon exploring the archaeology of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England, although other aspects of his work include the examination of early medieval industrial processes and the evolution of early monastic settlement in Lincolnshire.

  • The medieval and early modern periods in Europe
  • Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical settlements
  • Early Medieval cemeteries
  • Later medieval monasticism
  • The Dissolution of the Monasteries in England
  • Archaeology of the church
Professor Elizabeth Winstanley
E.Winstanley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

My research interests lie in classical general relativity and quantum field theory in curved space-time. I am particularly interested in black holes. 

Current research topics include:
  • Quantum field theory on curved space-time
  • Rotating quantum states
  • Asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes
  • Quantum field theory on black hole space-times
Dr Chantelle Wood
chantelle.wood@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Psychology

I am a social psychologist, with a particular focus on behaviour change and intergroup relations. My key research interests centre around understanding and changing social, health and environmental behaviours, and evaluating and improving interventions to reduce prejudice. Much of my research at the moment focuses on applying behavioural science to the issue of indoor air quality and pollution. 

Professor Peter Wright
p.wright@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Economics

Research interests

Peter's research interests lie primarily in the area of labour market adjustment, and he has worked in both open and closed economy frameworks. His work has been both theoretical and applied. Examples of his work include: an examination of the wage and employment effects of merger; Corporate governance reforms and executive compensation determination; the unemployment and income consequences for individuals of firm closure. He is particulary interested in supervising doctoral work using matched employer-employee data.

Dr Yajue Wu
y.wu@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

My current research interests include hydrogen energy systems, fast fire spread phenomena in buildings and underground structures, tunnel fires, dynamics of fires and explosions, combustion and heat transfer in industrial furnaces, hazard analysis and risk assessment of process industry and flow visualization.

Research Interests:

  • Hydrogen energy systems.
  • Fast fire spread phenomena in buildings and underground structures and tunnel fires.
  • Dynamics of fires and explosions.
  • Combustion and heat transfer in industrial furnaces.
  • Hazard analysis and risk assessment of process industry.
Professor Shuxing Yin
shuxing.yin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Head of Accounting & Financial Management Subject Group

Research interests

Shuxing's research interests include corporate finance, corporate governance, market efficiency and anomalies. She has acted as referee for Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, British Accounting Review, European Journal of Finance.

She welcomes PhD applicants in the field of corporate finance, particularly focusing on Chinese (mainland and Hong Kong) markets, initial public offerings and market efficiency.

Dr Sally Zhu
s.s.zhu@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

I joined Sheffield University as a Lecturer in 2021. Previously I was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow based at Glasgow University where I taught modules in Land Law and Legal Theory.

My research is on property and private law aspects of platform and digital economies, including issues relating to regulation and consumer rights. Currently I am working on the topic of risk in property and sharing economies.

Research interests

  • Commercial Law
  • Digital Economy
  • Contract Law
  • Property Law and Theory
  • Law and Economics
Dr Maksim Zhukovskii
M.Zhukovskii@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Probabilistic combinatorics and model theory

Maksim Zhukovskii is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. His research interests are in combinatorics, probability, model theory, algorithms, and related areas.

PhD Supervison

Maksim Zhukovskii is particularly interested in hearing from research students interested in the following areas:

  • Distribution of subgraphs in random graphs
  • Turan-type problems in random graphs
  • Logical limit laws
  • Isomorphism and reconstruction of random graphs
  • Saturation in random graphs
  • Random regular graphs and graphs with given degree sequences
Dr David Buck
david.buck@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Landscape Architecture

My current research draws conceptually and directly on music notation in its investigation of the temporality of landscape architecture. It argues that the rich history of notating time in music provides a critical model for this under-researched and theorized aspect of landscape architecture, while also ennobling sound in the sensory appreciation of landscape.

Rather than the research of others which references Baroque, Classical or Romantic music, I focus on innovations in twentieth century notation while addressing their omission of sound, which in importing aspects of music notation into design, they curiously left behind.

I currently focus on correlating sound to notions of ecology and examining the enhanced potential for sound as an aspect of urban spatial experience created by the demise of the combustion engine.

My PhD is the first Doctorate by Design in landscape in the UK and was nominated for the RIBA President’s Research Prize. It has been published in a sole-authored monograph for Routledge, titled A Musicology for Landscape, as part of their Design Research in Architecture series, which ‘seeks out the best proponents of architectural design research from around the world.’

Mr Andrew Clayden
a.clayden@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Landscape Architecture

Recent research activity has focused on three areas which include: sustainable approaches to housing design and specification of landscape materials, cemetery design and management and finally the application of digital technologies in design education. The first two may not immediately appear related but have a loose connection in terms of landscape and sustainability. Cemetery research specifically focuses on the Natural Burial movement and what we can learn about society from these new landscapes of death and disposal. In 2007 I was awarded a three-year research grant (300K) from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to investigate the cultural and social implications of natural burial.


The housing research seeks to broaden our understanding of how buildings and their environment may be thought of in a more integrated manner in order to improve their sustainable profile.

The final area of interest, digital technologies and landscape perception and education explore the role of computers in enabling designers and users to experience and evaluate designs which have yet to be realised.

Professor Carole Elliott
carole.elliott@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Development

Carole's research interests lie at the intersection of disciplinary fields: management and leadership learning, organization studies and human resource development. Her early research interests developed in response to a curiosity about the development of the self for work, particularly among managers and leaders. The interpretive foundation for this body of research is located in critical theory, particularly as it has been applied to the management studies and human resource development fields.

Her early research focus on the individual learning experience provides a backdrop for continuing inquiries into the power dynamics of learning environments, including her interest in women’s leadership learning, and in teaching and learning within international management education settings. An examination of business schools’ visual representations of their claims to internationalisation has led to an innovative area of methodological work that adopts a visual semiotic framework as one stage of a hermeneutic analysis of webpages. She continues to develop and apply this methodological development to different contexts: examinations of women leaders’ visual representations; organisations’ representation of their corporate ‘historic’ web identity; and conceptual contributions around the implications for organizations in the light of the ‘visual’ and ‘digital’ turns.

Carol welcomes proposals using qualitative research in the following areas: Management and Leadership Learning; Gender and Leadership; Critical Management Studies; Critical Human Resource Development; Visual Approaches to Organisation Studies.

Dr Christine Huebner
c.huebner@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

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

Dr Platon Kapranos
p.kapranos@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Casting and related processes such as Rheocasting & Thixoforming.

Semi-solid processing of alloys and composites (Thixoforming). 

Thixoforming produces complex near-net-shaped components of high integrity, with mechanical properties better than conventionally cast components. As a relatively ‘new process’, before proving its value as a commercial success, thixoforming has had to exploit alloys that were already available. However, the true potential of this process will only be utilized through an expanding portfolio of alloys that fulfill the needs of industries such as aerospace, and bio-medical which demand innovative new alloys with near net shape, high strength and integrity products that can perform at such demanding environments.  Currently, research is undertaken on the semi-solid processing of high melting point alloys such as steels, iron-alloys, copper-alloys, super-alloys and other exotic materials in order to further exploit the potential benefits of this under-utilised metal forming technique. Although thixoforming of high melting point alloys offers exciting possibilities and tremendous potential, and has already been part of research work of over thirty years, it is still at present in the research stage of development.

Currently involved in two collaborative pieces of research in semi-solid processing of high melting point alloys; with Poland (Copper alloys) & Spain (Steels).

Non-destructive testing.

Investigating the development of a calibration standard for Dye Penetrants.

Dr Guenter Moebus
g.moebus@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

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
Professor Ryan Powell
r.s.powell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests: The central theme of my research is seeking to combine empiricism and theory in understanding the socio-dynamics of unequal power relations and their consequences in terms of urban marginalisation, both contemporary and historical. This includes access to housing and employment as well as wider questions of citizenship, class, race, urbanization, and the stigmatisation of "outsider" groups (e.g. Gypsy-Travellers, the Roma in Europe, migrant communities).My academic background and orientation is multidisciplinary and cuts across urban studies, sociology, geography, history and politics, but my research is focusedon urban marginality. Presently I am working on two EU2020 projects, centred on advancing and critiquingour understanding of migrant “integration” within the EU, with Sheffield colleagues in Sociological Studies, MRG, the SMI and various European partners.


Topics:I currently supervise students in the broad areas of urban marginality, housing governance and financialisation, homelessness and migration studies. I welcome enquiries from research students but am particularly interested in supervising research in the following areas: 

  • Migrant youth, urban activisms and infrastructures of care

  • Urban Roma 

  • Housing and inequalities

Dr Alexandra Ramadan
a.ramadan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Physics and Astronomy

My research is focussed on new and emerging semiconductors and using them to develop technologies which can help to tackle climate change. I have a current focus on energy generation (through solar photovoltaics) and reducing energy consumption (more efficient light emitting diodes).

Much of my research is currently centred on metal halide perovskite semiconductors. Photovoltaics based on these materials are now rivalling silicon-based photovoltaics in terms of efficiency, a particularly impressive feat given this development has taken < 15 years, and now the challenge is ensuring their long-term stability so they can be used for real world deployment.

I am interested in understanding the surfaces and interfaces of optoelectronic devices based on metal halide perovskites and how this relates to their physical and electronic properties. Understanding this relationship will allow us to develop ways to improve the stability of metal halide perovskite devices and help them successfully enter the commercial market.This research is broad and interdisciplinary, covering the chemistry, physics, and materials science of these new and emerging semiconductors.

Alongside my research I am passionate about improving diversity and research culture in physics.

Dr Sarah Son
s.a.son@sheffield.ac.uk

School of East Asian Studies

Dr. Son’s research background is in the role of identity in international relations, particularly as it affects the inter-Korean divide – both at the state level and at the level of social interactions between North and South Koreans.

Her research is interdisciplinary at times, drawing on aspects of anthropology, sociology and history to understand the role of social relationships in the complex politics of the region.

Her past research has looked at questions of identity in the policy practice of North and South Korea on a number of issues, including North Korean escapees, international human rights norms and multiculturalism policy.

As a result of her professional work in the NGO sector on North Korean human rights issues, her current research concentrates on methods of monitoring and recording human rights abuses in North Korea, through interviews with North Korean escapees in South Korea.

She is involved in a long-term project based in Seoul that uses Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) technology to map locations of abuses, as well as relevant event information.

Dr. Son also conducts and supervises research on themes including migration and diaspora, contemporary social movements, popular culture, international relations, nation branding, identity, security and peace-building, with a focus on the Korean Peninsula and East Asia more broadly.

Professor Alan Walker
a.c.walker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Research interests

Alan Walker's research interests span a wide range in sociological analysis, social policy and social planning. This includes a major specialism in the social aspects of ageing, or social gerontology. With a Dutch and German colleague he invented the concept of social quality which seeks to understand and measure the quality of society (as opposed to individual quality of life). This concept has been applied empirically in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. He also has long-term research interests in poverty and inequality and social policy in China and other East Asian countries.

Between 2005 and 2014 he directed the New Dynamics of Ageing Research Programme (http://www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/) and, before that, the Growing Older Programme (http://www.growingolder.group.shef.ac.uk/). Currently he directs two major European research projects on social innovation, active ageing and healthy life expectancy(http://www.innovage.group.shef.ac.uk/ and http://mopact.group.shef.ac.uk/).

He has a long track record of successful postgraduate supervision, with 50 PhDs awarded so far, including students from several European countries, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Many of his previous doctoral students have gone on to become university professors.

As well as being an active researcher he has close links with the policy world via the National Health Service and various voluntary organisations.

Dr Jun Zhang
j.zhang3@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

The general focus of my research pertains to the unravelling of the socio-technical aspects of IS innovations and emerging technologies, with a keen eye on the power dynamics among various stakeholders, such as citizens, businesses, local governments, and the state. Beyond examining IS research at the individual and organisational levels, I delve into its manifestation in urban and regional contexts. My particular interest lies in understanding and scrutinising radical innovations through a critical perspective. This endeavour has encompassed critical appraisals of prevailing smart city innovations, digital platforms, and urban AI and autonomous systems. In these empirical domains, my research aims to uncover the benefits that communities and citizens derive from these technological initiatives. More recently, I have shifted my focus towards urban AI, autonomous systems, and urban robotics, investigating issues of digital rights, governmentality, digital citizenship, and the discursive practices that shape the narratives of AI in urbanism.

 

PhD supervision

I am particularly interested in supervising PhD candidates in the following areas:

- Power dynamics in smart city governance and governmentality

- Critical research around urban AI, autonomous systems, and robotics

- Social value creation in platform cooperativism and grassroots digital innovations.

- Exploring digital inequality, digital rights, digital citizenship within digital platforms.

Dr Cass Zhao
zhixue.zhao@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Computer Science

Natural Language Processing

Dr Cass Zhixue Zhao is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. Her research is broadly on trustworthy and interpretable machine learning, such as interpretability and analysis of NLP models. Her research seeks answers to questions such as: What motivates a model to predict or behave a certain way? How do we ensure a black-box model predicts correctly and also for the right reason? How do we obtain a faithful understanding of both the intended and, more importantly, unintended model behaviours? How to maintain a healthy relationship between human users and AI algorithms? Related research further includes fairness and robustness in models. Her research interests also cover model compression, which contributes to accessible NLP models and inclusive AI. 

 

PhD Supervision

Dr Cass Zhixue Zhao is particularly interested in hearing from research students interested in the following areas:

  • Model explanation and model interpretability
  • Model compression, e.g., pruning, in the era of large language models (LLMs)
  • Model hallucination
  • Reasoning capability of LLMs
  • Responsible AI and Trustworthy AI
Professor Jo Bates
jo.bates@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Information School

Research interests

My research is in the field of Critical Data Studies. Critical Data Studies is an interdisciplinary field that uses social theory to inform examination of the social drivers, implications and power relations of emergent forms of data and algorithmic practices.

My recent research broadly breaks down into three areas: (1) data and AI cultures of practice - including issues around Responsible data/AI practice, (2) data journeys & data friction - particularly climate and energy data flows, and (3) digital labour - particularly crowdwork. You can read more about my research in each of these areas on my website: https://lifeofdata.org/site/category/research-areas/

I am currently working on the following projects, which involve collaborations with a variety of organisations including GSK, JISC, BBC and DWP:

- Patterns in Practice (Principal Investigator). AHRC funded. https://lifeofdata.org/site/patterns-in-practice/

- Living with Data (Co-investigator). Nuffield funded. https://livingwithdata.org/current-research/

- Energy data-sharing scoping study (PI). Internally funded.

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD projects that advance the critical study of emerging data and algorithmic practices and flows. By critical I mean projects that in some way grapple with issues of power, ethics and justice as they relate to topics of data, automation, data science and/or AI. I tend to use qualitative research methods, including ethnographic methods and (policy) document analysis. There is a wide range of potential projects in this area. Applicants are advised to check out recent papers in key journals (e.g. 'Big Data and Society' and 'Information, Communication and Society') and conferences (e.g. Data Power, Data Justice) to get a sense for emerging topics.


Professor Fraser McLeay
fraser.mcleay@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Associate Dean Education

Fraser joined Sheffield University Management School in 2018, as Professor and Chair in Marketing. Fraser has received research funding from numerous external businesses or organisations as well as research councils such as the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (ESPRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and has won prizes globally for his research and contribution to practice. In 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Emerald Citations of Excellence Award for an article on electronic word of mouth. Fraser’s research is habitually interdisciplinary; with his current focus on sustainability, hedonic consumption, digital marketing, branding, entrepreneurship and co-creativity. He has recently been chair of the prestigious Academy of Marketing annual conference and co-chair the Global Branding conference held at Newcastle in 2018. Prior to joining Sheffield University Management School Fraser was Professor of Strategic Marketing Management at Newcastle Business School and also held roles as Associate Pro Vice Chancellor of Strategic Planning and Engagement, Associate Dean of Business and Engagement and Head of Corporate Development for the Faculty of Business and Law at the Faculty of Business and Law.

Fraser also has over ten years of practitioner experience, holding senior management and leadership positions globally. While working in industry, Fraser has assisted over 250 businesses in more than 60 countries to implement successful start-up, commercialisation, business expansion, marketing, branding, strategic planning and new product/service introduction strategies in industry sectors that vary from education to renewable energy, engineering, agri-food and graphene. His clients range from SMEs to MNEs and have included Nestlé, Royal Numico, Parker, Thomas Swan, Bank of Montana, Sage, UKTI, Nexus and Greggs, plus organisations such as the World Bank, USDA, and EU. Fraser has also held academic positions at Lincoln University (New Zealand); Newcastle University (UK); Northumbria University (UK), Macquarie University (Australia) the University of Montana (US), and Peter the Great St Petersburg University (Russia).

Professor Nicola Morley
n.a.morley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Her research centres on the understanding and development of magnetic films to be used in magnetic devices and sensors. The main research areas are:

Fe-based Magnetostrictive Films and Devices
Research is focussed on the fabrication and characterisation of Fe-based magnetostrictive film, including Fe-Co and Fe-Ga for MEMS device applications. Fabrication techniques include a state of the art co-sputter-evaporation deposition system, RF/DC sputter system and an evaporator. A wide range of characterisation techniques are used, which include XRD, AFM/MFM, MOKE magnetometry and resistance measurements, as well as a central facilties (ESRF, France, diamond, UK). The main aim of the work is to understand the relationship between the magnetostriction, microstructure and magnetisation. The work has also involved the development of magnetostrictive MEMS devices, which includes magnetostrictive energy harvesters and mass MEMS sensors.

Organic Spintronics
This research investigates the spin transport within organic semiconductors, including the development of room temperature organic spin-valves. The spin transport has been investigated using a range of techniques including magnetoresistance, XPS, MOKE magnetometry, AFM and muon spectroscopy. The main aims are to understand how the interfaces influence the spin transport in organic spin-valves and develop novel organic spin devices, such as the spin switch. Research has studied both lateral and vertical devices at room temperature.

Multiferroics
This research involves studying multilayer multiferroics to investigate how the optical, electrical and magnetic properties are linked within the hetrostructures. Work has studied how the interfaces influence the overall properties of the structures. Characterisation techniques include XRD, SEM, TEM, AFM/MFM, MOKE magnetometry and electrical measurements.

Dr Binakuromo Ogbebor
b.ogbebor@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism, Media and Communication

Bina’s research interests include media representation, the relationship between the media and democracy, critical incidents in journalism, race equality in journalism, media policy, and media self-coverage. Bina’s research and publications have contributed to knowledge relating to key debates about press regulation, the public interest, public trust, media ownership, political economy of the media, paradigm repair, boundary work, and the public sphere concept. Her research into how the British press covered the press standards debate that followed The News of the World phone hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry employed content and critical discourse analyses and was interdisciplinary in content drawing from law, politics and psychology in addition to journalism. 

Bina’s research entitled, A meta-analysis of key concerns and developments on media standards informed the 2020-2022 Impress Code Review. The research findings were used by the press regulator, Impress to modernise the Standards Code and make it fit for purpose in the digital age. Her research on the WhatsApp, Black People and COVID-19 Infodemic explored the WhatsApp Communications of Nigerians in the UK and Nigeria, using the methods of interviews and content analysis. This work made contributions to knowledge about effective health communications in times of Public Health Emergencies. Bina’s current research investigates race-based student activism in journalism, media, and communication schools in the UK using the methods of content analysis, interviews, and surveys. 

PhD Supervision 

  • Bina is interested in supervising students in the following areas:
  • The relationship between the media and democracy
  • Race equality involving Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups
  • Media representation on diverse platforms
  • Media self-coverage 
  • Political economy of the media

Professor Julia Weinstein
julia.weinstein@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemistry

Research interests

Most broadly, our research group is interested in any aspects of interaction of light with matter in condensed phase.

The main focus of our research is Chemical Approach to Solar Energy Conversion.

The conversion of light into chemical energy lies at the heart of many natural processes and man-made applications. A charge-separated species generated via an excited state is the key intermediate in this process. Stabilisation of this intermediate is the key issue and pivotal to developing efficient artificial systems. We develop methodologies for controlling stability of charge-transfer excited states by manipulating environment and structural properties of model systems based on transition metal complexes, with potential application in molecular wires, electronics and photonics. The interdisciplinary research uses a combination of organometallic synthesis, time-resolved electronic and vibrational spectroscopy and theory to explore the fundamental aspects underlying this work crossing from controlling photomolecular properties of materials to designing molecular architecture for photo-induced electron transfer.

Other research areas include:

  • Highly luminescent metal chromophores for imaging and sensing.
  • Development of compounds which emit in the NIR spectral range.
  • Development of photostable photo-sensitisers of singlet oxygen – the key recative oxygen species – and understanding of underlying chemical rules to the efficiecy of its generation.
  • Free radicals in chemistry and biology.

The main techniques involved in our research comprise:

  • (Spectro)electrochemistry;
  • Time-resolved electronic spectroscopy – absorption and emission;
  • Time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy - infra-red and (resonance) Raman.
  • Pulse radiolysis.

We perform research on picosecond to millisecond time scales in Sheffield.

Faster timescale – femto-to-picoseconds – are investigated in collaboration with Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Science and Technology Facilities Council, and with various laboratories world-wide, including USA, Switzerland, Germany and Buelorussia.

Dr Jonathan Aitken
jonathan.aitken@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

My research interests lie in a broad collection of areas that focus around operation of autonomous robotic systems. My key research goals are to enable seamless operation of robotic systems in complex operating environments, whether this be:

  • Manufacturing systems especially autonomous collaborative robotics, looking at systems architectures that provide flexibility across different tasks
  • Developing digital twins and models of collaborative robots that enables the design of systems that faciliates manufacturing   
  • Operation of autonomous UAVs in normal traffic environments 
  • Trust in autonomous robot systems operating in public and maufacturing environments.
  • Robots operating in underground pipe networks, especially focusing on navigation

I have a collection of other research interests that I would be interested in developing further:

  • Visual navigation, visual odometry in GPS-denied environments
  • Optimisation of code related to autonomous robotic applications
Professor Mimoun Azzouz
m.azzouz@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Neuroscience
The Medical School

Research interests

Professor Azzouz has a long-standing interest in developing gene therapy approaches for neurodegenerative diseases. Azzouz’ team utilises viral based gene transfer systems both for research and gene therapy applications. Such viral systems have included lentiviruses and adeno-associated vectors. His research focuses on developing new therapeutic strategies for monogenic neuromuscular disorders (e.g. SMA) and other motor neuron diseases (e.g. ALS and SMA) and Parkinson’s disease. He also collaborates with other groups looking at new experimental approaches to treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosisParkinson’s disease. Members of the team are also investigating molecular pathways and signalling of motor neuron death associated with ALS and SMA.

Dr Nicole Baumgarten
n.baumgarten@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Languages and Cultures

 Research interests

I welcome research students who are interested in applied linguistics in its broadest sense. Qualitative and multiple/mixed methods approaches (incl. participatory and inclusive designs), interdisciplinary research as well as collaborations with institutions and organizations outside the University are all welcome. Interesting topics include but are not restricted to the following

 

  • Individual multilingualism (from a socio-cultural perspective)
  • Intercultural communication
  • Interpersonal communication
  • English as a Lingua Franca
  • Translation and localization
  • Multimodal communication (including audiovisual translation)
  • Intercultural/contrastive pragmatics
  • Register analysis (comparative/diachronic)
  • Communication in organizations and institutions (including web-based communication)
  • Business communication
  • Interaction with technology (including user studies)
  • Technology and science communication
  • Risk, health and safety communication
  • Medical communication
  • Second language use
  • Second language identities

 

Dr Megan Blake
M.Blake@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Research interests

  • Urban food systems, social practices and social institutions (e.g., market practices, food justice, urban farming, food consumption, supermarketisation, social aspects of the design of food systems) in the global north.
  • Practices and circuits of value and valuing
  • Food waste and food surplus
  • Food poverty
  • Community food resilience
  • Geographies of Everyday life
  • Local food debates
  • Political Ecology 

 

Megan is a recognised expert in food security and food justice. She has an established international reputation for her research focusing on 3 intersecting strands: 1) Surplus food chains and practices of redistribution 2) Community organisations, social innovation and self-organisation, and practices of resilience 3) Social inequalities. Her work is underpinned by a practice-based theoretical approach. She works closely with local and national scale organisations and local authorities to achieve research impacts that make real change.

Dr Madeleine Callaghan
m.callaghan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My primary area of interest is Romantic poetry. I have recently finished a monograph on the relationship on Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetry and drama, entitled Shelley's Living Artistry: Letters, Poems, Plays (with Liverpool University Press). I am also finishing a book which examines the poetry and plays of Byron and Shelley and their development of the poet-hero in their works, and am beginning research on a book on Byron's influence on twentieth century British, Irish, and American poets.

I am currently supervising doctoral theses on the second generation Romantic poets and quest, Romantic influences on the poetry of Wilfred Owen, pleasure and pain in the poetry of John Keats, androgyny in the poetry and drama of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the development of the pastoral genre in Romantic poetry. I am interested in supervising PhD candidates in any of my research interests, especially in Romantic or post-Romantic poetry.


Dr Jiahong Chen
jiahong.chen@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

I joined the University of Sheffield in June 2021 as a Lecturer in Law. Previously I worked at the University of Nottingham as a Research Fellow in IT Law, and before that, completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh.

My research focuses on the intersection between law and technology, in particular data protection law, cybersecurity law, law and AI, data ethics and internet regulation. I have recently been working on funded interdisciplinary projects on the privacy and social implications of using personal data in the contexts of smart homes and payment systems. My work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and cited by policymakers.

Research interests 

  • Data Protection Law
  • Cybersecurity Law
  • Law and AI
  • Data Ethics
  • Internet Regulation
Dr Gregory Cooper
g.s.cooper@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Geography

Greg’s research cuts across the major themes of developing agri-food systems, environmental sustainability and social-ecological resilience. He joined the Department of Geography and Institute for Sustainable Food as a postdoctoral research fellow on the UKRI funded Action Against Stunting Hub in March 2021. Prior to joining the University of Sheffield, Greg spent three years at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as the Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Market Intervention for Nutritional Improvement (MINI) project (funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office). Greg completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Southampton, where he used system dynamics modelling to explore the social-ecological sustainability of the Chilika lagoon fishery system in Odisha, India. Greg also holds a BSc in physical geography from the University of Southampton.

Dr Julian Dean
j.dean@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Julian Dean obtained his Masters in Physics (MPhys) from the University of Sheffield in 2004. His PhD award in 2007 on micro-electromechanical systems looked at incorporation of magnetostriction in magMEMS. Julian subsequently worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Science and Engineering materials on :-

  • The simulation of impedance spectroscopy: The analysis of electroceramic materials.
  • Artificial multiferroic materials
  • Magnetic micro electromechanical systems (MagMEMS): devices for bio-chemical and security
  • Magnetic phenomena on the nanoscale
  • The study of magnetoelasticity at surfaces and interfaces

In 2012 Julian was appointed to the role of University Teacher and then to the role of Lecturer in Materials Simulation in 2013, maintaining his research interests.

Research interests

  • Functional material responses - design and characterisation
  • Artificial multiferroic materials
  • The analysis of electroceramic materials
  • Magnetic phenomena on the nanoscale
  • The prediction, optimisation and development of permanent magnetic materials
Professor Penelope Dick
p.dick@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Research Development Director for Work, Employment and Organisations

Research interests

Penny´s research interests can be broadly described as critical management. She is interested in the relationships between social structures and individuals and how these create and perpetuate inequalities in employment and careers. She is also interested in how taken-for-granted ideas and practices influence how individuals understand their experiences at work, and whether and how these ideas change and evolve. She is particularly interested in the role of language in these processes, and much of her recent work utilises a discursive psychology approach in which close attention is paid to how individuals produce accounts of their experiences and what these accounts can tell us about power. She has published in journals such as Human Relations, Journal of Management Studies, Work, Employment & Society, and the Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology.

Professor Rachael Finn
r.l.finn@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Dean

Professor Finn’s research takes an organisation studies perspective, with a particular focus on policies and processes or organising in the health and social care context.

She has published extensively in the field of health care organisation, worked closely with external partners (including NHS and third sector), receiving grant funding from a range of funders (e.g. NIHR, ESRC, NHS and The Health Foundation) and taking an interdisciplinary approach (e.g. collaborating with colleagues from ScHARR, School of Nursing and Medical School). Current and recent research has included:

  • Evaluation of the Flow Coaching Academy Quality Improvement programme (The Health Foundation)
  • Retention of Mental Health Staff in the NHS (The Health Foundation)
  • System Leadership role of Health and Wellbeing Boards in improving population health (National Institute for Health Research)
  • The Role of Lived Experience in the Training and Education of Mental Health Professionals (Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust)
Dr Elisabeth Garratt
elisabeth.garratt@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

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.

Professor Ben Hatchwell
b.hatchwell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

My principal research interest is in social evolution and reproductive strategies. The main approach of my research is to use field observations and experiments to test evolutionary theory. Specific research interests and achievements include:

  • The ecological factors that promote the evolution of animal societies
  • The influence of individual dispersal decisions on the genetic structure of populations and the consequences for cooperative behaviour
  • The alternative reproductive strategies of individuals in cooperative groups and their fitness consequences
  • Mechanisms of kin recognition in social animals
  • Proximate and ultimate causes of variation in parental investment

I am also interested in avian population ecology, including long-term studies of seabirds and the ecology of urban bird populations. Specific areas of interest include:

  • The population dynamics of guillemots using CMR analysis of individually marked birds
  • The factors determining the size and permanence of bird populations in the urban environment
  • The relationship between urban and rural bird populations
Professor Jason Heyes
j.heyes@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Associate Dean for Impact and Engagement

Research interests

My main research interest is in the connections between employment relations and HRM, the labour market and public policy. My research has examined the relationship between collective bargaining and vocational training activity and outcomes in the UK and Europe, the impact of the UK's National Minimum Wage legislation on pay, employment and training, and forms of trade union support for migrant workers.

I would be interested in supervising doctoral work in the broad fields of Employment Relations and HRM. I would be particularly interested in supervising doctoral work in the following areas: vocational education and training; the state and employment relations; employment and social protection policy and outcomes; governance of the labour market; low-paid work and minimum wages; trade unions; social dialogue; vulnerable workers (e.g. migrants, work in the informal economy)

Dr Harry Hill
harry.hill@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

I am interested in supervising research students and have interests in the following areas:

  • Health inequalities and equity considerations in economic evaluation
  • Measuring and valuing quality of life
  • National health policy e.g. NHS service reorganisation, impact of population health change and large scale public health interventions, economic efficiency of the health service or NHS staff
  • Epidemiology of chronic diseases
  • Health condition areas:

            o Chronic kidney disease
            o Dentistry
            o Breast cancer screening
            o Diabetes
            o Obesity
            o Respiratory disease
            o Mental disorders
            o Occupational health

Research methods I can supervise:

  • Decision modelling.
  • Applied microeconometrics, particularly quasi-experimental research.
  • Economic evaluation.
Dr Marie Hutton
m.a.hutton@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Driven by her own experiences of familial imprisonment, Marie’s research has focused on the lived experience of family contact in prisons and human rights from a socio-legal and criminological perspective. A key focus of Marie’s research has been critiquing the institutional practices and policy frameworks that inform the rules around family contact drawing on original empirical data and from theoretical perspectives from criminological literature. She maintains a particular focus on the experiences of adult relationships during imprisonment from a socio-legal perspective (such as the romantic partners of prisoners and parents of prisoners). Marie also has a developing interest in communication cultures and understandings of equality in the prison environment.

Research interests

  • Family contact and imprisonment 
  • Crime and the family
  • The lived experience of Human Rights
  • Prison ethnography


Professor Caroline Jackson
c.m.jackson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Archaeology

Research interests:

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
Dr Helen Kemp
e.h.kemp@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism

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

Dr Hajime Kinoshita
h.kinoshita@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Dr Kinoshita's interests are in the environmental-friendly applications of materials, his research programmes at the Immobilisation Science Laboratory (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) extend from nuclear waste management to CO2 storage. His researches focus on fabrication and characterisation of oxide-based materials to improve their capacity to host aiming compounds and the compatibility of the products to the environment. Based on thermodynamics, both experimental and computational techniques are used for the research.

Key projects
- Low temperature synthesis of ceramics for nuclear waste immobilisation.
- CO2 storage in recycled cementitious waste materials using molten salt media.
- Electrochemical leaching of nuclear waste forms for prediction of long-term integrity, in collaboration with collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Professor Endre Kiss-Toth
e.kiss-toth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The Medical School

Research interests

My group is interested in identifying novel regulators of inflammatory signal transduction, characterising their basic mechanism of action, as well as validating some of these novel genes as potential drug targets for therapeutic intervention in chronic inflammatory diseases.

Much of our recent work has been focussing on studying the biological importance of the tribbles (TRIB) family of pseudokinases in cell types that are relevant to the development of cardiovascular disease.

In addition, we have also been collaborating closely with several research groups, from the US and Europe to characterise the role tribbles proteins play in the development and progression of cancer.

Most recently, we begun to develop approaches that enable us to selectively target TRIBs with the aim to use these as a platform for future drug development.

To support our research goals, we have established a global network of collaborators to pursue joint projects that aim to understand the importance of tribbles in cell biology, both in health and disease.

Dr Sergej Ljubownikow
s.ljubownikow@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Strategic Management

Research

My research focuses on the broad areas of business and society and transitioning and emerging economies. In particular I focus on the activities and strategies of non-profit non-governmental organisations, the activities and strategies of firms’ vis-à-vis societal issues and related practices of strategy including corporate social responsibility.

Areas of Research Supervision

I am open to supervising PhD or postgraduate taught students in the areas of:
- Non-profit organisations and social enterprises (activities and strategies in both ‘western’ and transition contexts)
- Social issues in business and management (CSR, CSR practices and traditions in transition and emerging economies)
- Cross-sector partnerships (strategic, management, practices issues in transition and emerging economies)

Dr Juliana Matos De Meira
j.m.meira@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

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.

Dr Siobhan McAndrew
s.mcandrew@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield Methods Institute

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

Dr Fanran Meng
f.meng@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

My research focuses on resource efficiency and engineering sustainability driving reductions in environmental impacts and the development of sustainable engineering practices. My research applies and develops whole systems approaches (process simulation, material flow analysis, life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis with optimisation algorithm) to sustainable material and energy systems to better understand the transition towards a low carbon economy. Ongoing work covers a wide range of materials, renewable energy, petrochemical and transportation sectors, e.g. carbon fibre composite recycling, wind turbine blades, lithium-ion EV batteries and plastics supply chain.

Research Topics:

  • Sustainable Materials
  • Plastics and Chemicals
  • Carbon Fibre Composite Recycling and Reuse
  • Managing End-of-life Wind Turbine Wastes
  • Net Zero Technologies
  • Material Flow Analysis
  • Life Cycle Assessment
  • Techno-Economic Analysis
Dr John Miller
John.Miller@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My research focuses on writing about animals, ecology and empire from the nineteenth century to the present, with particular emphasis on the late Victorian period. My first monograph Empire and the Animal Body (Anthem, 2012) explores the representation of exotic animals in Victorian and Edwardian adventure fiction. I recently completed the co-authored volume Walrus for the Reaktion Animal series and am now working towards my next monograph, Fur: A Literary History. Other work currently in progress includes co-edited collections on Henry Rider Haggard: and on globalization and heterotopia; on wolves, werewolves and the gothic;, and on nineteenth-century transatlantic literary ecologies.

I would be very happy to supervise projects relating to any aspect of my research, particularly animals and/or ecology in Victorian literature and culture, adventure fiction, and literature and colonialism/postcolonialism/globalization.

Dr Julia Moses
j.moses@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of History

Available to supervise history topics

Julia's main research interests lie in the history of social problems and policy in Britain and Western Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She has published on five main strands of her research: the history of the welfare state, private law, and especially torts; transnational history; marriage and the family and, the history of ideas about 'risk'. She has recently completed a comparative study of conceptions of risk, workplace accidents and the welfare state in Britain, Germany and Italy, and her current research investigates the political history of marriage in Imperial Germany from transnational and global perspectives.

Julie supervises students in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European (including British) history, in particular on the history of the welfare state and social problems and policy more broadly, including questions related to national, international and transnational regulation; government and bureaucracy; legal history; marriage and the family; and the history of the social sciences.

Dr Andrew Nowakowski
a.f.nowakowski@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests

Andrew's research interests are in the area of aerodynamics, multi-component and multi-phase flows. In all these categories, the work aims to construct the algorithms for determining approximate solutions of relevant flow problems. Then, numerical methods are analysed and computer codes implementing the algorithms are developed, first for the purpose of showing the efficacy of the discretization methods and ultimately, to solve problems of practical interest.

The developed numerical technique based on vortex method was used to compute hydrodynamic forces for the flow past a rotating body. Andrew's group created a novel approach for calculation of the flow problem in hydrocyclones and developed its own specialist finite element software package, which was used to calculate the three-dimensional incompressible flow in complex geometries. Most recently, a computational simulation of two-phase compressible flow has been proposed for safety analysis of chemical reactors. The approach taken in this research enables the resolution of multi-phase mixtures and interface problems between compressible fluids.

Dr Sarah Payne
s.payne@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

In its broadest sense, my academic research is driven by a desire to understand what limits or stimulates real estate development activity. My pervading interest is in developing a more nuanced understanding of the real estate development process and in promoting the use of behavioural research to inform policy development, monitoring and evaluation.

My research interests coalesce around the following areas of investigation:

  • The UK housebuilding industry, including housebuilder business strategy, behaviours and motivations and organisational change.
  • The residential development process, including risk and innovation, environmental performance, community engagement, landowners and land markets.
  • Planning for new housing development, particularly in evaluating the efficacy of public policy interventions on the housebuilding industry and the residential development process
Professor Adam Piette
a.piette@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

I am working on other aspects of Cold War culture, and help run the Cultures of the Cold War network.

Cultures of the Cold War

I am also currently researching Beckett and am planning a series of articles on Beckett and the French Cold War, Beckett and the maternal, Beckett and reader response. I am also researching espionage fiction, contemporary poetry, the Cold War and the construction of Europe.

I welcome research students working in any area of modernism, those interested in war studies, particularly the Cold War in literature, and would be happy to supervise projects on Joyce, Beckett, Proust, French-English comparative work, research into 20th century and contemporary poetry, and am willing to work with creative writing students.


Dr Jennifer Preece
jenny.preece@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

My core research interests coalesce around the UK housing system, particularly understanding people’s experiences of changing housing and neighbourhoods. My research had primarily involved exploring the drivers of, and individual responses to, the changing nature of urban living, particularly the way in which this may result in reconfigured housing aspirations and adjusted expectations of housing outcomes. I maintain a strong interest in processes of marginalisation, identity formation, belonging and place. Having previously worked in the social housing sector, I am also interested in applied research in policy and practice settings, for example relating to the changing nature of affordable housing provision in England.


PhD topics:

Expectation adjustment in changing housing systems

Belonging in new build housing developments


Dr Louise Preston
l.r.preston@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

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.

Professor Mark Rainforth
m.rainforth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Mark's research centres on the high resolution characterisation of microstructures, in particular interfaces and surfaces. His research programmes are broadly based and cover metals, ceramics and coatings:

  • Aberration corrected electron microscopy to determine atomic structure and local bonding state, particularly at interfaces in, for example, nanoscale multilayer coatings or functional ceramics
  • Understanding the dynamic microstructural changes that occur as a result of frictional contact, to thereby develop superior materials, for example, next generation hip arthroplasties
  • Surface degeneration phenomena, such as oxidation of metals (including during hot rolling) and hydrothermal degradation of zirconia ceramics
  • Microstructural evolution during the processing of metals, particularly Ti, Mg and steels, aimed at developing new higher strength materials
  • Designing alloys for resource efficiency
Dr Amber Regis
a.regis@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My primary research interests lie in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature, particularly life-writing, women’s writing and ‘queer’ identities. I also work in adaptation studies and have published on lesbian period drama, docu-soap television and Dickens on film.

I am currently pursuing several research projects. These include a book length study of Victorian auto/biography and its relation to fiction and narrative poetry, and a new edition of the Memoirs of John Addington Symonds. I am also working on essays exploring the legacy of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own in feminist life-writing criticism, representations of Charlotte Brontë on the twenty-first-century stage, and a study of ‘living history’ museums and TV series that seek to (re )construct the Victorian quotidian.


Dr Youcao Ren
youcao.ren@sheffield.ac.uk

School of Architecture

My research revolves around sustainable urban transformation in the global South and East in response to UN Sustainable Development Goals.

My recent ethnographic work explores everyday access to sanitation and water through an intersectionality lens, with a particular focus to inquiry and (re)interpret informality. Through this, I investigate alternative, situated scenarios of sustainable infrastructure transformation. My case studies primarily focus on the urban China but extend to cities in India and Brazil too. I'm part of the Susinfra network, which is the umbrella for a portfolio of research on urban infrastructural transformations in the global south.

The second strand of my research looks into the changing conceptualisation of urban home in the transforming China, with a particular focus on the entangled human-land-infrastructure relationship. I interpret and represent 'home', increasing situated in the wider urban context rather than defined only by enclosed walls, using a combined ethnographic and visual approach.

Dr Sally Shahzad

Personal Webpage

School of Architecture

Research Interests:

Adaptive Thermal Comfort; Personal Comfort Systems (PCS); Thermal Control; Energy; User Behaviour; Elderly

I am an adaptive thermal comfort researcher and I am passionate about individual differences in perceiving the thermal environment, which falls into Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

One of my aims is to provide inhabitants of a building with thermal control opportunities to make themselves comfortable. My research investigates different approaches in balancing energy and comfort. I introduced an analysis method, called Visual Thermal Landscaping (VTL), which maps inhabitants and their views on the plan of the building using colour coding. It is important to understand the end user and their requirements in the actual context.

My research collaborations include national, international as well as interdisciplinary, as I collaborate with researchers from engineering, psychology, machine learning, healthy ageing, and other backgrounds.

Professor AbdouMaliq Simone
a.t.simone@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Maliq Simone works on issues of spatial composition in extended urban regions, the production of everyday life for urban majorities in the Global South, infrastructural imaginaries, collective affect, global blackness, and histories of the present for Muslim working classes. He is also a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, visiting professor at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, research associate with the Rujak Center for Urban Studies in Jakarta,
and research fellow at the University of Tarumanagara.

For three decades he has worked with practices of social interchange, technical arrangements, local economy, and the constitution of power relations that affect how heterogeneous African and Southeast Asian cities are lived.  He has worked on remaking municipal systems, training local government personnel, designing collaborative partnerships among technicians, residents, artists, and
politicians.

Dr Michael Simpson
m.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Senior Lecturer in Management Sciences

Research interests

Mike's current research interests are in the area of Marketing and Operations Management and particularly concentrates on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) but not entrepreneurship.. Mike has published 3 books, 3 book chapters, over 140 articles and conference papers in both scientific and management areas. He supervises a number of PhD students mainly investigating topics in small and medium sized enterprises but not entrepreneurship. He welcomes PhD applications in any area of small and medium sized enterprise research but not entrepreneurship. He is particularly interested environmental issues in SMEs, issues of achieving a competitive advantage in SMEs, marketing in SMEs, success factors in SMEs and measuring the performance of SMEs.

Dr Harrison Smith
harrison.smith@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies
Research Interests
Harrison’s research focuses on the political economy of data analytics. He is particularly interested in the sociology of data-driven marketing and media in contemporary urban environments. This can include mobile and geolocative media, but also digital out-of-home and the Internet of Things. He is interested in understanding how these technologies reshape urban and domestic environments, and how commercial organizations extract and analyze data for market applications. His current research examines the political economy of 5G infrastructure and data-management platforms. 
 
Harrison is interested in supervising students on topics such as:
  • Smart cities and startups 
  • Mobile, geolocative, and wearable media
  • Infrastructures of media, marketing, and advertising
  • Surveillance studies, privacy, and data governance
  • Political economies of data analytics industries
  • The social implications of automation and artificial intelligence
  • Data-driven capitalism and social theory
Professor Brendan Stone
b.stone@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

My research (and teaching) often involves me in working with users of mental health services. I am currently working with a range of initiatives in which service-users are supported in using creative arts and digital media to explore and communicate their experience and influence healthcare policy and practice. I am always keen to hear from individuals, groups, or organisations who want to develop similar or related work. I am a long-time mental health service-user myself, and have a strong commitment to the rights and empowerment of individuals using mental health services and/or living with mental distress. I am committed to promoting service-user led research wherever this is feasible.

Dr Keith Tarnowski
k.tarnowski@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

My research focuses on fracture mechanics aspects of structural integrity, encompassing crack growth mechanisms such as fatigue and creep, as well as brittle and ductile fracture. My research combines experimental techniques with numerical modelling and I have experience of a wide variety of finite element analysis software packages including, ABAQUS, DYNA, NASTAN and PATRAN.

I have developed improved methods of accurately measuring crack initiation and growth in ductile materials and in hostile environments. These methods, based on the electrical potential drop technique, facilitate improved material models that enable the continued safe operation of structures, avoiding premature maintenance and decomissioning programmes. This provides potentially huge social, environmental and economic benefits to variety of industries, e.g. power generation.  The ASTM standards on fracture toughness testing (E1820) and creep crack growth testing (E1457) have been revied to incorporate this research.

Dr Mark Tomlinson
mark.tomlinson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

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.

Professor Panos Tsakiropoulos
p.tsakiropoulos@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Research interests are in the design and development of ferrous and non-ferrous alloys and composites for the energy, transport and aerospace industries and for biomedical applications via process-microstructure-property studies. Materials processing under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions is also researched as part of the alloy development. The emphasis of the research is on establishing (i) the effects of processing on the microstructure and properties of structural engineering materials and (ii) how processing can be tailored to particular engineering requirements for desirable microstructures and properties. Currently, alloys of Fe, Mo, Nb and Zr are under investigation.

  • Alloy Development: Intermetallics, Exotics, Nb Alloys, Mo Alloys
  • Study of the roles of heterogeneities, in-homogeneities and non-uniformities in materials processing and phase transformations
  • Study of Alloying Related Phenomena at the Electronic Level
  • Non-Equilibrium Processing of Alloys
Dr Maria Tzanou
m.tzanou@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Law

Dr Maria Tzanou’s research focuses on European constitutional and human rights law, privacy, data protection, surveillance, the regulation of new and emerging technologies and the inequalities of data privacy law and how these affect vulnerable groups. She is the author of The Fundamental Right to Data Protection. Normative Value in the Context of Counter-Terrorism Surveillance (Hart, 2017) and the editor of Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union (IGI Global, 2020) and Health Data Privacy under the GDPR. Big Data Challenges and Regulatory Responses (Routledge, 2021). 

Research Interests

  • Data Protection Law
  • Privacy Law
  • European Human Rights Law
  • AI and Emerging Technologies Regulation
  • Surveillance

Maria is happy to supervise PhD research in the following areas: privacy and data protection, big data, AI and human rights, surveillance, regulation of emerging technologies.

Dr Duco Van Oostrum
d.oostrum@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of English Literature

Research interests

Male Authors, Female Subjects: The Woman Within/Beyond the Borders of Henry Adams, Henry James and Others (1995) reflects my interest in late nineteenth-century American Literature, representations of gender by men, and autobiography.

I also work on African-American Literature and Sports Literature, writing on such diverse people as:

  • Toni Morrison
  • Bill Russell
  • Jack Kerouac
  • John Edgar Wideman
  • Michael Jordan and many others

Autobiography, and the manner in which stories are told, remain at the centre of this research. I am fascinated by ghost-written autobiographies (such as slave narratives and most sports autobiographies) which complicate notions of a written self.

I welcome research students in most fields of American literature, and in particular those with interest in African-American culture, urban and consumer literature, and sports.


Dr Tom Webb
t.j.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests:

My primary research interest is in macroecology – what determines the distribution and abundance of species at very large scales? – although I am also interested in interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability and innovation, and have participated in the 2007 NESTA Crucible (www.nesta.org.uk/programmes/connect/crucible). My macroecological research has included work on a variety of groups of species, generally birds, but is now focused on marine systems. My approach relies on the statistical analysis of large and complex databases, and I have particular interests in the following questions:

  • How are interspecific macroecological patterns related to the population ecology of individual species?
  • How do the dynamics of local communities scale up to produce macroecological relationships?
  • Does the distributional extent of a species owe more to evolutionary processes or to accidents of history and geography?
  • How does human activity affect macroecological relationships over time and space?
Professor Don Webber
d.j.webber@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Professor of Managerial Economics

Although Don has a background in applied economics, he is better described as a researcher of policy-relevant, social science issues. Specifically he is interested in research that puts people and social issues (rather than money) at the core of economic concern.

Don has written over 90 academic peer-reviewed articles and led or collaborated on £2.2m of externally funded research. His work has been discussed at the United Nation's International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Welsh Government and elsewhere. He is part of a consortium that recently completed an AHRC-sponsored project investigating the influence of design on the Bristol and Bath economy.

Prospective PhD students who wish to study productivity (very broadly defined), health, education and/or geographically-related issues are encouraged to contact him for further discussion. He is very open to qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research.

Professor Anthony West
a.r.west@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

His research is a blend of the Chemistry, Physics and Engineering of Inorganic Materials, especially oxides, which focuses on materials with interesting and/or useful electrical properties, especially ionic conductors, mixed ionic/electronic conductors, semiconductors, ferro- and di-electrics. His research programmes are broadly-based and cover a wide variety of experimental techniques, including:

  • Synthesis and crystal structure determination of new oxide materials.
  • Use of phase diagrams to determine mechanisms of doping and solid solution formation and to study polymorphism of inorganic and organic (amino acid-based) materials.
  • Electrical property measurements, especially using impedance spectroscopy. to characterise ceramics and measure their conductivity and permittivity.
  • Electrochemical testing of materials for possible use as anodes or cathodes in lithium ion batteries.
Professor Colin Williams
C.C.Williams@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Professor of Public Policy

Research interests

Colin's broad research interests are in re-theorising the nature of economic development and investigating the implications for public policy. Spatially, his interests range across the full spectrum from local and regional economic development in the UK through to the restructuring of western economies, post-socialist societies and the third (majority) world. Much of his work focuses upon rethinking the meanings of 'economic' and 'development,' which directly feeds into the work of the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED).

Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development

Colin's particular research interest is in studying the magnitude and character of the informal economy and evaluating different public policy approaches and initiatives for tackling this sphere.

Dr Alexandra Woodall
alexandra.woodall@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Programme Director for Creative and Cultural Industries Management

Primarily interested in how people engage with material culture in museums (the encounter between a person and a thing), not least through developing collaborative creative projects with artists, Alex is also interested in how the museum workforce is supported to flourish. To that end, she initiated and is currently working with the UK Museums Association to undertake the first ever piece of research on bullying in the museums sector. In addition, she is involved in object-based research in heritage tourism sites in India, particularly in the City Palace Museum in Jaipur and in Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh, where she has collaborated with Professor Sandra Dudley (University of Leicester), Professor Manvi Seth (National Museum Institute, New Delhi) and an international team of researchers.

Alex's research methods are qualitative, often including reflexive interview, participant observation and visual methods. 

Professor Bradley Wynne
b.wynne@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Research interests focus on the thermomechanical processing of metals and alloys, particularly the interrelationship between the constraints imposed by the deformation conditions and the constraints on flow behaviour generated by crystal structure and crystallographic texture, which in turn determines deformation microstructure evolution. Currently his major focus is on the effects of non-linear strain paths on microstructure evolution and the application of high resolution electron back scattered diffraction for microstructure quantification. The overall aim of this research is to develop true internal state models for microstructure evolution to replace our current empirically based models which are often inadequate when deformation conditions are complex. Current work involves all major engineering metals and alloys including aerospace titanium, nickel superalloys, heat-treatable aluminium alloys, wrought aluminium alloys, duplex stainless steel, austenitic stainless steel, C-Mn steel and Magnesium.

Dr Ehsan Alborzi
e.alborzi@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Dr Ehsan Alborzi is a Research Fellow specialising in Aviation Fuels and Lubricant, with an extensive knowledge of chemical kinetics and quantum chemistry. His expertise is in the construction of detailed and reduced predictive models for fuel thermal oxidative stability and surface carbonaceous deposits in aero-engine fuel injection system.

Dr. Alborzi completed his PhD in 2009, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Sheffield, in numerical modelling and experimental investigation of aviation fuel thermal stability and surface carbonaceous deposition. Since the completion of his PhD, he has worked in a number of national and international research projects dealing with aviation fuel and lubricant thermal stability as well as aviation fuel selective filteraction in close collaboration with Rolls Royce, MoD, Air BP, Shell Aviation, Total, DLR, ONERA, COMOTI, Toyota Motor Europe and Johnson Matthey.

He is currently working with the Translational Energy Research Center on research themes related to sustainable aviation fuel such as fuel compositional-properties relationships, technical suitability of aviation fuels for application in aero-engines and material compatibility.

Dr Panayiota Alevizou
P.J.Alevizou@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Marketing

Dr Panayiota J. Alevizou is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Sheffield University Management School, where she teaches Socially Responsible Marketing and Consumption and Retail and Services Marketing. Her research focuses on sustainability labelling, eco-labelling and sustainability marketing (both production and consumption) in the context of food, beauty and fashion.

Professor Sarah Baker
s.r.baker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Clinical Dentistry

Research interests

My principal research interest relates to the psychological and social factors which influence how people cope with chronic oral health conditions and their treatment. Such conditions include cleft lip and palate, oral cancer, orthognathic conditions, xerostomia, periodontal disease and edentulousness. This programme of work investigates the psychosocial factors which influence individual’s experiences of their oral health and the impact on well-being and quality of life. Understanding the role of such factors – sense of coherence, self esteem, social support networks, coping strategies, stress and resilience – allows us to explore potential mechanisms by which oral health impacts on individual’s daily lives and, in turn, develop intervention strategies that have the potential to improve health and well-being.

Other research interests include a critical examination of the conceptual foundations of oral health quality of life concepts, together with methodological and statistical approaches within the OHQoL field. Much of this research involves modelling the biopsychosocial determinants of oral health and well-being across the lifecourse using statistical techniques such as, structural equation modelling. 


Professor Michail Balikhin
m.balikhin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Research interests:

  • Space Plasma
  • Turbulence in high beta (hot) plasma
  • Collisionless Shocks
  • Avalanching Systems
  • Space Weather
  • Solar-Terrestrial Relations
  • Spacecraft Instrumentation
  • Nonlinear Systems
  • Identification of linear and non-linear processes in data
  • Methods of data analysis for multi-spacecraft missions.
Professor Ivana Barbaric
i.barbaric@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research interests

My lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms that control pluripotent stem cell self-renewal and commitment to differentiation. In particular, we investigate the molecular basis of aneuploidy in hPSCs and study how such genetic changes may perturb the normal control of stem cell fate and enhance their ability to grow in culture.

Professor Mohammed Benaissa
m.benaissa@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research activities are focussed on design and implementation of dedicated circuits and systems for communications and signal processing. Current activities include:

  • Design and implementation of cryptosystems
  • Design and implementation of error-control coding systems
  • Reconfigurable Hardware design
  • Healthcare engineering
  • Galois fields arithmetic circuits
  • Residue number systems
Professor Christopher Bennett
c.bennett@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Philosophy

Research interests

Chris's interests are in moral, political and legal philosophy. His main work has concerned blame, forgiveness, punishment and the normative foundations of criminal law and sentencing. He also has interests in moral psychology - especially the emotions - and the history of philosophy, especially post-Kantian moral and political philosophy.

Professor Kamaljit Birdi
K.Birdi@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School
Interim Head of the Institute of Work Psychology

Research interests
  • Creativity and innovation in the workplace
  • Evaluation of training and development activities
  • Identifying factors influencing the effectiveness of workplace learning
  • E-learning
  • Organisational learning
  • Inter-organisational collaboration
Dr Anne-Gaelle Borycki
a.g.borycki@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Somite and neural tube patterning by Sonic hedgehog signalling. The Borycki lab uses the vertebrate chick and mouse animal models to study how the morphogen signalling molecule Sonic Hedgehog and its effectors, the Gli transcription factors, specify somitic and neural progenitor cells during embryonic development.

Professor Craig Brandist
c.s.brandist@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Russian & Slavonic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

Early Soviet intellectual history with a particular interest in development of cultural theory. Marxism. Critical Theory. Bakhtin Circle, Gramsci. The Soviet Union and the decolonizing world;  Soviet origins of postcolonial theory; continuities between Stalinism and neo-liberal managerial practices, language and ideology.

Dr Dmitry Chernobrov
d.chernobrov@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Media & International Politics

Dmitry's research focuses on four main areas:

  • public perception of international politics
  • humour in political communication and international relations
  • humanitarian crisis communication
  • diasporas, social media and conflict.

Dmitry argues that public perceptions of international crises are shaped primarily by local anxieties, cultural memories, insecurities and hopes, and above all by the societal need for positive and continuous self-conceptions. This research offers an interdisciplinary integration of international relations, political psychology, memory, and media studies. 

Dmitry is also interested in how humanitarian agencies and media see the future of communication in crises; how these visions differ between western and non-western contexts; and how the appearance of digital humanitarians and direct communication channels redraws the traditional roles and powers of crisis actors. This research involves interviews and collaborations with major humanitarian agencies.

In recent years, Dmitry has also published articles on the use of humour in public diplomacy, and on the Armenian diaspora, social media mobilisation and conflict.

PhD supervision

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

  • Media representations, self-representations, identity and public opinion 
  • Public diplomacy and strategic narratives
  • Collective memory and emotion
  • Humour in political communication and international relations
  • Humanitarian crises and communication
  • Critical conceptions of security/insecurity in media and politics
  • Diasporas, social media and conflict


Professor Frederik Claeyssens
f.claeyssens@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research interests

Frederik´s research expertise focuses mainly on laser processing of biomaterials, and its applications. This research portfolio can be divided into three projects:

  1. Coatings for biology: Biocompatible coatings of semiconductors to be integrated into cell-silicon interfaces for biosensors. These coatings are currently investigated for in vivo/in vitro recording devices of electroactive cells (heart/brain cells).
  2. Bioprinting: Laser based techniques for printing biomolecules/cells for producing biomolecule arrays and biosensors. I have further developed this technique as a parallel direct-write technique, able to print 1000 pixels in one single laser shot. This technique is able to print viscous fluids containing DNA, proteins and even living cell.
  3. Biomaterials manufacture via microstereolithography: Using top down approaches to controllable (via CAD/CAM) produce 3D biocompatible/degradable polymer structures with micrometer resolution. Combination of this technique with bottom-up approaches to achieve hybrid biomaterials as 3D scaffolds for implants, tissue engineering and pharmaceutical testing.

Additionally, Frederik has also a keen research interest in computational solid state and biological chemistry. 

Professor Patricia Cowell
p.e.cowell@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Human Communication Sciences

Research interests


  • Cognition and communication across the menopause.
  • Ovarian hormone effects on speech, language, and cognition.
  • Equality, diversity, and inclusion in women’s neurocognitive health.
  • Sex differences and gender effects in cognitive development and ageing. 
  • Cerebral asymmetries and interhemispheric relationships.
  • Modelling mechanisms of neurocognitive plasticity.


Dr Savannah Cox
savannah.cox@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests 

My research interests to-date center on urban climate governance. I am especially interested in the politics of urban adaptation and resilience planning and the ways in which cities come to "know" and act on climate risks. Thus far, I have conducted research on these subjects in Miami, New York, New Orleans, and the Bay Area. I take a highly interdisciplinary approach to my work, and regularly engage with debates in urban and economic geography, political ecology, science and technology studies, and urban planning.

My research has focused on issues such as: how key players within global financial systems are developing their understandings of urban climate vulnerability and resilience and the implications for climate-changing cities; how resilience efforts intervene in, and stand to reconfigure, longstanding racial formations in cities; how climate justice activists mobilize resilience to make claims to the city and its future, as well the significance of the resilience and design turn within the field of urban planning more broadly.

Dr Stuart Cunningham
s.cunningham@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Human Communication Sciences
School of Allied Health Professions Nursing and Midwifery

Research interests

  • Robust automatic speech recognition.
  • The use of speech technology in assistive technology and speech and language therapy.
  • Auditory-inspired representations of speech signals and their application in automatic speech recognition.
  • The perception of speech in adverse acoustic conditions.
Dr Stuart Cunningham
s.cunningham@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Human Communication Sciences (old code)

Research interests

  • Robust automatic speech recognition.
  • The use of speech technology in assistive technology and speech and language therapy.
  • Auditory-inspired representations of speech signals and their application in automatic speech recognition.
  • The perception of speech in adverse acoustic conditions.


Dr Jose Curiel Sosa
j.curiel-sosa@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research Fields
Composite Structures and Graphene Nanocomposites
- Prediction damage modelling
- Delamination
- Machining
Aircraft Design
- Numerical/Computational Evaluation
- Aeroelasticity and Load Control
- Structural Integrity
Damage and Fracture Modelling
- Aerostructures
- Impact Engineering
- Wear and contact deterioration

Method.: numerical, modelling, computer aided, computational, analytical

Dr Dana Damian
d.damian@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

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.

 

Keywords: Automatic Control and Systems Engineering,

Professor Jeremy Dawson
J.F.Dawson@Sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

Jeremy's research falls broadly into three areas, with plenty of crossover between them – management of health care organisations, team working, and statistics. Recent projects in health care include a study of the effects of NHS staff engagement and experience on patient outcomes; various studies of team working in health care, particularly in mental health services; an examination of the effects of organisational restructuring in the NHS; and a project looking at the diversity of hospital staff and their representativeness of the local community. In 2014 he begins an NIHR-funded study evaluating Schwartz Center Rounds® in the NHS.

As well as teams in health care, he has a more general interest in team diversity, and in particular how it should be measured. As a statistician he has also undertaken a wide range of methodological research, particularly regarding interpretation of interaction effects, measurement of diversity, analysis of incomplete team data, and the effects of aggregation on relationships. He has published over 30 papers in refereed academic journals in the fields of psychology, management, health care and research methods, as well as numerous project reports and articles in practitioner publications. He is an editorial board member of five journals, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Professor Merlyne De Souza
m.desouza@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Research interests:


  • GaN: CMOS, heterogenous Integration, on-chip inductors/magnetic materials for Power Management Integrated Circuits and power devices.
  • Sensors and actuators for health applications.
  • Memory devices for neuromorphic applications.
  • RF Power Amplifiers.
  • Perovskite solar cells.
Professor Peter Dodd
p.j.dodd@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research Interests

  • Infectious disease modelling.
  • Epidemiology
  • Burden estimation
  • TB, particularly in settings with high-HIV prevalence, and population-level TB interventions.
  • TB in children.
  • Individual-based modelling methodologies.
  • Methods for model calibration and uncertainty analysis
  • Cost-effectiveness modelling
  • Global health
Professor Neil Dummigan
N.P.Dummigan@shef.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Mathematics and Statistics

My general area of research is number theory, with an emphasis on congruences between Hecke eigenvalues of automorphic forms, and connections with instances of the Bloch-Kato conjecture on values at integer points of L-functions arising from arithmetic geometry.

Dr David Duriesmith
d.duriesmith@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations

David’s research explores the relationship between patriarchy, masculinities and violence from a pro-feminist perspective. He has published on preventing violence after war, men’s support for gender equality, foreign fighter networks, the transformation of war and feminist international relations theory. 

Professor Sherif El-Khamisy
S.El-Khamisy@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests:

Mammalian genome stability in health and disease. I head the human DNA repair group aiming to understand how defects in repairing DNA damage cause degenerative disorders and cancer. Our lab is primarily funded by fellowships from the Wellcome Trust and the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.

Dr Dominic Essuman
D.Essuman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Sustainable Management

Dominic researches resilient and sustainable supply chains. His research interest extends to topics on strategic supply chain and operations management, strategic global supply chains, and Africa's supply chain issues.

Dr Robert Fagan
r.fagan@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Biosciences

Research Interests

Clostridium difficile is a spore forming, anaerobic, Gram positive bacterium which causes severe disease in patients following antibiotic treatment. My work focuses on the interaction between C. difficile and its host. My interests fall into three broad areas:

Dr Ian Farrer
I.Farrer@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Research Interests

  • Epitaxy of ultra-pure materials
  • Self assembled Quantum Dots and site controlled growth
  • Optical Monitoring techniques during Epitaxy
  • II-IV-Nitride Materials
  • Molecular Beam Epitaxy of 2D Materials
  • Epitaxy of dissimilar materials by Van der Waals epitaxy or Interfacial Misfit Dislocations
Professor Alireza Fazeli
a.fazeli@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Oncology and Metabolism
The Medical School

Research interests

I am interested to understand the events taking place during periconception period. The cross-talk between gametes, embryos and the maternal tract. Since the innate immune system plays a major role in this communication I am keen to understand how the innate immunity is involved in the maternal communication.

Professor Matthew Flinders
m.flinders@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Politics and International Relations
Research interests
  • Governance and public policy
  • Democratic reform and engagement
  • The analysis of delegation and autonomy, models and forms of accountability
  • Comparative managerial change
  • Legislative studies
  • Risk and risk regulation regimes
  • Depoliticisation
  • Politics of public expectations
Professor John Flint
john.flint@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests

My interests are in housing and urban governance, citizenship and social cohesion. 

 

 

Current PGR projects:

 

Community-based housing, activism and the urban commons

Community-based housing and regional enabling hubs  in England 

The future of the social housing professional .


Professor Liam Foster
l.foster@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Sociological Studies

Research interests

Much of my research focus is on inequalities in later life and policy implications, particularly in relation to pensions. This has often included a gendered focus. The role of planning for retirement has also been explored. I have liaised with the Labour Party, Trade Unions, the European Parliament and pension providers about these findings. I am also interested in theories of ageing and the application of the political economy of ageing. I have also published on the notion of active ageing considering comparative policy approaches to the implementation of active ageing measures. The impact of poverty and social exclusion on policy has been central to much of my research, for instance, in relation to my work with colleagues on funeral provision and the notion of responsibility and on social quality. I employ a variety of methods in my research including interviews, surveys and secondary data analysis of secondary data sets. These skills have been used in consultancy work for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) employing quantitative methods to evaluate student satisfaction and career paths following the completion of Architecture degrees and for AXA Wealth in relation to pension education.

Professor Andrea Genovese
a.genovese@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

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 Thomas Goodfellow
t.goodfellow@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Research interests

My broad research interests centre on comparative processes of urban development and change in cities of the global South, and especially Africa. I focus particularly on the politics and political economy of urban change, for example with regard to urban land and transportation, infrastructure and housing – and I am interested both in the investment and governance dynamics in these sectors, and how city-dwellers experience and contest these changes. I also have a growing interest in the experiences of refugees and displaced people in cities, both within the global South and in the UK. I have conducted research in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya, but am open to supervising PhDs focusing on any national context (as well as comparative work). My recent and current research has focused on urban-rural migration in Africa and its impacts on conflict and peace-building, infrastructure and housing in African urban peripheries, and Chinese investments in Africa and the consequences for urban development and socioeconomic inclusion.

By way of example, I would welcome PhD proposals in the following broad areas (among others), for potential supervision:

-          Mega-infrastructure investments in African cities and their economic, social and political consequences

-          Land and/or housing policy reforms or experiments in African cities, and their potential to promote inclusive and sustainable forms of urban development

-          Refugee communities in UK cities and their experiences of exclusion, access to services and engagements with the state


Professor Daniel Goodley
d.goodley@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Education

Dan supervises doctoral students in the areas of:


Critical disability studies;
Qualitative research including ethnography, narrative inquiry, discourse analysis, Inclusive education;
Queer, Feminist, Postcolonial and Crip studies, Critical Psychology, Sociology of Education, Sociology of the Body, Sociology of Emotions/Affect;
Posthuman and DisHuman studies.

Professor Derek Ingham
d.ingham@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

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.

Dr Louise Johnson
p.l.johnson@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Hispanic Studies
School of Languages and Cultures

Research interests

20th and 21st century Catalan and peninsular Spanish literature,  culture, and cultural history, with a particular interest in gender, sexuality and physical/sporting culture, and cultural constructions of Catalan-ness. Teaching interests in all of the above, plus Translation Studies; and cultural representation of the Spanish Inquisition and its contemporary traces.

Professor Robert Johnston
r.johnston@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Archaeology

Research interests:

  • Landscape archaeology
  • Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology of Britain and Ireland
  • Social and cultural aspects of later prehistoric agriculture
  • The archaeology of highlands, uplands and mountains
  • Theoretical approaches to human-environment relations
  • Community and public archaeology
Professor Robert Johnston
r.johnston@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of History

Available to supervise archaeology topics

Bob’s research interests include:

  • Landscape archaeology
  • Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology of Britain and Ireland
  • Social and cultural aspects of later prehistoric agriculture
  • The archaeology of highlands, uplands and mountains
  • Theoretical approaches to human-environment relations
  • Community and public archaeology
Mr Ben Kearns
b.kearns@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

Research interests

  • The use of statistics in health economics
  • Extrapolation and time-series analyses
  • Survival analysis and model uncertainty
  • Vascular disease, cancer, depression
  • Chronic diseases, mental ill health, and their interactions
  • The use of health economics for pathway (service) re-design
  • Mathematical modelling, including simulation
Professor Rosanna Keefe
r.keefe@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Philosophy

Research interests

Rosanna's main philosophical interests lie within the philosophy of logic and language. She also has interests in philosophical methodology and in metaphysics. She has written extensively on vagueness and is currently working on issues concerning logical consequence.

Professor Simon Keegan-Phipps
s.keegan-phipps@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music

Research interests

  • English folk music 
  • Tradition music of the British Isles
  • Music and national/regional identity
  • Traditional arts and digital media/transmission
  • Free-reed, bellows-blown instruments 
  • Music and humour/comedy.
Professor Dorothy Ker
d.ker@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Music
Research interests
  • Composition - for instruments, voices, orchestra, instrument and live electronics, interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Space and time in music and across disciplinary boundaries
  • Music and mathematics
  • Music and text
  • Composing for Chinese instruments
  • Practice-led PhDs
Professor Lenny Koh
s.c.l.koh@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Professor Lenny Koh is Crosscutting Chief of Resource Sustainability, Founder and Director of the Advanced Resource Efficiency Centre (AREC) and Co-Head of the flagship Energy Institute at The University of Sheffield. Her work contributes to advancing the understanding and resolution of complex supply chains using interdisciplinary approaches crossing supply chain management and information systems domains. Her research is world leading and is recognised for its scientific novelty and has generated significant impacts for societies, governments and industries from manufacturing to services globally. She is also the pioneer of SCEnAT Cloud based suites supported by Microsoft including SCEnAT, SCEnAT+, SCEnATi and SCEnAT 4.0; and the FPSCRS tool supported by Rolls-Royce.

Research interests

Prof. Koh's expertise lies in logistics/supply chain management, particularly in; low carbon futures/industries, low carbon supply chain, energy supply chain, environment and sustainability science, energy efficiency, and uncertainty management. She has also produced a considerable amount of research in production planning and control, enterprise resource planning, and information science. Life cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, circular economy, sustainable manufacturing, negative emission technology, system modelling, climate change, decision science, and energy, food, material and resource sustainability and resiliency are some of the main themes of her research and innovation.

Professor Damien Lacroix
d.lacroix@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Damien Lacroix is Professor of Mechanobiology in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Applied Science (INSA Lyon, France) and a PhD in Biomechanics from Trinity College Dublin.

After a post-doc in 2001 in Toulouse (France) for Smith and Nephew at the Purpan Hospital, he was awarded a Marie-Curie TMR EU fellowship in 2002 and a Ramon y Cajal senior fellowship in 2004 at the Technical University of Catalonia (Spain).

In 2008 he was appointed Group Leader of Biomechanics and Mechanobiology at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (Spain). Damien joined the Department in 2012 when he took a Chair in Biomedical Engineering within the INSIGNEO research

Research interests 

Professor Lacroix's research covers bone mechanobiology (bone tissue engineering, bone distraction, fracture healing) and spine biomechanics (mechanobiology of disc degeneration, disc angiogenesis, disc implant analysis).

The focus of his research group is the study of the effect of mechanical stimuli on biological response. The group's objective is to make scientific advancements in simulations of in vitro and in vivo biomechanics and mechanobiology and in experimental in vitro mechanobiology.

The current focus of the group is mainly on the development of simulations in spine biomechanics, tissue engineering and cell mechanics. These numerical simulations based on the finite element method are complemented with in vitro tests using bioreactors and microfluid chambers.

Professor Andrew Lee
andrew.lee@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Division of Population Health

My main research interests are in the field of health protection-related topics such as disaster response and emergency planning, and the control of communicable diseases/infectious diseases. I am also interested in topics in international health, primary care as well as health service management.  Examples of my previous research  activities include

  • mixed methods study of the state of integrated disease surveillance globally
  • evidence reviews on mass testing for COVID, public health benefits of urban greenspace, emergency planning in health in the UK
  • qualitative studies on beneficiary perspectives of humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka after the Asian Tsunami disaster, and of the drivers of smoking in young people in Pakistan
  • developing evidence-based disaster management practice in the UK and Nepal,
  • mixed methods study investigating barriers to testing and treatment of Hepatitis B in the migrant Chinese ethnic population in the UK,
  • Methods: policy, qualitative, epidemiology and evidence reviews.

My current ongoing research projects (as of February 2017) are:  

  • developing a series of health research projects on slum health in Nepal,
  • evidence review of public health needs following earthquakes.
Professor James Lenman
j.lenman@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Philosophy

Research interests

I work mainly on ethics and especially metaethics. My recent work has dealt with issues relating to moral realism, moral expressivism, moral psychology, moral epistemology, and moral responsibility, compatibilism, consequentialism, contractualism, constructivism and contingency.

Dr Shengfeng Li
shengfeng.li@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Sheffield University Management School

Lecturer in Finance (Assistant Professor)

Shengfeng welcomes PhD applications with an interest in corporate finance (or financial management) and its interdisciplinary areas. The candidate is expected to having basic training of applying econometrics and quantitative skills to analyse problems of firms. The discussion will be based on an initial research proposal.

Dr Christina Maags
c.maags@sheffield.ac.uk

School of East Asian Studies

Christina's research interests include political economy, multi-level governance and local policy implementation in the People’s Republic of China. Using these analytical frameworks as a lens, she has particularly conducted research on cultural heritage politics and the politics of demographic ageing in contemporary China.

 

Dr Maags is currently working on two major research projects:

Political Economy of Elder Care in China

This project examines the development of elder care services across China. It compares how differences in multi-level governance across space result in diverging approaches to elder care service development in urban and rural areas and by extension diversity in local elder care service industries.

Intangible Heritage, the Market & the Stat

This project examines the political economy underlying the marketization of intangible cultural heritage in the tourism and creative industries in China, particularly focusing on how these affect cultural practitioners.

In her research, Dr Maags pays particular attention to interactions and interdependencies across global, national and local scales.

Dr Michael Martin
michael.martin@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

My research sits within the broad scope of urban design, planning and urban studies. My research to date spans across three main focus areas: 1) inequalities resulting from urban crises in neoliberalised contexts, 2) the inclusion and perspectives of marginalised stakeholders in urban regeneration programmes and ‘co-creative’ design processes (specifically children and youth), as well as 3) the processes by which urban design operates and places are shaped. This includes studies on: urban crises, austerity urbanism, vacant/previously developed land, urban regeneration, temporary urban uses of space, child-friendly cities, children’s place use, urban design/placeshaping processes, and more recently, COVID-19. Presently, I am interested in the temporary urban uses of space for children that emerged in response to COVID-19 and the opportunities that may materialise to embed child-friendly principles in urban design and planning agendas as a consequence.

I welcome enquiries from research students across all of my areas of interest but am particularly interested in supervising research on aspects related to the following:

 

- cities for play

- temporary urban uses of space for children

- urban regeneration and children's sense of place


Dr Peter Matanle
p.matanle@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of East Asian Studies

Research interests

Dr Matanle is pursuing a number of related research themes in collaboration with colleagues from around the world. Currently he is working on a co-authored monograph on Lifetime Employment in 21st Century Japan, as well as articles on depopulation and regional sustainability in East Asia, and postdoctoral career formation in Japanese studies.

In the future, Peter plans to research the relationship between demographic change and resource consumption in Japan's rural regions, focusing on the spatial impacts of depopulation on resource demand.

I have successfully supervised students through to completion in employment studies and the sociology of work and in the cultural geography of Japan. I am currently primary supervisor for four students in regional and environmental studies, and the sociology and culture of work, all of which focus on Japan.

I welcome applications for students in any of the above subjects, and I am particularly keen to develop long-term collaborative relationships that broaden the geographical scope of my own research. In future I also want to develop my work in environmental studies, with an emphasis on the human-environmental consequences of regional depopulation in the Asia-Pacific region.