Meet the team

Swathi Mukundan is a Research Associate working with Dr. Jonathan Wagner at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University. Before joining the Circular Chemical Economy Centre, Swathi studied Chemistry in Bharathidasan University, received PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia, then worked for petrochemical industry and postdoctoral research in India. Her primary research themes are solid state catalysis, material characterisation, biomass conversion technologies, waste plastic utilisation, green chemistry, renewable energy. At Loughborough University, Swathi focusses on the catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass and chemical wastes, catalytic bio-oil upgrading, and aqueous phase reforming of the aqueous phase. [Read more]

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Ruini Qu joined the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University as a Research Associate in 2022. Prior to her involvement in the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy, she worked as a Project Officer for ASTUTE 2020 at Cardiff University where she focused on delivering bespoke supply chain solutions to companies from different backgrounds. She was also involved in the EPSRC-funded project “Resilient Remanufacturing Networks: Forecasting, Informatics and Holons”, conducting research on remanufacturing and circular economy. Her research interests include supply chain resilience, machine scheduling, combinatorial optimisation and simulation. [Read more]

Max completed his BSc in Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 2018. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the Liverpool International College Excellence Scholarship, and volunteered as a demonstrator as part of an outreach programme for disadvantaged high school students. After graduating, Max returned home to the Isle of Man, where he received a job offer to work in Japan as a teacher in 2020. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to return to academia and was invited into the Alberto Roldan Group at Cardiff University in 2021, under the joint supervision of Dr Roldan and Prof Marc… [Read more]

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I am a Research Assistant for the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy at Newcastle University. I am working with the Centre and Professor Libby Gibson to unify efforts across the three work themes by preparing a roadmap showing the current status and future prospects for the Circular Economy of Olefins. I have a background in physical chemistry, studying a PhD at Durham University. My PhD focused on the phase behaviour of limonene microemulsions and how they interact with oil, with an emphasis on the kinetic processes of micelle exchange. [Read more]

My interests lie in the use of modelling and optimisation at different scales e.g. technologies, processes and value chains with a view to quantifying performance at a range of scales and supporting decision-making. I’ll be supporting Benoit Chachuat in Theme 2. [Read more]

Preetam is a Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering with Professor E. Yu. His research activities involve the development of nanocatalysts and electrochemical reactors for carbon dioxide utilisation. In the CircularChem project, he is focusing on the electrochemical CO2 reduction for production of the chemicals and its scale-up potentials. He obtained a PhD in nanomaterials for solar fuels production from the School of Engineering, Ulster University, UK in 2017. Since completing his PhD, he has been working on a variety of academic and industrial projects focusing on advanced materials for energy, environment and health. [Read more]

Bhavin is a postdoctoral researcher in electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide at the University of Liverpool with broad experience across catalysis, electrochemistry, and chemical engineering. During his undergraduate and Master’s degree studies at the University of Tokyo, he conducted research on photocatalytic water splitting using semiconductor particles. His DPhil work in bioelectrochemistry, with Prof. Fraser A. Armstrong at the University of Oxford, led to a novel electrochemical nicotinamide cofactor regeneration system, based on an enzyme from a photosynthetic pathway. He returned to the University of Tokyo as a postdoctoral researcher in heterogeneous catalysis for methane conversion. At Liverpool, his current… [Read more]

I am a Professor in Computer Science, recently working mostly on topics related to financial systems.  My group is very interdisciplinary, with computer scientists, psychologists, social scientists and engineers.  See for instance the FinTrust project, where we research various aspects of trust in AI-based financial services (https://fintrustresearch.com/). In the Centre for Circular Chemical Economy my group helps in making the circular economy visible to policy makers, industry partners and citizens.  We will design and implement a proof-of-concept blockchain based system that allows various parties to make available and access trusted information.  We design this system together with the stakeholders for… [Read more]

Professor Wijayantha has considerable expertise in low-carbon H2 technologies, electrochemical energy storage, energy materials and the circular chemical economy, having led industrial development of green H2 production in the UK that were then expanded to the US. He currently serves on two technical task groups of the International Energy Agency, and is part of the team behind HyDEX, a project aiming to accelerate innovation in H2 by supporting SMEs to develop the technologies and skills needed. He graduated with BSc (Hon) and then received MPhil from the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. He was awarded a PhD from the University… [Read more]

Han Wu is a Research Associate in the FinTrust group at Newcastle University, directed by Prof. Aad Van Moorsel. Before joining the FinTrust group at Newcastle University, he received a PhD degree of computer science from the Free University of Berlin. Han worked on the performance and reliability evaluation of streaming data processing strategies using machine learning models, and is now interested in the risk assessment of AI-based systems. His current research interests also focus on reinforcement learning and distributed ledgers. [Read more]

Lei Xing was a research associate at the department of Chemical Engineering of Loughborough University and in 2022 moved to University of Surrey. He got his PhD degree in Newcastle University in 2014 and started his academic career from Birmingham University as a post-doc research fellow. He worked in Jiangsu University, Purdue University, Oxford University and Ulster University before joining Loughborough University. His research interests include modelling, optimization and techno-economic analysis of hydrogen fuel cells and CO2 capture reactors and systems. Lei Xing acquired years of experience in modelling multi-physics and multi-phase flow chemical/electrochemical reactors. Currently, he is working on… [Read more]