Meet the team

Eileen joined Loughborough in 2020 from Newcastle University and she holds a Chair of Electrochemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering. After obtaining her PhD from Newcastle University pioneering the development of direct methanol alkaline fuel cells, she worked as a research fellow at Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Germany, before returning to Newcastle University to take a prestigious EPSRC Research Fellowship (Life Science Interface). She has a wide range of experience and interests in various fields in electrochemical and bioelectrochemical systems for energy, carbon dioxide utilization, environmental and biomedical applications. [Read more]

S. Akpotu is a Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University (LU), hosted by Dr. J. Wagner. His research at LU is focused on the development of catalysts for hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass, plastic wastes and bio-oil upgrade to produce important chemical feedstock/platform chemicals. He obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and has carried out postdoctoral research in South Africa (NRF fellowship), Germany (DFG, Georg-Forster fellowship) and the United Kingdom. His primary research is in the synthesis, characterisation and application of porous materials as sorbent/catalysts for wastewater treatment, energy storage and… [Read more]

Andrea is a PDRA at the Sargent Centre for Process System Engineering, Imperial College London. As a member of the UKRI National Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy, his research focuses on techno-economic and life-cycle environmental assessment of enabling technologies for a UK circular chemical economy. Andrea received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Padova in 2015 and in 2017 he joined Imperial College. He contributed to different research projects, including the EPSRC funded initiatives Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing HUB, and Flexible Routes to Liquid Fuels from CO2 by Advanced Catalysis and Engineering. Prior to joining Imperial… [Read more]

Umit Bititci is a Professor of Business Performance and the Executive Dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. He has a background that blends engineering, management consulting and academic research. He has authored several papers and books some of which have been widely cited. He has also led several large research and development projects at the UK and European scale in collaboration with industry partners across Europe. His research is underpinned with a whole systems approach to understanding how organisations measure and manage performance where he uses industry as his research laboratory through collaborative consultancy, KE… [Read more]

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Professor Buckley completed his degree in Manchester working with Dr Julia Dickinson and Professor Ian J. S. Fairlamb on the synthesis of alpha pyrone mimics and then moved to Loughborough to carry out a PhD with Professor Philip C. B. Page in the area of organocatalytic asymmetric epoxidation sponsored by the EPSRC and Avecia (with Professor John Blacker as Industrial Supervisor). Following this Prof Buckley worked as a PDRA with Professor Philip. C. B. Page for a further year working on the synthesis of N-Heterocyclic carbene ligands with Professor Steven D. R. Christie. In 2004 he was appointed as a university research fellow, working on projects with Professor… [Read more]

After obtaining his degree and PhD from St John's College, Oxford University, he held his first academic position at University College London (UCL). Since then, he has held many senior academic positions including the Director of the Royal Institution, Chair of Chemistry and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences also at UCL. He has won many awards and accolades, being awarded the Solid State Chemistry, Interdisciplinary, Liversidge and Faraday awards of The Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society, Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and of the Leopoldina – the… [Read more]

Ben’s background is in Materials Engineering having graduated from Swansea University in 2019 with an MSc by research in collaboration with industry. His EngD continued a collaborative approach to research and specialised in advanced manufacturing, polymer science, and circular economy principles. In 2020, he worked with the Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy division at the Welsh Government to develop strategic plans and assessments for a sustainable recovery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He recently joined the University of Surrey as a Research Fellow, where he works in the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. His industry driven research focus… [Read more]

I am a research associate in the group of Prof Peter Styring in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) at the University of Sheffield, aiming to develop evidence-based policies for a circular economy of essential chemicals, especially via non-fossil fuel routes. More broadly, my research interests have spanned high-density polyethylene (HDPE) melt processing, crystallisation and thermomechanical characterisation, carbon fibre-epoxy aerospace composites and synthetic chemistry for novel drug pre-cursors. I have particular interest and expertise in polymer melt rheology and the application of novel time-resolved techniques. Prior to joining the centre, I held a research associate post at the… [Read more]

Miriam Fsadni is a Research Assistant at Newcastle University working for Professor Elizabeth Gibson.  Miriam has a background in organic and computational chemistry, and her PhD at Newcastle University focused on the factors influencing hole mobility in tunable small-molecule amorphous organic hole transporter materials, using computational and experimental investigations. Her work within the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Chemical Economy focuses on unifying efforts across the three work packages by preparing a roadmap to show the current status and future prospects for the Circular Economy of Olefins in the UK. [Read more]

Dr. Mohammad Mazharul Islam joined University of Cardiff in 2021 as a Research Associate in Dr. Alberto’s research group. Currently his research focuses on Computational study for the development of advanced catalytic processes to enable effective transformation of polymer waste into chemicals or fuels. Prior to this, Dr. Islam has worked as Faraday Institution Research Fellow at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bath, UK between July 2018 and May 2021. He has been awarded with the visiting researcher contract by the Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn for a period between 2019-2021. He has completed… [Read more]

Donald Inns is a post-doctoral research associate working in the Rosseinsky group, having joined in 2023. His current research focuses on the development of catalysts for the transformation of polymer waste to liquid chemicals and fuels.  He received his MChem from Cardiff University in 2018, where he conducted a research project within the Cardiff Catalysis Institute. Following this, he studied a PhD at Loughborough University in the Kondrat group. His thesis was focused on the development of new lanthanum-based catalysts for sustainable hydrogen production via the aqueous phase reforming process. His research interests include the synthesis and advanced characterisation of… [Read more]

Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh as a Lecturer in Finance, Mengfei worked on policy, society, and finance for a UK circular chemical economy in the UKRI NICER Programme, based at Heriot-Watt University. Mengfei holds a PhD in carbon finance from the University of Edinburgh. She was involved in several research projects, including the UKRI VaCoBD project, BHP CCS in China's Iron and Steel Sector project, Carbon Emission Modelling of Energy Systems for Retrofit sponsored by the SFC and RGC, Developing a Linkage Readiness Carbon Market in China funded by the World Bank Group, and Enabling the Legal and Regulatory Framework for Large-scale CCUS… [Read more]

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Dr Rossen Kazakov is a research associate, based in the School of Social Sciences and Edinburgh Business School. Rossen became a valuable member of CircularChem and Bing Xu's team within Theme 3 in 2024. His research interests include: Policy evaluation for decarbonization, circular economy and green energy systems, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, agrifood systems, green finance, strategy decision making and innovation systems, scenario planning and impact evaluation, sustainability transitions, ethics and public good. [Read more]

I am a Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering with Professor Eileen Yu. My research activities involve the development of nanocatalysts, biocatalysts, and (bio)electrochemical reactors for carbon dioxide conversion and wastewater treatment. In the CircularChem project, My focus is on electrochemical and bioelectrochemical CO2 reduction to produce valuable chemicals. I obtained a PhD in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, India, in 2021, and I was also a Commonwealth split-site scholar at Newcastle University during my PhD in 2019. I also worked at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, before joining Loughborough University. Since completing my PhD, I… [Read more]

Katie is currently working as a technician for STFC Daresbury Laboratories. Katie was a Research Associate for the Chemical & Biological Engineering (CBE) Department at The University of Sheffield. Katie started her role in 2021 and was working with the Centre and the Styring group to develop evidence-based policies for the implementation of a circular economy in the chemicals manufacturing industries. Using her knowledge of carbon dioxide and green chemistry, Katie focused on evaluating the performance of competing technology pathways and devising new evidence-based policy instruments to stimulate supply, demand and investment in sustainable chemicals. Katie has a strong background… [Read more]

Grazia Leonzio is a Research Associate at the Imperial College London (Chemical Engineering department). Grazia has a strong background in renewable energy, carbon dioxide, modelling and optimization of chemical processes with environmental analyses. In her PhD thesis, she developed a mathematical model for a carbon capture utilization and storage supply chain, focusing the attention on carbon dioxide utilization (particularly methanol production). Currently, she is working on direct air capture to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, electrochemical processes for carbon dioxide utilization according to a digital and circular economy and supply chains modelling. [Read more]

I joined Imperial College London as a PhD candidate in 2021 after working for two years in the oil and gas sector. I’ll be supporting the centre via Theme 2 under the supervision of Prof Benoit Chachuat and Prof Nilay Shah. My research area focuses on multi-scale modelling and optimisation within the chemical industry as well as quantifying life-cycle impacts of emerging sustainable technologies. [Read more]

I have started my PhD study at Heriot-Watt University in 2021. I have a background in green finance and actuarial science. For my PhD study, my research interests include the financial aspect of the circular economy, corporate social responsibility, and socially responsible investing. [Read more]