Group Members

Staff:

Prof. Steven P. Armes

Post Doctoral Staff:

Dr. Edwin C. Johnson

Ed completed his PhD studies on the synthesis and characterisation of stimulus-responsive polymer brushes in 2020 at the University of Newcastle, Australia for which he was awarded the Australian Colloid and Interface Society ’Best Thesis Award’. Ed is currently employed as a research associate as part of an ESPRC Programme Grant led by Prof. G. J. Leggett, with Prof. Armes acting as a co-investigator. Ed joined the Armes/Leggett groups in March 2021 and is evaluating the use of polymer brushes as interfacial scaffolds for both pigment molecules and photosynthetic proteins. By immobilising pigments at gold interfaces, interesting photophysical phenomena can be obtained. Hydrophilic polymer brushes are prepared via surface-initiated ARGET ATRP and are characterised using ellipsometry, XPS, visible absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, surface zeta potential measurements and neutron reflectometry.

Dr. Csilla György

Csilla completed her BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Her MSc research project was focusing on hyperbranched polymer-based polyurethane networks, supervised by Prof. Béla Iván in the Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. After spending 5 months as an Erasmus student in the Armes group, she began her PhD project (part-sponsored by Lubrizol, Hazelwood, UK) in 2018. Her goal was to design new diblock copolymer nanoparticles via RAFT-mediated PISA in non-polar media as potential engine oil additives. Her PhD studies yielded ten papers and she received the 2023 Jon Weaver Prize for the best PhD thesis in UK polymer science by the Macro Group. Csilla then spent five months as a postdoc in the Sumerlin research group (University of Florida, US) before returning to the Armes group for a 12-month postdoc on developing new aqueous PISA formulations.

Dr. Panagiotis Georgiou

Panos obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry (with a minor in biological Chemistry) at the University of Cyprus. Following his graduation in 2017, he moved to the UK to pursue an M.Sc. (by Research) degree in Chemistry at the University of Warwick/Birmingham under the supervision of Prof. Rachel K. O'Reilly. His thesis involved the design and preparation of novel nanomaterials by RAFT-mediated polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) for bio-related applications. In 2018, he started his PhD under Prof. Matthew Gibson's supervision at the University of Warwick as part of the European project NanoCarb as Marie-Curie Early-Stage Researcher. His PhD was focused on the development of polymer-based nanomaterial biomimetics applied in the fields of glycobiology and cryobiology. His work was recognised by receiving the Dept. of Chemistry’s Best PhD Thesis award for 2023. In October 2022, he moved to the USA to work as a postdoc under the supervision of Professor Heather Maynard at UCLA focusing on advanced nanomaterials for protein stabilisation. Upon completing 14 months in the US, Panos joined the Armes group to work on an EPSRC-funded project involving studies of the drying of complex multiphase aerosol droplets. This is a joint project in collaboration with a U. Bristol team led by Prof. Jonathan P. Reid.

Masters and Project Students:

Zak Pinkney (MChem Student)

Jacob Wagstaff (MChem Student)

Chenrui Bao (MSc Student)

Patcharapon Siripongsakorn (MSc  Student)

PhD Students:

Oleta Norvilaite (3rd year)

Oleta completed her MChem degree at the University of Sheffield in 2021. Her final-year research project was supervised by Dr J. A. Foster and involved the development of metal organic nanosheets for biological applications. She started her Syngenta-sponsored PhD project in the Armes group in Sept 2021 with the aim of developing inorganic microcapsules for the encapsulation of agrochemical actives.

Matthew Farmer (3rd year)

Matthew graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2021 with a first-class honours MSci degree. During his undergraduate studies, Matthew undertook a summer vacation internship at Patheon (Swindon, UK) and completed a final-year research project under the supervision of Dr. G. Newton. His project focused on the synthesis of hybrid organic-inorganic polyoxometalates. In October 2021, Matthew joined the Armes group to commence his CASE PhD degree, which is part-sponsored by Ashland. The aim of his project is the design of next-generation degradable block copolymer nanoparticles.

Andi Xie (3rd year)

Andi graduated from the University of Sheffield with a first-class honours BSc degree in Chemistry in 2020 and an MSc degree (with distinction) in Polymer Science in 2021. His MSc research project was conducted in the Slark group and involved the development of a novel thermal reversible crosslinking agent. He started his EDSRC DTP PhD project under the joint supervision of Prof. S. P. Armes and Prof. A. J. Ryan in Oct 2021. Andi plans to prepare a series of new amphiphilic statistical copolymers for foam stabilisation applications. Characterisation techniques will involve GPC, 1H NMR spectroscopy, DSC, surface tensiometry, dynamic light scattering and small-angle X-ray scattering.

Hubert Buksa (2nd year)

Sponsored by the ORLEN - DAR SERCA industry foundation and holding the title of the laureate of the National Chemical Competition in Poland, Hubert graduated from the Technical School of Chemistry in Cracow and moved to Sheffield in 2018 to enrol in the University’s MChem degree programme ‘Chemistry with Study in Industry’. His third year involved an industrial placement at Syngenta, where he worked on solid biocontrol formulations and capsule suspensions in liquid formulations. After returning to Sheffield, he also undertook a one-month summer project on reprocessable adhesives in Prof. A. T. Slark's group. Hubert then worked as an MChem student in the Armes group working on thermoresponsive acrylic latexes before starting his PhD in the group too.

Priyanka Chohan (2nd year)

Priyanka is in her first year of a PhD after completing her MChem degree at The University of Sheffield. During her undergraduate degree, she received an RSC summer studentship to work on the ATRP synthesis of polymers that could be grafted onto MONs in Dr. J. A. Foster’s research group. Her final-year MChem project in the Armes group involved the synthesis of bespoke diblock copolymer nanoparticles via PISA for the stabilisation of alkane-in-water Pickering nanoemulsions. Ostwald ripening of such systems was studied by confocal microscopy and analytical centrifugation.

Mark Newell (1st year)

Mark completed his MChem degree in Chemistry at The University of Sheffield in 2023. During his MChem studies, he completed a summer research project within the Armes group working on epoxy-functionalised nanoparticles and their adsorption onto stainless steel under the supervision of Dr. Csilla György. In his final-year MChem project, he prepared fluorescently-labelled thermoresponsive diblock copolymer nanoparticles for confocal microscopy studies. Mark is now undertaking a closely-related Diamond-STFC funded PhD studentship focused on the synthesis of thermoresponsive shape-shifting diblock copolymer nano-objects and characterisation of their aqueous solution behaviour using imaging and scattering techniques.

Joshua Tyler (1st year)

Josh obtained his MSci degree from the University of Bristol in 2023, after a 12-month industrial placement at Schlumberger Cambridge Research. His final-year research project focused on the formation of Pickering foams for firefighting applications under the supervision of Prof. Julian Eastoe. Josh started his Ashland- sponsored CASE PhD project in the Armes group in October 2023. The aim of his project is to formulate new biocompatible Pickering (nano)emulsions for potential cosmetics applications. 

Arben Berisha (1st year)

Arben graduated from The University of Manchester in 2020 with a first-class honours BSc in chemistry. In his final-year project, he conducted course-grained simulations of self-assembling polypeptide systems. He then moved to Imperial College London to undertake a MRes in Nanomaterials where he graduated with distinction. For his MRes research project, Arben worked on polymer hole transport layers and perovskite thin films interfaced together for potential solar cell applications. In October 2023, Arben joined the Armes group to commence his ICASE PhD degree, which is sponsored by Johnson-Matthey. The aim of his project is to gain a deeper understanding of surface-polymer interactions and morphology to inform the design of next-generation fuel cells and electrolysers.