I am a research fellow in the Department of Physics at Durham University. I am currently funded by a National Fluid Dynamics Fellowship from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which I was awarded in April 2023 for 3 years.

My research is broadly on wetting and interfacial phenomena: the study of drops, bubbles, and their interactions with solid surfaces. I use a combination of experimental techniques and computational methods to study these topics. In general, my research is driven by curiosity and a desire to understand natural and daily phenomena that are often easy to observe but difficult to explain at first.

My current focus is to develop computational and experimental methods to enable us to understand how to design better self-cleaning surfaces. Self-cleaning surfaces are surfaces that can easily shed both liquid and solid contaminants. The lotus leaf is an excellent example of a naturally occurring self-cleaning surface. Like all surfaces exposed to the outdoor environment, the lotus leaf accumulates dust and dirt over time. However, unlike other surfaces, these leaves have exceptionally low friction with water drops. Consequently, they get cleaned naturally by raindrops that capture dirt particles and roll off the leaves easily. In order to understand how to produce self-cleaning surfaces for man-made applications, such as solar panels and windows, it is important to understand the fundamental mechanism underlying particle capture and removal.

A major aspect of my research is to understand the mechanisms behind how drops interact with surfaces and how these surfaces can be optimized to facilitate particle capture. Tackling this problem involves combining expertise from several disciplines including fluid dynamics (flow in drops), tribology (friction between particles and solid surfaces), surface science, and soft matter (physical and chemical interactions between solids).

Community activities

I am currently (since 2022) the Early Career Researchers' Representative of the UK Fluids Network Special Interest Group on "Droplet and Flow Interactions on Bio-Inspired and Smart Surfaces".