Maryam Parsa

Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

<p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="color: windowtext;">Dr Maryam (Maria) Parsa holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and an MSc in Thermal Power and Fluids Engineering from the University of Manchester. She also holds an MSc in Energy Conversion and Management from the University of Nottingham. She completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France. Subsequently, she was awarded the Doctoral Prize Fellowship by Loughborough University. In 2020, she was appointed to a lectureship at the Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering at Northumbria University. Her research is multidisciplinary (i.e., engineering, materials, colloid and interface science, biology) and focused on experimental investigation of phase-change heat transfer and fluid flows of pure and complex fluids (i.e., nanofluids, biofluids) at all scales for important technological applications such as printing, coating, thermal management, biomedical and nanotechnologies. Her main research activities are evaporation-driven self-assembly, phase-change heat transfer, and antibacterial coating.&nbsp;</span></p><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="color: windowtext;">&nbsp;</span></p>

Naval Singh

Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

<p><span style="color: windowtext;">Dr Naval Singh joined Lancaster University as an Assistant Professor (Lecturer). He received his master's in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, India and Lehigh University, USA. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, UK, followed by postdoctoral experience. His research project in collaboration with CNRS France, focused on the production and controlled manipulation of functional sub-micron particles in micro-scale flows to investigate their fundamental properties and behavior. In 2021, Naval joined the University of Manchester as a postdoctoral researcher and worked on inter-disciplinary research focused on the interface of experimental biomimetic microfluidics, soft matter, and biophysics involving a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh, McMaster University, Canada, and St Mary’s Hospital. Naval’s research interests lie in (bio)microfluidics, microfabrication, polymer thin film instabilities, interfacial science, and soft matter transport towards developing applications in healthcare technologies food and energy sectors.&nbsp;</span></p>

Richard Fu

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

<p><span style="color: windowtext;">Prof Richard Fu obtained his PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in the Materials Science and Engineering major. he then worked as a Research Fellow at the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance and a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He was a lecturer in Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, and then a Reader at the University of West of Scotland, Glasgow, UK, before moving to Northumbria University at Newcastle, UK, as a professor. He has extensive experience in intelligent thin films/materials, biomedical microdevices, energy materials, lab-on-chip, micromechanics, MEMS, nanotechnology, sensors, and microfluidics. He has established a worldwide reputation from my pioneer research on shape memory films, piezoelectric thin films, nanostructured composite/films for MEMS, sensors/ actuators, and renewable energy applications.&nbsp;</span></p>

Xue Chen

Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

<p><span style="color: windowtext;">Dr Xue (Sherry) Chen joined Northumbria University in 2017. She was awarded PhD in Solid Mechanics from École Polytechnique (France) in 2014, after obtaining the Engineer’s Diploma (MEng) from ENSTA ParisTech (France) in 2009 and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China) in 2006. Between 2014 and 2016, she worked at the University of Toronto (Canada) as a postdoctoral researcher. The research interests of Dr. Chen cover the mechanics and physics of intelligent materials and soft matter, focusing on studying the multi-field coupling behaviors of materials, developing multi-scale modeling tools, and designing and optimizing smart-materials-based functional devices, e.g., flexible sensors, actuators, energy harvesters.&nbsp;</span></p>

Martin Birkett

Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

<p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="color: windowtext;">Professor Birkett joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at Northumbria University in 2011. Before this, he worked in the manufacturing industry for sixteen years, primarily working on developing new thin film materials and processes. Professor Birkett currently leads the Engineering Materials and Mechanics Group (EM2G), and he mainly teaches the Mechanical Engineering degree programs in materials and manufacturing technology and systems. His research focuses on developing new thin film materials and coatings for mechanical, electrical, and biomedical applications. It has been funded by the European Commission, The Leverhulme Trust, EPSRC, The British Academy, The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and several industrial collaborators. Professor Birkett is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), a Chartered Engineer (CEng), and a member of the EPSRC, UKRI FLF/Talent and Leverhulme Trust Peer Review Colleges.&nbsp;</span></p><p class="ql-align-justify"><span style="color: windowtext;">&nbsp;</span></p>