Driven by curiosity. Driving changeResearch impact
How our research creates impact
Our research creates impact by building fundamental scientific understanding that enables others to design, improve and deploy technologies that address major global challenges. In many cases, the most significant applications emerge over time, as that understanding is translated into new engineering capability across energy, industry, healthcare and materials.
From understanding to application
Impact from our research rarely comes from a single invention. Instead, it emerges from developing deep understanding of how physical, chemical and biological systems behave, and making that understanding usable beyond the laboratory.
In many cases, the original research provides the principles that allow others to design technologies, processes and systems that were not previously possible.
This means that impact often develops over long timescales. Fundamental discoveries create new ways of describing and predicting behaviour, which in turn enable engineering solutions in areas such as energy conversion, industrial processing, imaging and materials design.
Across the department, this pattern is consistent as research first changes what we understand, and only later changes what we can build. In some cases, this requires first developing entirely new experimental capability before new understanding becomes possible. In the department, for example, there is ongoing research into microscopy techniques that operate at sub-zero temperatures. By enabling biological systems to be observed in extreme cold conditions, this work is allowing researchers to directly study how life behaves outside conventional temperature ranges – an environment that has previously been largely inaccessible to experimental observation.
A consistent pattern of impact
Imaging science
Research led by Professors Dame Lynn Gladden, Andy Sederman and Mick Mantle has advanced the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the physical and chemical processes that determine the performance of real industrial systems. Their work has been central to extending MRI beyond traditional applications, enabling its use as a tool to advance R&D and industrial practice across a range of sectors, including Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production; the manufacture of controlled-release pharmaceutical delivery systems; optimisation of membrane selection, design and operation in fuel cell technology; integrated catalyst and reactor design for the production of pharmaceutical actives; and understanding the fundamentals of carbon dioxide and hydrogen transport and entrapment in rocks.
A key development has been operando MRI, pioneered by the research group, which allows chemical and physical processes to be observed in real time under industrially relevant conditions, alongside advances in magnetic resonance pulse sequence development for non-medical applications. This has made it possible to measure parameters such as diffusion, flow and reaction behaviour directly inside systems such as reactors, where conventional measurement techniques cannot be applied.
This approach was developed to address a long-standing gap between chemical engineering theory and experiment, in which key parameters had not previously been measured directly under realistic operating conditions. It has enabled experimental validation of theoretical models, including work on fluidisation, and provided new insight into the interplay between mass transfer and reaction processes in real chemical and pharmaceutical environments.
Biomedical engineering
Research led by Professor Geoff Moggridge has advanced the development of polymer-based biomaterials for use in cardiovascular devices, including next-generation artificial heart valves. His work has focused on understanding how material structure and mechanical performance influence long-term behaviour inside the body, with the aim of improving durability and reducing complications associated with existing valve replacements.
A key area of research has been the development of artificial heart valves using styrene-block-ethylene/butylene-block-styrene (SEBS), a polymer material designed to combine the durability of mechanical valves with the reduced clotting risk associated with biological valves. Recent preclinical studies demonstrated the long-term safety and performance of prototype valves under physiologically relevant conditions, with no evidence of calcification, material deterioration, blood clotting or toxicity during six months of in vivo testing.
Alongside this, research led by Professor Róisín Owens has developed implantable bioelectronic systems to record and analyse physiological activity within the gut in real time. These devices enable real-time measurement of electrical and chemical signalling within the enteric nervous system in vivo, providing new insight into gut–brain communication and improving understanding, with potential to inform future medical applications.
Together, this work illustrates how advances in materials and bioelectronics are enabling new ways to measure, understand and ultimately intervene in complex biological systems.
Advanced materials
Research led by Professor David Fairen-Jimenez has advanced the design and application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of crystalline materials characterised by highly ordered pore structures that can be engineered to store, separate or release molecules with high precision.
MOFs are often described as ‘solids full of holes’, where molecular-scale architecture determines performance. By controlling pore size, chemistry and structure, this work is enabling the experimental design of materials for applications including carbon capture, gas storage and targeted drug delivery.
This area of research has received major international recognition, including the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2025) for foundational work in the field. Within CEB, Professor Fairen-Jimenez’s research has contributed to advancing MOFs from fundamental materials discovery towards practical application, including through the development of technologies that have supported spinout companies in carbon capture, clean energy storage and biomedical delivery systems.
Energy systems
Research in energy systems at CEB builds on a long legacy of electrochemical innovation, including early work on fuel cells that contributed to the Apollo programme and was included on the Apollo 11 moon landing. This foundation established core principles of efficient energy conversion that continue to shape research in the department today.
Building on this legacy, current research is addressing the challenges of a low-carbon energy system through new approaches to hydrogen production, ammonia synthesis and solar energy conversion. Work led by Dr Ewa Marek is advancing understanding of hydrogen systems for future energy storage and transport, while research led by Professor Laura Torrente-Murciano is developing catalytic routes for more sustainable ammonia production as a potential energy vector.
Alongside this, Professor Sam Stranks’ research is advancing the development of next-generation solar cells, including halide perovskite materials that offer the potential for high-efficiency, low-cost solar energy conversion. Together, these areas of work reflect a broader shift from fundamental electrochemical principles towards integrated, scalable technologies for decarbonising energy systems.
Industrial processing
Research in industrial processing at CEB focuses on the behaviour of complex multiphase and particulate systems that underpin large-scale chemical manufacturing, including processes central to energy production, materials manufacture and sustainable chemical engineering.
A defining contribution has been the development of improved descriptions of fluidisation and gas–solid systems, building on foundational work within the department that established how particulate materials behave under flow. This has supported more accurate prediction and control of reactor performance, particularly in systems where mixing, transport and reaction occur simultaneously.
More recent work combines this understanding with advanced measurement and modelling approaches to improve process efficiency and reduce energy consumption in industrial operations. By linking fundamental transport phenomena to reactor design and operation, this research informs the development of more sustainable chemical production systems, including processes relevant to decarbonisation and resource efficiency.
A pattern emerges
Across all of these areas, the same pattern is evident. The department’s research builds fundamental understanding of how complex systems behave, and that understanding becomes the foundation for innovation elsewhere.
Rather than producing isolated technologies, this work enables others to design solutions – shaping advances in energy, industry, healthcare and materials over time.