Supervisors: Prof. Nina F. Thornhill, Prof. Ricardo Martinez-Botas
Recruited ESRs: ESR-G: Dionysios Xenos, ESR-J: Sara Budinis, ESR-F: Esperanza Barrera Medrano, Ricardo (until 2013)
Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research.
Chemical Engineering Department
Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London is the largest such Department in a U.K. University. Our research is consistently recognised as world-leading, the Department heading the ranking list in the last three Research Assessment Exercises, in 1996, 2001 and most recently 2008. Our excellent record in research is one we prize, and we work hard to maintain and improve it. We attribute our success to the wide range of skills and expertise of our academic staff and the strategies we use to deploy these in understanding and solving fundamental problems related to industrial processes, defined in the widest possible way. Our interests range from the microscopic - e.g. molecular organisation and interactions - to the megascale - e.g. design and optimisation of whole distribution networks. We have expertise in mathematical analysis and modelling as well as in experimental investigation and measurement. In all of these areas we deploy, and indeed often devise ourselves, the most up-to-date methods.We work with the Chemicals, Oil and Gas, Pharmaceuticals and Processing Industries in a variety of collaborations and interactions. Much of our research is collaborative - within the Department, with other Departments at Imperial College London, with other Universities, and with Industrial partners both in the UK and worldwide.
CPSE Centre for Process Systems Engineering
The Centre for process Systems Engineering (CPSE) is a multi institutional research centre involving 26 academic staff from Imperial College and University College London, 80 PhD students and 21 research fellows and associates. In the last 5 years we have been managing a portfolio of grants worth more than £20 million which come from the UK Research Councils, UK and International industry, the European commission and other funding bodies.As the founding Director of the Centre from 1989 to his retirement in 1992, Professor Roger Sargent has played a unique role in shaping the future of systems engineering research. CPSE has continued with Professor Sargent's legacy and remains a Centre of Excellence. CPSE’s outstanding records have been recognized by many awards. An example is in 2007, Process Systems Enterprise Limited, a spin-out from Centre for Process Systems Engineering received Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for its cutting-edge mathematical modelling systems developed to help make chemical plants safer and more efficient. The MacRobert award is the UK's highest award for innovation in engineering and it recognized PSE’s highly innovative modelling software gPROMS, which to date remains “the leading modelling product within the chemical industry”. Previous winners of this prestigious award, include IBM, Rolls Royce and BP International.For more information visit http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/centreforprocesssystemsengineering.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Imperial has one of the largest and most advanced mechanical engineering departments in the world. It has a long-standing and well-established international reputation for the quality of its research for which it was awarded the highest rating in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. The Department ensures that the resulting research developments impact upon its teaching, so that taught courses remain stimulating and relevant.The Department is one of the most active in research and one of the most successful in gaining funds for research from government, industry and charities. Much of our research is conducted in collaboration with industry, government establishments and other universities, both in the UK and worldwide. The Department receives sponsorship from major businesses and organisations such as Airbus, AWE, BASF, British Energy, BP Global Fuels, EDF, EPSRC, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, Scania, Serco, SKF, and the Wellcome Trust. Our research activities have led to the creation of a number of patents and spin-out companies through Imperial’s technology transfer company, Imperial Innovations.