小黄书

I am a plant ecologist with specific interests in plant-plant and plant-animal interactions at the community and population level. My research focuses on determining the key factors involved in these relationships and assessing how resilient are these links in changing environmental conditions.

Current research project

• Conserving Endangered rhinos in South Africa

Wetland plant community

I am particularly interested in dynamic ecosystems such as wet grasslands, riparian and coastal habitats. I have experience with wet grassland habitat management and assessing changes in response to different practices.聽Much of the focus of previous work has been on management and restoration of these habitats and聽 this has expanded to wetlands and across taxa through collaborative work.

Invasive Ecology

I am also interested in invasion ecology, focusing on Invasive Non-Native plant species and understanding their influence and impacts on associated habitat and species. INNS competitive strategy and succes could be caused by the range of allelochemic released by the leaves or roots affecting neighbouring plants and their environment. I have started research projects examining the effects of sub-lethal exposure to allelochemical compounds released by Impatiens glandulifera on freshwater invertebrate and fish larvae development and behaviour. Similarly, I am interesting on the long-term impacts of Rhododendron ponticum聽allelopathy on soil microbial community.

I have a 5-year Diploma in Environmental Engineering (Technical university of Crete, Greece), a聽MSc聽in Freshwater Systems Science (University of Glasgow) and a PhD in Geography and Computing Sciences (University of聽Glasgow). MyPhD work embedded advancing Micro Electrical Mechanical Sensor (MEMS) technologies into the monitoring of sediment motion and combined several mathematical and electrical/mechanical engineering techniques during sensor development. I worked as a Research Associate in a聽NERC聽funded cooperation between Scottish Water (the largest water supplier in Scotland) and the University of Glasgow. I have also worked as Senior聽Hydromophologist聽for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).聽

I have developed a track-record of peer reviewed publications addressing fluvial hydraulics, sediment movement and purpose specific sensor development. I am 聽also interested in various aspects of聽Geomorphic聽Change Detection an particularly interested in comparing data from different sensing techniques聽across聽scales. I have extensive fieldwork experience and during my placement in聽SEPA聽I provided scientific input in a range of regulatory, river management and river restoration projects. My interests lie on the intersection between coarse grain sediment transport, reach scale river dynamics, advanced sensor development, advanced statistical and numerical modelling of multiphase environmental flows and data coherence analysis for geomorphological applications. There are three problems on which I am focusing my efforts at the moment:

Smart pebbles and what we can learn from them (in geomorphology)

During the last decade, many scientists developed and deployed 鈥樷�檚mart- pebbles鈥欌�� in fluvial (and other rapidly changing) environments in an attempt to monitor sediment dynamics. In parallel, Inertial Measurements Units (IMUs) have been tested in laboratory experiments focusing mainly on fluvial single grain entrainments and sort-term motions (simulating either costal or river hydrodynamics). Although all the IMUs are in principle the same (an assembly of micro-accelerometer, micro-gyroscope and micro-compass), the parameters that affect the results range from the sensor鈥檚 electrical and physical characteristics to the filtering of the derived measurements and from the modelling of inertial kinematics to the transformation of those to a useful and informative piece of data. I try to understand a) the key error sources in IMU sensing and its realistic range of applicability, b) how to develop coherent error compensation strategies for taking measurements in natural environments c) how smart pebbles can inform the theoretical descriptions for fluvial sediment transport d) how we can upscale this information to enhance our risk assessments for the critical infrastructure exposed to geomorphic hazards.

Advanced topographic sensing and聽Geomorphic聽Change Detection

We experience a revolution in terms of how we acquire and analyse topographical data. The integration of聽GIS聽with advanced sensing equipment has made the modelling of landscapes easier than ever before. One of the best examples is the deployment of聽Unmanned聽Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for mapping, a technique that has increased the rate and decreased dramatically the cost of creating accurate topographical models. However,聽UAVs聽(but also other innovative techniques) come with a number of limitations that become more apparent when we attempt to compare different maps of the same area (over time) in order to quantify聽geomorphic聽change (Geomorphic聽Change Detection). The mapping becomes even more complicated when fluvial environments are investigated. I am interested in the margin of error that we have to account for when using those techniques and how that associates with the modelling/mapping of reach scale river processes. 聽

Coherence in river classification

Researchers and regulators often use a classification in order to distinguish between different river typologies or assign a quality/health score to a river environment. The methodologies behind this scoring vary significantly from purely qualitative to highly technical and quantitative. I am interested in quantifying the variability in the interpretation of those classifications. More specifically, I want to measure how sensitive are these scores to user bias, the type/complexity of the associated calculations and the complexity of the natural environment scored using Deep Learning techniques.

Increasing global water scarcity is producing numerous challenges to which practical technical solutions need to be developed and validated to ensure water availability at a desired quality. In response to this my research areas although technically diverse focus on treatment technologies for water and wastewater technologies that provide application solutions. My research career to date has focussed on the measurement and quantification of chemical free disinfection systems and design optimisation. More widely this includes the practical research and development into practical聽mercury alternatives to generating ultraviolet radiation for water treatment. Current research topics include water reuse applications in the UK and assosiated technologies for global application.

聽My main area of research interest is in the polymer materials and development of novel advanced materials for biomedical and environmental applications. My research group is a multi-disciplinary team with research interests in the development and characterisation of novel porous materials, hydrogels, (nano) composites and nanoparticle based materials. I focus on the development of functional materials for applications in the wound healing, tissue engineering, drug delivery and removing聽 contaminants from water.

聽Specifically, my research areas include

• Synthesis of functional porous polymer gels, hybrid polymer-inorganic and nanocomposite materials

• Characterisation of soft porous materials

• Development of smart polymer systems

• Development of drug delivery systems

• Development of novel materials for contaminated water remediation.

Accepting PhD students

Collaborators Dr T. Abdullin,聽Laboratory of Bioactive Polymers and Peptides, https://kpfu.ru/eng/strau/laboratories/bioactive-polymers-and-peptides

Dr M Alavijeh, Pharmidex https://www.pharmidex.com

Previous research projects:

Development of the flow through bioreactor of 3D-structured bacteria for biodegradation of aromatic chloro-derivatives from contaminated water. (H2020-MSCA-IF grant)

Water and soil clean-up from mixed contaminants (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP, WaSClean project).

Investigation of neurotoxicity and oxidative stress of PEGylated nanographeneusing rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) neuronal cell lines (Commonwealth scholarship).

Nanomaterials for practical use in remediation: Case study of mercury contamination in the lake Bylkyldak (The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

Immobilized noble metal nanoparticles as efficient flow through catalyst for 鈥済reen鈥� decomposition of chlorinated aromatic compounds (British Council Newton grant).

Controlled production and chemical modification of a variety of novel-carbons for specific end applications into the bio-organic field (FP7-PEOPLE-IRSES staff exchange programme ENSOR).

Novel smart materials for biomedical application (FP7-PEOPLE-RG grant - Bio-Smart).

Developing and evaluation of a quantitative imaging technique for assessment of nanoparticle drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier: Application for brain cancer therapeutics (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP grant, OncoNanoBBB).

Studying adsorption of proteins on the carbon based materials (Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) research grant).

Developing novel nanocomposite materials for the water clean-up (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF. MacroClean)

Development and manufacture of permeable composite filters for environment application (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP, CARBOSORB).

Tissue engineering materials based on macroporous cryogels and non-viral delivery systems, growth factors: the development and testing in peripheral nerve injury and therapeutic angiogenesis (Russian Federal Programme grant).

I am interested in the chemical modification of proteins and developing methods to characterise such modifications. Protein modification can have significant effect on protein function and consequently biochemical outcome. Attempts to characterise the site of modification can be challenging due in part to the complexity of the sample. Protein modification can result from either enzymatic post-translational modification (phosphorylation, ubiquitination, methylation, etc.) or non-enzymatic chemical modification with reactive metabolites (Michael additions, oxidation, reactive drug metabolite adducts).

My interests have recently focused on non-enzymatic chemical modifications of proteins by reactive metabolites, for example catecholamines and catechol oestrogen metabolites and their implications in diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and cancer. Current strategies are to develop methods to capture/enrich these modifications from biological sources, such as cell media, for analysis by mass spectrometry, to verify and optimise the methods using in vitro samples and to use these methods for global screening of biological samples such as tissue, blood and urine. The hope is that these protein modifications can serve as prognostic markers of disease which in turn can be translated to a clinical biochemistry setting. Other interests include protein modification/immobilisation to create novel biomaterials and biocatalysts and the recent discovery of amelogenin peptides from tooth enamel to enable sexing of archaeological samples using nanoLC-MS.

My main interests lie in the development of electrochemical sensors for environmental monitoring and the role of practical science for education at all ages.

Monitoring in the field is fraught with issues and often limited to certain compounds or concentration levels. I believe the key to worthwhile environmental protection and regulation starts with the ability to measure compounds of interest accurately and with low enough limits of detection. Too many times legislation is set by the limits of technology. My ethos is to keep analysis simple, cheap and accessible to all whilst maintaining the quality of the techniques.

Low concentration metal pollution has historically been a difficult area for field measurements resulting in only higher concentrations being able to be measured or samples having to be transported and analysed in laboratories. Many of the areas where monitoring is necessary are in remote or poorer areas in the world making laboratory analysis difficult. My research aims to develop sensors which can be used in the field with zero or minimal sample preparation but still obtain the trace level concentration measurements required for pollutants such as metals.

My belief is that education from an early age sets the attitude of a person to the environment they live in. By educating children about environmental issues in their immediate vicinity they will become more aware and considerate of the greater issues of the world. Children learn best by doing and as such I am currently developing a series of experiments to allow children to make real measurements of their local environment allowing them to discuss pollution issues and conservation measures. This project is developing through undergraduate research and so serving a double education role with that of the school children and of our undergraduates here at 小黄书.