Following a particularly competitive year for applications – over 17,000 which is 60% more than previous years – Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science is celebrating being awarded six prestigious Marie Curie Fellowships for its researchers.

From erosion prevention of blades on offshore wind turbines to AI and data models for drones and ground vehicles; from large scale 2D materials of graphene to biological cell mechanics and gene delivery for cell therapy, the researchers supported cover the vast diversity of specialisms represented in the school.

The successful fellows are:

• Dr Ruixin Lu, being supervised by Prof Wen Wang in building next-generation predictive simulation software to optimise microfluidic intracellular gene delivery for cell therapy.
• Dr Qian Mao will be supervised by Prof Yi Sui to develop computational models predicting how biological cells flow and deform in medical devices and the cardiovascular system. This will enable simulation-based design and optimisation of cell printers and cell sorters.
• Dr Jinhua Lu will develop advanced computational models to uncover how water flows and changes phase in a hydrogel bionic leaf, unleashing its potential for cooling photovoltaic cells. The project will also be supervised by Prof Yi Sui.
• Through improving optimisation methos with data and Large Language Models, Dr Qizhang Luo’s work, supervised by Dr Xinwei Wang, aims to improve efficiency and responsiveness in drones and ground vehicles used in emergency reconnaissance missions. The outcomes will also support the deployment of more autonomous and semi-autonomous systems in emergency response.
• Dr Yijun Chen’s research looks at preventing the erosion of blades on offshore wind turbines and improving energy, cost and sustainability as part of the net-zero transition.

Dr Yijun Chen’s supervisor, Dr Wei Tan, said “This fellowship allows us to address a critical durability challenge in offshore wind energy. By integrating advanced experimental characterisation with high-fidelity modelling, we aim to generate new insights that will enable more resilient blade designs and reduce lifecycle costs.”

• Dr Melike Nur Onder will join Queen Mary from Turkey, to work with Prof Sir Colin Humphreys, who explains:

“governments around the world are spending billions building wind, solar, nuclear and gas power stations to meet the huge energy demands of data centres. Our approach is to tackle the problem at the source: by reducing the power these centres consume in the first place. To do this we will use new materials, called two-dimensional materials, which are atomically thin, to create ultra-low energy consumption electronic devices to replace energy-hungry silicon devices. This will save over 90% of the energy required by the transistors in data centres and computers."

Prestigious Marie Curie Research Fellowships are given to early-stage researchers to support the development of their scientific careers. They especially encourage international collaboration, connecting researchers across Europe to work together on cutting-edge projects.

“Although I am still in the early-to-mid career stage myself, hosting this fellowship reflects the growing importance of taking on leadership roles bringing together people, ideas, and complementary expertise, while supporting emerging researchers in building their own independent pathways” said Dr Xinwei Wang.

This year marks 30 years of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the awarding body of the fellowships. Since 1996, the programme has played a crucial role in advancing research and innovation, supporting over 150,000 researchers, including 23 Nobel Prize winners. This year’s successful applicants represent 80 nationalities working across 45 countries. The Faculty of Science and Engineering at Queen Mary University of London has been awarded nine fellowships in total.