New recruits for Triple-A-COAT at Imperial College London

Imperial College post-docs Hui Mao (left) and Hisay Lama (right)

We are delighted to welcome two post-doctoral research associates recruited by our UK partner Imperial College to work on the Triple-A-COAT project.

Hisay Lama is a research associate in the Prof. Joao Cabral group at the Imperial College London, UK. He is of Nepalese origin Indian, born and brought up in Kolkata, India. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics (honours) from the University of Calcutta, India, and completed both his Ph.D. and MSc in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India. Prior to coming to the UK, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Japan and the Institute of Basic Sciences, South Korea. His research focuses on unravelling the relationship between structure and function in soft and living materials. He is an experimental physicist passionate about designing physical instruments and analytical tools that can aid our understanding of soft materials.

In Triple-A-COAT within Prof. Joao Cabral’s group, Hisay will focus on developing nanopatterning techniques to produce sustainable antimicrobial surfaces. He will also investigate the physical processes involved in microbial migration and their collective behaviour on nanopatterned surfaces. Hisay says, “I’m a researcher committed to bridging the gap between basic science research and real-world applications.”

Hui Mao is a research associate in the Prof. Joao Cabral research group at the Imperial College London (UK). She obtained her PhD degree at the Northeast Forestry University (China). From 2016 to 2017, She worked in Prof. Ning Yan’s research group at the University of Toronto (Canada) as a research assistant. From 2017 to 2019, she was a research associate at the University of Strathclyde (UK) where she led a work package for an EU project. In the past two years, she was a research fellow at the Zhejiang University (China) and delivered the world leading research in application of high performance nanocellulose materials. She has a rich research experience in whole size cellulosic material including its bionic design and functionalization. Besides, she is also interested in transferring the plant-based waste into high value cellulosic materials to facilitate the Net-Zero Goals.

In Triple-A-Coat, Hui will develop practical techniques to produce nanocellulose antimicrobial coatings that meet the demands of busy environments. Her work will be validated by advanced materials processing approaches and physical model calculation allowing a detailed understanding of the relationships among the chemical components, structure and product property. Hui told us “Nature creates antibacterial effects in the smartest ways, like the nanopillars on the dragonfly wing and lotus leaves. I will seek to tackle the project challenges by drawing inspiration from nature.”