James Summers is a member of the fifth cohort of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Aerosol Science. He is based between the University of Hertfordshire and UCL. He is a chemist by training and is keen to diversity his knowledge and skill base in science and engineering. He has worked for the NHS and Siemens Healthineers. 

What are you working on within the Hub?

My PhD is focused on engineering novel hydrogels for use as enhanced collection materials for impactor and ESP bioaerosol samplers. Towards this aim, with help from my supervisors, I have identified four classes of candidate hydrogels. Moreover, I have established a robust, facile and low-risk general synthetic procedure for synthesising these candidate hydrogels. I am currently working on modulating the reaction conditions to determine if the hydrogels yielded can be fine-tuned. 

What is the impact of your research so far?

I have shown that various hydrogels can be made via much simpler and benign procedures that are currently generally employed. This may impact how these hydrogels and related hydrogels are synthesised in industry and in research. In addition, during a summer research placement at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Anton Souslov, I conducted a computational study of the flow of water through an agarose hydrogel. This study provides insights into the feasibility of recovering particles by flushing a hydrogel through with water.

What has been the highlight of your research career to date?

The highlight of my research career to date has been my masters project, in which I established a synthetic route to methacrylate oligomers using Catalytic Chain Transfer Polymerisation. This work was important because methacrylate oligomers were judged to have significant potential as vaccine adjuvants, but there was no route to synthesising them available in the literature. The work towards determining if these compounds have applicability as adjuvants for vaccines is ongoing. 

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I enjoy listening to music, watching films and reading novels. I also enjoy playing the mandolin.