Professor Nicole Hondow

Profile

I commenced my academic career at the University of Leeds in 2015 as a University Academic Fellow in the area of Materials Characterisation, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. In April 2026, I was promoted to Professor.

Prior to this I completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Chemistry at The University of Western Australia. I subsequently moved to the University of Leeds, where I undertook postdoctoral research in the electron microscopy of materials relevant to catalysis (with Professor Rik Brydson) and toxicology (with Dr Andy Brown). I was then awarded an independent fellowship from the AXA Research Fund, which supported two years of research on the project 'Assessing the biomedical risk of engineered nanoparticles: understanding the behaviour of nanoparticles in physiological media and cells'.

Responsibilities

• Faculty Academic Lead for Student Recruitment
• Training Director, CDT in Molecules to Product
• EDI Lead, CDT in Semiconductor Industry Future Skills

Research interests

My research focuses on materials characterisation, with a particular emphasis on the use of analytical electron microscopy for the examination and quantification of nanomaterials in complex matrices. Engineered nanomaterials are increasingly utilised across medicine, catalysis, energy and the environment; however, their continued development depends on a robust understanding of structure-property relationships.

Within the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, I am part of the Materials Characterisation group and, through the Bragg Centre for Materials Research, part of the Leeds Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy (LEMAS) centre. Together with colleagues, I have contributed to EPSRC funded project for advanced microscopy, including transmission electron microscopy (EP/M028143/1), focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (EP/P00122X/1 and EP/V028855/1), in-situ electron microscopy (EP/V035460/1) and confocal scanning laser microscopy (EP/S01764X/1). We have previously had external access to these facilities through the Leeds EPSRC Nanoscience and Nanoequipment User Facility (EP/R02863X/1) and currently through the Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials.

My research centres on the application of analytical electron microscopy to challenging systems, particularly to nanomaterials at the interface with life sciences and in soft materials. I have particular interest in the use of cryogenic approaches to capture nano- and soft-materials in their native state, with analysis by analytical (S)TEM and FIB-SEM. This work was initially funded by an EPSRC New Investigator award (EP/R043388/1).

I apply these microscopy techniques to a range of projects. This includes BBSRC-funded projects (BB/R007829/1 and BB/Y005856/1) using polyvalent multifunctional nanoparticles to address important biomedical challenges. I also have experience in nanotoxicology projects, including HISENTS, which developed high-throughput toxicity screening for the risk assessment of novel nanomaterials, and SABYDOMA, which developed a lead demonstrator based on the HISENTS screening platform to be used for the flow-through production of safe-nano. I have also contributed to projects applying secondary electron spectroscopy to chemical products (EP/V011995/1).

I am currently involved in a Programme Grant, “Total Body Nuclear Imaging for the Development of Nanotheranostics” (UKRI1798), where my work focuses on advanced imaging of nanomaterials for biomedical applications. Our wider electron microscopy research group has current funding to investigate the use of electron microscopy to understand complex chemical products (EP/X040992/1).

Since 2019 I have been the Training Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Molecules to Product, and since 2026 I have been invovled with the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Semiconductor Industry Future Skills, supporting the development of the next generation of researchers in advanced materials and technologies.

Qualifications

• PhD
• BSc (Hons, 1st class)

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society
• Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Associate Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers
• Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Student education

I am involved in teaching Materials Science and Engineering, covering topics such as materials structures and characterisation, including microscopy and diffraction.

Research groups and institutes

• Materials Characterisation