Dr. Padmaja Vasudev (Padmaja Parameswaran Nampi)

Profile

Dr. Vasudev has more than 20 years of research experience in the field of chemistry and materials science, nanoscience, process optimisation and advanced characterisation of nanomaterials. Currently working as EPSRC Researcher Coinvestigator at the School of Chemical and Process Engineering (SCaPE), University of Leeds (UoL). She has research experience in inorganic materials/materials synthesis/processing of nanomaterials or nanoparticles for advanced applications including bioimaging and biosensing. She collaborates with researchers at national and international levels and with industries. She is experienced in managing large projects involving multidisciplinary ideas. On the academic side, she could utilise her knowledge and experience to mould and nurture responsible generations of committed science graduates and PhDs, through student education plans including involvement with industries.

Academic Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry- CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, India/School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, India
• Masters in Chemistry-Inorganic Chemistry -School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, India
• Bachelor in Chemistry – All Saints College, University of Kerala, India

Academic history in Leeds (Fellowships and Grants)

• Joined the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Experienced Research Fellow, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme – H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (2016-2018) ‘Rare Earth based Upconversion nanomaterials as Novel Bioprobes for the Detection of Cardiac Biomarkers’ (Total Project Cost: €195454.80) - at School of Chemical and Process Engineering in collaboration with Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, UK- FELLOWSHIP
• Worked as Research Fellow (2018-2020); EPSRC-IAA Researcher CoInvestigator (Total Project Cost:£ 59,996) (2019-2020)
• Currently a Research Fellow/EPSRC Researcher Co-Investigator, at the School of Chemical and Process Engineering in collaboration with Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine/Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, UK in an EPSRC project entitled 'Photonic Sensing and Dual-mode Bioimaging with Rare Earth Upconversion Nanoparticles' (Total Project Cost: £1665970.55)’  (2020-2023)
• Currently Academic support-CoI -Innovate UK-KTP-School of Chemical and Process Engineering in collaboration with Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine of the Grant entitled ‘Multilevel security inks using novel upconversion nanoparticle’ with the company Eluceda Ltd.(Total Project Cost: £211780) (2022-2025)         

Academic collaborations include:

• School of Medicine-Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, UK
•  Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, UK
• Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, UK
• University of Queensland, Australia
• National Institute of Materials Science, Japan

Industrial collaborations include:

• Eluceda Ltd, UK (IAA project and current EPSRC project)
• Centre for Process and Innovation (CPI), UK (part of EPSRC project)
•  Avacta, Ltd, UK (part of EPSRC project)
• Promethean Particles Ltd, UK (as an outcome of the work of my Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellowship)

Before joining Leeds,

• Principal Investigator, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST-An Institute of National Importance under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India), India; Collaboration with University of Leeds, worked as Senior Visiting Researcher at University of Leeds as part of the project and participated in ICOOPMA-2014;  (2012-2015) 
• Senior Research Associate of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (Scientists’ Pool Scheme-Independent Fellowship Scheme) at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Govt. of India, India (2007-2010)
• Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Advanced Sintering Technology Group, Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Research Science and Technology (AIST), Nagoya, Japan; Industrial Collaboration: Agic Co. Ltd. (2004-2006) 
• Junior project fellowships (DST) and Senior Research Fellowships (CSIR), Worked at National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology-NIIST, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-CSIR for PhD, Completed PhD entitled “Sol-Gel High Surface Area Nano Size Alumina and Alumina Mixed Oxides” (Collaboration with Open University, UK and Tokai University, Japan ) (1996-2003).  

Proposal Reviewer

• EPSRC Proposal Reviewer
• Selected as an expert in evaluating EU proposals

Journal Reviewer

• ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (American Chemical Society, ACS)
• Advanced Healthcare Materials (Wiley)
• Nanoscale (Royal Society of Chemistry, RSC)
• Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (RSC)
• Journal of Materials Chemistry B (RSC)
• RSC Advances (RSC)
• Materials Advances (RSC)
• New Journal of Chemistry (RSC)
• Journal of the American Ceramic Society (American Ceramic Society, Publisher: Wiley)
• International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology (American Ceramic Society, Publisher: Wiley)
• Materials Science & Engineering C (Elsevier)
• Materials Research Bulletin (Elsevier)
• Ceramics International (Elsevier)
• Journal of Molecular Structure (Elsevier)
• Chemical Engineering Journal (Elsevier)
• Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (Springer)
• Applied Physics A (Springer) 

Active Member of Bragg Centre for Materials Research (https://www.leeds.ac.uk/bragg-centre-materials-research) – Bringing together scientists and engineers adopting Bragg Centre Research Themes: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/bragg-centre-materials-research/doc/bragg-centre-research-themes: Bragg Centre for Materials Research, University of Leeds, Leeds-Padmaja Parameswaran Nampi – Our People- “Upconverting biomedical imaging and sensing technology to improve diagnosis” https://braggcentre.medium.com/our-people-spotlight-b9329ee3dd8a – Spotlight on some people who make Bragg community a vibrant and stimulating research environment – In support of the publication of the Bragg Centre’s Annual Report 2019-2020.

Selected Training/Workshops/Webinars

• ‘Circular Materials for Sustainable Functional Devices’ – Workshop hosted by Royce@Leeds in collaboration with EPSRC, Thu May 4, 2023, at Cloth Hall Court, Leeds, UK
• EPSRC Advanced Materials Team Visit-Workshop and 1-2-1 discussion, Thu, Mar 30, 2023, Organised by Bragg Centre for Materials Research, University of Leeds
• OD&PL Concordat Awareness Month, Jan 9-Jan 31, 2023 (8 Sessions) – Webinars conducted by Organisational Development and Professional Learning (OD&PL), University of Leeds, UK
• X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Training Event – Organised by Henry Royce Institute, UK, Jan 18-20, 2022, 12.30-16.40 at the University of Leeds, UK
• ‘Emerging Topics in Healthcare Photonics-From Biophotonics to Translational Medicine’ – Webinar by Wiley Team-Wiley Advanced Optical Materials, Tue, May 3, 2022, 13.00-14.30 UK Time
• ‘The EU Mission on Cancer and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’ - Webinar by The European Commission, Nov 24, 2021, 14.30-16.00 UK Time
• IHI Kick-off and Brokerage Event, June 14, 2022, Webinar (Brussels, Belgium)
• ‘Women Rising Workshop’ – Organised by OD&PL, 2018, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
• Cell culture lab inductions and basic training (at LICAMM)
• Training for supervising students (to get involved in Leeds Graduate Record of Achievement and Development-GRAD)
• ‘Recent Trends in Chemical Sciences’ – Indian Science Academy Sponsored Lecture Workshop, Aug 26-27, 2011, Department of Chemistry, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala, India 
• ‘Virtual and Accessible Laboratories for Universalizing Education (VALUE) VALUE@Amritha’ –  Workshop on Virtual Labs in Physical and Chemical Sciences, Jan 7, 2011, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala, India 
• Workshop on Electron Microscopy, July 15, 2008, Electron Microscopy Laboratory, Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Kerala, India

Outreach Activities

• Lead Participant for the ‘Be Curious 2019’: An initiative of the University of Leeds to demonstrate the developing technology at the University of Leeds to the public - Visible colour generation in nanomaterials using invisible laser for medical imaging.

• Talks presented on All India Radio under the section ‘SCIENCE’, science topics relevant and informative to the general public (2014, 2015)

Responsibilities

• Research Coordination and Execution of the project, Academic and Industrial collaborations
• Supervision of PhD, MSc, MEngg and BSc students
• Involvement in publications, International presentations, Outreach activities

Research interests

• Particle development technologies
• Materials synthesis (methods such as hydrothermal, solvothermal, sol-gel)
• Scale-up process and processing technologies
• Characterisation (eg. TEM, XRD, XPS) of upconversion nanoparticles and advanced applications of upconversion nanoparticles (eg. detection of various biomarkers and in multimodal imaging (cardiac, stroke and cancer), cellular and tissue imaging, inkjet printing)
• Core-shell nanostructures
• Adopting Affimers and antibodies for Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) based detection, detection using nanomaterials such as quantum dots by effective conjugation of bioreceptors.
• Development of multifunctional nanomaterials 
• Aptamers as receptors for effective biosensing and targeted bioimaging
• Manufacturing scale-up and processing of materials for advanced applications
• Multimarker detection and multimodal imaging 
• Early detection of cancer by adopting upconversion and nanotechnology
• Lab-on-chip device for healthcare 

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

• PhD. (Chemistry): NIIST-CSIR, India; School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, India
• MSc (Inorganic Chemistry)-School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, India
• BSc (Chemistry)-All Saints College, Trivandrum, University of Kerala

Professional memberships

• Member, Royal Society of Chemistry
• Member, Royal Microscopical Society
• Member, European Microscopy Society
• Member, British Society for Nanomedicine
• Member, Indian Institute of Ceramics

Student education

PhD supervision at University of Leeds-2;  Masters and MEngg Project Supervision at University of Leeds  (Detailed below)

• Jan 2022-Mar 2022-Upconversion nanoparticles and their commercial applications - Team design project as part of the Master's Course (Team design project module: CAPE 5700M) 
• 2021-MSc Supervision-University of Leeds-1 (Thesis Title: An investigation into the hydrothermal synthesis of polymer-coated α-NaYF₄: Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ upconversion nanoparticles via novel progress monitoring)
• 2020-MSc Supervision-University of Leeds-1; (Thesis Title: Upconversion Nanoparticle Biosensor for Acute Myocardial  Infarction Detection)
• 2018-MEngg. Supervison-University of Leeds-1 (Thesis Title: Synthesis and Characterisation of Yb³⁺/Er³⁺ doped NaGdF₄ Upconversion Nanoparticles)
• 2018-BSc Supervision-University of Leeds-1(Thesis Title: In vivo and In vitro Toxicity Studies of Ytterbium with Erbium or Thulium ions in Barium Yttrium Fluoride Matrix Upconversion Nanoparticles in Mice)
• 2017-Visiting Researcher-Co-Supervision-1 (Visiting Researcher from Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey)
• 2017-MEngg. Supervision-University of Leeds-1 (Thesis Title: Synthesis of Barium Yttrium Fluoride Based Upconversion Nanoparticles for Bioimaging)                                                                                              

Involved in the assessment/marking of project reports in the LICAMM, Faculty of Medicine  and involved in the marking/evaluation of MSc Research Presentations of students in the School of Chemical and Process Engineering of the University of Leeds 

Involvement as Doctoral Committee Convener and Doctoral Committee Member of current PhD students at the Amritha Vishwa Viswavidyapeetham (A multi-disciplinary research academia that is accredited ‘A++’ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and is ranked as one of the best research institutions in India) Kerala, India

Masters Project Progress Evaluation at the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala, India

Past research and project supervision at NIIST-India

Past research/project supervision and lecturing at  SCTIMST-India

Research groups and institutes

• Functional Materials

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>