Dr. Padmaja Vasudev (Padmaja Parameswaran Nampi)

Profile

Academic Qualifications:

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

Academic history in Leeds

• I joined the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Experienced Research Fellow, funded by 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;
• I worked as Research Fellow (2018-2020); EPSRC-IAA Research CoInvestigator (Total Project Cost:£ 59,996) (2019-2020);
• Currenty I am a Research Fellow/EPSRC Research Co-Investigator, 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-present).

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 (An Institute of National Importance under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India), India  (2012-2015) (Collaboration with University of Leeds, worked as Senior Visiting Researcher at University of Leeds as part of the project) ; 
• 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 (2004-2006)-Industrial Collaboration: Agic Co. Ltd.; 
• Junior project fellowships (DST) and Senior Research Fellowships (CSIR), Worked at National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research 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 (Royal Society of Chemistry, RSC)
• Journal of Materials Chemistry B (Royal Society of Chemistry, RSC)
• RSC Advances (RSC)
• Journal of the American Ceramic Society (American Ceramic Society, Publisher: Wiley)
• International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology (American Ceramic Society, Publisher: Wiley)
• Materials Research Bulletin (Elsevier)
• Journal of Molecular Structure (Elsevier)
• Chemical Engineering Journal (Elsevier)

Responsibilities

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

Research interests

• Synthesis (methods such as hydrothermal, solvothermal, sol-gel)
• 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.

Future interests:

Aptamers as receptors for effective biosensing and targeted bioimaging.

Collaborative Faculties at University of Leeds

School of Medicine-Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Faculty of Biological Sciences

<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 Microscopical Society
• Member, Indian Institute of Ceramics

Student education

PhD supervison 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 Masters 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 (2018) and involved in the marking/evaluation of MSc Research Presentations of students in the School of Chemical and Process Engineering of University of Leeds (2021)

Involvement as Doctoral Committee Convener and Doctoral Committe Member of current PhD students at the Amritha Vishwa Viswavidyapeetham (A multi-disciplinary research academia that is accredited ‘A++’ by 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 Amritha Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala, 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>