Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship
Fellowship Overview
Awarded through the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Fellowship scheme, this three-year fellowship funds the project "Functional polymer brushes for electromagnetic sensing of volatile compounds."
The work grows chemically-responsive polymer brush coatings onto microwave and RF sensing platforms, so that exposure to specific volatile compounds is read out electromagnetically rather than optically or electrochemically – avoiding the batteries, reagents and fragile chemistries that limit many existing gas sensors. It builds directly on GREEN Electronics Lab expertise in printed, flexible and sustainable RF sensing, and complements the lab's EPSRC-funded DIELECT project on contactless assembly of functional nanomaterials.
Ben's PhD work on organic transistors is itself being carried into application through a derivative EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) project, translating his silicon-phthalocyanine transistor sensor research toward manufacturable devices.
Status: Active fellowship, GREEN Electronics Lab, University of Glasgow.
Principal Investigator
Dr Benjamin King, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, James Watt School of Engineering
Ben's route to the fellowship began with an engineering co-op placement at OTI Lumionics, working on flexible OLED technology and manufacturing processes, before he completed a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Ottawa (2024) under Prof. Benoît Lessard. His thesis, on silicon phthalocyanine organic semiconductors for thin-film transistors and sensors, was recognised with Canada's Governor General's Academic Gold Medal for the top graduate thesis at the university.
He joined the University of Glasgow in March 2024 as a Research Associate, supporting device and material characterisation across the lab's printed and flexible electronics projects, before starting this Leverhulme Fellowship. He is an associate member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Work and Partnerships
The fellowship brings materials chemistry, printed/large-area electronics manufacturing, and RF and microwave sensor design together within the GREEN Electronics Lab, with links to the lab's wider work on sustainable and circular RF systems through the UKRI REACT Centre.
We welcome opportunities to connect with researchers, industry and end users working on related sustainable electronics and gas-sensing challenges.