Research commercialisation award to Prof Mohan Edirisinghe

Links:

mecheng.ucl.ac.uk/staff/?staff_id=me" target="_self">Professor Mohan Edirisinghe

UCL Mechanical Engineering

UCL Enterprise

Professor Mohan Edirisinghe (UCL Mechanical Engineering), Chair of Biomaterials, has been awarded the 2009 Kroll prize from the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) for his research on inorganic materials and the 2009 Brian Mercer Innovation Feasibility Award from the Royal Society.

The Kroll medal and prize is presented annually for personal achievement. Professor Edirisinghe was commended for his significant scholarly contribution to materials chemistry as applied to the industrial production of materials.

Professor Edirisinghe has been researching novel materials processing and forming for over 20 years and has published more than 250 journal papers. With over 30 EPSRC research grants, his teams have introduced several new processing strategies and biostructures for biomedical engineering applications. 

The Brian Mercer Awards, established in 2001, aim to encourage enthusiasm and entrepreneurship in today's scientists and provide funding to allow the winners to investigate the possibility of commercialising their research. This is the second time Professor Edirisinghe has won this Mercer Award, the first in 2005.

The award recognised a proposal made by Professor Edirisinghe, together with Dr Eleanor Stride, Dr Zeeshan Ahmad and Marjan Enayati, for the development of novel engineering devices for healthcare to be undertaken by the Microencapsulation for Drug Delivery Group based at UCL Mechanical Engineering.

These devices can transport different combinations of fluids and suspensions simultaneously under the influence of an electric field. They bubble, spray or spin the resulting jet to generate multi-layered nanocapsules, bubbles and porous encapsulated fibres in a single-step process. Such devices will immensely advance modern drug delivery and tissue engineering strategies.

The research team will collaborate with UCL Business; Health Technologies, a knowledge transfer network funded by the UK government; and TWI, an engineering group, who will help in securing intellectual property and commercialising products.

Image: Professor Mohan Edirisinghe

UCL Context

UCL Mechanical Engineering was the first department of its kind in the UK and has established a reputation for internationally leading research and quality teaching. It is equipped with newly refurbished laboratories and an engineering workshop.

Related stories
Masters student receives scholarship for ship design
Engineering medal for UCL young researcher
UCL National Science and Engineering Week 2009