Dr Adrian M Nightingale PhD, MRes, MChem, MRSC
NERC Industrial Innovation Fellow
Dr Adrian Nightingale is a NERC Industrial Innovation fellow using droplet microfluidics to develop sensor technology for monitoring water chemistry.
Research focus:
Adrian’s research broadly focusses on the design and application of droplet microfluidic technology to problems in analytical and synthetic chemistry. Droplet microfluidics concerns the manipulation of droplets of (typically aqueous) fluid within a flow of oil, and offers enhanced mixing, control, and robustness compared to standard single-phase flow chemistry systems. Adrian uses the advantages offered by droplet microfluidics to develop chemical sensors with enhanced temporal response and efficiency, and robust reactors for reliable quality-assured manufacturing of nanomaterials, as described in more detail in the research tab below,
Career history:
Adrian’s microfluidics research builds on his background in both engineering and chemistry. He graduated with an undergraduate masters degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford in 2003. After 3 years working in industry, he returned to academia and was awarded a MRes in Nanomaterials (2007) and then PhD (2011) from Imperial College London. During his PhD and initial postdoctoral research he developed automated microfluidic reactors to precision-synthesise quantum dots and other colloidal nanomaterials.
During postdoctoral research at Imperial College London (2011-2013) his end-application focus broadened to include sensor technology. This led to a subsequent position at the National Oceanography Centre (2013-2015) developing microfluidic sensors to measure marine water chemistry (e.g. dissolved nutrients, pH).
2015-2017 he undertook a postdoctoral position at the University of Southampton’s Faculty of Engineering and the Environment developing sensors and sensor-technology based on droplet-microfluidics. These systems have been separately used to monitor changing biochemistry within human tissue, and fluctuations in river chemistry.
In 2018 he began his NERC Industrial Innovation Fellowship, which aims to develop droplet microfluidic-based chemical sensors for use on autonomous underwater vehicles. In keeping with current microfluidic sensors, they can be designed to measure a wide range of chemical parameters in situ but, crucially, promise much improved power and fluid efficiency (allowing longer deployments) and much higher measurement frequencies (seconds rather than minutes), important for easy use on moving platforms.