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Staff Profile

Professor Mark Geoghegan

Roland Cookson Professor of Engineering Materials

Background

Introduction

Mark Geoghegan joined Newcastle University in 2019 from the University of Sheffield, where he was previously Professor of Soft Matter Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. His research interests focus on different aspects of soft matter and materials research. This includes polymer films, polymer diffusion, organic electronics, biomaterials, adhesion, and soft nanotechnology. He has written one text book on Polymer Electronics with Professor Georges Hadziioannou of the University of Bordeaux.

ORCID

0000-0001-9919-7357

Qualifications

MA (Oxon) MSc (B'ham) PhD Cantab

Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)

Roles and Responsibilities 

School Athena SWAN Champion

Research
My research interests include:
  • Diffusion in polymer systems: Diffusion of polymers on surfaces and in solution.
  • Physics of polymer networks: Polymer networks swell up in suitable solvents, but try to regain their original shape when the solvent is removed. How do we engineer networks or gels to have appropriate chemical, physical, and mechanical properties,
  • Stability, creation and structure of polymer films: How and why do thin polymer films break up, and can we control their behaviour? Can we understand and optimise the structure of films of polymer mixtures? How do films form?
  • Semiconducting polymers: How does the structure of an organic electronic device influence its properties?
  • Polyelectrolyte brushes: These materials show large changes in their physical properties depending upon the pH of the solution they are in contact with. Can we use these to perform useful tasks?
  • Adhesion: The creation of polymeric reversible adhesive systems and the mechanisms behind bioadhesion
  • Nanotribology: What controls the contact mechanics and adhesive behaviour of polymer films? Can these be optimised
  • Biological systems: The measurement of cellular adhesion. What controls the interactions between biomolecules?
Teaching

CME8118 Material Stability

CME2028 Thermodynamics 2

Publications