Research interests

Professor Ronan Daly leads the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing research group. The mission in Institute for Manufacturing is to Manufacture a Better World. In FIAM, we carry out fundamental research into fluids, interfaces, biomaterials, nanomaterials and chemical systems as we create future device technologies and the advanced manufacturing techniques that make them, with a focus on driving affordability, accessibility, and environmental sustainability. This means we are linking Technology Push and Pull, thinking about the influence of manufacturing on fundamental research questions, and pioneering the science of scale-up. This research is currently most active in three sectors:

1  Healthcare

• Creating affordable, accessible, and environmentally sustainable diagnostics for (re)emerging diseases
• Designing research tools that will accelerate the translation of implantable devices and nanomaterials for cancer treatment
• Creating new tools to accelerate drug discovery
• Creating new methods for controlled combination drug delivery

2  Agri-tech

• Creating low-cost sensors for fertiliser and nutrient level tracking
• Affordable and accessible water quality sensing

3  Inkjet printing / Additive Manufacturing

• Studying the fundamentals of inkjet printing, including drop creation, aerodynamics, impact, coalescence and mixing
• Embedding electronics and sensors into glass, ceramics, and cement components
• Additive manufacturing with gels, polymers, and cement
• Studying the forces in additive manufacturing and using them to control mechanochemical reactions

Other positions

• Deputy Head of Institute for Manufacturing
• Fellow of Churchill College
• Member of Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics

Biography

Ronan Daly is Professor of Advanced Manufacturing in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He previously worked in Unilever R&D before completing a PhD in Chemistry from School of Chemistry and Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices, Trinity College Dublin. He leads the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing (FIAM) research group at Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, and teaches in the Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering Triposes.