MRI from Medicine to Chemical Engineering

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) found its first applications in medical physics, imaging the human body's internal structure and blood flow. Like the human body, chemical processes are optically opaque and MRI is one of the few imaging techniques available that can produce images of the fundamental processes at work. The ability to 'see inside' a chemical process, to observe what is actually occurring in terms of chemical transformations and flow processes, can transform our ability to design such processes in order to minimise carbon footprint and waste product. The lecture will include examples of how MRI methods have been developed to produce greater understanding in applications such as heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering. Recent research using information engineering and signal processing methods has enabled 'under-sampling' of MRI data, reducing acquisition times by orders of magnitude while still providing sufficient data to capture the processes. Early results from this research, observing fundamental processes occurring in fluid flows, such as gas-liquid flows, will be presented for the first time.

Professor Lynn Gladden is currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge and the Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Magnetic Resonance Research Centre in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in Cambridge. Her major research interests lie in the development and application of magnetic resonance and terahertz techniques in chemical engineering, with a particular interest in applied catalysis. A Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics, Professor Gladden was awarded a Miller Visiting Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1996, the Tilden Lectureship and silver medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2000 and the Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society in 2013. She is a member of the international advisory panel of the journal Chemical Engineering Science, the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering Advisory Group to the National Physical Laboratory and the International Advisory Board of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand. 

Admission to this event is free. 

To reserve your place please click here or telephone Jill Burnett on +44 (0)1224 273874

This lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the James Mackay Hall.

Speaker

Professor Lynn Gladden Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Cambridge University

Hosted by

School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen

Venue

King's College Conference Centre, University of Aberdeen