Contacts
Dr Bruce Donaldson Grieve, BSc(Hons), PhD, CEng FIET
E-mail: Bruce.Grieve@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 161 306 8941
Fax: +44 (0) 161 306 4789
Dr Grieve is a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering & Technology. He has spent 19 years of his career in the field of on-line analysis and measurement R&D within pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Prior to taking on the Directorship of the Syngenta Sensors UIC, he was based in Syngenta’s New Business Development unit (Basel, Switzerland) working in close collaboration with the company’s commercial managers to determine how sensors and diagnostics systems may be deployed within new agribusiness activities. Previously Dr Grieve has been the industrial manager on a number of Research Council and DTI supported projects and was an author of the DTI’s future vision report entitled ‘Sensors 2015’. He is presently the chair of the Sensors Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and has been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Fellowship to progress his sensors research at Manchester. He has held a number of funding board roles with UK Research Councils and the UK Technology Strategy Board and has been a member of the EPSRC’s peer review college for over eight years. Outside of the University, during the summer months Bruce tends to be seen lying around on some hillside or other waiting for a mythical thermal to arrive so that he can take off on his hang-glider or paraglider. When that invariably does not happen he also does a bit of rock-climbing, cycling and hiking. These being all excuses to visit some of the most scenic parts of the world and visit the local hostelries …
Professor Trevor York BSc, PhD, CEng, FIET, SMIEEE
E-mail: T.York@manchester.ac.uk
Following a Ph.D. in "Electron Spectroscopy of Reactive Gases" Trevor York was appointed lecturer in Electrical Engineering and Electronics at UMIST in 1985, specialising in microelectronic circuit design. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1992, Reader in 1999, and Professor in 2004. He acted as Group Leader: Sensing, Imaging and Signal Processing 2004 - 2007. His research interests lie in several areas, including: applications of industrial process tomography; processing of tomographic data in software and hardware; instrumentation for electrical impedance tomography; electronic systems design; miniature sensors; and wireless sensor networks for industrial applications. His external professional activities include membership of the EPSRC College of Peers (2000-2003 & 2006-2009), proposal and project reviewer for several funding agencies (EPSRC, Leverhulme Trust, Austrian COMET programme, Indiana 21st Century Fund, NSERC Canada) and referee for the IEE Proceedings, Measurement Science and Technology, IEEE Sensors, IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, IEEE Trans. Inst. and Meas., and Electronics Letters. Trevor largely spends his free time playing golf, saxophone – he is trying desperately to improve on jazz improvisation, squash, hiking and distance running. He likes to travel and take the opportunity whenever he can to prove that he is, more or less, the world’s worst scuba diver and used to be, more or less, the world’s worst skier.
Sophie Weiss 
E-mail: Sophie.Weiss@manchester.ac.uk
Sophie began research life as a traditional biochemist characterising protein interactions and studying enzymes for gene therapy. Her love/hate relationship with electrochemistry began after taking up a PhD at the University of Leeds studying protein-lipid and protein-protein interactions using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. She continued the electrochemical theme as a post doc in the molecular and nanoscale physics group at Leeds looking at the behaviour of bioenergetic proteins in lipid bilayers. After a year working in a blood testing lab she is just starting work on the SYield project developing biosensors for crop protection. In her free time she likes planning her next ski holiday, folk dancing and baking, decorating and eating cakes.
Dr Neville Christopher Paul Woodyatt, CEng
E-mail: Chris.Woodyatt@manchester.ac.uk
Chris obtained his PhD in Instrumentation and Analytical Science from the University of Manchester in January 2008 following 4½ years working as a Research Associate with Professor Krishna Persaud (Professor of Chemoreception). His research projects have included instrumentation for monitoring landfill gas emissions, human sweating, and the health of burn victims’ wounds. Prior to his recent academic work, Chris had a long career in industry. He has worked in nuclear instrumentation, bank note validation, and machine condition monitoring with world leaders “Bently Nevada”, now part of the global GE Corporation.
Doan Xuan Tien, BEng, MEng
E-mail: Xuan-Tien.Doan@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Doan Xuan Tien obtained a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Sydney University in 2001 and a MEng degree from The National University of Singapore in 2005, working on process monitoring using multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) techniques. For three years he worked as a research engineer at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES) in Singapore. His research interests lie in the area of data mining. He is working for a PhD within the Syngenta Sensors UIC, addressing the topic of data mining for cold supply chain of perishable high-value produce, specifically focusing on the analysis of data collected from radio frequency sensors accompanying cut flowers transported along a cold supply chain. The aim of the research is to use the collected data to predict shelf-life for the cut flowers. Tien loves sports such as volleyball, badminton, tennis, and football. He considers himself an Arsenal fan even though he is more like a supporter of its current coach – Arsene Wenger. He also likes travelling but does not really enjoy long flights. He used to play computer games a lot but has virtually given this up.
Zhi Wei Sim, BSc
E-mail: Zhiwei.Sim@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Zhi Wei Sim received a BSc degree with Summa Cum Laude standing in Electrical Engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2006. After graduating he worked for one year as a test development engineer at National Semiconductor in Malaysia. His research interest is in power scavenging for embedded sensor networks deployed in the natural environment. He is working for a PhD within the Syngenta Sensors UIC, focusing on the use of radiofrequency (RF), solar, and thermal energy as energy sources. Sim spends most of his free time reading, or playing badminton and table tennis. He also enjoys travelling and watching live football, especially English Premier League matches.
Ming Yu Shi, BEng(Hons), MSc
E-mail: Ming.Shi-2@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Ming Yu Shi graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Hull University in 2006 and gained a MSc in Electronics Communications and Computer Engineering from Nottingham University in 2007. He is currently working on integrating organic electronics into RFID tags for his PhD research within the Syngenta Sensors UIC. The aim of the research is to utilize organic electronics manufacturing advantages to reduce costs of RFID tags for monitoring transported goods. For leisure, he can be found rolling a game of bowling or hanging out in a chippy-bar after a “cooking-gone-wrong” session at home.
Ruchi Gupta, BEng, MASc
E-mail: Ruchi.Gupta@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Ruchi Gupta received her Bachelor degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2005. She completed her MASc degree from McMaster University, Canada, in 2007. Her PhD work in Syngenta Sensors UIC focuses on developing an integrated device that will be generically applicable to near real-time, in-field analysis of enzyme activity in cultivars. In the future, she would like to use this integrated device to detect signs of life on other planets. In her free time, she is either found decorating her room or shopping. She also loves to play with dogs and desperately misses her dog in India.
Frank Podd, PhD
E-mail: Frank.Podd@manchester.ac.uk
Frank is currently exploring new project areas with businesses and creating pocket sized tomographic imaging systems. Over the past decade or so, he yo-yoed between working in both academia and industry. He also ran a small ultrasound R&D company. Frank received degrees from the University of Surrey in: Theoretical Physics, Signal Processing and Machine Intelligence, and Medical Image Processing. He enjoys travelling, and beating Trevor York at squash.
Robert Hayes, MEng
E-mail: Robert.hayes@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Robert Hayes graduated with an MEng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from The University of Manchester in 2009. He is currently working towards his PhD within the Syngenta Sensors UIC. His research is aimed at sub-soil electrical impedance image reconstruction for breeding food crops on marginal land. The current focus of his research is in the simulation of soil hydrological processes, plant root growth and the interactions between plant roots and surrounding soil. The aim of his research is to help deliver a wide area crop phenotyping tool for identifying new food crops which may be grown on marginal land, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and other water limited areas. In his free time he enjoys cycling, distance running, listening to music and playing bass guitar.
Stephanie Heard
E-mail: Steph.Heard@bbsrc.ac.uk
Stephanie Heard received her BSc in Biology with a year in Europe from Imperial College, London. During her degree she became increasingly interested in agricultural science, crop protection and food security. This interest developed during an 8 month laboratory placement at Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse where she was exposed to a range of relevant projects. Her PhD is now based at Rothamsted Research working on the development of a biosensor for the detection of fungal crop pathogens in conjunction with the Syngenta Sensors UIC. When she is not culturing fungi or trying to collect fungal spores in the lab, she can be found running around the Hertfordshire countryside, desperately trying to train for the Berlin and Nice Marathons later this year.
Paul Newill, BEng
E-mail: Raul.Newill@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Paul Newill graduated with his BEng in Electronic Engineering from the University of Huddersfield in 2008, followed by his MEng in 2009. Working for a PhD within the Syngenta Sensors UIC, Paul is primarily looking at the subsoil imaging of crop root structures predominantly using electrical tomography, but also implementing data fusion techniques to enhance results. Paul spends most of his free time with his family. Having recently finished renovating his house, he is currently looking to move and start all over again. He also enjoys football, running, squash and mountain biking, all of which he is rather poor at!
Dr Leszek Majewski
E-mail: Leszek.Majewski@manchester.ac.uk
Dr. Leszek Majewski is a RCUK Research Fellow in the M&N Group, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He received his MSc degree in biophysics of Light Harvesting Complexes of higher green plants from the University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska (Lublin, Poland). After his studies, he finished his military training for army officers at North-East NATO Corps. In May 2003, he joined the Photonics Group at the University of Sheffield and in April 2005, he obtained his PhD degree working in the area of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with a particular focus on research and development of alternative (high-k) dielectrics for OFETs. In May 2005, he joined the M&N Group as a Research Associate to work on an alternative device concept for high performance organic 13.56 MHz RFID tags, namely, organic nano-rectifiers (SSDs). In March 2007 he was rewarded a five year RCUK Fellowship to work on self-assembled monolayer electronic devices that employ novel self-organizing electronic materials. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer and watching Kung-fu movies.