Mónica Oliveira is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, following a research scientist position at Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. She has a PhD in Chemical & Process Engineering from Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh) and held postdoc positions at MIT and at the University of Porto working on complex fluid flows including in topics such as rheology and microfluidics. She is Associate Editor of Physics of Fluids and Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of non-Newtonian Fluids. She is currently a Council Member of the British Society of Rheology and a Member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Rheology. Her research focuses on fluid flows and transport phenomena, in particular the rheology of complex fluids, viscoelasticity and non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, fluid structure interactions and microfluidics. Monica’s group combines experiments, simulations and theory to explore the dynamics and properties of flows involving nano- or micro-structures, including polymers, DNA, surfactants, particle or active suspensions (e.g. red blood cells, microswimmers, such as algae) in many biophysical and technological processes. A bit more on Monica’s research interests: Complex fluids are ubiquitous in nature and in industrial applications. Examples include biofluids, like saliva and blood, polymer solutions, dyes, paints and surfactant solutions. The nonlinear rheological behaviour of complex fluids imparts a rich set of unusual characteristics to their flows, which we are investigating through complementary advanced experimental techniques (e.g. micro-particle image velocimetry, PIV, rheology) and numerical approaches, including shape-optimisation methods and computational rheology using CFD tools. We focus on the fundamental flow physics, but are also exploring these unique and exciting characteristics to design new microfluidic components, to develop synthetic biofluid analogues, sustainable coatings and to enhance and control processes (including manufacturing). She is looking to supervise projects related to sustainable polymer coatings, rheology, fluid flows, in particular with complex fluids, and microfluidics. Some current or recently supervised PhD/postdoc projects:

Manufacture of polymeric implantable biodevices Ferrofluids Instabilities and mixing enhancement in viscoelastic fluid flows at the micro-scale Characterisation of microalgae behaviour and processing Developing Novel Microfluidic Point-of-Care Spectroscopic Biofluid Diagnostics Microfluidics for assessing the behaviour of deformable biological objects Thermocapillary motion of droplets in complex fluid flows Microswimmers in microfluidics: enhancing the engineering of nano- and micro-scale driven transport applications