Academic biography

Dr. Jennifer Gaughran is an Assistant Professor in the School of Physical Sciences in DCU and the Chair of the Physics with Biomedical Sciences degree programme. She graduated from DCU in 2011 with a degree in Physics with Astronomy and completed her PhD in 2016, which focused on the design and testing of microfluidic devices for rapid DNA and RNA detection. From 2016 to 2017 she was the Centre Manager of the Advanced Processing Technology (APT) research centre in DCU. She is currently the primary supervisor of three PhD students. She is the winner of the IOPI Rosse Medal, National Thesis in 3 and Tell-It-Straight competitions 2014 and was shortlisted for the IOP Bell-Burnell Early Stage Female Physicist of the year award in 2016.

Jennifer’s research has focused on the design and testing of new and innovative methods in biological analysis for disease detection. She is interested in development of a new diagnostic techniques that can be used as Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic devices. These may be used anywhere from a physician’s office, to sub-Saharan Africa. She is particularly focused on the inclusion of nanotechnology in simple diagnostic systems for early detection of disease. In addition, Jennifer is interested in materials science and engineering for biological and environmental applications. Her research looks at the development of materials and surfaces for anti-biofouling, anti-corrosive and antimicrobial purposes, as well as new sustainably produced polymers.