Team

James Kwan

James Kwan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at Balliol College. He is part of the Physical Acoustics Lab (PacLab) and a PI in OSCAR. His research interests include the application of mechanical, thermal, and chemical effects of ultrasound and cavitation to address challenges in personal and environmental health. He was awarded the W.W. Spooner Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford for his work in ultrasound-based strategies for drug delivery. From 2016 to 2020, James was an Assistant Professor at the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University Singapore (SCBE). James’ work to date on ultrasound and cavitation has resulted in invited presentations and lectures around the world, peer-reviewed journal articles in prestigious journals such as Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, Journal of Controlled Release, Small, and Theranostics, and co-authored book chapters. He is also part of the Editorial Board of Ultrasonics Sonochemistry. Additionally, he has applied for numerous patents, two of which have been awarded and are now licensed to separate spinout companies in the USA and UK.

Ivan Smirnov

Dr Ivan Smirnov joined Kwan’s research group at OSCAR in 2023. He received his PhD in Physics and Mathematics in 2013 at Saint Petersburg University with a specialization in Solid Mechanics and Fracture Mechanics. His former research related to non-equilibrium processes of deformation, failure, and energy dissipation in various media. He actively employs ultrasonic and optoacoustic methods in his work to study the physical and mechanical characteristics of matter. In the last six years, he has been closely involved in the effect of ultrasound on the intensification of industrial processes as well as phase transitions. Also, he has been intensely interested in the research of acoustic cavitation and associated dynamic phenomena. His current research is focused on controlling the effects of ultrasound and acoustic cavitation to promote phase transitions, chemical reactions, and targeted drug delivery.

Dong Xia

Dr Dong Xia received his PhD degree from University of Leeds (2020). He then joined the National Institute for Materials Science as a postdoctoral fellow in Japan focusing on utilizing conductive metal-organic frameworks for electrocatalytic hydrogen production (2022). Currently, he is a joint postdoctoral research fellow in Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Oxford (2023), where he focuses on exploring the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction and the sonoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. His interests are in constructing nanocarbon-based aerogels for Joule heating studies and synthesizing various nanocatalysts for thermocatalytic/electrocatalytic implications.

Mohamad Salimi

Dr. Mohamad Salimi completed a PhD in vibroacoustic condition monitoring at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton.

Currently, he is working in Kwan's Research Group on the setup of a sonochemical reactor and is closely working under the supervision of Prof. Bañares-Alcántara on technoeconomic models for ammonia cracking and catalytic sonochemistry.

Prior to joining, Mohamad worked at an Innovation Centre within TWI in Cambridge, where he wrote proposals, secured grants, and successfully completed multiple projects funded by organisations such as Innovate UK, Horizon Europe, EPSRC, and internally funded TWI core research projects in collaboration with TWI Hellas.

Davide Preso

Dr. Davide Preso joined the Phisical Acoustics Lab in 2024 on a EPSRC-funded project about catalytic sonochemical processes for green hydrogen production from ammonia. He obtained his BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bologna (Italy). After a short stay as a Scientific Assistant at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), working on the development of an ammonia-based CO2-capture process, he joined EPFL (Switzerland) as a Doctoral Assistant. Here, he received his PhD in Mechanics with a work on the effect of gas and vapor on the dynamics of single cavitation bubbles. His current interests include sonochemical conversion of water, ammonia, and carbon dioxide, and phase change effects in cavitation bubbles.

Cherie Wong

Cherie graduated from Durham University with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry. Cherie progressed to read MSc (by research) in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford with the supervision under Prof Edman Tsang to research in photocatalytic water splitting. Following the MSc degree, she is currently in Dr James Kwan group to read a DPhil in Engineering Science to research sonochemistry and acoustic cavitation. Her research interest focus on energy-related technologies and applications.

Tanvi Sushil Kaku

Tanvi completed her BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Mumbai and her MSc in Biotechnology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She is currently a PhD student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore working under the supervision of Prof. James Kwan and Prof. Sierin Lim. She is working on the development of ultrasound-responsive protein nanoparticle encapsulated microbubbles, for MRI detection of early stage atherosclerotic lesions.

Yi Qin

Yi received her B.E. degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology from Hainan University, China. Then, she completed her M.E. degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Science and Technology of China, China. Now, she is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. James Kwan. Her research interest focuses on developing novel catalytic cavitation agents for sonoelectrocatalysis CO2 reduction reactions.

Stephanie Walton

Steph graduated from the University of Guelph (Canada) with a B.Eng in Biomedical Engineering, and from Queen’s University (Canada) with a MASc in Chemical Engineering (biomedical stream) under the supervision of Dr. Carlos Escobedo. She is now a DPhil student in Engineering Science under the supervision of Prof. James Kwan with research focused on understanding sonodynamic therapy in collaboration with Alpheus Medical and developing novel ultrasond-responsive prodrug formulations.  

Yihao Huang

Yihao Huang was a final-year undergraduate of Oxford in Engineering Science working on his fourth-year project (4YP) relevant to laser and acoustic cavitation, supervised by Prof James Kwan, Dr Jason Raymond and Prof Ronald Roy. He is now a DPhil student studying cavitation in liquid ammonia and its resulting chemistry.

Ying Wei

Ying graduated with a bachelor's degree in Material Physics from Nanjing University and later earned a master's degree in Nanoscience and Functional Nanomaterials from the University of Bristol. Currently, Ying is a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. James Kwan. Her research is focused on acoustic gelation, a pioneering area where sound waves are utilized to manipulate materials at the nanoscale to create gels.

Mohan Zhang

Mohan Zhang joined Prof. James Kwan’s group at OSCAR in August 2023. She received her Master degree in biomedical engineering from Tianjin Medical University in 2022. Her previous research focused on the numerical simulation of transcranial ultrasound stimulation of the hippocampus, which mainly involves the optimization of the phase-controlled transcranial ultrasound transducer and the screening of ultrasound therapeutic parameters, with the aim of stimulates the hippocampus safely and effectively, and thus informing the selecting of ultrasound parameters for the treatment of related neurological disorders. Her current research will focused on ultrasound cavitation.