College of Science & Engineering

 

 

Dr Benjamin King	benjamin.king@glasgow.ac.uk
School	James Watt School of Engineering
Fellowship	Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship
Area of Research	Air quality monitoring, electronic and nanoscale engineering

 

 

How would you describe your research briefly?

This fellowship will allow me to study the properties of advanced functional materials using electromagnetic waves, and develop passive and inexpensive air quality monitoring devices.

Why did you choose to pursue a fellowship in your research career?

I chose to pursue a fellowship so that I could have the opportunity to undertake an independent research project as a Principal Investigator on a subject that I am deeply passionate about.

The fellowship will also enable me to develop my independent research portfolio, which is essential to my ambition of pursuing a career in research.

Through a fellowship, I can undertake a project that leverages research experiences from my PhD, studying functional thin-films and gas sensors, and from my role as a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow fabricating and characterising radio-frequency electronics under the supervision of Dr. Mahmoud Wagih.

These experiences, along with the three-year window that I have been funded for, will enable me to focus my time and energy developing the next generation of air quality monitoring tools.

What attracted you to this specific fellowship?

The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship appealed to me because their remit covers a broad scope, including discovery science, providing me with the flexibility to develop a project that will deliver impact while exploring fundamental properties of materials that are previously unexplored or poorly explored.

Having spoken to other academics at Glasgow who have held the Fellowship, I determined that it would be a good fit for the research that I wanted to pursue.

Why work at the University of Glasgow?

The Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering Division at the University of Glasgow has world-leading experts and facilities in radio frequency (RF)-enabled electronics and sensors, who have pledged support to maximise the outcomes of my research programme. 

Additionally, the School of Chemistry has expertise in synthesis, self-assembled materials and characterisation, which tie into the research themes of my fellowship. 

In addition to support from faculty and facilities in the College, the University awarded me a Lord Kelvin / Adam Smith Fellowship. I am extremely grateful to have an LKAS award, which will match salary funding from the Trust while providing me with an additional pot of funding to support consumables, professional development and dissemination activities. 

What is the aim of the fellowship?

With my fellowship, I will enable a new understanding of stimuli-responsive materials by studying their properties with electromagnetic waves and deliver the next generation of passive and wireless air quality monitoring tools. 

Monitoring and controlling air quality is a significant public health challenge, and I believe we need to meet the moment in the same way that we did with water sanitation in the 19th and 20th centuries. 

In the UK, air pollution causes up to 29,000 premature deaths each year and could result in a projected £18.6 billion in annual economic losses by 2035. Recently, the City of London invested £2.7m in air quality filters to reduce pollution in classrooms to improve the health and academic performance, so there is clear appetite for clean air infrastructure. 

Widely used air quality monitoring sensors often require complex circuits and bulky, on-board electronics for data collection and transmission. In addition to the study of functional materials, I hope to significantly reduce the complexity of these electronics and develop an accessible tool that can be deployed in high-occupancy settings like classrooms and office buildings. 

Air quality is both an economic and public health issue, and my Fellowship is just the beginning of a research programme that I will develop to drive meaningful societal change. 

 

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First published: 7 January 2026