Ph.D. graduate - November 21, 2010

Matthew Borg recently obtained his doctorate degree in nanoliquidics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

His research involved investigating phenomena at scales which are 10 to 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, such as atomistic effects experienced by liquids at wall surfaces.

He developed a molecular simulation software that probes very accurately such phenomena and a new hybrid approach to make simulations more feasible for engineering design of nanoscale applications, such as nanofluidic mixers and heat-exchangers.

Dr Borg was awarded the James Weir Scholarship with the Multiscale Research Group in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Strathclyde in 2006. His degree was supervised by Prof. Jason Reese, and Dr Tom Scanlon.

The research group was recently awarded a €2.8 million research grant which will fund more doctoral scholarships in the next decade, as well the installation of a new €880,000 high performance supercomputer in the Faculty of Engineering.

Dr Borg is a post-doctorate fellow at Strathclyde University, researching ways of filtering sea water to make it fit for drinking, a major global health challenge. He is also developing a new technology to study the possibilities of embedding nano- and micro-devices on the surfaces of aircraft and ship hulls. His work is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Dr Borg also holds a first class bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Malta. He is the son of Philip and Carmen Borg of Fleur-De-Lys.