Current Members

Dr. Nazmul Karim is a Professor of Sustainable Future Textiles at the Department of Fashion and Textiles. Previously, he was a Professor of Advanced Textiles at Nottingham Trent University, UK (2023-24), and an Associate Professor at the Centre for Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK (2019-23), where he led the establishment of the brand-new 'Graphene Applications Laboratory' and the new research theme 'New Materials: Towards Sustainable Technologies.' Before that, Prof Karim pioneered several graphene-based wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) and sustainable composites researches at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) of the University of Manchester (UK) with Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Kostya S Novoselov (2015-19). He completed funded PhD (2015) and MSc by Research (2011) degrees at the University of Manchester (UK).

Prof Karim’s research interests lie in the area of new advanced materials (e.g., graphene, other 2D materials) and sustainable digital technologies (e.g., inkjet printing), aimed at developing sustainable future textiles for smart wearable e-textiles, eco-friendly circular clothing, and natural fibre-reinforced composites applications.

Prof Karim has led/co-led several research breakthroughs, including the first fully inkjet-printed graphene e-textiles, highly scalable methods to produce graphene textiles and 2D materials’ heterostructure-based textiles, and sustainable and multifunctional fibre-reinforced composites.

Prof Karim's multidisciplinary work offers exciting opportunities to work in state-of-the-art laboratories in several high-profile areas. 

Please see below few example PhD projects (not limited to this list). You can also self-propose and discuss an exciting project within the area of research interests.  

1. Sustainable new materials for future textiles
2. Sustainable wearable e-textiles
3. Closed the Loop: Sustainable Recycling of Textiles
4. Autonomous drug-release fibres
5. Inkjet-printed 2D materials' heterostructure-based wearable e-textiles
6. Smart and sustainable natural fibre composites
7. Energy harvesting e-textiles
8. Smart wearable energy storage textiles 

Prof Karim's lab is always looking for highly motivated, curious, and skilled individuals who are interested in pursuing PhDs and post-docs.

He would be happy to dicuss potential hosting and supporting applications for CDT and other funded PhD studentships (e.g., Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, China Scholarship Council, IDB, Govt-funded), as well as post-doctoral fellowship applications (e.g. Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, Newton International) in the relevant areas. 

Before applying, you are strongly encouraged to contact nazmul.karim@soton.ac.uk stating your interests and funding circumstances.

Dr. Shaila Afroj is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Materials at the School of Engineering. Dr Afroj has been awarded prestigious EPSRC New Investigator Award for a ground-breaking project focused on developing sustainable wearable e-textiles for continuous and remote monitoring of Atrial Fibrillaition (AF) patients. This ~£0.5 M of funding will enable her to lead this 3 years project in collaboration with NHS, Bristol Heart Instituite, Kymira and Lividian.

Her passion about creating an inclusive, transparent and consistent environment has been recognised and she has been selected as EPSRC-WES ambassador for women in engineering and EDI champion (UWE). Dr Afroj has been serving as guest editor for Royal Society of Chemistry journal Materials Advances, member of EPSRC Peer Review College, Academic Advisor for Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. 

The main scope of her research is investigating into graphene and other 2D materials-based technologies aimed at developing sustainable wearable e-textiles for healthcare applications. Previously (2020-24), she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Print Research, UWE Bristol (UK), where she led the the new research theme 'New Materials: Towards Sustainable Technologies'. Prior to that, she worked as a Research Associate at National Graphene Institute (NGI), the University of Manchester after completing her PhD from the same university supervised by Nobel laureate Professor Sir Kostya S Novoselov. During that time, she co-developed several novel and highly scalable graphene-based wearable technologies. Her intense research activities have resulted 35+ peer reviewed publications in high impact journals, presentation in international conferences. She has a sustained track record of attracting internal and external funding (~£847k as PI) including prestigious EPSRC New Investigator Award (PI, ~£0.5M), partnership PhD studentships, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC)-funded PhD studentship and Innovate UK grant. She has 16+ years of industry (including multi-national companies like C&A and Intertek) and academic experiences related to advanced materials, digital fabrication and sustainable wearable e-textiles.

Dr Afroj is always looking for highly motivated, curious, and skilled individuals who are interested in pursuing PhDs and post-docs and who want to carry out adventurous research on novel and innovative sustainable wearable e-textiles. Her multidisciplinary work offers exciting opportunities to work in state-of-the-art laboratories in several high-profile areas:

• Sustainable materials

• Wearable electronic textiles 

• 2D heterostructure-based wearables

• Inkjet printing

• Sustainable and functional textiles

• Recycled materials-based textiles

Before applying, you are strongly encouraged to contact s.afroj@exeter.ac.uk, stating your interests and funding circumstances.

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