The Ebbens Group at the University of Sheffield

Dr Stephen Ebbens is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

Portrait of Dr Ebbens

Research interests include:

Small scale autonomous swimming devices

Developing and investigating a wide range of miniaturised devices that can produce motion in fluid environments, with potential to enable healthcare applications in diagnostics and drug delivery.

Self-optimising manufacturing processes

Developing self-optimising coating processes to make structured materials with applications in optoelectronics, energy generation and storage.

News

October 2023 Published a new paper in Advanced Science on the surprising motion of fully symmetrically catalytically active colloids. 

January 2023 I welcomed a new PhD student, Nur Azali to my research group.  Nur will be working on colloidal crystals with mixtures of active and passive particles.

October 2022 I welcomed a new PhD student, Chris Passmore, to my research group.  Chris will be working on making high value coatings for energy storage and generation.

January 2022
I have just published a new paper in the Journal of Colloids and Interface Science (Open), describing printable motion sensors for water quality monitoring.

November 2021
In conjunction with Dr Caroline Evans, we have launched a IN-PART profile detailing the potential for stirring devices developed from a previous EPSRC fellowship to be used for a range of new applications.

October 2021
My PhD student Alice Kirvin passed her viva with minor corrections and published her first research paper in Materials Advances, reporting the ability to make rotating micron scale ellipsoidal swimming devices.

Alice holding research paper

April 2021
My former PhD student Luke is now Dr Luke Price, having passed his viva and submitted the final version of his thesis 'Transition metal catalysts anchored to TiO2 nanoparticles by functionalised bipyridine ligands for the purpose of CO2 reduction'.