SoftMatter@interfaces
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
Ph: +44 117 455 9119; email: wuge.briscoe@bristol.ac.uk
Dr. Tao Ma
As an EPSRC-IAA PDRA, Tao is interested in sustainable grease with potential use for offshore wind turbines. Tao skilfully timed his PhD thesis defence - passing with flying colours - just before the group Christmas dinner in Dec 2025.
Originally from the walled ancient captial of Xi'an not far from the 1st Chinese Emperor's terracotta warriors, Tao is trusted for his regular updates on new Chinese restaurants within ~100 m of the chemistry building, as for his expertise on the UMT Tribometer. Whilst he regularly flees the small island of England to travel across Europe (probably sampling exotic Chinese restaurants), Tao does declare his love for the relatively cool climate of Bristol compared to the temperature at home which could turn warriors into terracotta at times...
PhD Research: Robust Self-Lubricating Physically Cross-Linked Alginate Hydrogels Embedded with Liposomes
​​
​Supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and the University of Bristol, Tao desgined and fabricated Lipogels - alginate hydrogels incorporating liposomes - using a facile method, which demonstrated superb under water lubricating efficacy. Tao tortured the hydrogels with a range of physical methods to extract mechanical properties and notably used small-angle scattering (SANS) to establish the classic de Gennens mesh size of the gels.