Seigo Masuda is a PhD student working under Dr Alexandra Porter and Professor Milo Shaffner to achieve multi-scale characterisation of 2D nano-materials in the environment for assessment of their potential hazards (since 2017). He was born in Japan before coming to the UK to complete his secondary education at Harrow School, and have graduated from the University of Edinburgh with MChem in 2017. He has research experiences in AFM, Isothermal Microcalorimetry, and Hyperspectral Imaging from his time at P&G and the University of Edinburgh. His passion other than chemistry and material science is squash, which he plays professionally.

Alexandra Porter (AP) is a Reader in Bioimaging and Analysis at Imperial College London. She has pioneered work using and developing state-of-the art transmission electron microscopy techniques to image and analyse nanomaterials in complex environments. She has published in high IF journals such as Nature Nanotech, PNAS, ACS Nano. Her group applies these techniques to characterize how ENMs are transformed in the environment and interact with cells. She holds an ERC individual investigator grant to investigate the mechanisms of action of engineered nanoparticles with neuronal cells and is the PI on a 1.25 M NERC grant on the environmental risk of nanomaterials. Visualizing carbon nanomaterials such as graphene oxide within cells is extremely challenging due to the low inherent contrast and the demands on spatial resolution. She has showed for the first time that it is possible to image individual and bundles of C60 and single-walled nanotubes within cells using analytical electron microscopy. Her work in this field has been highlighted as Editor’s Choice in Nature on two occasions.

Milo Shaffer (MS) is Professor of Materials Chemistry at Imperial College and co-Director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology. He works on synthesis, modification, characterisation, and multiscale assembly of high aspect ratio nanoparticles (particularly nanocarbons). These materials enable (multifunctional) applications including hierarchical structural composites and electrochemical devices, as well as collaborations studying biological interactions. The interactions with proteins depend critically on the chemistry and dimensionality; cellular interactions have been explored for fundamental, medical, and nanotoxicological purposes, in a multi-million pound US NIEHS project (with AP). MS has previously spent time working as a consultant in new technology development and exploitation, and has ~20 patent applications, 9 licensed commercially. He has published >160 articles: >12000 citations, h=50. He was awarded the RSC Meldola Medal (2005), EPSRC Leadership Fellowship (2008), and RSC Corday-Morgan Prize (2014).