Professor Mike Adams joined the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham in 2004. He was previously a Senior Scientist with Unilever R&D. His research interests include product engineering, particle technology, soft solids properties and processing, materials science, interfacial engineering, tribology and adhesion, and fibre science.

He is Project Leader for a DTI funded MNP project (£1.5 m) involving five industrial partners and aimed at developing MEMS based equipment for high throughput screening of the rheological properties of structured fluids.

He is also the Project Co-ordinator for an EU funded (4.5 m euro) STREP project. The aim of this project is to construct an artificial finger with tactile functionality using biomimetic engineering and information processing principles. He has published about 160 scientific papers and co-edited four books on ‘Tribology in Particulate Technology’, ‘Theoretical and Computational Methods in Tribology’, ‘Solid-Solid Interactions’ and ‘Dynamics of Complex Fluids’.

In 1999, he was awarded the Donald Julius Groen Prize by the IMechE for outstanding achievements in the tribology of complex materials.

He is currently Champion of the Molecules & Materials Collaborative Research Network and a major component of this role is to foster interdisciplinary research across the campus. He is also Coordinator for the MSc course on Advanced Chemical Engineering.

Other activites

• Lead Assessor for Process Engineering, Royal Academy of Engineering Standing Committee for Research & Secondment Schemes
• Member of the EPSRC Engineering College
• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Powder Technology
• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Tribology International
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Process Engineering

Current & Past Projects, PhD projects:

• On finite element modelling of surface tension phenomena.
• Mechanics of granular interactions.
• Numerical and experimental studies in the mixing of particulate solids.
• Shear wave studies of boundary layer lubrication.
• Nano-indentation of particulate and polymer films.
• The application of oscillation to the deformation of an elasto-viscoplastic material.
• The micromechanics of wet particulate materials.
• Extrusion of powders.
• Erosion cleaning.
• Constrained deformation of pastes.
• Adhesion and traction of complex viscoelastic solids.
• Micromechanics of agglomerate damage processes.
• Paste rheology.
• Computer simulation of moist agglomerate collisions.
• Deformation of soft plastic solids by rigid walls.
• The strength of agglomerates and their breakage during fluidisation’
• Numerical modelling of agglomerate degradation.
• Statistical character of monofilament friction.