Sibu Chullanayil Padmanabhan Associated Investigator

Dr Sibu Padmanabhan holds a MSc in Applied Chemistry and a PhD in Inorganic/Materials Science from the Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala, India. He then joined as the IRCSET post-doctoral fellow at the School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin from 2005 to 2018. He joined back at the AMBER Centre in Trinity College Dublin in February 2020 after completing research fellow positions at Tyndall National Institute and University College Cork. He has authored over 25 research papers and more than 30 conference presentations in multidisciplinary fields of materials science, have 1 patent, and 4 IDFs mainly centred around the sustainable development of composite and bio-composite materials and coatings that has potential in food and medical device packaging, as super-absorbents, and for drug delivery and energy applications.

His current research activities are mainly based around the sustainable development of materials including bio-(nano)composite coatings and standalone materials (including films) for food preservation, biomedical implant surface modification and energy applications. A recent example is the production of biopolymers such as chitosan and polyhydroxyalkanoates from low-grade food waste through a common food eating fly larvae route and further modification of the biopolymers to produce added-value products. He is also currently leading a pilot plant demonstration project to produce roll-to-roll food and medical device packaging films that significantly reduce the use of multilayer films and thus address some of the challenges in recycling of plastic packaging films.