LIFD Early Career Researcher spotlight: Danny Blundell

Thesis Title

Distribution of microbial pathogens in aerosols and the implications for airborne transmission

School/Faculty

CDT in Fluid Dynamics, School of Computer Science

Supervisors

Prof Catherine Noakes, Dr Louise Fletcher, Dr Marco-Felipe King and Prof Martín López-García

Tell us a bit about yourself

I graduated from Keele University in 2020 with a degree in Maths and Physics, I then completed the Gravity Particles and Fields MSc at the University of Nottingham in 2022. I joined the Fluid Dynamics CDT as it seemed an almost tailor made fit for a combined honours student and allowed some serious time to think about what kind of PhD project I wanted to do during the first year of the program. Outside of the office I’m generally doing anything to get into the great outdoors.

What is your research about?

My project is about understanding airborne transmission, specifically how microorganisms are distributed into different sizes of aerosols/droplets that are generated by our respiratory system. To do this I’ve had to review large amounts of research conducted both before and during the pandemic to find what we know already from experimental methods and what we might be able to do with that information in a meta-analysis. I’m now looking to apply these finding to CFD simulations to see what the implications of these different distributions are to infection prevention.

What did you wish you knew before starting a PhD?

That even in an environment filled with very intelligent bright people, no matter how well reasoned and thought out you PhD plan and expectations are, it’s probably going to change and that that is okey. Its best the measure your progress by what you’ve done and how well you’ve don’t it rather then by what you ‘should have done by now’ or ‘how to get back on track’.