Dr Marijana Dragosavac

MEng, MSc, PhD

  • Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering
  • UG Admissions Tutor
  • IChemE Representative

Research groups and centres

headshot of Marijana

Background:

Marijana Dragosavac graduated with an MEng degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Novi Sad (Serbia). She worked for a Danish company Aker Kvaerner (Vapour Recovery Systems) and a Serbian engineering company Worldtech both in the oil and gas industry before starting an MSc at the Department of Chemical Engineering in Serbia. This was followed by her work as a Teaching and Research Assistant at the same Chemical Engineering Department in Serbia. Marijana moved to the United Kingdom to start a PhD on Particle formulation using membrane emulsification at 91制片厂. In 2011 she finished her PhD and for a year working as a Knowledge Transfer Associate for Micropore Technologies Ltd., Hatton, UK. In 2012 Marijana was appointed to a lectureship in Chemical Engineering here at 91制片厂 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2017.

Qualifications:

  • 2011 PhD in Chemical Engineering, 91制片厂, UK, Thesis title: Membrane Emulsification for engineered particle production, Supervisors: Professor R.G Holdich and Dr G.T. Vladisavljevi膰
  • 2008 M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Supervisors: Professor Milan Sovilj and Dr G.T. Vladisavljevi膰
  • 2004 MEng in Chemical Engineering, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Supervisor: Dr Darko Krsti膰

Key awards:

  • Formulation Prize at 11th UK Particle Technology Forum, 91制片厂, UK, 4-5 April 2012.
  • Best oral presentation at the PSA 2011 conference, Edinburgh, 5-7th September 2011.
  • Best poster presentation at the DIAMOND conference, York, 14-16. December 2010.

Outline of main research interests

My research expertise lies in the broad field of advanced particulate manufacturing, with a focus on manufacturing particulate material using the dispersion route in which dispersed liquid drops are polymerised as a way of tailoring the properties of the resulting material using novel operating techniques. I have established a national and increasingly international reputation specifically in:

  • Application of a new type of microfiltration membrane and new techniques for generating the shear on the membrane surface provides the possibility to generate larger droplets without the risk of droplet breakage.
  • Understanding at a fundamental level the factors that control particle size made using such techniques.
  • Continuous droplet production and, therefore, continuous particle production using a novel membrane emulsification system. This type of system is an ideal starting point for continuous particle production and it may be adapted to many different types of particles.
  • Control of internal structure and encapsulation of shear and temperature-sensitive compounds.

These topics are inherently connected to the major health and well-being, the future of manufacturing and environmental challenges that are anticipated to attract more funding during the next few years:

  • Production of highly uniform spherical inorganic particles with tuneable internal structure
  • Coacervation
  • Formulation
  • Surface functionalization
  • Microencapsulation
  • Controlled release
  • Membrane emulsification
  • Sorption and Ion exchange
  • Emulsions

Grants and contracts:

  • 2017-present PI, First Grant, Tailoring the micro- and meso-porosity of spherical silica particles using nano/microbubbles as templates, EPSRC, Agilent industrial collaborator, £100k.
  • 2015-present Co-I, Distinctive project, PI – Leeds University, EPSRC, Sellafield industrial collaborator, total value £4.9m, value to LU £160k.
  • 2014-present PI, Competitive - Graduate School Individual Studentship, LU, ~£56k.
  • 2013 PI, Competitive - LU Collaborative Research Initiative, AACME, £5k.
  • 2012 PI, Competitive - Leadership grant, 91制片厂, £1.6k.

Teaching responsibilities:

  • Stagewise processes (CGA002)
  • Instrumentation and Control Laboratory (CGB014)
  • Literature review (CGC037 & CGC044)

Administrative responsibilities:

  • Admissions Tutor for Chemical Engineering undergraduate courses
  • IChemE Representative for the Chemical Engineering department

Selected publications:

Holdich, R., Dragosavac, M., Williams, B., Trotter, S. (2020) High throughput membrane emulsification using a single-pass annular flow crossflow membrane. AIChE Journal, 66(6). 

Pu, X., Wolf, B., Dragosavac, M. (2019) Generation of magnesium enriched water-in-oil-in-water food emulsions by stirred cell membrane emulsification. Journal of Food Engineering, 247. 

Holdich, R., Schou, K., Dragosavac, M., Kellet, S., Bandulasena, H. (2018) A comparison of azimuthal and axial oscillation microfiltration using surface and matrix types of microfilters with a cake-slurry shear plane exhibiting non-Newtonian behaviour. Journal of Membrane Science, 550. 

Morelli, S., Holdich, R.G., Dragosavac, M.M. (2017) Microparticles for cell encapsulation and colonic delivery produced by membrane emulsification. Journal of Membrane Science, 524. 

Morelli, S., Holdich, R.G., Dragosavac, M.M. (2016) Chitosan and Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) microparticles produced by membrane emulsification for encapsulation and pH controlled release. Chemical Engineering Journal, 288. 

Silva, P.S., Dragosavac, M.M., Vladisavljevi膰, G.T., Bandulasena, H.C.H., Holdich, R.G., Stillwell, M., Williams, B. (2015) Azimuthally oscillating membrane emulsification for controlled droplet production. AIChE Journal, 61(11). 

Santos, J., Vladisavljevi膰, G.T., Holdich, R.G., Dragosavac, M.M., Muñoz, J. (2015) Controlled production of eco-friendly emulsions using direct and premix membrane emulsification. Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 98. 

 

External links:

  • Nottingham University (Production of W/O/W emulsions)
  • Institute on Membrane Technology, National Research Council, Italy (Polycaprolactone multicore-matrix particle for the simultaneous encapsulation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds produced by membrane emulsification and solvent diffusion processes; )
  • Unicamp Campinas, Brazil (Palm oil encapsulation using membrane emulsification and spray drying)
  • Departamento de Engenharia e Tecnologia de Alimentos UNESP - Campus de São José do Rio Preto, Brazil (Microcapsule formation using complex coacervation)
  • Agilent, Ltd. UK (Inorganic particles)
  • Ashland ltd, UK (Complex coacervation)
  • Halcrest Ltd., UK (Complex coacervation)

External roles and appointments:

  • Fellow of Higher education (19/5/2015).
  • Member of the Bioencapsulation Group.
  • Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
  • Member of IChemE.

Invited lectures:

  • December, 2017: Continuous Encapsulation, Innovation in Encapsulation, London, UK.
  • November, 2017: Encapsulation by Membrane Emulsification, 3rd Latin Microencapsulation Conference, Temuco, Chile
  • September, 2017: Formulation by Membrane emulsification, 9th Microencapsulation school, Berlin, Germany
  • May, 2017: Encapsulation by Membrane Emulsification, 25th Bioencapsulation Conference
  • September 2016:  Formulation by Membrane emulsification, 8th Microencapsulation school, Cork, Ireland.
  • September, 2015: Formulation by Membrane emulsification, Summer School on the use of Membranes, Cetraro, Italy
  • October, 2014: Membrane emulsification, MSc program at AgroPariTech, France.
  • September, 2014: Encapsulation of oil in fish gelatin/gumarabic, 23rd Bioencapsulation Conference, Bratislava, Slovakia