Assistant Lecturer

Email: nicola.whilton@tudublin.ie

Nicola holds a first class honours degree in Chemistry with German from the University of East Anglia, UK and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bath, UK. Her PhD research covered the synthesis of nanocomposite and organically-functionalised inorganic layered materials using templated inorganic crystal growth and self-assembled materials systems.

She was awarded a Schloessman fellowship from the Max Planck Society and carried out postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Colloid and Interfacial Science in Berlin/Potsdam, Germany, and for a short while at Bristol University, UK. This period involved research on precious metal nanoparticle synthesis within polymer templates and on projects in collaboration with industrial and academic partners.

She then moved to industry and joined Unilever UK where she worked as a scientist on R&D projects supporting well-known home and personal care brands and exploring new and existing technologies for industrial application. She is a named inventor on a number of granted US and EP patents and during this career period also completed a post-graduate diploma in Science Communication from Birkbeck College, University College London, UK, consolidating a personal interest in the scientific method, science writing and communication and engagement in the public understanding of science.

She moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 2005 and worked as Patents Manager for Oriflame cosmetics at their R&D centre in Bray, Co. Wicklow for six years. Supporting innovation and product development teams she devised the company’s patent strategy and worked with external patent attorneys, company scientists and marketing teams on patent-related activities.

Since 2023 she has supervised early-undergraduate laboratories and delivered lectures for chemistry modules within the School of Food Science and Environmental Health and School of Chemical and Biopharmaceutical Sciences.