Materials Science and Engineering, hydrogels, polymers, sustainable carbon materials, lignin and hyaluronic acid

My teaching interests include polymers for biomedical Devices (MT6061), Polymer Therapeutics - (MT6062) and Materials Processing (MT6063) and Materials Technology (MT4905). My teaching philosophy incorporates two core beliefs: 1) effective communication between instructor and student is vital, and 2) learning in engineering is an iterative process of theoretical study and application. It is through these principles that I reach my teaching goalto provide an environment that allows students to take initiative in their education, and in which every student, comes away with an understanding of core biomedical engineering concepts. This is accomplished through creating interest in the classroom by a research led teaching approach which relates theoretical concepts to state-of-the-art research approaches within the field of materials engineering. My teaching is influenced by my research work in tissue mechanics, regenerative medicine, cell/matrix interactions, materials characterisation, orthopaedic mechanics and tissue scaffold design. I encourage students to engage with course material through class presentations. My experience has shown that when students engage in class presentations they generally work harder to understand the material, recall it more accurately, apply it more effectively and tend to score higher on tests than students who are learning only for their own sake 

Prof Maurice N. Collins is a Professor in Materials Science and head of research and innovation in the School of Engineering at the University of Limerick. He is Pillar lead at the Bernal Institute, PI the Health Research Institute, FI at the SFI AMBER center based in Trinity College Dublin and Challenge lead in SFI Biorbic centre based at UCD. He led the H2020 funded LIBRE consortium (lignin for carbon fiber), the largest consortium in biobased carbon fibre research in Europe, and currently is WP leadandnbsp;on the following EU consortia (VIBES, BIOUPTAKE, BIONEER and CUBIC) as well as being PI on multiple national funded projects (Traceless, NXTGENWOOD, Valid). His expertise includes Regenerative medicine, hydrogels and biobased carbon fibre precursor materials as well as the development of 3D printable Polymers. Prof Collins has a strong track record in attracting industrially funded research projects including Mitsubishi Materials, Henkel, J&J, Pepsi etc. He has won in excess of 25 million in competitive funding with 13 years of continuous competitive EU funding (2016 - 2029). His industrial work has led to 2 licensing agreements and 9 patents filed. Coupled to this, he has authored 150 publications on Polymer Science related topics and his research has featured in various national and international media outlets. His research has been recognised through various awards including: Marie Curie Actions Award, Licencing Agreement Award, Best Journal Paper Award, Highlight Conference Paper Award, ISI highly cited award, Best oral presentations and UL Seed Funding. He is a reviewer for 40 international Journals. He sits on the editorial board of Carbohydrate Polymers. He is proposal assessor for the Polish Academy of Science, Austrian science foundation, Israeli Ministry of Science, German research council (DFG), EPSRC, H2020, Horizon Europe, and European Research Council etc. He has chaired sessions at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), European Society for Biomaterials and World Biomaterials Congress. Maurice lectures polymer therapeutics to postgraduate students and Tissue Engineering to Undergraduates. He currently supervises 15 PhD candidates, 8 postdocs and is Course Director for the MSc in Biomedical Device Materials. He served as editor of the international journal of biological macromolecules pfrom 2019 to 2023.He was recently awarded the Bernal Institute research leader of the year award. His work to date has led to > 11.5K citations with a h -index of 60 (Scholar). He is Fellow of the Royal Society of chemistry and Institute of materials, minerals and mining (IOM3). He gained Clarivate highly cited status in 2024.