I became Professor of Interfacial Science & Engineering (and Director of Chemical Engineering 2020-2024) in Edinburgh in 2020 after eight years at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle where I was first Executive Dean of the Faculty of  Engineering & Environment and then Pro Vice-Chancellor (REF). Prior to that I spent twenty two years as as an academic at Nottingham Trent University where I was a Professor and Head of the Research & Graduate School (Science & Technology) in the College of Arts & Science and formerly Head of Physics & Mathematics. In my earlier career I held a Royal Society European Fellowship at the University of Paris VI (Pierre et Marie Curie) and both gained a PhD in Applied Mathematics and was awarded a BSc (Hons) First Class in Mathematical Physics by the University of Nottingham.

My research involves wetting, interfacial science and engineering and is undertaken as part of the Institute for Multiscale Thermofluids. It has attracted many funding awards including over twenty RCUK/EPSRC grants, mainly as Principal Investigator, and including both an EPSRC Platform Grant (awarded only to world-leading groups) and an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training. I have published over 200 refereed journal papers, which are cited ca. 1200 times annually (Google Scholar), and have been awarded seven patents. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (FRSA), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academic (FHEA), a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (F.Inst.P), a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (SMIEE) and a member of the International Society of Bionic Engineering (MISBE).  I am a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College and lead a UK Fluids Network Special Interest Group. I have previously been a Board Member of the Award Winning BIM Academy Enterprises Ltd, an Editorial Board member of Advances in Colloid & Interface Science, a UK Management Committee representative on COST Actions, and I was a member of sub-panel 13 for "Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials" for the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2014).

• Mathematical Physics BSc (Hons) First Class (University of Nottingham, 1983)
• Applied Mathematics PhD (University of Nottingham, 1986)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA, 2017)
• Chartered Physicist (CPhys) and Fellow Institute of Physics (FInstP, 2002)
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA, 2007)
• Senior Member Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (SMIEEE, 2002)
• Member of the International Society of Bionic Engineering (MISBE, 2019)

• Year 3 Chemical Engineering Laboratories
• Year 4 Chemical Engineering Study Project
• Year 5 MEng Research Project

Areas of research include smart and advanced materials, functional surfaces, static and dynamic wetting of surfaces (theory and experiment) and acoustic waves (fundamentals and sensor applications. These are encompassed within three broad categories,

• Interfacial Science and Engineering
• Smart Materials and Surfaces
• Wetting, Dewetting and Droplet Friction

Applications include heat and mass transfer, evaporation and condensation, friction and drag reduction, and fluid dynamics and microfluidic systems.

Research Themes:

• Nature-Inspired Surface Engineering: Natural surfaces, such as the Lotus Leaf and Nepenthes Pitcher plant, and natural systems such as galling aphids, are used as inspiration for self-cleaning, phase change (evaporation and condensation) systems, anti-fouling and anti-icing/de-icing;
• Wetting, Dewetting and Fluids: Video-microscopy and flow systems are used to study the interaction and evolution of liquids on surfaces. These surfaces have different geometries (planar, fiber, etc), can be smooth or patterned and can be smart and functional surfaces;
• Superhydrophobic, Superwetting and Slippery Surfaces: Lithography, electrodeposition and etching to sculpture surfaces at the nano- and micro-level is used to obtain extreme water repellency, imbibition beyond that which chemistry alone can deliver or superslippery lubricant impregnated surfaces (SLIPS) which reduce friction and drag increasing efficiency and minimising energy loss;
• Electrowetting, Dielectrowetting and Liquid Optics: Liquid surfaces are shaped and droplets are controlled using electrostatic forces to create programmable diffraction gratings and lenses;
• Acoustic and Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors: High frequency vibrations of quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) and surface acoustic wave devices (SAWs) are used to probe liquid properties, and the solid-liquid and solid-vapour interfaces with selectivity achieved via surface coatings.

Selected Publications:

1. McHale, G., Alderson, A., et al. Transforming Auxetic Metamaterials into Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Small Structures 5, 2300458 (2024).
2. Erbil, H.Y. & McHale, G. Droplet Evaporation on Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Applied Physics Letters 123, 080501 (2023).
3. McHale, G., et al. Friction Coefficients for Droplets on Solids: The Liquid-Solid Amontonos' Laws, Langmuir 38, 4425-4433 (2022).
4. Zh, Y., McHale, G., et al. Slippery Liquid-like Solid Surfaces with Promising AntiBiofilm Performance under both Static and Flow Conditions, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 14, 6307-6319 (2022).
5. McHale, G., & Hardt, S. Flow and Drop Transport Along Liquid-Infused Surfaces. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 54, 83-104 (2022).
6. Armstrong, S., McHale, G., Ledesma-Aguilar, R. & Wells, G. G. Pinning-Free Evaporation of Sessile Droplets of Water from Solid Surfaces. Langmuir 35, 2989–2996 (2019).
7. Li, J. et al. Topological Liquid Diode. Science Advances 3, eaao3530 (2017).
8. McHale, G. Wetting Properties of Surfaces and Drag Reduction. in Non-wettable Surfaces: Theory, Preparation and Applications (eds. Ras, R. & Marmur, A.) 253–279 (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017).
9.  Wells, G. G., Ledesma-Aguilar, R., McHale, G. & Sefiane, K. A Sublimation Heat Engine. Nature Communications 6, 6390 (2015).
10. McHale, G., Brown, C. V. & Sampara, N. Voltage-induced Spreading and Superspreading of Liquids. Nature Communications 4, 1605 (2013).

Current/Recent Research Funding:

1. RPG-2024-339 Understanding the Motion and Adhesion of Complex Fluids on Engineered Surfaces (UoE P)
2. RPG-2022-140 Fluid Mechanics of Wettability-Patterned Liquid Surfaces (C)
3. EP/V049348/1 Biofilm Resistant Liquid-like Solid Surfaces in Flow Situations (P)
4. EP/T025158 Wetting of Auxetic Metamaterials (P)
5. EP/S023836/1 EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Renewable Energy Northeast Universities (ReNU) (P)
6. EP/R036837/1 Dynamic Dewetting: Designing and Breaking Novel Morphologies of Liquid Films (P)
7. EP/P005896/1 New Engineering Concepts from Phase Transitions: A Leidenfrost Engine (P)
8. EP/P018998/1 Thin Film Acoustic Wave Platform for Conformable and Mechanically Flexible Biosensors (C)
9. EP/L026899/1  Lubricating Channel and Tube Flows - Fluid Sheathing using Textured Walls (P)
10. EP/K014803/1 Dielectrowetting: Controlling Oleo- and Hydrophilicity and Shaping Liquid Surfaces (P)
11. EP/I016414/1  Smart Materials - Designing for Functionality (P)
12. EP/H000704/1 Particle based superhydrophobic surfaces: Lab models-to-field sample behaviour (P)
13. EP/G057265/1 Engineering of surfaces for drag reduction in water with validation using computational and experimental methods (P)

• ORCID
• Google Scholar
• LinkedIn
• ResearchGate
• UK Fluids Network (Droplet and Flow Interactions with Bio-Inspired and Smart Surfaces)
• EPSRC Grants on the Web
• Natures Raincoats Public Understanding Website
• Wetting, Interfacial Science and Engineering Group Website

Enquiries are welcome from potential PhD students

• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College
• International Conference Advisory Board Nature Inspired Surface Engineering (NISE) and previously Electrowetting Workshop Series, Droplets Conference Series.
• International Visiting Professor, Hubei University, China
• Member of the Advisory Board for the Key Lab in Bionic Engineering, Jilin University, China
• REF2014 Sub-Panel Member UoA13 Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials

Director of Discipline - Chemical Engineering (July 2020-Dec 2023)