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Andrea Laybourn
She/her
University of Leeds
Contact Information
Email Address
A.Laybourn@leeds.ac.ukBiography
Dr Andrea Laybourn (she/her) is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Associate Professor of Sustainable Materials Manufacture at the University of Leeds. She holds an MChem in Medicinal Chemistry with Pharmacology (2008) and a PhD in Materials Chemistry (2012) from the University of Liverpool, where she explored amorphous porous polymers using solid-state NMR.
After completing her doctorate, she conducted postdoctoral research on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) at the University of Nottingham. In 2012, she was awarded a Nottingham Research Fellowship to develop continuous flow microwave synthesis of MOFs and later served as Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Engineering (2019–2024). In 2023, she received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Barrer Award for her pioneering contributions to the sustainable synthesis of porous materials.
In 2024, Dr Laybourn secured a prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to develop AI-driven, self-optimising continuous flow microwave technologies for the production of porous materials. She joined the School of Chemistry at Leeds in 2025 as part of the Institute of Process Research and Development and the Digital and Sustainable Chemistry Section.
Research
Project Title
Engineering porous materials with precisely targeted properties using AI-driven self-optimising continuous flow microwave technologiesProject Summary
To transform the way porous materials are discovered, optimised, and scaled up. I will achieve this by developing AI-guided enabling technologies and delivering new mechanistic understanding, providing more sustainable and faster production of materials for any targeted application.
Research Discipline(s)
Materials Engineering, Inorganic Chemistry, Macromolecular and Materials ChemistryResearch Interests
Chemistry, EngineeringI'm passionate about....
Research Councils
EPSRC, NERC, MRCRelevance to UN Sustainable Development Goals
13. Climate Action: Regulating and reducing emissions and promoting renewable energy,3. Good Health and Wellbeing: Better, more accessible health systems to increase life-expectancy,
6. Clean Water and Sanitation: Improving access for billions of people who lack these basic facilities,
7. Affordable and Clean Energy: Access to renewable, safe and widely available energy sources for all