Ban Alkhairalla is Daphne Jackson Fellow at the University of Leeds in the School of Physics and Astronomy.

Ban has a BSc in Physics from the University of Leeds, and went on to do her PhD also at the University of Leeds in the same subject, where she focused on liquid crystal self-assembled monolayers. Developing skills in preparing samples on a nano scale and using a variety of laser generated apparatus, Ban published two significant papers as first author and had a publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

Returning now to her research after a break of 22 years, Ban will build upon her research background and apply this to novel liquid-crystal lipid monolayers.

Sponsored by the Royal Society her project is titled: Liquid Crystal deformation: A new reporting mechanism for diagnosing infections