Professor Iseult Lynch PhD, MBA

Professor Iseult Lynch

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor of Environmental Nanosciences
Theme lead for Environmental Sciences
Director of Research for Environmental Research and Justice (CERJ)

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 5532
Email
i.lynch@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Iseult Lynch is an Associate Editor for Environmental Science: Nano, and Deputy director for the Facility for Environmental Nanomaterials Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC) at the University of Birmingham.  Her research focuses on the environmental interactions of nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces with biological entities from macromolecules to organisms.

She has a very broad overview of all aspects of nanomaterials safety assessment and the data requirements, having served as Chair of the EU Nanosafety Cluster Working Group (NSC WG) on databases for two years (and as co-Chair of the Hazed WG prior to that), as well as being theme editor for the Materials and classification section of the NSC Vision2020 research roadmap (under review for publication in June 2013). Prior to the University of Birmingham she was Strategic Research Manager at the Centre for BioNano Interactions in University College Dublin, where she was instrumental in the development and implementation of numerous large EU-funded projects.

Iseult is part of the Birmingham Plastics Network, an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 academics working together to shape the fate and sustainable future of plastics.  This unique team brings together chemists, environmental scientists, philosophers, linguists, economists, and experts in many other fields, to holistically address the global plastics problem.

Qualifications

BSc. (Hons) Chemistry (1995)

PhD (Chemistry, 2000)

MBA (2012)

Teaching

Professor Lynch is the undergraduate admissions tutor for Environmental Science.

Leads and contributes to undergraduate modules on the following topics:

  • molecules and materials
  • environmental protection
  • environmental pollution

Deputy director of the MRes in Biological and Environmental Nanoscience, and module leader for the MRes module 'Biological and Environmental Nanoscience'.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Lynch’s research interests include:

Synthesis of novel materials for environmental applications - remediation, agriculture, solar desalination and more.
Nanoparticle interactions with biomolecules in the environment (natural organic matter, secreted proteins, organic pollutants, etc.) - the “eco-corona” and secondary pollutant effects
Determination of the fate and behavior of nanomaterials in the environment
Development of high throughput screening applications: nano(eco)toxicology, bionanointeractions and assessment of environmental fate of nanomaterials.
Nanoinformatics approaches for safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials.
FAIR data and data management workflows and tools. Ontology and metadata schema.

Research

Understanding the role of the bio-nano interface, and interactions with biomolecules, in determining nanoparticle fate and behaviour in the environment and for human health.

FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) data and approaches and tools to suppport FAIR data

Interactions between pollution, hydrology and climate change

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Micucci, G, Lewicka-Szczebak, D, Sgouridis, F, Well, R, Buchen-Tschiskale, C, McNamara, NP, Krause, S, Lynch, I, Roos, F & Ullah, S 2025, 'Combining the 15N Gas Flux Method and N2O Isotopocule Data for the Determination of Soil Microbial N2O Sources', Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, vol. 39, no. 6, e9971. https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.9971

Zouraris, D, Mavrogiorgis, A, Tsoumanis, A, Saarimäki, LA, del Giudice, G, Federico, A, Serra, A, Greco, D, Rouse, I, Subbotina, J, Lobaskin, V, Jagiello, K, Ciura, K, Judzinska, B, Mikolajczyk, A, Sosnowska, A, Puzyn, T, Gulumian, M, Wepener, V, Martinez, DST, Petry, R, El Yamani, N, Rundén-Pran, E, Murugadoss, S, Shaposhnikov, S, Minadakis, V, Tsiros, P, Sarimveis, H, Longhin, EM, SenGupta, T, Olsen, AKH, Skakalova, V, Hutar, P, Dusinska, M, Papadiamantis, AG, Gheorghe, LC, Reilly, K, Brun, E, Ullah, S, Cambier, S, Serchi, T, Tämm, K, Lorusso, C, Dondero, F, Melagrakis, E, Fraz, MM, Melagraki, G, Lynch, I & Afantitis, A 2025, 'CompSafeNano project: NanoInformatics approaches for safe-by-design nanomaterials', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, vol. 29, pp. 13-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2024.12.024

Wang, X, Wu, K, Ning, P, Guo, Z, Zhang, P, Wu, L & Lynch, I 2025, 'Construction of glycine modified NZVI@gelatin aerogel for high efficient activation of dissolved oxygen towards catalytic degradation of tetracycline', Journal of Water Process Engineering, vol. 72, 107438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2025.107438

Jiang, M, Wang, X, Han, R, Ning, P, Lynch, I & Ma, J 2025, 'Establishing photocatalysis-self-Fenton system over a S-scheme Fe/Fe2O3@CuBi2O4 for enhancing TC removal via in-situ generating H2O2 and Fe/Cu dual-metal electron cycle: Radical and non-radical pathways', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 354, no. Part 2, 128675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2024.128675

Chakraborty, S, Dhumal, P, Guo, Z, Gifford, ML & Lynch, I 2025, 'From soil to table: How safe and sustainable by design MOFs can revolutionize agriculture and food security', Matter, vol. 8, 102095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2025.102095

Exner, TE, Dokler, J, Friedrichs, S, Seitz, C, Bleken, FL, Friis, J, Hagelien, TF, Mercuri, F, Costa, AL, Furxhi, I, Sarimveis, H, Afantitis, A, Marvuglia, A, Larrea-Gallegos, GM, Serchi, T, Serra, A, Greco, D, Nymark, P, Himly, M, Wiench, K, Watzek, N, Schillinger, E-K, Gavillet, J, Lynch, I, Karwath, A, Haywood, AL, Gkoutos, GV & Hischier, R 2025, 'Going digital to boost safe and sustainable materials innovation markets. The digital safe-and-sustainability-by-design innovation approach of the PINK project', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, vol. 29, pp. 110-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2025.03.019

Serra, A, Zouraris, D, Schaffert, A, Torres Maia, M, Tsiros, P, Virmani, I, Di Lieto, E, Saarimäki, LA, Morikka, J, Riudavets-Puig, R, Varsou, D-D, Papavasileiou, KD, Kolokathis, PD, Mintis, DG, Tzoupis, H, Tsoumanis, A, Melagraki, G, Arvanitidis, A, Doganis, P, Minadakis, V, Savvas, G, Perello-Y-Bestard, A, Cucurachi, S, Buljan, M, Nikiforou, F, Karakoltzidis, A, Karakitsios, S, Sarigiannis, DA, Friedrichs, S, Seitz, C, Gutierrez, TN, Isigonis, P, Cambier, S, Marvuglia, A, Lindner, GG, Sergent, J-A, Gheorghe, LC, Bradford, L-JA, Park, S-G, Ha, SM, Gerelkhuu, Z, Yoon, TH, Petry, R, Martinez, DST, Winkler, DA, Wick, P, Exner, TE, Dondero, F, Serchi, T, Peijnenburg, W, Sarimveis, H, Paparella, M, Lynch, I, Afantitis, A & Greco, D 2025, 'INSIGHT: An integrated framework for safe and sustainable chemical and material assessment', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, vol. 29, pp. 125-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2025.03.042

Punz, B, Brajnik, M, Dokler, J, Amos, JD, Johnson, L, Reilly, K, Papadiamantis, AG, Etxabe, AG, Walker, L, Martinez, DST, Friedrichs, S, Weltring, KM, Günday-Türeli, N, Svendsen, C, Hendren, CO, Wiesner, MR, Himly, M, Lynch, I & Exner, TE 2025, 'Instance maps as an organising concept for complex experimental workflows as demonstrated for (nano)material safety research', Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, vol. 16, pp. 57–77. https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.16.7, https://doi.org/10.3762/bxiv.2024.26.v1

Wang, X, Wang, J, Wu, X, Ning, P & Lynch, I 2025, 'Intrinsic linkage of double S-scheme heterojunctions based on Fe@Bi2MoO6@BiOI construction for photodegradation of tetracyclines: Enhanced antibiotic mineralization and detoxification', Environmental Research, vol. 277, 121575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.121575

Subbotina, J, Kolokathis, PD, Tsoumanis, A, Sidiropoulos, NK, Rouse, I, Lynch, I, Lobaskin, V & Afantitis, A 2025, 'UANanoDock: A Web-Based UnitedAtom Multiscale Nanodocking Tool for Predicting Protein Adsorption onto Nanoparticles', Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, vol. 65, no. 7, pp. 3142–3153. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.4c02292

Friedrichs, S, Seitz, C, Bleeker, E, Vandebriel, R, Ouhajji, S, Duistermaat, E, Wiemann, M, Vennemann, A, Katsumiti, A, Buerki-Thurnherr, T, Gupta, G, Wick, P, Ortiz-Galvez, LM, Wu, J, Weltring, K-M, Haase, D, Heunisch, E, Pohl, A, Reilly, K, Guo, Z, Lynch, I, Exner, T, Hagenhoff, B & Breitenstein, D 2025, 'MACRAMÉ - Advanced characterisation methodologies to assess and predict the health and environmental risks of advanced materials', Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, vol. 29, pp. 95-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2025.03.032

Han, R, Wang, X, Jiang, M, Lynch, I, Ma, J & Ning, P 2025, 'One-step self-assembled ZIF-derived flower-like carbon enhances reactivity of zero-valent iron during persulfate activation', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 356, 129844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2024.129844

Tsiros, P, Chimarios, N, Zouraris, D, Tsoumanis, A, Sarimveis, H, Melagraki, G, Lynch, I & Afantitis, A 2025, 'Optimizing nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery: insights from compartmental modeling via the CompSafeNano cloud platform', RSC Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4su00686k

Comment/debate

Chakraborty, S, Menon, D, Mikulska, I, Pfrang, C, Fairen-Jimenez, D, Misra, SK & Lynch, I 2025, 'Make metal–organic frameworks safe and sustainable by design for industrial translation', Nature Reviews Materials. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00774-6

Letter

Chakraborty, S, Drexel, R, Bhadane, P, Langford, N, Dhumal, P, Meier, F & Lynch, I 2025, 'An integrated multimethod approach for size-specific assessment of potentially toxic element adsorption onto micro- and nanoplastics: implications for environmental risk', Nanoscale, vol. 17, no. 15, pp. 9122-9136. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5nr00353a, https://doi.org/10.1039/d5nr00353a

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Nanomaterials in the environment (as well as food, cosmetics, consumer products, nanomedicines, nanopesticides etc.); nanomaterials transformations; nanomaterials fate and behaviour; nanomaterials eco/toxicology; Nanosafety assessment; nanoregulation; nanogovernance; Microplastics; nanoplastics; Open data