Rate My Professor Peter Ireland

Dr. Peter Ireland is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Born in May 1975 in Sydney, he obtained his B.Sc. (Physics Honours) from the University of Sydney in 1997 and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the same university in 2002, focusing on the impact fracture of glass. After serving as a full-time carer for his two children, he joined the Centre for Multiphase Processes at the University of Newcastle in mid-2004. He has since become affiliated with the Priority Research Centre for Advanced Particle Processing and the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources. At the end of 2015, he began an ongoing academic position in the Discipline of Chemical Engineering within the School of Engineering. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Data Science from the University of New South Wales. Ireland teaches courses including CHEE3920 Coal and Mineral Processing, CHEE2825 Chemical Engineering Laboratory 1, and CHEE2695 Energy Transfer and Technologies.

Ireland's research interests center on the fundamental and applied physics of processes relevant to the minerals, pharmaceutical, food, and environmental sectors. His expertise includes electrostatics and the interactions of liquids and interfaces with solids and particles, with specific focus areas in triboelectrification, foams and flotation, and liquid marbles and liquid-particle aggregates. From 2006 to 2010, he led the Triboelectric Separation project within the Australian Minerals Science Research Institute, funded by the Australian Research Council and AMIRA International. He served as the sole Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery project titled 'Mass transport mechanisms in aqueous foam.' Between 2012 and 2015, he held an ARC Future Fellowship on 'Tribocharging and Triboelectric Separation.' He was Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery Projects with Professor Kevin Galvin on 'A paradigm shift in the hydrodynamics of ion flotation' (2017-2020) and with Professors Erica Wanless and Grant Webber on 'Electrostatic formation of liquid marbles.' Currently, he is the lead Chief Investigator for the Dry Electrostatic Processing project within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals. His achievements include the Young Author Award at the XXV International Mineral Processing Congress in Brisbane (2010) and the Young Scientist Award from the European Working Party 'Static Electricity in Industry' at the 11th International Conference on Electrostatics in Valencia (2009). Key publications encompass 'Triboelectrification of particulate flows on surfaces: Part I—Experiments' (Powder Technology, 2010), 'Triboelectrification of particulate flows on surfaces: Part II—Mechanisms and models' (Powder Technology, 2010), 'Electrostatic formation of liquid marbles and agglomerates' (Applied Physics Letters, 2013), 'Modelling dense particle streams during free-fall electrostatic separation' (Powder Technology, 2024), and 'Electrostatic Adsorption Behaviors of Polymer Plates to a Droplet' (Langmuir, 2023). His work demonstrates significant impact through highly cited contributions to particle processing and electrostatics.