Flor studied chemical engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Prof. Enrique Bazua sparked her interest in thermodynamics, and she worked with him on her undergraduate dissertation that consisted on simulating a methanol plant and carrying out a thermodynamic analysis to identify potential areas of improvement.

After completing her studies, she worked briefly at the Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público (Mexican Ministry of Finances) in the area of prices and taxes for fuels and petrochemicals, before starting a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania where she worked with Prof. Alan Myers and Prof. Raymond Gorte on mixture gas adsorption.

Her interests in computational work led her to join Prof. Keith Gubbins group at North Carolina State University, where she started working on modelling self-assembly of surfactants. During the time at Gubbins' group she had the opportunity to visit the University of Paris XI in Orsay where she met some researchers from Spain working at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Long story short, she applied for a Ramón y Cajal Researcher Position and moved to Tarragona in 2003. After 3 years in the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, she moved to the University of Manchester to start a position as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering.

Prof. Flor Siperstein is currently leading the Multiscale Modelling and Simulation Group in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on using and developing molecular simulation tools to predict properties of fluids and materials that have importance in the chemical industry.

Research Group(s)

• Energy
• Multi-Scale Modelling
• Nanomaterials and Interfaces

Flor is using molecular simulation and coarse grained techniques to obtain thermodynamic and transport properties of systems that are relevant for the chemical industry. In particular, she is interested in systems containing interfaces, whether it is a porous material with a large surface area, or a solid surface that needs to be protected with a thin organic coating.

She is currently working on the following projects:

• Materials for Direct Air Carbon Capture
• Challenging gas separations in the chemical industry
• Organic coatings for corrosion protection (IAA, AkzoNobel-University of Manchester)

Past projects include:

• Sustainable Coatings by Rational Design (SusCoRD, EPSRC EP/S004963/1)
• Sustainable Organic Coatings for Corrosion Protection (Susticoat, EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant agreement ID: 721451)
• A multiscale approach towards mesostructured porous material design (Multimat, EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant agreement ID: 676045)
• MOF-based adsorbents and membranes for gas separations (BP ICAM)
• Towards a Fundamental Understanding of Carbonaceus Deposits in the oil and gas industry (BP ICAM)
• Graphene based membranes (EP/K016946/1)
• InForm: integrating Nanomaterials in Formulations (EC 233533)
• Surfactant-self assembly and the formation of porous materials (DeSANNS, FP6)
• Behaviour of surfactant self-assemblies under shear
• Copolymers in alifatic/aromatic mixtures
• Modelling Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (The subtle balance between rigidity and swelling in functional nanoporous polymers EP/G065144/1; Innovative Gas Separations for Carbon Capture EP/G062129/1)
• Biochar: Research Into the Development of materials to mitigate Greenhouse gas Emissions (BRIDGE, Royal Academy of Engineering)