About this Event
The Faculty of Engineering and Design's Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering invites you to join us in hearing from visiting Hood Fellowship recipient Professor Ian Wilson of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge (UK).
The Hood Fellowships were established to honour former University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Sir John Hood, who is one of New Zealand’s most outstanding leaders. It aims to enhance the interaction between University staff and leading international talent in order to retain our leading researchers, and to attract the best international research talent to our university.
Venue: University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering and Design, 20 Symonds Street, Auckland
Room: 401-439 Neon Theatre
Date: Thursday, 24 September 2026
Time: 5:30-7:00pm (Lecture: 5:30-6:30pm)
Light refreshments will be served following the lecture.
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About the lecture:
Dishwashing – Faster, Greener, Cheaper: the complex world of washing up
Many kitchens in affluent households in the West feature a dishwasher, an automated unit that saves users considerable amounts of time and effort (often late in the evening) in restoring their cutlery and kitchenware to high levels of cleanliness. These are very versatile machines, often achieving acceptable performance for a wide range of ‘soils’ that users challenges them to clean – both in terms of recipe and cooking history. The proliferation of such devices results in a high environmental cost, of energy, chemicals and fresh water as well as waste.
This talk will explain how scientific principles are used to reduce these environmental impacts and how they are being used to meet the challenges that similar machines face in manufacturing vaccines or decontaminating surfaces. Tips for how to get the most out of your dishwasher will also feature.
About the speaker:
Ian Wilson is the Professor of Soft Solids and Surfaces in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. His work focuses on applying chemical engineering principles and techniques to the manufacture of food and pharmaceuticals. Over the 30 years that he has been at Cambridge he has supervised over 60 PhD students and studied topics as diverse as chocolate, cookie dough, Marmite^TM, bone cement, the fluid mechanics of urinals and .. dishwashing. He has published widely (H-index 55) and recently completed terms as Editor-in-Chief of the IChemE journal Food & Bioproducts Processing and as President of Jesus College, Cambridge.
A native of Northern Ireland, Ian's accent has been softened by studying in Cambridge (MEng, 1989), Vancouver (PhD, 1994) and periods of sabbatical leave in New Zealand. He has tended to work in places where he can indulge in his lifelong interest in field hockey, though in recent years he has swapped his hockey stick for an umpire's whistle and Parkrun.
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Getting to the venue:
The University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering and Design's main facilities are conveniently located at the heart of the University's City Campus, and are easily accessible via many forms of public transport. For further information on public transport schedules, visit the Auckland Transport website.
For those driving in, further information on parking options can be found here.
Event venue & nearby stays
Faculty of Engineering and Design, 20 Symonds St, Auckland, New Zealand
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