James Leon Walsh‌

Biography

Professor James Walsh joined the York Plasma Institute in 2022 as a Chair of low temperature plasma science, prior to this he was a Professor in the Technological Plasmas group at the University of Liverpool, where he was school research lead and faculty theme lead for Healthcare Technologies.

In 2016, Professor Walsh received a prestigious EPSRC Healthcare Technologies Challenge Award enabling him to establish the cross disciplinary Centre for Plasma Microbiology. He has received over £4 million in research income as principal investigator from diverse funders, including the UKRI, EU and industry. Supported by a diverse and highly multidisciplinary team he has produced 100+ articles in leading international journals, spanning the fields of fundamental plasma science right through to applied microbiology.

Publications

Key publications include:

• Katsigiannis, A. S., Bayliss, D. L., & Walsh, J. L. (2022). Cold plasma for the disinfection of industrial food-contact surfaces: An overview of current status and opportunities. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 21, 1086– 1124.
• Slikboer, E., Walsh, J.L. Impact of electrical grounding conditions on plasma–liquid interactions using Thomson scattering on a pulsed argon jet (2021) Scientific Reports, 11 (1), art. no. 17749.
• Hojnik, N., Modic, M., Walsh, J.L., Žigon, D., Javornik, U., Plavec, J., Žegura, B., Filipič, M., Cvelbar, U. Unravelling the pathways of air plasma induced aflatoxin B1 degradation and detoxification (2021) Journal of Hazardous Materials, 403, art. no. 123593.
• Morabit, Y., Whalley, R.D., Robert, E., Hasan, M.I., Walsh, J.L. Turbulence and entrainment in an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier plasma jet (2020) Plasma Processes and Polymers, 17 (6), art. no. 1900217
• Hojnik, N., Modic, M., Ni, Y., Filipič, G., Cvelbar, U., Walsh, J.L. Effective Fungal Spore Inactivation with an Environmentally Friendly Approach Based on Atmospheric Pressure Air Plasma (2019) Environmental Science and Technology, 53 (4), pp. 1893-1904.

Research

Research expertise includes:

Plasma source development: low and radio frequency high voltage sources and nanosecond-pulsed systems.

Passive and active plasma diagnostics: optical emission spectroscopy, laser induced fluorescence and laser scattering (Raman and Thomson).

Plasma applications: microbial disinfection, micropollutant remediation, and food treatment.