Professor Zulfiqur Ali joined the University of Cumbria in 2024 as Pro Vice Chancellor and holds the portfolio for research and knowledge exchange. Zulf previously held a number of senior roles at Teesside University. As Director of Academic Research and Innovation Partnerships he initiated a collaboration with TWI for development of the Healthcare Innovation Centre which generated research and knowledge exchange income of over £19 million with over £3 million to Teesside University. As Dean of the Graduate Research School, Zulf led the Teesside University REF 2014 submission as well as the initial preparations for REF 2021. He also initiated a number of knowledge exchange initiatives including for the process industries cluster, digital manufacturing and supporting regional businesses in the EU marketplace. He was also a board director for the Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology, Microsystems, and Photonics (CENAMPS) which was merged with Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. As Assistant Dean for Research and Innovation in the School of Science and Engineering, Zulf led the University’s RAE 2008 General Engineering submission as well as introducing a culture of knowledge exchange.
Zulf has an interdisciplinary background with research interests that includes microfabrication, microfluidics for point-of-care diagnostic devices and for biological processing as well as related work on transducer development, particularly for electrochemical and optical sensing, and AI for sensor data. He is technical manager for the Horizon Europe HoliCare project on diagnostics for respiratory tract infections in sub-saharan africa as well as SusFe on sustainable functional electronics and PI for the UTI-Diag project on diagnostics and antibiotic stewardship for urinary tract infections. Zulf is a member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) peer review college.
Zulf studied Chemistry followed by a PhD in Instrumentation and Measurement Science from the University of Manchester. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Warwick he started his academic career in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Brighton.
