Dr Katherine Dunn

Senior Lecturer and Director of Discipline for Mechanical Engineering

Email

Location

2.2012 James Clerk Maxwell Building

Personal Page

Social Media

Engineering Discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Research Institutes

Bioengineering
Research Publications
Katherine Dunn portrait photo wearing blue jacket and red top with pictures and certificates hanging on wall behind

After completing the four year MPhys course at Oxford and achieving a First, I stayed on to carry out research for my DPhil, initially in the field of Terahertz Spectroscopy. After 18 months I changed direction and started a new DPhil in Biological Physics, submitting my thesis entitled ‘DNA Origami Assembly’ a little under three years later. In 2014, I went to York to take up an appointment as a Research Associate in the Department of Electronic Engineering, working primarily on synthetic DNA nanomachines in the context of bioelectronic computing.

I joined the School of Engineering at Edinburgh as a Lecturer in 2017 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2022. I am affiliated with the discipline of Mechanical Engineering and I am a member of the Institute for Bioengineering, where I carry out research in the area of Synthetic Biology.

I was named as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2021 by the Women's Engineering Society. Shortly thereafter, I was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and I took up the role of Degree Programme Manager for Mechanical Engineering in February 2022. In March 2024, I was promoted to the role of Director of Mechanical Engineering, which means I am responsible for leading Mech Eng, providing strategy and line managing the academics (over 40 people).

  • DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics (Biological Physics), University of Oxford, 2014
  • Master of Physics, First Class, University of Oxford, 2009

Fellow of the Institute of Physics

Fellow of The Durham Institute of Research, Development, and Invention

Current teaching (2026):

  • Bio-Inspired Engineering
  • Electrical and Mechanical Engineering 2 - core course for second years on the joint honours programme
  • Undergraduate supervision (projects/placements)

Previous teaching activities (highlights):

  • Thermodynamics - fourth year lectures/classes/assessment and supervision of second year labs/coursework
  • Engineering Mathematics - vector calculus classes
  • Professional Issues for Mechanical Engineers - industry matters and course organisation
  • Nanofabrication (at York) - delivery of entire module
  • Condensed Matter Physics, Nuclear Physics (at Oxford) - support for practical work