About
A brief description of who you are and what you do.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- Complex reaction kinetics
- Microkinetic modelling
- Heterogeneous catalysis
- Photocatalysis and electrocatalysis
- Process intensification
Current research
My research activity spans from catalysis to chemical reaction engineering and aims at unravelling the intrinsic kinetics of complex reacting systems.
We combine advanced theoretical and experimental approaches to model the links between fundamental phenomena and macroscopic observations, aiming to deepen our understanding of reacting systems and develop novel engineering strategies.
Our current focus is on reacting systems to address sustainability challenges in the chemical industries in the field of:
- Heterogeneous Catalysis: The systems that we investigate demand quantification of the interaction energies between the catalytic environments and the molecular species and intermediates. We develop strategies to quantitatively analyse molecular-level events and facilitate the description of the systems at the macroscopic level.
- Photo- and Electrocatalysis: We develop mechanistic models from first principles to design efficient photo- and electrocatalysts for sustainable applications, including H2 evolution and CO2 reduction.
- Thermal Decomposition Processes: We develop mechanistic models of free-radical processes to elucidate the phenomena of thermal runaway in Li-ion batteries and design safer electrolytes.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
A list of your current and past PhD students.
This section will only display on your public profile if content has been added.
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
Dr Vernuccio is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching for Learning in Higher Education. He designed and delivered teaching activities in the field of Thermodynamics, Reaction Engineering, Applied Mathematics, and Process Design.
Current Modules:
- CHEG6009 - Process Integration and Intensification (Module Leader)
- CHEG2002 - Process Control and Safety (Lecturer)
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
Dr Sergio Vernuccio joined the University of Southampton in 2024 as an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering. He holds both a BEng and MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), along with an MSc in Design and Construction of Process Plants from Sapienza University of Rome. He began his career as a Process Engineer at Technip where he specialized in design and reconfiguration of refinery process units and petrochemical plants.
In 2017, Dr Vernuccio completed his PhD in Process Engineering at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), focusing on the application of structured reactors to three-phase reactive processes in fine chemicals manufacturing. Following his PhD, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Professor Linda J. Broadbelt's group at Northwestern University (USA), where he explored acid-based oligomerization mechanisms of olefins on zeolites to enhance shale gas upgrading. From 2019 to 2024 he worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the University of Sheffield (UK).
Dr Vernuccio is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is an Editorial Board Member of Chemical Engineering Science and Chemical Engineering Journal Advances and serves as a reviewer for numerous academic journals and funding organizations.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.