Dr Benji Fenech Salerno

Summary

Dr. Benji Fenech-Salerno is a Teaching Fellow in Physical Chemistry at Imperial College London, where he has been serving since 2023. He holds responsibilities in designing and delivering numerous tutorials, lectures, and laboratory sessions in physical chemistry for undergraduate and postgraduate students (see teaching sections). Additionally, he serves as a personal tutor, providing one-on-one academic guidance, pastoral care, and professional development support to a cohort of undergraduate chemistry students.

Biography

Benji obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the Chemistry Department at Imperial College London. Based within Dr. Felice Torrisi's group, his doctoral research focused on developing a low-cost point-of-care diagnostic device, reducing costs to less than $0.20 per test strip. He identified a suitable strategy for rapid, large-scale production of GFET sensors using existing manufacturing techniques and secured translational research funding as a co-author of two successful impact accelerator account grant applications to further develop his PhD work into a commercially viable platform technology, in which he continues to spearhead along with a team of researchers.

Previously, Benji completed an MRes in Nanomaterials at Imperial College London, where he developed a novel point-of-care diagnostic for early detection of ovarian cancer biomarkers in Regius Professor Chris Toumazou's group. He also holds a BSc in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Malta. During this period, he gained extensive research experience in functional genetics within Professor Ruben J. Cauchi's UM ALS and Motor Neuron Disease Malta lab, and solid-state chemistry during two exchange programs at Newcastle University and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. His final year project was based within Professor David Magri's lab, where he designed novel molecular logic probes to detect cancerous cells in vitro.

Throughout his academic career, Benji has received numerous awards, including the recipient of an Innovate UK ICURe Discover grant, the Imperial College Trust General Conference Fund award, multiple RSC Researcher Development and Travel Grants, the CAS Future Leaders Top 100 Program recognition, and various travel grants and prizes for oral presentations.

Publications

Journals

More Publications