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Dr. Michael Gibbons

Assistant Professor (Mechanical, Manuf & Biomedical Eng)
PARSONS BUILDING
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Michael Gibbons

Assistant Professor (Mechanical, Manuf & Biomedical Eng)
PARSONS BUILDING

 MICHAEL.GIBBONS@tcd.ie

 3531896 2396


Michael Gibbons is Assistant Professor in Heat Transfer in the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Biomedical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, a Royal Society-Research Ireland University Research Fellow (2021 to 2029), and Principal Investigator of the Thermal Fluids and Energy group (www.gibbonslab.com). He received his BAI (2012) and PhD (2017) in Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at York University and the Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies, University of Toronto, and an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship at Trinity. He has held competitively won fellowships continuously since 2012 (IRC EMBARK, IRC Government of Ireland, and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship declined in favour of the Royal Society URF), and has twice been selected for ERC interview. His research covers two-phase heat transfer from the microscale physics of the evaporating contact line to device-level heat transport: pore-scale simulation of capillary-fed boiling, micro laser powder bed fusion and electrochemical additive manufacturing of porous metal wicks, loop heat pipes and two-phase mechanically pumped loops for data-centre waste heat recovery, and machine-learned closures for the design of two-phase evaporators. His work on contact-line evaporation introduced the contact line density as the governing parameter for droplet heat transfer, and his group's micro laser powder bed fusion wicks reached 60 µm resolution with the highest reported capillary performance for a printed cross-hatched wick. He led the Trinity experiment on ESA parabolic flight campaign PFC 66 and is Trinity lead on the ESA Topical Team ATeMS. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed outputs and secured about €3.4M in research funding, €1.8M as PI from the Royal Society and Research Ireland and €1.6M as co-PI from industry. He supervises five PhD students and two postdoctoral researchers, has supervised 38 master's and bachelor theses, and his team has won an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, an MSCA Global Fellowship and a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. He co-chaired THERMINIC 2022, co-organised the 54th European Two-Phase Flow Group Meeting (2024), is an inaugural member of the Royal Irish Academy Young Academy of Ireland, and served on the committees of ASHRAE Ireland and ASHRAE TC 9.9 (2021 to 2025).
Project Title
 Two-phase mechanical pumped loop for data center waste heat recovery
From
01/10/2026
To
30/09/2029
Summary
Royal Society-Research Ireland University Research Fellowship renewal (2026 to 2029). Develops a flow-boiling evaporator for a two-phase mechanically pumped loop that recovers waste heat from data centres for reuse. Machine-learned flow-boiling correlations are combined with topology optimisation to design microporous evaporators, which are manufactured by laser powder bed fusion and electrochemical additive manufacturing and tested in a new flow-boiling facility and a full pumped loop.
Funding Agency
Royal Society / Research Ireland
Programme
University Research Fellowship (renewal)
Project Type
Personal research fellowship
Project Title
 Loop heat pipe for waste heat recovery in data centres
From
01/10/2021
To
30/09/2026
Summary
Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship (2021 to 2026), with two Enhanced Research Expenses awards. Developed passive two-phase heat transport for data-centre waste heat recovery, centred on the porous wick in the loop heat pipe evaporator. Outcomes include additively manufactured stainless-steel wicks at 60 µm resolution with record capillary performance, the first pore-scale simulations of capillary flow and boiling in mono-, bi- and hybrid porous media, and a working loop heat pipe with printed wicks.
Funding Agency
Royal Society / Research Ireland
Programme
University Research Fellowship, with Enhanced Research Expenses
Project Type
Personal research fellowship
Project Title
 M3LBM: Micro-scale multiphase modelling of the gas diffusion layer using Lattice Boltzmann Method for fuel cells
From
01/05/2026
To
30/04/2028
Summary
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (Dr Ammar Tariq), scored 96.8/100. Develops pore-scale lattice Boltzmann models of water and air transport in the gas diffusion and microporous layers of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, built on micro-CT reconstructions of real geometries, to guide the design of porous layers that manage water more effectively.
Funding Agency
European Commission
Programme
HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
Project Type
Postdoctoral fellowship (host supervisor)
Project Title
 Novel engineered multiscale surfaces for high-efficiency atmospheric water harvesting
From
01/09/2026
To
31/08/2030
Summary
Research Ireland Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship (Longping Wu). Develops multiscale biphilic copper condensation surfaces, with alternating water-attracting and water-repelling regions, using electrochemical additive manufacturing, and tests them for atmospheric water harvesting. The project also establishes the group's copper electrochemical additive manufacturing facility.
Funding Agency
Research Ireland
Programme
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
Project Type
PhD studentship
Project Title
 Flexible heat pipe for energy harvesting applications
From
01/09/2023
To
31/08/2027
Summary
Research Ireland ADVANCE Centre for Research Training PhD studentship (Tanweer Hussain). Develops a flexible flat heat pipe with a gas-impermeable laminated polymer-metal casing for wearable and flexible electronics, supported by a computational model coupling volume-of-fluid simulation of the vapour space with a volume-averaged porous wick.
Funding Agency
Research Ireland
Programme
ADVANCE Centre for Research Training
Project Type
PhD studentship

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Details Date
Trinity College Dublin lead, European Space Agency Topical Team ATeMS (Advanced Thermal Management in Space and Planetary Exploration), 33 institutions and 6 companies. 2026 to date
External examiner, PhD, York University, Toronto: "Thermal-hydraulic characterization of metal additively manufactured wicks" 2026
Committee member, ASHRAE Ireland Chapter 2021 to 2025
Trinity College Dublin nominee, Irish Research Council Early-Career Researcher of the Year 2023
Irish representative, EUROTHERM Young Scientist Award, nominated by the Irish EUROTHERM committee 2021
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
Details Date From Date To
Royal Irish Academy, Young Academy of Ireland (inaugural member); co-lead, Sustainability Working Group 25/04/2023 present
Nimvari M.E., Persoons T., Gibbons M.J., Numerical simulation of boiling in wick structures: Comparative analysis of mono - Bi - and hybrid porous media, International Journal of Thermofluids, 32, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Chatterjee, C., Lupoi, R., Gibbons, M.J., The Evolution of Aerosol Jet Printing, A Review: Enhancing Material Versatility and Improvements for Next-Generation Applications, Advanced Materials Technologies, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Pengfei Guo, Majid Eshagh Nimvari, Kairui Zhang, Fei Wang, Michael Gibbons, High-resolution porous media and enhanced capillary performance prepared by micro laser powder bed fusion, Materials & Design, 270, 2026, p116974 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
M.E. Nimvari, M.J. Gibbons, Dual-Scale Micropillar Architectures for Enhanced Boiling and Capillary Transport: A 3D Pore-Scale Study, Physics of Fluids, 38, 2026, Notes: [Accepted for publication 13 October 2026 (manuscript POF26-AR-12142R); in press.], Journal Article, IN_PRESS
Connor Bamford, Ross Cuthbert, Kevin Daly, Niall Farrell, Michael Gibbons, Abdollah Malekjafarian, María Rodriguez Aburto, Young Academy Ireland Sustainability Statement, Young Academy of Ireland, 2026, Report, PUBLISHED  DOI
P. Guo, J. Volpp, H. Naesstroem, S. Marola, W. Zhang, J. Mouzon, R. Casati, M. Gibbons, R. Lupoi, A. F.H. Kaplan, In-situ monitoring and metallographic observations of mass transfer and defect formation during AlSi10Mg additive manufacturing using powder sheets, Optics & Laser Technology, 192, (Part A), 2025, p113495 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Nimvari M.E., Persoons T., Gibbons M.J., Pore-scale simulation of boiling in biporous media incorporating capillary effects, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 217, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Guo P., Martin A., Zhai C., Li Z., Lu X., Yu J., Lin X., Odnevall I., Gibbons M., Schubert A., Effect of current density on electrochemical machining process of laser powder bed fusion manufactured Inconel 718, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 337, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
M. Eshagh Nimvari, M. J. Gibbons, Multiphase flow simulation in hybrid porous structure, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 9th European Thermal Sciences Conference (Eurotherm 2024), Lake Bled, Slovenia, 12/06/2024, edited by IOP Publishing , (1), 2024, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Gibbons, M. J., Garivalis, A. I., O'Shaughnessy, S. M., Robinson, A. J., Di Marco, P., Water droplet evaporation in varied gravity and electric fields, npj Microgravity, 10, (1), 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI  URL
  

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RTE News, Head over heels: Studying water in zero gravity, 2018, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Irish Independent, Irish scientists among elite team to fly in 'Vomit Comet', 2018, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Royal Society-Research Ireland University Research Fellowship, renewal awarded (2026 to 2029) 11-JUN-2026
Trinity College Dublin nominee, Irish Research Council Early-Career Researcher of the Year 01-SEP-2023
Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship (2021 to 2026) 01-JUL-2021
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship, awarded with a score of 97.4/100 (declined in favour of the Royal Society URF) 01-FEB-2021
Irish representative, EUROTHERM Young Scientist Award 2021, selected by the Irish EUROTHERM committee 01-MAR-2020
Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship 01-APR-2019
Gold Medal, Trinity College Dublin, for an average of over 80% in the degree examinations 01-NOV-2012
Irish Research Council EMBARK Postgraduate Scholarship 01-APR-2012
Foundation Scholar, Trinity College Dublin (85.3% in the scholarship examinations, second in Engineering) 01-APR-2011
Two-phase heat transfer from the microscale physics of the evaporating contact line to device-level thermal management. Current work centres on porous structures made by laser powder bed fusion and electrochemical additive manufacturing: how pore architecture sets capillary performance, boiling and dry-out, studied by micro-CT metrology, pore-scale volume-of-fluid simulation and capillary and boiling experiments. Device applications include loop heat pipes with printed wicks, flow-boiling evaporators and two-phase mechanically pumped loops for data-centre waste heat recovery, and flexible flat heat pipes. A modelling strand builds machine-learned closures for topology optimisation of two-phase evaporators. Related interests: droplet evaporation and electric-field effects, heat transfer in reduced gravity, atmospheric water harvesting, and thermal management of electronics and data centres.