Conor Boland

Dr Boland is Assistant Professor in Materials Science and a principal investigator in RAPID. He leads the Boland Research Group developing sustainable nanomaterials and flexible bioelectronic sensors for preventive health monitoring and real-world deployment. His group combines materials design, device engineering and data-driven calibration to deliver robust, scalable sensing platforms (for example, wearable strain/pressure sensors and sustainable bio-derived electronics), working with academic and enterprise partners.

A core theme of his research is the development of piezoresistive and multifunctional sensing materials, including graphene-, nanosheet- and nanocomposite-based systems, with emphasis on understanding and optimising the relationships between structures, properties and performance.

Dr Boland received his PhD degree from the School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 2016. That same year he joined the Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Centre at TCD as a commercialisation research fellow. In 2019, he joined the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Materials Physics. The University of Sussex materials physics group researches the relationships between structures and properties in nanomaterials. In 2025, he joined DCU's School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering.