Professor Richard Hall BSc (Hons), PhD, MInstP, CPhys

Professor Richard M Hall

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Professor of Biomechanical and Oncological Engineering

Contact details

Address
School of Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Richard M Hall is a Research Professor at the University of Birmingham within the School of Engineering. Richard is incredibly excited by the opportunities this post brings working with the University of Birmingham medical engineering community and within the wider Birmingham and Midlands ecosystem. The University has built an impressive environment for MedTech research from the Health Technologies Institute through to the Birmingham Health Partners. 

Richard has an undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Leeds and was awarded a PhD from the University of Lancaster.  He previously worked as a Professor at the University of Leeds with the School of Mechanical Engineering as well as Medicine. Richard is a member of the Institute of Physics and a Chartered Physicist.

Richard’s interests are related to bone disease, the spine and/or joint arthroplasty, that is replacement of the total or partial joint. Increasingly, alternative strategies are being used in arthroplasty to augment natural tissues in an attempt to delay the replacement procedure. As well as investigating new types of interventions, he is an advocate of the development of novel testing methodologies that allow more realistic assessment of the proposed intervention akin to how the device would be used in the real world. In pursuit of thee goals, he has accrued funding from the EU, UKRI/EPSRC and NIH (USA) as well as gaining grants from a number of smaller funders including several charities. He has co-ordinated a number of large-scale research projects involving international collaborators namely those in Sweden, Switzerland, and Australia amongst others. Current projects include:

  • Oncological Engineering (Principal Investigator: EPSRC funded programme grant)
  • BioTrib (Coordinator (Principal Investigator): EU funded European Training Network)
  • BioTrib AVN (Coordinator: EU funded European Training Network)
  • Richard previously was the Coordinator (Principal Investigator) for LifeLongJoints, a €18.3M EU funded activity for new technologies in joint replacement.

Richard also has a burgeoning interest in providing research and engagement with people living with HIV. Whilst this is primarily concerned with bone disease arising from the virus itself, in some cases, a side effect of the highly effective treatment protocols and the gut microbiome, he also realises that successful interventions need a more holistic approach bringing in personnel from patients, social scientists and clinicians as well as engineers.

The further wider skills set that Richard brings to the position are in the areas of:

  • Leadership and management of innovative programmes of research and research training in the UK and internationally.
  • Development of international and UK networks to promote and deliver research, mentoring and innovation.
  • To deliver multidisciplinary research that cuts across traditional boundaries and engages closely with users and the wider stakeholder community.
  • Mentoring personnel particularly those that come to academia from non-standard backgrounds.
  • Patient engagement and co-creation of research.

In terms of technical aspects of his role, Richard's expertise has enable him to deliver research in the areas of:

  • Spinal technology and assessment.
  • Joint arthroplasty particularly biotribology.
  • Bone disease and trauma.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Elkington, RJ, Hall, RM, Beadling, AR, Pandit, H & Bryant, MG 2024, 'Brushing Up on Cartilage Lubrication: Polyelectrolyte-Enhanced Tribological Rehydration', Langmuir, vol. 40, no. 20, pp. 10648-10662. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c00598

Elkington, RJ, Hall, RM, Beadling, AR, Pandit, H & Bryant, MG 2024, 'Engineering tribological rehydration of cartilage interfaces: Assessment of potential polyelectrolyte mechanisms', Tribology International, vol. 197, 109822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2024.109822

Kandel, S, Su, S, Hall, RM & Tipper, JL 2023, 'An automated system for polymer wear debris analysis in total disc arthroplasty using convolution neural network', Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, vol. 11, 1108021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1108021

Elkington, RJ, Hall, RM, Beadling, AR, Bryant, MG & Pandit, H 2023, 'Highly lubricious SPMK-g-PEEK implant surfaces to facilitate rehydration of articular cartilage', Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, vol. 147, 106084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2023.106084

Golland, B, Tipper, JL, Hall, RM, Tronci, G & Russell, SJ 2022, 'A Biomimetic Nonwoven-Reinforced Hydrogel for Spinal Cord Injury Repair', Polymers, vol. 14, no. 20, 4376. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14204376

Esfahani, EA, Bukuaghangin, O, Banfield, S, Vangölü, Y, Yang, L, Neville, A, Hall, R & Bryant, M 2022, 'Surface engineering of wrought and additive layer manufactured Ti-6Al-4V alloy for enhanced load bearing and bio-tribocorrosion applications', Surface and Coatings Technology, vol. 442, 128139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2022.128139

El-Gendy, R, Junaid, S, Lam, SKL, Elson, KM, Tipper, JL, Hall, RM, Ingham, E & Kirkham, J 2021, 'Developing a Tooth in situ Organ Culture Model for Dental and Periodontal Regeneration Research', Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, vol. 8, 581413. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.581413

Matamoros-Veloza, A, Hossain, KMZ, Scammell, BE, Ahmed, I, Hall, R & Kapur, N 2020, 'Formulating injectable pastes of porous calcium phosphate glass microspheres for bone regeneration applications', Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, vol. 102, 103489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2019.103489

Lee, H, Phillips, JB, Hall, RM & Tipper, JL 2020, 'Neural cell responses to wear debris from metal-on-metal total disc replacements', European Spine Journal, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 2701-2712. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-019-06177-w

Oladokun, A, Hall, RM, Neville, A & Bryant, MG 2019, 'The evolution of subsurface micro-structure and tribo-chemical processes in cocrmo-ti6al4v fretting-corrosion contacts: What lies at and below the surface?', Wear, vol. 440-441, 203095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2019.203095

Conference contribution

Iyer, K, Keeling, D & Hall, RM 2022, Application of Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation for the Development and Testing of Advanced Control Systems for Joint Wear Simulators. in 2022 8th International Conference on Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering (ICMRE). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 44-49, 8th International Conference on Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering, ICMRE 2022, Virtual, Munich, Germany, 10/02/22. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMRE54455.2022.9734078

Editorial

Helgason, B, Bryant, MG, Ferguson, SJ & Hall, RM 2023, 'Editorial: Advanced pre-clinical and pre-surgical assessment of musculo-skeletal medical devices', Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, vol. 11, 1264118. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1264118

Review article

Rajankunte Mahadeshwara, M, Al-Jawad, M, Hall, RM, Pandit, H, El-Gendy, R & Bryant, M 2024, 'How Do Cartilage Lubrication Mechanisms Fail in Osteoarthritis? A Comprehensive Review', Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 6, 541. https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering11060541

Skjöldebrand, C, Tipper, JL, Hatto, P, Bryant, M, Hall, RM & Persson, C 2022, 'Current status and future potential of wear-resistant coatings and articulating surfaces for hip and knee implants', Materials Today Bio, vol. 15, 100270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100270

Öhman-Mägi, C, Holub, O, Wu, D, Hall, RM & Persson, C 2021, 'Density and mechanical properties of vertebral trabecular bone—A review', JOR Spine, vol. 4, no. 4, e1176. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsp2.1176

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Engineering aspects and testing of: joint replacement, medical implants, spinal surgery, together with bone fracture

Media experience