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About

Our mission

The mission of Sloan Water Technology Ltd. is to deliver societal benefit through commercial products based on fundamental research that is developed into game-changing innovations in fields related to sound, air and water. The exchange of ideas and techniques between engineers, medics, microbiologists and experts in food, health, physical and social sciences, from defining the problem to validating the solution, shapes the products for a wide range of sectors. 

An innovative partnership

Professor Timothy Leighton, Professor at the University of Southampton, and Sloan, the world’s leading commercial plumbing systems manufacturer, join forces to create Sloan Water Technology, Ltd.

Sloan supports and funds Sloan Water Technology’s research and development. SWT combines acoustic fields in water with microbubbles for cleaning and decontamination, infection prevention, and recovery from wounds and ulcers, without promoting antimicrobial resistance. SWT's inventions also aim to support the provision of clean food and water.

Located in Romsey, Hampshire, England, Sloan Water Technology's inventions for supporting healthcare, industry and the environment complement Sloan’s existing efforts in developing hygiene-friendly commercial restroom products and applications.

Awards & Honors

Our inventive technology has won international awards in sectors from healthcare to water management.

  • 2018

    Royal Society's Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation Translation Award for the StarHealer

  • 2014

    S-Lab’s Best New Product of the Year for StarStream

  • 2012

    Institute of Chemical Engineering Award for Water Management and Supply

Team

Professor Timothy Leighton

FRS FREng FMedSci ScD MA PhD CPhys CEng FCPS DFIIAV FInstP FIOA FASA
Executive General Director, Inventor-in-Chief

Professor Leighton has been refining his innovative ideas for three decades, spanning back to his time at the University of Cambridge and more recently at University of Southampton. With degrees in Physics and Theoretical Physics, Professor Leighton works across several disciplines to test microbiological, chemical and healthcare elements of his inventions. In 2006 the Institute of Physics described 'an acknowledged world leader in four fields.' An Academician of three National Academies (in Science, Medical Sciences and Engineering), he founded Global-NAMRIP (the Global Network for Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Prevention) to lead and support others to collaborate in undertaking ground-breaking research and push it forward to generate societal change. He has been awarded 8 international medals and 6 international awards.

As Executive General Director and Inventor-in-Chief of Sloan Water Technology, Professor Leighton leads research that explores the real-world implications of underwater acoustics in industries ranging from healthcare to catastrophe relief.

Fellow of 3 National Academies

Royal Society

Royal Academy of Engineering

Academy of Medical Sciences

Medals
  • 2017
    Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture of the Royal Society
  • 2014
    Rayleigh Medal of the Institute of Acoustics
  • 2013
    Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America
  • 2009
    R W B Stephens Medal of the Institute of Acoustics
  • 2006
    Paterson Medal of the Institute of Physics
  • 2004
    The inaugural Early Career Medal and Award of the International Commission for Acoustics
  • 2002
    Tyndall Medal of the Institute of Acoustics
  • 2001
    The inaugural International Medwin Prize for Acoustical Oceanography from the Acoustical Society of America
  • 1994
    A. B. Wood Medal of the Institute of Acoustics
Awards
  • 2019
    Doctor of Science, University of Cambridge
  • 2018
    Royal Society Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation Translation Award, for the StarHealer invention
  • 2017
    ‘Wow Factor and Impact’ Public Engagement prize at the 2017 ‘Bringing Research to Life’ roadshow awards for NAMRIP exhibition ‘The Most Dangerous Game in the World’
  • 2016
    ‘Wow Factor and Impact’ Public Engagement prize at the 2016 ‘Bringing Research to Life’ roadshow awards for NAMRIP contribution to Cheltenham Science Festival
  • 2014
    ‘Product of the Year’ for StarStreamTM (S-lab)
  • 2012
    The Institute of Chemical Engineering 2012 Award for “Water Management and Supply” for StarStreamTM
  • 2011
    Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation for StarStreamTM
  • 2008
    ‘Medical & Healthcare’ award from ‘The Engineer’ for LithoCheckTM
  • 2001
    The inaugural International Medwin Prize for Acoustical Oceanography from the Acoustical Society of America
Other Fellowships

Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics

Fellow of the Institute of Physics

Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America

Inaugural year Distinguished Fellow the International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration

Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies of Loughborough University

Contact
+44 (0) 2380 118335 T.G.Leighton@sloanwatertechnology.co.uk
Professor Timothy Leighton

Executive Support Group

Juliette Dechen portrait

Ms. Juliette Dechen

Executive Assistant

Juliette completed a 2-year degree in Communications in 2008-2010. She then graduated in 2014 from a Business school in France (Master in Management).

After a successful internship in 2013 in the New Forest (UK), she then decided to move from France to the UK in January 2015 to work as an events and reservations coordinator.

She has 6 years of experience in organizing conferences, administrative duties, customer service & reporting.

Bio photo

Peter Hall

Senior Project Manager

Peter has worked within operational management and Key Performance Indicator improvements for the last 27 years. Peter is an expert in process improvement and is a certified Green Belt Practitioner in Lean Six Sigma. Specialising in end to end process mapping and improvements in process and systems, enabling quality and fast paced product delivery. As a Project Manager in several different sectors, Peter has been able to gain additional project delivery skills with Agile, change management and Prince 2 methods to help further support his lean delivery methods.

Peter worked in the utilities sector and on diagnostic assay manufacture and research and development, specializing on Covid testing during the pandemic period.

Peter now is focused on Project Management in SWT to support the translation of inventions into products.

Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs Department

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Professor David Voegeli

Clinical Affairs Representative

Professor David Voegeli is Professor of Nursing in the Faculty of Health & Wellbeing. David is a Registered Nurse and specialised in critical care nursing and respiratory medicine before moving into nurse education and research.

He completed a PhD in immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton exploring the mechanisms of dermal inflammation and their modulation by antihistamines. During this David developed his interest in skin biology and tissue viability.

Professor Voegeli has an international reputation in the field of skin health and tissue viability with over 150 publications

He is a member of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA), the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP), and the Tissue Viability Society (TVS) contributing to several International Clinical Guidelines and Best Practice Statements.

Electronic Engineering Department

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Dr Pejwaak Salimi

Senior Electronics Engineer

Pejwaak Salimi obtained his BSc. in Electronic Engineering from Azad University Tehran, Iran. He then moved to UK and obtained MSc. in Micro-Electronic System Design from Southampton University.

Subsequently, he worked as a clean-room operative and IT administrator in the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton before completing a PhD in ECS.

Pej then worked as a professional electronics engineer designing vacuum deposition systems, sensors for detecting radioactive materials, and smart prosthetics.

His main hobby is Taekwondo, which he does for exercise and enjoyment.

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José Asensio

Senior Electronics Engineer

José was awarded his Telecommunications Technical Engineering Degree, Electronic Systems from Malaga University in 2012 and has been living in the UK since 2013.

During that time, he has had the opportunity of working as a designer in Hardware and Software Engineering areas of new products across industries like aerospace, satellite communications or IoT applications for the utilities sector.

José is a pianist, and is am passionate about music production. He loves to dance salsa, racket sports and cooking from time to time.

José will be working in the Electronics Engineering team to develop SWT’s medical devices. 

Mechanical Engineering Department

Will_Penfold

Will Penfold

MA (RCA), MSc, BA
Product Development Lead - Head of Department

Will studied Industrial Design Engineering at Loughborough before several years spent working in marine design consultancies on the South coast. He then moved to London and completed his Masters in Industrial Design Engineering at Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.

Following his Masters Degree he was involved with a number of successful start-up companies with other students from the RCA and Imperial.

Based in Southampton for the last 10 years Will has continued to be involved in early-stage companies, specializing in products which include fluid transfer. He has overseen several technologies successfully from lab to marketplace and is motivated by this journey and the change that new products can deliver to users.

Liam Sykes

Liam Sykes

BEng
Mechanical Engineer

Liam completed a 4 year apprenticeship where he got hands-on experience in manufacturing, assembly & machining while also getting qualifications in mechanical design engineering. After completing his apprenticeship he worked on analysing & designing solutions for defects in high-end electromechanical capital equipment. This work developed competencies in root cause analysis, as well as developing skills in FEA & FMEA. With these skills, he progressed to designing modules for the next generation of this equipment. While working full-time, he continued to obtain academically qualifications, graduating from Bournemouth University with a BEng in 2019.

John Lutman_Picture

John Lutman

Mechanical Technician

John trained in the early 1990’s as an apprentice mould toolmaker and studied at Fareham College to BTEC National Certificate level on a day release basis.

Following that period John travelled with his now wife for a year to the USA, New Zealand and lived and worked in Sydney Australia.

John has since worked in various roles including in Cash Counting Automation as a Manufacturing Technician and in the Fire industry for 22 years as a Mechanical Test Design Engineer for a global company and has much experience of designing and making items and building machines for production environments.

Science Department

Tom_Secker_Picture

Dr. Tom Secker

PhD, BSc (Hons)
Senior Biologist - Head of Department

Tom joined Sloan Water Technology as a biologist to develop biological validation and verification tools, support blue skies research, and to liaise between external biological collaborations. Prior to joining SWT, Tom obtained extensive biological research experience, specialising in infection prevention, at the University of Southampton, where he met and collaborated with Professor Leighton at roughly the time he founded Global-NAMRIP (in which Tom is very active, e.g. in the early years as one of the leaders of the Early Career Researcher Community). With Prof. Leighton, Tom conducted joint research, and they both served on the Government of the United Kingdom's Working Group of the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Sub Group. Prior to this, Tom had completed his PhD (also from the University of Southampton) studying detection and prevention of iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University.

Craig Dolder

Dr. Craig Dolder

PhD MEng
Senior Scientist

Focusing on technology performance, validation, and improvement, Craig’s background covers bubble physics, elastic waveguides, and fluid dynamics. After a Batchelor’s degree in Acoustical Engineering at the University of Hartford, Craig earned his PhD and MEng at The University of Texas at Austin investigating how sound travels through fish schools and methods for reducing turbulent noise on sonar arrays. After studying ultrasonic cleaning of bioreactor membranes with Professor Leighton at the University of Southampton from 2015, he joined SWT in 2018.

Mengyang Zhu

Dr. Mengyang Zhu

PhD MEng
Multidisciplinary Research Scientist

Mengyang Zhu PhD is a research engineer at Sloan Water Technology, UK. Prior to his current role, he undertook a PhD in bubble acoustics under Professor Leighton's supervision at the University of Southampton. He received his bachelor's and master's degree in electronic engineering from the Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China. His research interests include ultrasonic cleaning and high-speed image analysis.

Weng Yee Chong_Picture

Dr Weng Yee Chong

PhD, BSc
Scientist

Weng Yee Chong obtained a BSc in Acoustics with Music with First Class Honours before commencing her PhD in ultrasonic cleaning of salad under Professor Leighton's supervision at the University of Southampton. Through her multidisciplinary PhD project, she has acquired laboratory skills and research experience in engineering and microbiology. She joined SWT as a scientist after submitting her PhD thesis. Her research interests include ultrasonics, underwater acoustics and food microbiology.