I have a wide set of interests in technology, modelling, chemical reaction engineering, and fluid mechanics. It is because of the development of this wide set of interests that I am certain that the future development of my research programme pivots on systems engineering. In my early career, I was a theoretical fluid mechanician with practical skills in computational modelling and nonlinear systems analysis. I routinely found that in multi-researcher projects for multiphase flow and separations, I was cast in the role of systems engineer (multiscale modelling) or control / systems analyst (cellular neural network analysis), since these skills were rare in the fluid dynamics community. In coming to Sheffield in 1997, it was clear to me that I needed to carve out a niche in chemical engineering, since for historical reasons the Department was insecure about its accreditation in chemical engineering. I developed a line in heterogeneous chemical systems and interfacial reaction engineering, with a series of papers on a new dynamical systems theory for heterogeneous reactions that are limited by interphase mass transfer. Finally, during this decade, I decided that there was a niche in the physicochemical hydrodynamics of microfluidics and its potential in biotechnology, so I developed expertise and pioneered new techniques for microfluidic sensing and analysis. These lines would appear to be disparate, particularly with regard to the mix of both theory and experimentation, but there is an underlying theme that unifies my approach to these branches of engineering technology – modelling and inverse methods.Specialties: Computational modelling. I am best known for my books:WBJ Zimmerman, Multiphysics Modelling with Finite Element Methods, 422 pages, World Scientific Series on Stability, Vibration and Control of Systems, Vol 18., Singapore, 2006.WBJ Zimmerman (ed.), Microfluidics: History,Theory, and Applications, 300 pages, Springer-Verlag-Wien, CISM Lecture Series, No 466, Berlin, 2005.