Karen graduated from Queen's University Belfast with an MSci in Physics with Applied Mathematics in 1999, and with a PhD in Physics in 2003. Before joining Strathclyde as a Lecturer in 2013, she was a postdoctoral research associate in Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the Helsinki University of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2020, and to Reader in 2024.

Her main research interests relate to interfacial phenomena, particularly perovskite surfaces and superlattices in her early career, and later focusing on soft matter at interfaces, including polymer composites and heterogeneous nucleation. She was PI on the Leverhulme Trust Project Grant (RPG-2019-197) "Catching Nucleation in Action", and the UKRI Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging grant (NE/V010603/1) "Biocomposite Design for Food Packaging".

Karen is Academic Year Coordinator for year 4 students. She teaches Chemical Engineering: Fundamentals, Techniques and Tools (CP102), Mathematics for Chemical Engineers (online course) (CP108) and is also a supervisor for design CP407, MEng projects (18530), and MSc projects.

Contact information


Department of Chemical and Process Engineering
University of Strathclyde
Room 4.05h, James Weir Building
75 Montrose Street
Glasgow G1 1XJ
United Kingdom
karen.johnston (at) strath.ac.uk
+44 (0)141 548 4084
Follow the group on Twitter @EngInterface

ORCID: 0000-0002-5817-3479
ResearcherID: B-9153-2009
Scopus: 7202814554