After graduating in 2007 from Loughborough with a First-Class BA (Hons) in Industrial Design, Nikki worked for ten years within the UK and European food packaging supply chain in design and marketing managerial roles. Throughout Nikki’s time in industry, she championed innovation to reduce the environmental impact of packaging. In 2017 Nikki started a full time PhD at Loughborough University publishing her thesis in 2021 which focussed on the importance of understanding consumer behaviour in the development of Food-to-Go packaging for a Circular Economy within the UK.
Nikki has successfully transitioned her career in industry to being a well-respected and rapidly established research academic within Loughborough University’s School of Design and Creative Arts (SCDA). She has taught on several undergraduate and postgraduate modules, across a broad range of topics and is a PhD supervisor. Nikki’s industrial experience allows her teaching to relate with the reality of a fast-paced industrial manufacturing industry and the global corporate world, an essential skill within the School. She has recently been appointed the position of Lecturer in Design and will commence her role within the School of Design and Creative Arts in October 2021.
Nikki has published within peer-reviewed international journal and conference papers, and has experience of presenting internationally. Her personal research programme focuses on the Circular Economy, Packaging Design and Consumer Behaviour, all relevant and active fields of research for Loughborough University. Nikki’s research has identified and developed the need for sustainable packaging systems that will have social, environmental, and economic impact. Developing an original programme of research, with a real-life urgent need to solve some of the world’s greatest climatic issues.
Using the outcomes of her PhD Nikki co-authored the successful NERC PPFTG research proposal, showing the relevance of her research field. She is part of the Loughborough University team which was awarded around £1m in 2020 as part of the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge funded by UKRI, to help tackle waste plastic in the UK. The Perpetual Plastic for Food to Go project will develop, prototype, and evaluate a novel circular business model that combines smart-technology enabled products and services, and consumer behaviour insights to reduce the environmental, societal, and economic impact of food to go packaging. In her Lecturer role Nikki will continue to work on the PPFTG project as a Co-Investigator.
Nikki is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Nikki leads teaching on BA Design Final Major Project and the Signs and Meanings module for BA Design and Industrial Design Programmes. She teaches across multiple Undergraduate and Masters modules including Design @ SDCA, Design Communications, Service Design and Graphic Design Contexts.
Nikki mainly supervises PhD's in the areas of: design for behaviour change / design for sustainable behaviour (applied in a range of contexts including food, electronic waste and packaging). She also supervises students researching practice-based methods for improving sustainable design and product service systems.
PhD completions:
Dr Fangzhou You (2022)
Current PhD Supervisions:
Betul Sahin (Principal Supervisor)
Zoha Khaniki (Principal Supervisor)