Fergus Riche

Fergus joined Carpmaels & Ransford in 2026 as a Trainee Patent Attorney in the Engineering and Tech group. He holds a first-class degree master’s degree in engineering from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD awarded for research on the mechanical properties of soft cellular materials, undertaken with Prof. Alexandre Kabla.

Fergus’s doctoral research involved building a novel physical model for biological tissues using functionalised giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), which he used to characterise the response of tissue-like materials to mechanical stresses, investigating how they transition between fluid- and solid-like behaviour. As part of this work, he developed machine learning methods to detect relationships in sparsely populated high-dimensional datasets, to provide information about the effect of individual parameters in a highly coupled complex system.

For his research, Fergus worked on a variety of techniques to manufacture, image and measure the mechanical properties of tissue-mimic material. These include a high-throughput method for producing large quantities of densely packed GUVs, and a tomographic fluorescence video microscope with integrated magnetic tweezers, capable of imaging the 3D structure of samples during deformation.

Alongside his postgraduate studies, Fergus worked in technology consultancy, offering research and development services to clients in a variety of fields, delivering projects on consumer and medical wearable electronics, industrial process development, and the modification of a Grade I listed building.

Outside of the office, Fergus enjoys gardening, clockmaking and throwing dinner parties. He has a passion for architecture, and he often visits historic or unusual buildings in the UK and further afield.