Dr Xu (Daisy) Deng

Xu Deng (Daisy) 1988-2026

Dr Xu Deng (Daisy) very sadly died aged 37 on 11^th February 2026.  Barrie Mecrow pays tribute on behalf of colleagues and friends who miss her so much and remain shocked by her sudden and unexpected death.

Xu Deng, known to most people in the UK as Daisy, was an exceptional researcher in the field of electric drives and machines.  Daisy completed her undergraduate studies in electrical engineering in Nanjing, China, along with a year’s academic study in Tohoku, Japan, before commencing her PhD at Newcastle University in 2012.  She was supervised by Barrie Mecrow, with whom she established a close working relationship and friendship which continued for the rest of her life.

Daisy’s PhD concerned the control of reluctance motors, using both new control schemes and new power electronic circuitry.  She quickly showed great talent in both hardware and software development and produced some groundbreaking research which received international acclaim.  This was a particularly noteworthy achievement as, during her PhD she also gave birth to and looked after her daughter whilst her husband Shaun, completed his PhD in London.

After successfully completing her PhD Daisy spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher, before being awarded a Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) research fellowship in 2019.  She was due to complete the fellowship and become an academic in May this year.

During her fellowship Daisy took a leading role in an EPSRC Prosperity Partnership with Dyson, working alongside Dr Daniel Smith of Dyson, in which she headed up all the academic aspects of the power electronics and control research.

During her time as a postdoctoral researcher Daisy became involved in the concept of integrating electric motors with their control electronics into a single module, known as an integrated drive.  This work, in which she researched, designed, built and tested such an integrated drive, resulted in some high profile journal papers and a prize from the IEEE.  Her pre-eminence in this field led to her being asked by the Institute of Engineering Technology (the IET) to edit a book on integrated drives.  This she did successfully, coordinating leading academics across three continents.  Just at the time of her death, she was asked to produce a second edition. Her colleagues will continue her work on integrated drives and honour the leadership that she gave.

In early 2026 Daisy set up an international Research collaboration between Newcastle University and Taiyuan University of Technology (TYUT), China and took an increasing role in teaching – another area in which she excelled.  At the time of her death she was teaching a module to all second year engineering students, was third year tutor within Electrical and Electronic Engineering and also the NSS champion for the discipline.  She was also a very strong advocate for women in engineering, including the organisation of several events.

At the time of her death Daisy was involved in the supervision of 11 PhD students and had also established a close relationship with Nidec Control Techniques.

Whilst the above gives the facts about Daisy’s activities, it does not do justice to the warmth, enthusiasm and kindness that she showed to both colleagues and students.  She was universally liked by all who worked with her: her smile and friendliness will be sadly missed by all.

Daisy leaves her husband, Shaun, and twelve year old daughter Wei-Yi.