Speakers

James joined the University of Manchester after 25 years in the industry where most recently he was Vice-President of Technology Collaboration Programmes and Managing Director of the Advanced Technology Centres for BAE Systems in the UK.

As the CEO for Graphene@Manchester, which includes the business responsibilities for the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), he will be looking to develop the industrial partnerships and collaborations to accelerate the commercialisation opportunities for graphene.

James is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Nicole Ballantyne is a chartered Mechanical Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers with 3 decades of industry experience in the manufacturing sector, and in innovation support. In her current role, Nicole was taken on as employee 12 at MESTEC – a high growth, innovative Manufacturing Execution Software company – helping manufacturers embrace digital transformation through facilitating the provision of the right data, at the right place, at the right time, to make great management decisions. Just a year later, the company now employs more than 35 staff, and specifically managing customer success, and partnerships is the current challenge that Nicole is wrestling with.

Nicole started her career as an engineering sponsored student with Metalbox – a 15yr career that led to exciting manufacturing leadership roles throughout Europe, in World Class Manufacturing, and ERP Implementation Management. Subsequent varied management roles in an SME corrosions coatings manufacturer, and in the support sector have seen Nicole develop and collaborate in technology & innovation strategies in a whole variety of companies in a plethora of sectors. She holds a M.Sc. from Cranfield, and a B.Eng.(hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College.

Alan Banks is the Lightweight Structures Supervisor within Innovation and Research at Ford Motor Company. He started work at Ford in 1983 as an apprentice and worked in Chassis Engineering responsible for suspension systems on commercial vehicles until 2019 before his move to Innovation and Research.

His remit with the Innovation and Research team is to lead projects with light-weighting technologies and applications in design with mass production capability. This remit includes material choices from advanced steel to full composite structures, including hybrid technology to produce the best value for automotive applications.

Alan is responsible for a team of 8 engineers with a team of distributed global engineers who help develop Test Driven Development as well as Behavioural Driven Development to ensure customer expectations are met as well as component specifications for lightweight application technology.

He was the team leader on the Composite Lightweight Automotive Suspension System (CLASS) project, which won the JEC World Automotive Application Innovation category in 2018. He is also leading the Composite Hybrid Automotive Suspension System Innovative Structures (CHASSIS) project due for completion in 2021 and has 8 patents to his name.

Alan has a First-Class Honours Degree and an MSc from the University of Bradford in the UK, is a Fellow and Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering Technology and a Fellow of the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, as well as a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. He is also on the Research Board of The Welding Institute Research Committee and a Director of the Board for the Composites UK Trade Association. He is Chairman of the Vehicular Composites Group and the Lightweighting UK Auto Council Strategy Group.

Responsible for driving the synergy of PM production technologies like Powder Injection Molding and 3D Printing for both Ceramics and Metals , supporting all his customers during development, launch and production of their parts. He also offers his experience to the Dutch high-tech industry and the European market.

As professional René worked on the industrialization of Metal Injection Molding in The Netherlands. Together with BASF he succesfully introduced the first commercial titanium products to the European medical market. During his professional career, as part of the Bosch Rexroth R&D organization, he further specialized in thermal spraying and overlay welding of metal coatings for offshore applications, after which he returned as Technology Manager to one of the three MIM companies in The Netherlands.

René holds a Master in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from the University Twente. His passion for powder metallurgy can be traced back to this time as he spent significant time on studying intermetallic powder extrusion.

Mr. Barkan founded The Graphene Council in 2013 as global trade and professional community connecting scientists, academics, producers, end-users, and commercial professionals that
have an interest in the research, development and application of graphene.

The mission of The Graphene Council is to be a catalyst for the commercialization of graphene by meeting the needs of the global graphene community, helping to facilitate the development
and application of this unique material.

For more than 30 years, Terrance Barkan CAE has been building trade and professional associations on a global basis, working in more than 70 countries on 6 continents around the
world developing and implementing association growth strategy projects.

To date, The Graphene Council has attracted more than 30,000 members from around the world making it the largest community for people with an interest in graphene. The Graphene Council
produces a weekly graphene intelligence briefing newsletter, contributes to global standards bodies and administers the Verified Graphene Producer™ program.

The Graphene Council is also a Tier 2 Member of the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester in the UK, the “home” of graphene.

Under the leadership of Mr. Barkan, The Graphene Council has become the leading global organization promoting the adoption of graphene enhanced advanced materials solutions.

Steve has over 30 years of experience in business development. Starting his career as a Chemical Engineer, he transitioned into global catalyst sales and technology licensing for the oil, gas, and chemicals sectors. He has a background in developing innovative products for high-reliability electronics, contributing to the advancement of battery materials and fuel cells. 

Steve has successfully brought new products, utilising advanced materials, to the market by integrating technical and commercial perspectives. In his current role at Levidian, Steve supports the commercialisation of carbon materials for battery and related energy transfer technologies, aiming to bring about practical, real-world applications.

Keiran Clifford has recently completed his PhD with the Materials Physics group at the University of Sussex. His research focuses on structure-property relationships of solution-processed nanomaterials towards coatings and device applications including printed electronics, EMI shielding and thermoelectrics.

Currently, Keiran is a Materials Scientist at Surrey Nanosystems where he is responsible for the development of the Vantablack product line of ultra-emissive coatings technologies across a range of aerospace and aesthetics applications.

Bio coming soon…

Claire is an Associate Professor – Reader at the WMG, University of Warwick, where she leads research and teaches on Ceramics. Her research focuses primarily on ceramic processing, and particularly on low energy ceramic sintering routes, including flash and cold sintering. She holds a DPhil in Materials from the University of Oxford, where she worked on ceramic processing of magnesium diboride, and subsequently carried out postdoctoral work on ceramic armour, functionally graded ceramic joints, and electromagnetic metamaterials. Her research has been funded by a wide range of organisations including EPSRC, Innovate UK, the Royal Society, Henry Royce Institute, and industrial partners. She is the Joint Director of the EPSRC UK Metamaterials Network Plus, and the convenor of the UK Ceramics Academics Forum.

Dr Jawwad A. Darr received his Phd in 1995 at Imperial College in Synthetic metal-organic chemistry and further postdoctoral research at Nottingham University.  He worked at the IRC in biomedical materials for two years at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).  From 2001 – 2006, he was holder of an EPSRC Advanced Research fellowship (and lecturer) developing research on “Next Generation Biomedical Materials using Supercritical Fluids”.  In May 2007, he joined University College London (UCL), Department of Chemistry.  Dr Darr has strong interactions with UK industry related to sustainable routes to the discovery and scale up of new ceramic materials in particularly energy and healthcare applications.  He is the co-founder of UPSIGN, a charity that seeks to support Universities in relation to British Pakistanis in higher education and research.

Bio coming soon…

Dr Richard Dixon is Founder and Managing Director of Dycotec Materials.   

He was previously Managing Director and Global CTO for Intrinsiq Materials, a nanotechnology company. 

Prior to that he was Director of Operations at Sarantel, a manufacturer of GPS devices, that floated on the London Stock Market  

He has degree in Chemistry from Imperial College, a PhD in semiconductor physics and an MBA 

Bio coming soon…

Dr Conor O’Brien is a Senior Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, predominantly concerned with the topic of advanced materials. Having previously studied at Trinity College Dublin, Conor obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester, working at the National Graphene Institute.

Conor’s work at IDTechEx covers advanced materials research, including markets and technologies, with particular expertise in nanocarbons such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. Beyond 2D materials, Conor also holds an interest in the advanced materials that are underpinning the energy and decarbonisation sector, with a focus on the fuel cell industry.

Dr. Donna Dykeman, ELM Research & Consulting Ltd., is an R&D Manager specializing in helping individuals and teams establish research projects and programs to achieve their innovation goals in public-private collaborations.

Donna has worked across several research areas of materials science and engineering, in the UK and Canada. She is an experienced R&D Programme Manager for publicly funded research, maintaining a strategic view on innovation opportunities for research organizations and businesses.  She has been working on publicly funded R&D projects for more than 25 years, as a researcher, project coordinator and partner, team manager and advisor, notably in the areas of digitalization, materials and process characterisation and modelling, sustainability and circular economy.

Donna spent the first 14 years of her career in the field of polymer composites manufacturing, process modelling, and in-service characterisation and modelling, and holds a PhD in Materials Engineering (University of British Columbia). For more than a decade thereafter, she worked with software businesses (Granta Design Ltd., Ansys Inc.) to translate research opportunities into product strategy with the support of collaborative and open innovation environments, specifically for materials, manufacturing and sustainability related challenges.

Lorraine Ferris is a Fellow of the Henry Royce Institute, University of Manchester.

Lorraine commenced her career in the Chemicals sector in ICI over 30 years ago, based at Wilton site and on secondments to Belgium and USA. Subsequently, she has worked in consultancy and interim management roles, as Managing Director of an environmental company and as a Chemicals Sector Advisor at the Department of International Trade.

Charles Footer is the Head of Advanced Services and Products at QinetiQ, a team of teams he leads as an independent business within QinetiQ plc. He manages technically and professionally across several technology areas selected as high impact and disruptive including across quantum materials and devices, power drive technologies, extreme environments, energy storage and harvesting systems, functional/stealth materials and coatings among a number of others. He has a proven track record of developing low TRL concepts into valuable IP, future research topics and substantial income streams with significant success including experience in start-up, venture capital and technology industries with a specialism for energy, defence, security and space markets. He has held the role of principle investigator on technical programmes of values totalling multiple millions of pounds across delivery teams in several countries.

Gilda is the Director of Programmes at Lucideon and “Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0” Programme Manager. She has 16 years’ experience in product development, scale up and collaboration across a variety of high value manufacturing sectors. The “Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0” Programme is funded by UKRI through their flagship funding scheme “Strength in Places”. Alongside technical workstreams, it focuses on developing the talent pipeline to support the advanced ceramics sector future. Gilda has led activities in this area such as engagement with schools from primary to colleges, industry-academia activities to support undergraduates and PhD and up-skilling of existing workforce. A key output of this workstream was a survey of the consortium to obtain a baseline snapshot of the diversity of the group in terms of gender, ethnicity, disability but also social background and caring responsibilities. The output will be used to support employers, schools and local authorities to create a richer environment for talents in the advanced ceramics sector to thrive.

Graduating with a Doctorate in Materials Science in 1997 from Swansea University and subsequently with an MBA from the University of Warwick in 2001, Barrie is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and holds Chartered Engineer status. For over 20 years, he has held senior positions across the steel and metals industries at leading manufacturers, directing a range of technical and research programmes and building excellent customer relationships across the sector. Since 2019, Barrie has been Director of Industrial Research at the Steel & Metals Institute, an open-access innovation centre based at Swansea University. In this role, he collaborates with a wide range of partners to develop both public and privately funded research aligned to industry needs, with a focus on decarbonisation and product development. The development and evolution of hydrogen testing capabilities have been at the forefront of the facility’s growth and will continue to be a key focus to support the requirements of industrial stakeholders moving forward.

Toby co-founded MyCarbon whilst conducting his PhD at the University of Leeds 2016. With expertise in carbon quantification, emission reduction strategies and carbon offsetting, it’s his life’s mission to reduce the impact of the climate crisis on the world. Toby has prior experience in advanced materials and technical ceramics, allowing him to provide valuable insight into sustainability within the sector..

Bio coming soon…

Ben Harries is Head of 3D Construction Printing (3DCP) at Versarien, an advanced engineering materials group leading a team of 3 trained robotic arm printer operatives.

With degrees in science journalism, architecture and town planning, Ben has practised architecture across a range of sectors and lectured at Universities and colleges on the subjects of architecture and 3DCP. He recently began studying for a part-time PhD at the University of Cambridge, focusing on 3D printing for highways infrastructure. He previously worked with the Water Research Centre (WRC), part of RSK Group, to help them develop their own infrastructure printing capability.

Ben has long been fascinated with 3DCP as a means of democratising architecture – a way of making good design affordable and accessible. In his career as an architect, Ben has seen the need for faster, more efficient and more reliable methods of constructing buildings and infrastructure; automating construction is crucial to addressing this need.

Bio coming soon…

Dr Cathryn Hickey – Chief Executive of AMRICC, and Director of Lucideon, the Advanced Materials consultancy based in North Staffordshire. Cathryn led the successful bid and is now Programme Director of the Strength in Places (SIPF) wave 2 programme entitled ‘Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0’ which was started in 2021.  This comprises a 5 year research programme with MICG partners as well as the development of The AMRICC Centre as a go-to facility for ceramics innovation commercialisation.  Cathryn is also leading Lucideon’s contribution to the Foundation Industries Sustainability Consortium (FISC) through its participation in the Economiser Programme.  This activity involves the implementation of data science and machine learning to key ceramics manufacturing sites to enable manufacturing process optimisation, and share learning with other foundation industries. Cathryn has a first class honours degree and PhD in Chemistry from University of Sheffield, 18 years experience in the downstream oil business and 10 years experience in vocational skills development for a variety of industries.

Bio coming soon…

Gerardo Igler is a Business Developer at Lithoz, working in strategic market development and providing digital manufacturing solutions to customers in the industrial market. With a background in commercial expertise, Gerardo has almost three years of professional experience in AM in the technical ceramic field and invaluable insight across many other industries.

Mark Jones is currently leading the business and industry division of BCAST (100+ people) based at Brunel University London; strategically growing BCAST as part of the senior leadership team. BCAST hosts the Circular Metals Centre, part of a UKRI £30M initiative to drive forward Circular Economy within the UK; and has just been awarded to become the first ever UN Centre for Circular Economy. Mark is also the Chair of Net Zero for the Aluminium Federation (ALFED).

Mark is currently leading the creation of a UK Aluminium Global Centre of Excellence for Net Zero (to achieve £multi-million investment), with a consortium consisting of BCAST (lead), the central High Value Manufacturing Catapult, AMRC, NMIS, Henry Royce, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), ALFED, ALUPRO and Innovate UK; using a systems approach to integrate key industrial sectors including automotive, aerospace, defence, rail, construction, bikes and packaging.

Mark has led numerous metals casting, extrusion and alloy development projects; which have driven UK onshoring of automotive/aerospace/defence materials/manufacturing and reduced component weight by up to 50%.

He has also managed the £10M EPSRC funded LiME Research Hub, a national centre of excellence in liquid metal engineering focussed on Circular Economy.

Prior to academia, Mark worked for KPMG as a Management Consultant across numerous diverse £multi-million programmes, including defence, aerospace, automotive and wider manufacturing.

Mark also has extensive experience within the aerospace sector, while based at Airbus within their Research and Technology division, and has a PhD in Aerospace Technology Management from Cranfield University, and an MEng in Manufacturing Engineering and Management from the University of Nottingham.

• Sean has led NIA’s project activities since he joined in 2015.  Prior to joining NIA, Sean worked for 10 years at the University of Leeds where he managed collaborative research between the university and industry.
• He has worked across diverse collaboration types within nano applications, including European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), a joint venture with the King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, and at senior project management levels in collaborative Framework Programme projects from FP6 onwards.

David is the Advanced Materials Lead at the National Composites Centre and currently chairs the UK-Ceramic Matrix Composite working group.

Prior to joining the NCC, David has worked in composite R&D at Solvay, Warwick Manufacturing Group, The University of Birmingham, and Rolls-Royce. His research has focused on both Ceramic and polymer matrix composites.

A commercial technologist, and qualified marketer, Tony has spent all of his working life in technology businesses.

An industrial chemist by education, Tony started his career at Pilkington, the global glass manufacturer, before moving to South Africa to take up a management position in the R&D labs for General Mining Union Corporation (Gencor). Returning to the UK, he then took a technical sales role with Siemens before moving to VG Instruments, first as sales and marketing manager, then director.

Tony has worked at Lucideon (formerly British Ceramic Research Limited), since 2004 and has taken the former RTO from a support entity of traditional ceramics to an international materials development and commercialization organization, with capabilities in advanced and traditional ceramics, metals and polymers. Lucideon’s world-first technology platforms include Flash Sintering of ceramics, ‘chemical ceramics’ and drug delivery systems.

Lucideon has facilities in North America as well as the UK and is currently developing an expansion into Asia.    

Professor David Knowles joined the Henry Royce Institute as its CEO in early 2019, bringing with him a wealth of experience from senior roles in both academia and industry in the areas of materials and structural integrity. David is particularly experienced in leading the collaboration between higher education and industry, to accelerate energy sector-related research, knowledge transfer and implementation.

David is a Fellow of the Royal Academy, a Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Bristol University and was Co-Director of the South-West Nuclear Hub and Atkins Fellow. Through his career he has lead materials research at Shell Global Solutions, served as CTO at Quest Integrity (operating throughout Australasia and SE Asia) and lectured at Cambridge University; collaborating with Rolls-Royce as Assistant Director of their Ni-alloy UTC.

In recent years David has led industrial projects related to design and assessment of renewable energy offshore structures, oil and gas and nuclear plant. He holds and participates in several EPSRC/Innovate grants and is the PI on ‘SINDRI Prosperity Partnership’ which is developing cutting-edge digital technology for nuclear plant design and assessment.

Dr. Tim Küsters works as a sales product manager for high temperature heat treatment system for Carbolite Gero. He is the application expert for debinding and sintering of oxide and non-oxide ceramics. He has six years of experience in carrying out projects with customers from the ceramic industry and research institutes. The main objective is to understand and optimize the debinding and sintering of ceramics based on specific sample / load properties and the heat treatment technology. His current role is closely related to his education as a mineralogist /geoscientist. He obtained a Ph.D degree from the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany and did research as a visiting scientist at Leeds University, UK. The research focused on the experimental study of fluid-rock interactions and their numerical modelling. Before that, he finished his master’s thesis at the Ruhr University Bochum studying mineral-melt interactions and the effect on diffusion profiles in crystals.

Alan Leong, currently a Principal Scientist in PETRONAS Research, Group Technology & Commercialisation, plays a pivotal role in advancing non-metallic material solutions, specifically in the domain of composite materials.

Alan’s journey with PETRONAS Research started in 2007 as a research engineer. His early focus was on developing non-metallic repair and rehabilitation techniques for pipelines. Over the years, Alan has assumed the role of principal investigator and project leader for several collaborative projects with both local and international partners. In addition to research, Alan is also heavily involved in technology deployment.

He took on a technical leadership role as Principal Scientist in 2016, overseeing multitude of materials-focused projects. From 2022, he was tasked to lead the development of graphene for composites applications for the new Advanced Materials business, one of the new energy transition businesses of PETRONAS.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Manchester.

Dileezaa Lurthanathan is a highly experienced and accomplished professional with over 14 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. She is currently the Head of Advanced Materials, Group Technology & Commercialization at PETRONAS, where she leads a team of experts in developing and commercializing new advanced materials technologies. Dileezaa’s career started in 2008 with PETRONAS Carigali, the main hydrocarbon exploration arm of PETRONAS where she played the role of Business Analyst and Development Planner. In the ensuing years, she worked in areas of project management and control, where she oversaw cost control of multiple PETRONAS projects. With her proven track record of success in project management and strategic planning, in 2018, she was appointed Head of Business Planning and Performance for Project Delivery. Dileezaa is skilled in incubating new business growth spaces, building strategic business cases to move them into venture build for corporate spin-ins. She is also passionate about exploring the processes, strategies, culture, and mechanisms that allow corporate spin-ins to succeed into profitable businesses, aligned with economic, social, and environmental impact. In 2022, she was entrusted to spearhead the venture building and growth Advanced Materials business, one of the new energy transition businesses of PETRONAS. In this space, she strives to utilize the “materials transition”; reducing reliance on traditional materials in favor of higher-performance and longer-lasting ones to lower our carbon footprints. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Technology PETRONAS. In 2023, she graduated from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Leadership Programme, held jointly with Yale University and IMD

UK Country Head for PlasticsEurope.

Geoff is a Fellow of the Inst of Directors, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Environmental Management & Accounting. He is also a member of the UK Trade and Business Commission; the Chair of CAPE – committed to climate education; and a Trustee of Lantra, the Society of the Chemical Industry, and the Association for Science Education.

Geoff’s passion is to close communication gaps especially those between policy makers, industry and education and ensure a sustainable future for all, with future business needs to the fore.

For over 20 years Geoff worked within BASF, the world’s largest chemical company including a decade on the plc board, with roles including communications, EHS, sustainability and corporate affairs. Today Geoff advises and consults to a wide range of organizational strategic and tactical groups covering the private, public and third sectors in arenas including sustainability, science, environment and further education.

He was brought up on a small family farm in South Armagh, N. Ireland, read biology in Liverpool and followed it with a range of post graduate qualifications in Health & Safety and management including a sleepless MBA. His doctorate concerned the strategic business value of social networks. He was delighted to be the 2018 Forward Ladies Male Agent of Change and in 2005 was awarded the Rotary International Service Above Self award.

In his ‘spare time’ Geoff is a driver for his two teenagers; an active Rotarian and has been recognized for his community work both nationally and internationally; historically he played rugby for Waterloo and Halifax; American Football in America and Australia; has sung and danced(!) with operatic societies; represented Breconshire at athletics; and is a published poet. He once won an award for his writing, and raises substantial charitable donations standing on his hind legs in public and talking.

Tim has over 25 years of experience as a product specialist for Thermal Analysis and Hyphenated Technologies. Following a PhD and postdoctoral study of polysiloxane polymers for liquid crystalline materials and pyroelectric sensors at the University of Hull, Tim joined PerkinElmer as a product specialist helping with application and technical support for the thermal analysis product lines. When not cycling or playing badminton, Tim uses his knowledge of polymers and advanced materials to help the users of techniques such as DSC, TGA and DMA to solve the challenges that they face within their businesses.

Vitor Farinha Marques is a Chief Materials Engineer at Leonardo Electronics and the Chairman of the Sustainable Materials Working Group. He has over 17 years of experience in materials and advanced manufacturing and previously worked at Honeywell Aerospace, Honda R&D and Dyson across a wide range of areas, such as R&D, digital engineering and global supply chain development. Recently he acted as industry advisor for strategic NIAG/ACT-NATO studies focused on novel materials and energy storage.  He holds a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Oxford (UK), an MBA from Bayes Business School – City, University of London, post-studies in Innovation and Leadership from the University of Stanford (US) and a Master in Materials Engineering from the University of Aveiro, PT. 

Simon is Open Innovation Lead at Authentise – looking to develop new products and services, working with a wide range of customers, suppliers and stakeholders.

With a PhD in nano-materials and surface science, Simon has worked for over 15 years in Open Innovation. During this time he has launched 100s of development projects and programmes seeking to improve manufacturing technologies and approaches across a wide range of sectors and industries.

Expansion of the capabilities of the Authentise solutions is his goal – aiming to offer partners the best experience and added-value services possible – using digital tools to enhance real-world solutions

Hannah Melia has a degree in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge, and has worked in the area of Materials software for 15 years. First at Granta Design working closely with Professor Mike Ashby on materials education as product manager for the internationally renowned CES EduPack, and for the last 5 years in the area of Machine Learning for Materials, Chemicals and CPG. She is now Product Marketing Lead at Citrine Informatics who have ten years experience successfully rolling out AI to materials and chemicals enterprises.

Beatriz Mingo is currently a Senior Lecturer and Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow at The University of Manchester and Henry Royce Institute. Her research focuses on the development of

environmentally friendly smart surface treatments for corrosion protection and lifetime extension of engineering systems. After completing her PhD (2016) at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), she was awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral researchers (2017) and the year after, a Presidential Fellowship at The University of Manchester. Her work has recently been recognised with the award of the 2022 RAEng Young Engineer of the Year, The University of Manchester Distinguished Achievement Medal – Researcher of the Year 2022 and the Alumni Award from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2022.

Robert Mitchell is responsible for leading translational research programmes with commercial focus and manages a portfolio of customer engagements delivering existing and next generation battery chemistries, and projects in battery recycling and critical minerals recovery. Rob has secured significant funding >£3.5 million to support research initiatives and played a leading role in securing £12 million for a battery material scale up facility (AMBIC). Rob is currently a Principal Scientist at CPI, with 15 years professional experience, and develops people and capabilities to support technology scale-up.

Tafadzwa is a seasoned innovation expert with a passion for sustainable technologies. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with more than 15 years of experience inventing, scaling, and commercialising functional advanced materials.

At the APC, he mentors early-stage Deep Tech founders on TDAP, a clean mobility accelerator programme. He is also responsible for investor relations at the APC, creating strong relationships with the investor community.

Gaining a PhD in the Production of Neodymium Iron Magnets from the University of Birmingham in 1999 under Professor Rex Harris. He Joined Morgan Advanced Materials in 2000 in the Vacuum Schmeltzer division; manufacturing magnets in Kentucky USA.

His career has subsequently passed though manufacturing, product and process development. Including leading the Thermal Ceramics Asia R&D Teams, whilst based in Japan. Highlights include the introducing the world leading low bio persistence fibre brands of Superwool into a production sites in China and South Korea. Reducing the energy intensity of the production of refractory fibres by 50%, and the sulphur emission foot prints of Insulating fire bricks by 95%.

For the last 3 Years he has been leading Thermal Ceramics global developments to ensure their products are on a glide path to Net Zero production by 2050 and that the correct innovations are made so that customers can benefit on their own carbon reduction journey, through the use of Morgan Advanced Materials products.

Sergio graduated in Chemistry from the University of Valencia with a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona; he works in the Department of Construction and Renewable Energies of AIMPLAS, participating in various projects at national and international levels.

Currently, Bram Neirinck is the manager for Sintered Applications at Schaeffler-Aerosint, a company he started working for when it was still the up-and-coming startup Aerosint. Bram received the degrees of industrial engineer, specialization in industrial chemistry, in 1998 and civil engineer in chemical engineering in 2002, both from KULeuven. During this trajectory, he specialized in polymer and surface chemistry. In 2010 he obtained his Ph.D. at KULeuven, in the department of Materials Engineering, while working on a process he invented to form porous materials via colloidal processing of ceramics and metal powders. After this introduction to powder metallurgy he focused more on biomedical materials during his post-doc. 

In 2015, he moved from academia to the R&D group of 3D Systems in Leuven. There, he was involved in the development of the 3D Systems DMP metal printer range and the optimization of laser powder bed fusion processes. During this period, he also became an active member of the ASTM F42 commission, with a focus on powder handling and safety. In 2018 he joined Aerosint where he is responsible for the development of Sinter based processes and applications as well as the regulatory compliance of the developed machines. 

Steve has worked across a spectrum of performance engineering programmes over 30 years, in the automotive and more recently aerospace. He has provided innovation leadership to Williams Advanced Engineering, helping establish the Foresight Williams investment fund, raising government ATI funding and supporting a number of business initiatives. Steve has previously co-founded start-ups, is a visiting professor in Future Business and Materials at University of Oxford and mentors innovation at the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Dr Faye Smith OBE is the part-time Materials Specialist for DIT’s NPH team. For 15 years Faye has supported materials-related foreign direct investment (FDI) across a range of sectors. DIT’s UK Materials FDI Proposition focuses on business opportunities afforded by changes in the UK supply chain due to environmental, sustainability and resilience requirements, such as battery materials and materials recycling, as well as opportunities in the UK’s high value markets.

Faye is a Director of Avalon Consultancy Services and, in her specialist area of composite materials, has been involved in the development and delivery of two UK Composite Strategies, including the establishment of the National Composites Centre and the Composites Leadership Forum and has been on the Board of Composites UK for 10 years. Faye is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-faye-smith-obe-a930214/

Keith is a Senior Research Scientist in the Surface Technology group. His research is focused on the structural characterisation of advanced materials, including graphene and related 2D materials (GR2Ms). His aim is to develop reliable measurement methods to accelerate the adoption of advanced materials as part of a net-zero carbon future.

Keith has been active in carbon nanomaterial research since 2009, working with both carbon nanotubes and graphene. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge before joining the Advanced Materials division at Thomas Swan and Co. Ltd. In 2012, he moved to Trinity College Dublin to work as a researcher-in-residence for Thomas Swan, embedded in the research group of Prof. Jonathan Coleman. He joined NPL in 2016 to develop measurement methods for graphene-enhanced composites.

Keith is a chartered physicist and has been a member of the Institute of Physics since 2018.

Andrew Pollard is NPL’s Advanced Materials Strategy Lead and leads NPL’s research into the structural and chemical characterisation of graphene and related 2D materials, with a focus on enabling industrial commercialisation in this area. This metrology research has allowed the development of several international standards addressing the measurement of 2D materials, either published or in progress within the ISO ‘Nanotechnologies’ Technical Committee (TC229).

Andrew is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Manchester, the co-chair of the VAMAS Technical Working Area ‘TWA 41: Graphene and Related 2D Materials’, Metrologist-in-Residence at the Henry Royce Institute, the Secretary of the ‘Materials and Characterisation’ Group at the Institute of Physics (IOP) and the recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ‘2018 Rising Star in Industry Award’.

Andrew Pollard is NPL’s Advanced Materials Strategy Lead and leads NPL’s research into the structural and chemical characterisation of graphene and related 2D materials, with a focus on enabling industrial commercialisation in this area. This metrology research has allowed the development of several international standards addressing the measurement of 2D materials, either published or in progress within the ISO ‘Nanotechnologies’ Technical Committee (TC229).

Andrew is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Manchester, the co-chair of the VAMAS Technical Working Area ‘TWA 41: Graphene and Related 2D Materials’, Metrologist-in-Residence at the Henry Royce Institute, the Secretary of the ‘Materials and Characterisation’ Group at the Institute of Physics (IOP) and the recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ‘2018 Rising Star in Industry Award’.

Bio coming soon…

Dr Ehsan Sabet is an associate professor of Ceramics AM at Loughborough University and the founder and CEO of Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, the biggest ceramic 3D printing facility in Europe with over two hundred ceramic printers and a full material development and a characterisation facility in Derby, UK.  Ehsan has twenty years of experience in research and manufacturing in material development and 3D printing. His track record of managing multi-million pounds industrial and research projects has made impacts in the supply chain of Rolls Royce (RR), SIEMENS, Jaguar & Land Rover (JLR), JCB Compact Systems, and General Motors (GM), as well as many small and medium-sized manufacturers in the UK and Europe.

As the CEO at High Temperature Material Systems (HTMS), I lead an amazing team dedicated to the advancement of high-temperature composites. Our mission is to revolutionise industries through the application of cutting-edge ceramic composite systems.

My entrepreneurial endeavours extend to co-founding ConsultingSim, where we developed a state-of-the-art immersive consulting project simulator designed to cultivate interpersonal and consulting skills. In the capacity of Co-Founder at gvino UK, I played a pivotal role in importing and distributing the finest Georgian wines in the UK, earning distinction as the ‘Georgian Wine Importer of the Year.’

My academic background includes reading for an MBA from Warwick Business School, where I focused on disruptive innovation and strategic partnerships within the aviation industry. Complementing this, I hold an Engineering Doctorate in Aerospace Materials from Swansea University, with a primary emphasis on Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC). My interest in ceramic composites led me to my role as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, where I oversaw a substantial $1M CMC development programme.

With my professional background, including roles at Rolls-Royce plc and Ricardo Strategic Consulting, I bring a wealth of expertise in advanced materials, entrepreneurship, and innovation, positioning HTMS for credible and impactful growth.

With a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biomaterials Engineering and a Ph.D. in Additive Manufacturing from Loughborough University, I possess an academic foundation in materials science. My doctoral research focused on material development for vat photopolymerization of sacrificial investment casting patterns for turbine blades, which provided a solid foundation for my current role.

Since 2021, I’ve been a part of the AM Centre of Excellence, where I’ve been involved in material development for affordable ceramic vat photopolymerization. This involves designing binders and ceramic compositions such as silica, alumina, zirconia, etc. This role has allowed me to apply my academic knowledge to practical solutions, contributing to advancements in additive manufacturing.

With a passion for research and a commitment to innovation, I am dedicated to making meaningful contributions to the field of ceramic additive manufacturing.

In AM-COE, we blend our academic insight and hands-on experience, with a focus on problem-solving and pushing the boundaries of additive manufacturing technologies to make these technologies more accessible for small and medium industries.

Nic Savjani is the Application Manager for Energy at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester. The GEIC aims to enable industry partners to facilitate the safe integration of graphene technologies into energy and other sectors. Before GEIC, Nicky conducted extensive research in graphene applications for energy, catalysis, tribology, and semiconductors, accumulating expertise in both academic and industrial settings and within multidisciplinary and multinational programmes.

Expert in chemical and nanomaterials engineering, coupled with an in-depth understanding of chemical industrial operations. Demonstrated over 8 years of experience in the dynamic domain of printed electronics and processes. Showcasing leadership and proficiency in navigating the synthesis of high performance materials alongside their use in cutting-edge printing technologies. Committed to fostering innovation and achieving excellence.

Co-founder of NanoRegMed Ltd and Nanoloom Ltd. Alexander, Professor of Nanotechnology, worked at the Royal Free Hospital and University College London for over 26 years; during this time, he spent a year at Harvard Medical School working on the development of synthetic vascular compliance graft and one year at Johns Hopkins Medical School. He published more than 687 peer-reviewed research papers and registered 14 UK and International patents on materials and nanotechnology. On editorial boards of 45 journals. He supervised 121 PhD students, all successfully completed. Currently, he is working on graphene-based materials for industrial applications.

Adam Sells, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Sheffield University, brings his wealth of expertise to the role of Channel Partner Manager at Goodfellow Cambridge Ltd. With over 10 years of dedicated service to Goodfellow, Adam has held various positions, gaining a deep understanding of the company’s products and customer needs.

Adam’s extensive background in materials and chemistry uniquely equips him to forge strong relationships with partners. As a Channel Partner Manager, he focuses on expanding Goodfellow’s network by identifying strategic alliances, nurturing existing partnerships, and driving growth. His passion lies in connecting people and resources to achieve shared goals.

Beyond his role, Adam is deeply committed to working with customers on long-term complex projects, particularly in the medical sector. Goodfellow’s meaningful innovations have the power to transform lives, and Adam takes pride in facilitating these positive changes through collaborative efforts.

Outside of work, Adam finds joy in rock climbing, relishing the blend of physical and mental challenges.

Bio coming soon…

Bio coming soon…

Mandar Thakare is the Associate Director of ICAM. He joined bp in Sep 2019, as the Materials Science Programme Manager in Group Research, and is responsible for the operational aspects of the ICAM partnership. He has over ten years’ experience in materials engineering, innovation strategy and new product development. Prior to joining bp, he worked as an Innovation Programme Lead at Element Six Ltd., where he supported a multi-site global team of scientists in developing and commercialising novel polycrystalline diamond products for oil and gas applications. As part of this role, he was closely involved in developing cutters for a range of O&G drilling applications across the globe, working closely with field users and drill-bit manufacturers.

He holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering (Mumbai, India), MSc in Surface Engineering (University of Nottingham), a PhD in Tribology (University of Southampton, Schlumberger plc funded) and an MBA (Alliance Manchester Business School). Prior to Element Six Ltd., he held a post-doctoral research position at the Osney Thermofluids Lab, University of Oxford, working closely with Rolls-Royce plc on gas turbine seals. During this period, he also tutored undergraduates in Engineering Science at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. After his PhD, he worked for Schlumberger plc, developing wear-corrosion resistant solutions for downhole directional drilling systems. During this period, he was responsible for identifying and qualifying coatings and materials solutions for Schlumberger tools deployed globally, through new suppliers and technologies. He has published journal papers, book chapters and conference papers on the subject of tribocorrosion and is a member of the IMechE Tribology Committee as well as a reviewer for journals such as Wear, Tribology International, ASME Journal of Tribology.

Mike is Managing Director of Reliable Insights, a company specialising in time series data. Through collaborations with Lucideon and the AMRICC Centre, Reliable Insights are providing cost-effective sustainability improvements through the targeted retrofitting of sensors to a wide range of ceramic process areas. These projects extend asset life and improve process efficiency.

Mike studied Physics at the University of Manchester before gaining his MSc in Science & Technology, Policy & Management at Manchester Business School.  After spending his early career at Siemens before moving onto work for a subsidiary of the Ebara Corporation, Mike Co-founded Reliable Insights in 2019.”

Bio coming soon…

Bio coming soon…

Dr. Aphrodite Tomou, as the Head of Technical at Goodfellow, oversees a global team of scientists and engineers. Her role involves identifying and introducing innovative materials, while providing technical support to both customers and the company. With a diverse background in Materials Science, including a PhD and two Masters’ degrees, she has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed international journals and presented as an invited speaker at international conferences. She actively contributes to the fields of Science and Engineering, participating in organizations such as Innovate UK, IOM3, and driving material research standardization through BSI. In 2023, she earned recognition as an Exemplar (Top 20) in The Manufacturer’s Top 100 in the UK. Her aim is to radiate Goodfellow’s technical knowledge and bridge the gap between academia and industry sectors.

Bio coming soon…

Dr James Wade-Zhu is the Non-metallics Lead at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). In his current role, James leads a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers developing both structural and functional ceramic materials and assessing their performance in simulated fusion environments. He is also a technical manager on UKAEA’s LIBRTI programme. Through his own research activities, James works closely with UK Universities, RTOs, PSREs and other sector leaders to develop new technologies with a view to their transfer into emerging markets in and outside fusion. He is also active in engaging with commercial industries to explore new opportunities to establish material supply chains capable of meeting the needs of fusion and other complimentary sectors.

Prior to joining UKAEA, James was a EUROfusion fellow at the University of Birmingham. Through his fellowship and two post-doctoral positions funded by the National Nuclear Laboratory and EDF Energy, James has over a decade’s worth of experience in the field of ceramic science and engineering, specialising in advanced ceramic and ceramic composites for nuclear applications. His primary research interests are in the microstructural engineering and manufacture of ceramics and the mechanisms that govern their mechanical, functional and irradiation performance. James continues to serve the academic community, lecturing, co-organising international conferences, giving invited talks and providing technical supervision to PhDs.

James is a Member of Institute of Minerals, Materials and Mining and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He also serves on the International Energy Agency working group for nuclear composites and on the advisory board for the Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0. 

Ben is the Deputy Challenge Director for Transforming Foundation Industries. This £149m challenge aims to transform the UK’s foundation industries (composed of the glass, metals, cement, ceramics, chemicals and paper industries) to make them internationally competitive, secure more jobs throughout the UK, and grow the sector.

In a previous role, he was responsible for developing and implementing the advanced materials technology strategy for the UK.

Before working at Innovate, he has nine years’ experience as a consultant focused on resource efficiency, policy, sustainable technology and innovation.

He has a PhD in chemistry and hands on experience of innovation and commercialisation.

Dr Tom Whitehead leads the Science Team at Intellegens. Tom has a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge and extensive experience of practical applications of machine learning in industry. His team works closely with R&D teams in the materials, chemicals, and manufacturing sectors to understand their product and process development problems and to apply the Intellegens technology to accelerate innovation. Tom is also active in the development of new machine learning methodologies to address high-value data analysis bottlenecks.

Bio coming soon…

Dr Jamie Williams is NPL’s product manager covering technology transfer related to advanced materials and advanced manufacturing. Jamie also leads NPL’s strategic development related to metamaterials and represents NPL on the UK Metamaterials Network. Jamie joined NPL in 2020 from the University of Leicester, where his PhD and Postdoctoral research covered the design, development, manufacture and testing of prototype graphene-based photodetectors, sensors and devices.

At NPL, Jamie works closely with industrial partners to support the development of new manufacturing techniques and processes, particularly graphene/2D and novel semiconductor materials. Jamie will be presenting Resmeas, a system for non-contact electrical characterisation of advanced materials to enable high throughput and high yield manufacturing supported by funding from the Government Office for Technology Transfer

Philip Withers is the first Regius Professor of Materials and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Indian National Science Academy.  He is the Chief Scientist of the Henry Royce Institute based around capabilities at the Universities of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College as well as the National Nuclear Labs, and the Atomic Energy Authority at Culham. His research focusses on imaging, modelling and understanding the behaviour of materials in real time and 3D often in situ under demanding environments. To this end he exploits electron, lab and synchrotron X-ray and neutron beams to shine a light on their behaviour. In 2008 he set up the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, a world-leading suite of X-ray imaging systems, which in 2020 became a founding part of the National Research Facility in Lab. CT.  

Dr. Mark Wright is Global Automotive Marketing Manager, responsible for automotive strategy of Solvay Specialty Polymers and Solvay Composite Materials.

Dr.Wright has been working for Solvay since 2001. Initially working to develop automotive business with in the UK but since 2008 has been working as Global Market Manager for Solvay specialty Polymers and from January 2019 has been also supporting Solvay Composite Materials business unit. The last 10 years has seen an exciting transformation in the automotive industry with the evolution of E-Mobility and Autonomous Driving as key drivers for the future. Dr.Wright has played an important role to enable Solvay to effectively position their advanced material portfolio across all vehicles architectures which has resulted in growth rates disconnected from standard industry rates.

Before joining Solvay, Dr.Wright worked for General Electric Plastics for 8 years. Application development and business development were his key activities in Industrial and consumer market segments. Dr.Wright also worked for 2 years in Lexan polycarbonate product technology at GE Bergen op Zoom, GE Plastics European HQ.

He received his Ph.D. in 1996 from Metropolitan University of Manchester (UK) where he studied Kinetics and Mechanisms of the Degradation of Chlorine containing Polymers.

Today, Dr. Mark Wright is living close to Manchester but supports Solvay’s automotive business globally.

Jakob Zeitler is Head of R&D at Matterhorn Studio, providing “Peer-reviewed Plug-in Bayesian Optimisation for Your Self-driving Laboratory”. An Affiliate Member with Canada’s 300 million CAD funded Accelerate Consortium, he is driving forward the Machine Learning aspects of Self-driving laboratories in the UK and beyond. In his PhD at UCL’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence, he has researched efficient experimentation, yielding both a paper and two patents with Spotify Research as well as the 1st place in the G-Research Thesis Competition. Learn more on http://matterhorn.studio