Council Members

Professor Steve Yeates has over 20 years industrial experience working for ICI, Zeneca and Avecia Ltd in the area of specialty polymer chemistry. During that time he held a number of senior technical positions developing and implementing research strategy. Over the last 7 years in industry he developed a particular interest in organic semiconductors and inkjet printing for both industrial and SOHO applications. In November 2004 he was appointed to the full time academic position as Professor of Polymer Chemistry, within the Organic Materials Innovation Centre (OMIC) at the University of Manchester, the UK’s second largest chemistry department.

---

My research interests focus principally on non-oxide materials such as nitrides and chalcogenides and in developing new inorganic nanomaterials. My work is driven by devising new synthetic routes and establishing structure-property relationships in fledgling families of solids and materials. Key areas include, for example, (a) sustainable energy materials – new lithium batteries and solid state hydrogen stores; (b) functional nanomaterials – new inorganic nanotubes and nanowires for electronic and sorption applications; (c) sustainable processing – novel microwave synthesis and processing techniques to both commercially important and new materials including superconductors, dielectrics, ceramics (both functional amd structural) and photonic glasses; (d) spintronics and photonics and (e) inorganic phosphors for flat screen display technology.

---

Professor Howard Colquhoun has held the Chair of Materials Chemistry at the University of Reading since 2000. His research programmes, many of which are collaborative with UK industry, centre on the synthetic and structural chemistry of high-performance engineering polymers and their applications in new energy-technologies such as fuel cells, photovoltaics and electrolysers for hydrogen generation. Other areas of activity include the development of novel nanofiltration membranes for water purification, the chemistry of carborane-based elastomers, supramolecular polymer chemistry, self-healing materials, and the storage and processing of digital information at the molecular level. He was awarded the RSC Medal and Prize for Materials Chemistry in 2006. Before retuning to academic life in 1994, at the University of Manchester, Howard's research was based mainly in ICI, at their Corporate Research Laboratory in Cheshire.

---

Andrew Cammidge gained a PhD in 1990 working with Mike Cook at UEA, investigating some novel phthalocyanine liquid crystals and then spent just over a year at the University of Toledo working with Alan Morgan on the synthesis of novel organic chromophores for the photodynamic treatment of cancer. In 1991 he returned to the UK to a postdoctoral position at the University of Leeds, spending three years working with Neville Boden and Richard Bushby working on the development of novel syntheses and applications of discotic liquid crystals, before returning to UEA in 1995. He has been a Professor in Chemistry since 2011.

Research in Andrew’s group fits broadly into two themes Organic Materials and Catalysis. Indeed, many projects combine these themes as the novel materials that we target for specific applications require invention or development of new synthetic chemistry for their efficient preparation. The group has pioneered several areas including the invention of the asymmetric intermolecular Suzuki reaction, the first application of molecular imprinting to realise efficient heterogeneous palladium catalysed cross-coupling, first examples of macrodiscotic triphenylenophthalocyanines and perylenophthalocyanines, the first room-temperature stable helical mesophase, the first examples of end-capped phthalocyanine siloxane oligomers and numerous unusual examples of multichromophore arrays based on novel porphyrins.

---

Colin Greaves is Professor of Solid State Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham and his research interests relate to the synthesis, structures and properties of new inorganic materials.  Current research programmes are focused on unusual electronic behaviour (including superconductors and thermoelectric layered oxides), oxide ion conductivity, electrocatalysts, and magnetic (and multiferroic) materials.

---

---

Prof Ian Hamley is Diamond Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Reading, and Head of Physical Chemistry. His research interests cover diverse aspects of soft materials chemistry, including (i) peptide and polymer/peptide conjugate self-assembly, in particular of amyloid peptides and development of potential materials for amyloid disease therapies, (ii) block copolymer phase behaviour and nanotechnology applications and (iii) polymer gels with applications in bio-engineering and as separation media. His work is interdisciplinary, and encompasses synthesis, various measurement techniques and also modelling and theory.

---

Jon Meegan is an employee of Cytec Engineered Materials, his research interests include the design, synthesis and characterisation of biologically inspired silica based nanomaterials, stress sensitive elastomers and developing the understanding of structure – property relationships in filled polymer systems and advanced composites.
Jon is involved in the development of standards relating to the terminology and testing of nanomaterials through an interaction with the British Standards Institute and more recently the International Standards Organisation.

---

Neil Robertson is a Reader in Inorganic and Materials Chemistry at the 
University of Edinburgh. His research involves molecular materials for 
electronic and optical application. This includes the synthesis and 
application of new molecules as semiconductors and as dyes for solar energy 
conversion in excitonic solar cells and in luminescent materials for light 
concentration and downshifting. He is also active in organising and delivering 
public engagement in excitonic solar cells.

---

Prof Milo Shaffer is a Reader in Nanomaterials Chemistry at Imperial College London. He has extensive experience of carbon and inorganic nanotube/nanorod synthesis, modification, characterisation, and application. He has developed and studied a wide variety of nanocomposite systems, including both structural matrices and conducting polymers for electrochemical applications.  He has also spent time working as a materials technology consultant in the areas of new technology development and exploitation, and holds 16 patents, several of which are exploited commercially. He was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Meldola medal in 2005 and an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship in 2008.

---

Bob Slade trained at the University of Oxford (New College), receiving a BA (1975), MA and DPhil (1978). He held post-doctoral positions at the University of York (1978-9) and the University of Oxford (1979-80), where he also held the position of Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at Lincoln College. He was appointed Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Exeter (1980) and then promoted to Reader in Materials Chemistry (1989). He moved to become appointed Head of Chemistry at the University of Surrey in 1998, serving in that role for 5 years, and now leads research in the sustainable chemistry of materials and of electrochemical energy devices, with a particular emphasis on envisaged applications.

---

Siobhan Casey is a research associate at Innospec, a specialty chemicals company based in Ellesmere Port. She is a materials scientist with a wide range of experience characterising the properties of materials in both university and industrial environments. Her current work focuses on the colloidal properties of fuels and how additives affect their performance in an engine.

---

David Evans works in the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, where he has been since 1996. His main research is in the area of functional layered solids, principally layered double hydroxides (hydrotalcite-like materials). Aspects of the work include controlled synthesis of materials with tailored particle size and morphology, and formation of functional materials by intercalation chemistry. Current projects involve preparation of environmentally friendly catalysts, magnetic materials, functional films and membranes, and additives for polymers. Both fundamental research and scale-up of successful preparations for commercial production are involved.

---

---

Stephen Skinner is a Reader in Materials Chemistry in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London with research interests in new materials for energy generation/storage technologies.  He is primarily interested in the development of materials for solid oxide fuel cells and in understanding their transport properties, utilising a combination of diffraction and spectroscopic techniques. In-situ structural and electrical characterisation of oxides and the determination of the oxygen transport kinetics are key areas of interest.

---

Jon Preece is Professor of Nanoscale Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. His research interests are (i) nanostructuring surfaces through the integration of nanolithographic methods (e-beam, AFM, SNP, X-rays) with chemical self-assembly of nanomaterials, (iii) gene delivery using peptides that incorporate chemical functionality that enhance transfection, (iii) microencapsulation of small molecules for storage and delivery, (iv) fabrication of bioresponsive and bioswitchable surfaces, and (v) liquid crystals. Jon is the current chair of the RSC Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Interest Group, he sits on the Editorial Advisory Board for Chem Soc Rev, and is the European Editor of the Journal of Experimental Nanoscience.

---

Rachel O’Reilly joined the chemistry department as an EPSRC career acceleration fellow at the University of Warwick in early 2009. Prior to this appointment she held a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis in the Chemistry department at the University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on bridging the interface between creative synthetic, polymer and catalysis chemistry, to allow for the development of materials that are of significant importance in medical, materials and nanoscience applications.

---

---

Dr Matthew Thornton MRSC is an Industry Co-ordinator for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining whose primary responsibility is to work on the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network and coordinate the British Composites Society board and Plastics and Rubber Division Board. Dr Thornton’s specialist areas are carbon-carbon composites, catalysis and nanomaterials.

---

---

Liz completed an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry at the University of Nottingham where she remained to carry out a PhD in organic synthesis under the supervision of Professor Jim Anderson. Since then, she has worked for the RSC as an Assistant Editor for Dalton Transactions, CrystEngComm and Chemical Society Reviews, and as a Deputy Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry, Soft Matter and Polymer Chemistry. Liz has been Managing Editor of Polymer Chemistry since May 2010.

In this section

• Materials Chemistry Division Council
• Focus on Activities
• Remit of MCD
• Materials Chemistry Interest Groups
• Other Networks & Groups
• Forthcoming Events
• Contacts

Tools