Thermoplastic Composites 2020: Current Research - Speaker Biographies

Dr Lee Harper, University of Nottingham

Dr Lee Harper is the Manager of the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub and an Associate Professor in Composites Manufacturing at the University of Nottingham. He has worked in the field of composite materials for 20 years and has established credible expertise in process development and numerical modelling for fibre reinforced polymer composites. His principal research interests focus on developing and modelling automated manufacturing processes for the automotive industry. He has authored 45 peer-reviewed publications, co-supervised 12 PhD students and been PI on projects totalling £3.1m. He currently sits on the UK’s Composite Leadership Forum, as part of the Technology Working Group and is a committee member for the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE).

Helena Simmonds, WMG

Helena Simmonds works as an Innovation Manager with the SME team at WMG, University of Warwick. Here she collaborates with local industrial partners to grow their business through technological innovations.  Helena has a strong background in Materials and Manufacturing; she started her career in the Military Air and Information division of BAE Systems where she gained experience in hot form manufacture, quality engineering and inspection as well as composites materials production support.  After joining WMG in 2013, Helena worked in the Automotive Composites Research Centre (ACRC) developing manufacturing processes such as preforming and compression moulding as well as using mechanical and thermal techniques to analyse and validate the mouldings.  Whilst working in the ACRC, Helena received the 2018 JEC Innovation Award in the category of automotive application for a collaborative project with Ford Motor Company.

Dr Dipa Roy, University of Edinburgh

Dr. Dipa Roy is Senior Lecturer in Composite Materials and Processing at the University of Edinburgh (UoE). She joined the School of Engineering at UoE in January 2017. She was an Assistant Professor at the University of Calcutta, India, between 2003 to 2011 in the Department of Polymer Science and Technology, where she led five Government of India-funded projects as Principal Investigator. She was a Visiting Faculty Member at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, India, between 2003-2011. In 2011 she joined the Irish Composites Centre (IComp) at the University of Limerick, Ireland and conducted collaborative research with industries. She holds a patent on dielectric heating of polymeric materials, which originated from an Enterprise Ireland funded Commercialisation project. After joining UoE in 2017, she was PI on a Feasibility Study project on thermoplastic fibre-metal hybrid laminates, funded by the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub. She has received funding in March 2019 as PI from the Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering (SRPe)-National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS) and Hexcel Advanced Composites Ltd. for a PhD project. She is currently leading a CAMREG (Centre for Advanced Materials for Renewable Energy Generation) funded project on recycled plastics. She has published 78 peer-reviewed journal papers and 12 book chapters. She has been the editor of an Elsevier book on Biocomposites book link. She has published over 40 conference papers. She is working in the field of polymers and composites for last 23 years and has a Google Scholar h-index of 30 Google Scholar Link.

Rizwan Saeed Choudhry, University of Derby
Silviu Ivan, Victrex
Vasiliki Loukodimou, TWI
John Summerscales, University of Plymouth
Chris Worrall, TWI