Thermoplastic Composites 2020: Process Innovation Enabling New Applications - Speaker Biographies

Dr Andrew Parsons, CIMCOMP, University of Nottingham

Dr Andrew Parsons is a Senior Research Fellow in the Nottingham Composites Research Group, a Chartered Engineer and Scientist and a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). He has a multidisciplinary background in physics, chemistry, materials and knowledge transfer (MEDICI fellowship). His principal research interests lie in thermoplastic composites and composite materials. 

He has worked on developing phosphate glasses, their fibres and thermoplastic composites for more than 15 years and is named on 70 peer-reviewed papers (h-index = 21), more than 100 conference proceedings and 4 patent applications. He has supervised or co-supervised 12 Ph.D. students and was a major contributor to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition “ Plastics Inside Us” in 2016, which was attended by around 14,000 members of the public (including 2000 school children) plus many VIPs. More recently he has focused on the development of carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastics, in particular for automotive applications. 

He was Co-I on the TSB funded project Scalable Multifilament Phosphate Fibre Tows (ScaMP) (TSB Ref: 101227) developing weavable phosphate fibres and Co-I on the EPSRC biomedical nanocomposites grant (EP/J017272/1). He is currently Co-I on the InnovateUK ENACT project, developing understanding of the insert overmoulding process using carbon/nylon materials, as well as leading the Future Composites Manufacturing Hub project developing in situ polymerisation techniques for nylon in double diaphragm forming. 

Iain Campbell, University of Glasgow
Arnaud Dereims, ESI UK
Chris Howell, Newcastle University
Mark Muilwijk, Airborne