Elastomers in Infrastructure

James Busfield

Head of the Soft Matter Group, QMUL

James has been the Head of the Soft Matter Group at QMUL since 1994. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020 and a National Teaching Fellow in 2009. He has also been recognised for his research by the award of the George Stafford Whitby Award (awarded to outstanding international teachers of polymer science and recognising innovative research by the ACS ) in 2021, the Colwyn Medal (the premier medal for rubber research awarded by the IOM3) in 2009 and the Sparks-Thomas Award (recognising outstanding contributions and innovations in the field of elastomers by the ACS) in 2010. Before 1994, James designed suspension components for an automotive industry supply company, designing systems for companies such as Jaguar, Volvo and Mercedes

: https://www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/staff/j.busfield
: james-busfield-a8b1931b
: @jamesbusfield

Flavie Lowres

Associate Director, Research and Strategic Advisory Group, BRE

Flavie Lowres joined BRE in June 2003, chairs the Construction Materials Group and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Flavie sits on the steering committee for the development of the Natural Capital of the Value Toolkit and on the Construction Leadership Council indicators group. She is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Bath. As an associate director in the research and strategic advisory group at BRE, Flavie is responsible for running the LCA and circular economy section of the group. She is also leading a project related to biophilic and health and wellbeing of office occupants and is developing the environmental impact evaluation method for a circular building assessment tool. She has been working in the field of materials sustainability since 2007 and has been involved in a number of UK and international projects related to sustainability in the built environment.

Erick Sharp

President & CEO, ACE Products & Consulting

Erick Sharp founded ACE Products & Consulting in January 2015 to provide independent rubber and silicone lab testing, development and training services for the global rubber industry. With ACE, Erick assisted in the launch of several new product lines in the rubber and silicone field. He has also acted as a contract technical and executive management support for many growing companies in the industry. Since starting ACE, the company has quadrupled its footprint, increased its accredited scope by 300% and increased overall capabilities by 600%. Erick has a degree in Industrial Engineering and has been in the rubber industry for nearly twenty years and is looking forward to twenty more. He has presented at numerous industry conferences across the globe. Erick resides in Uniontown, OH with his wife and two boys.

: ericksharp
: @Erick_Sharp

Brian Kent

National Technical Director, TARMAC

Brian graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University and worked in the quarrying industry for a number of years before joining TARMAC in 1994 where he held a number of positions rising to national technical director in 2012, a position he still holds

: brian-kent-aaba4884

Marco Battaini

Design Engineer, AGOM International Srl

Since 1998 Marco has been working in the field of seismic protection and vibration control of the structures (building, bridges, etc…). Relating to the topis of this seminar, he is involved in the design, manufacturing and testing of rubber seismic isolation HDRB (high damping rubber devices) and LRB (lead rubber device) according to the main international standards like EN15129 and/or AASHTO seismic isolations system design. The applications of the devices are very wide going from small devices (for example 100 mm diameter) to isolate light structures to quite big (up to 1400 mm diameter) to protect very heavy bridges located in high seismicity areas.

Professor Maria Rosaria Marsico

Associate Professor of Structural Dynamics, University of Exeter

Maria Rosaria Marsico is Associate Professor of Structural Dynamics at the University of Exeter. Her research expertise is vibration isolation of structures using elastomeric devices. She investigates the use of innovative materials to reinforce elastomers and enhance the vibration isolation properties.

She was awarded the prestigious Junior Research Prize from the European Association for Structural Dynamics (2020) for her transformative research exploiting the properties of graphene for seismic isolation of structures [Adv. Eng. Mat. 2020] and her research has been selected among the top 100 entries at CREATE the FUTURE 2020. She was awarded the Highest Honour by the Italian Regional Council for personalities who have distinguished themselves for merits achieved in scientific fields (2020) and she holds the prestigious Principal Fellowship of the UK Higher Education Academy.

: maria-rosaria-marsico-50a52555
: @mr_marsico

Matthew Dronfield

National Products and Repairs Director, Freyssinet

Matthew Dronfield is the National Products and Repairs Director at Freyssinet responsible for the identification and development of schemes to repair and maintain vital infrastructure in the UK. As a multi discipline engineer he has worked across industries and sectors over the last 35 years gaining vital experience in the design, installation, and maintenance of mechanical products for structures, management of large-scale civil engineering projects and has experience in building services engineering.

Dr Matthew Thornton

Commercial Manager, The Bridge, University of Lincoln

Dr Matthew Thornton

Commercial Manager – The Bridge, University of Lincoln

Matthew is the Commercial Manager for The Bridge at The University of Lincoln, responsible for linking engineering and materials science businesses across the East Midlands and beyond both with each other and with experts at the University of Lincoln to undertake world-leading, collaborative research and development in advanced materials science and engineering.

Prior to joining the University of Lincoln as the Commercial Manager for The Bridge, Matthew was the Chief Innovation Officer for Polymateria Ltd based in London, where he was responsible for new product development in partnership with commercial customers to ensure that the companies research is commercially focussed and meets the requirements of our customers to deliver value for the business in the short, medium, and long-term, with a focus on strategic direction and innovation.

Matthew has a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry with Chemical Engineering from the University of Huddersfield, UK (2001) and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Nottingham, UK (2005). Following his studies Matthew spent 18 months as a KTP Associate at the University of Reading, researching novel materials for the removal of mercury from crematoria flue gases, before spending 7 years at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining as both a Materials Advisor and the Polymer Sector Leader for the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network.

He joined NetComposites Ltd in August 2013 as a Project Manager and was responsible for the management of several UK Government and EU funded collaborative research and development projects. In April 2016, Matthew joined Haydale Composite Solutions as UK Site and Innovation Director and was responsible for both the Haydale Group Innovation Department and the Resins, Polymers and Composites Business Unit.

Matthew is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Chartered Environmentalist, he has a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Open University, UK (2022), and is the Secretary-General for the International Rubber Conference Organisation.

Link: https://www.thebridge-lincoln.org/

: drmjthornton

Martyn Bennett

Director, Midsomer Science

Martyn Bennett graduated in Physics and Materials and joined Avon Rubber PLC in 1987. He worked on a range of programmes and projects, becoming senior research scientist and then manager of their Materials Development Centre in 1998 and then forming ARTIS, the consultancy wing of Avon in 2007. Having formed the sustainable materials group to look at sustainability issues in rubber, Martyn finally left Avon in 2020, and now operates as an independent consultant on rubber materials.