The Construction Materials Group is a multidisciplinary group providing a forum for the exchange of information, knowledge and state-of-the-art industrial practice on all aspects of construction materials including iron and steel, polymers, heavy clay, cement and concrete, timber and wood products.
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Meet the Construction Materials Leadership Team
Dr Flavie Lowres FIMMM
Dr Morwenna Spear FIMMM
Dr Graham Ormondroyd FIMMM
Dr Deborah Pullen MBE FIMMM
Keith Aldis
Marion Ingle
Dr Su Varma FIMMM
Dr Flavie Lowres FIMMM
Flavie Lowres has a PhD in Materials and Metallurgy Science and Engineering from the University of Birmingham. Flavie chairs the Construction Materials Group and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Flavie spent 18 years at BRE where she was an associate director and specialised in materials sustainability related to LCA, circular economy, health and wellbeing and biophilia. Flavie is now working for Green Thinking Ltd and her first mission is to support the FIS in driving their sustainability strategy.
Dr Morwenna Spear FIMMM
Dr Morwenna Spear has a PhD in Natural Fibre Composite Materials. Her research interests include the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of wood and has applied a wide range of techniques to understand and develop wood modification technologies. She also has experience of scaling-up new technologies for industry, and value-adding for timber. Morwenna also has a strong interest in the use of timber as a renewable and sustainable construction material, considering availability, embodied and sequestered carbon, and the route to net-zero for the industry. She has a keen interest in the timber industry in Wales and the UK, and has conducted market studies on the forest products sector, the use of timber in construction and the bio-based composites sector.
Dr Spear has supervised a number of MSc and PhD students in topics relating to timber and bio-based materials. She is involved in the Places of Climate Change research group and Plastics Research Centre Wales within Bangor University. She has written many book chapters on topics including: natural materials, wood based composites, timber properties and recycling. Morwenna is Vice-Chair of the IOM3 Wood Technology Group.
Dr Graham Ormondroyd FIMMM
Graham acts as the strategic advisor for the IOM3 Construction Materials Group and represents their interests in the Technology Communities Board.
Dr Ormondroyd completed his PhD (Wood Science) at Bangor University, UK and has been the Head of Materials Research at the BioComposites Centre for 18 years and Reader in Biobased materials since February 2020. In that time has written many proposals, papers and undertaken commercial works in all aspects of biomaterials science. Dr Ormondroyd has over 100 publications including peer reviewed papers, conference proceedings, book chapters and edited books, he continues to publish regularly. Dr Ormondroyd is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining, a member of the International Research Group on Wood Protection and Chair of the Wood Technology Society.
Dr Deborah Pullen MBE FIMMM
Deborah is an experienced leader and champion across the private, public and charitable sectors with particular experience in the construction, defence, aerospace and engineering sectors.
She has over 25 years’ experience in leading complex research programmes, research teams and R&D businesses focused on advanced materials, particularly polymer composites as both a qualified engineer and scientist.
She set up and led the National Composites Networks and then the Built Environment KTN and was awarded an MBE in the 2015 Queen’s New Year’s Honours for her achievements in Innovation and Knowledge Transfer
She is a trustee and technical advisor to a number of educational charities and also supports the development and mentoring of young professionals.
Keith Aldis
Keith Aldis is the current Chief Executive of the Brick Development Association (BDA). Keith has held many prestigious positions, including setting up and running the sector’s non-statutory training organisation, JTL. JTL went on to become the largest independent agency for the delivery of modern apprenticeships in the UK.
Following his appointment in 1997 as the Director of Training and Education at the then Building Employer's Confederation, he moved into the public sector as Customer Relationship Director and Operations Director for the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB), the successor body to the EITB.
Keith's philosophy has always been that that sound governance, excellent business professionalism and total commitment to people development is the key to success, for any business.
Marion Ingle
I have been a member of IOM3 since the Plastics and Rubber Institute merged with the Institute of Materials. I have worked in polymers for over 30 years in various sectors including: product development; manufacturing; general consultancy; ad education. I currently work at Sandberg LLP where most of my work involves investigating failures in polymer materials and products used in construction. Such failures, which are often foreseeable and avoidable, can result in large volumes of materials ending up in landfill as well as the huge costs associated with replacement or remedial works. I am particularly interested in supporting activities to disseminate technical information and share experience within the construction industry relating to polymers.
Dr Su Varma FIMMM
Dr Su Varma CChem FRSC FIMMM has a PhD in Chemistry and has over 30 years of experience in leading industrial materials research especially in relation to advanced glass products such as fire protection glazing. More recently he was primarily responsible for the development of an in-house R&D Incubator at Pilkington (NSG Group) with the remit and vision to collaborate extensively with start-ups, established industries and universities globally to access new materials and technologies for the development of potentially new and novel glazing products. This has involved significant interactions with other materials manufacturers used in construction.
He is currently the Academic Director, R&D Incubator focussing on and increasing NSG’s Global partnerships with Academic Institutions, Research Technology Organizations, and funding bodies. He is particularly keen on cross sector collaboration and innovation and sits on several large university research advisory boards.
Su is a Chartered Chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of IOM3.
