FPCM17 Committee
Conference Chair:
Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh
Conchúr joined the University of Sheffield in 2023 as the Vice President and Head of Faculty for Engineering, where he also serves as a member of the University Executive Board. Prior to this appointment, he was Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh for 6 years. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was elected as President of the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE) Europe in 2024. His research focuses on the manufacturing, testing, modeling, and sustainability of composite materials for applications in renewable energy (wind and ocean), aerospace, and automotive industries.
Committee Members:
John Summerscales
John Summerscales entered the composites sector 48 years ago, and after time with the Ministry of Defence (Navy) as a Higher Scientific Officer, he joined the academic staff at the University of Plymouth. He is now Professor of Composites Engineering and leads the MAterials and STructures (MAST) research group.
Edward Archer
Dr Edward Archer is a Senior Lecturer of Advanced Composite materials in the School of Engineering. His research is focused on manufacturing and characterising 3D woven composite reinforcement structures and the prediction of their properties with key aspects of the work carried out in collaboration with major companies in several industrial sectors. He has published many journal papers in this field and his research group operates both within the Engineering Composites Research Centre at Ulster University and at Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre (NIACE) in Belfast. He is Technical Director at the University spinout company Axis Composites Ltd.
Han Zhang
Dr Han Zhang is a Reader in Multifunctional Polymers and Composites at WMG, University of Warwick. Han is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist, and Fellow of Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining. Prior to joining WMG, Han was a Reader in Polymers and Composites and led the Composites group at Queen Mary University of London.
Han is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Silver Medal, a premier award from the Institute of Materials, Mineral and Mining (IOM3) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of composite materials, the RH Craven Award in 2010 for his excellence in polymer materials. His research on energy efficient out-of-oven composites manufacturing has received the Composite award in 2024.
His expertise in the field of polymers and composites ranges from polymer processing, conductive polymer composites, to manufacturing and characterization of advanced composites and nanocomposites, with a special focus on multifunctional composites. His current research is dedicated to the sustainable development of advanced composites, including energy efficient sustainable manufacturing, integrated structural health monitoring, and easy repairing functionalities for extended components' life. His research is recognised by a strong publication record (>4500 citations, h-index 35), with over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Advanced Functional Materials, Composites Science and Technology, and Composites Part A .
Han serves as the Deputy Chair and Secretary of the Composites Leadership Team at the Institute of Materials, Mineral and Mining. Han is also the Assistant Editor of the Elsevier journal Composites Part A, and appointed member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing and the Circular Economy.
Ana Young
After completing a BEng in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Surrey in 2011, Ana specialised in advanced materials science and engineering through her MSc at Imperial College London. Ana went on to obtain an EngD in Micro- and Nanomaterials for studying nanocomposite metrology and improved methods for the thermal analysis of cure in polymer composites.
James Maguire
James completed his PhD in Materials and Processes from the University of Edinburgh, focussing on the processing of thick section structures, such as those found in wind and tidal turbine blades, e.g., the root of the blade and spar caps. He has collaborated with industry and academia, including as a visiting researcher with Suzlon Energy Ltd. in the Netherlands and the University of Delaware and Purdue University in the US. Currently, he is a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield with a focus on the manufacture of thermoplastic composites and recycled composites.
James Kratz
Dr James Kratz works within the Bristol Composites Institute and leads research focuses on studying and optimising the composites manufacturing process. Following a PhD in his native Canada from McGill University in 2013, he moved to the University of Bristol where he was a Research Associate, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and now Associate Professor. Dr Kratz was a Researcher in Residence at the National Composites Centre, and has acted as Project Lead and co-Project Lead for a range of research projects concerned with composites manufacturing.
Mikhail Matveev
Dr Mikhail Matveev is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham and a member of the Composites Research Group. His research focuses on advanced manufacturing and the design of composite materials, with an emphasis on enhancing performance and process reliability. His recent work involves interdisciplinary collaboration, integrating advanced mathematics into the control of flow processes in composites. He is actively engaged in collaborative projects funded by EPSRC and the EU and contributes to the Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Composites Engineering. Dr Matveev also serves as a Researcher in Residence at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Sheffield, supporting innovation in the industrial application of composite technologies.
Hatice ÅžaÅŸ
Dr Hatice ÅžaÅŸ is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Sheffield, specialising in Composite Processing.
Edward McCarthy
Dr Edward McCarthy is a Senior Lecturer in Composites Design and Testing at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently the Lead of the FASTBLADE Fatigue Test Facility, the University of Edinburgh Principal Investigator of Horizon 2020 project MAXBLADE, and a co-investigator in projects COTIDE and Morphing Blade. His research focuses on composite testing, specifically fibre fragmentation problems under uniaxial loading, and his current research is focused on tidal energy development.
Matt Smith
Dr Matt Smith joined the AMRC in 2014 and has worked on numerous InnovateUK, ATI and Cleansky2 funded programmes, as well as supporting other R&D projects within the centre. He is Technical Lead for Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Simulation within the Composite Centre. The focus of his experience is in composite design & manufacture, FEA and testing.
He gained his MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield, and holds a PhD from the University of Liverpool where his work focused on the design, manufacture and analysis of composite & additive manufactured structures. He has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on the topics of composite manufacture, design and analysis.
Prasad Potluri
Professor Prasad Potluri is the Chair in Robotics and Textile Composites in Materials Engineering at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on 'Textile Composites' with applications in Aerospace, Automotive, Marine and Energy sectors. He has an inter-disciplinary approach to research and combines aspects of Robotics, Textile Processing, Mechanics of flexible fibre assemblies and Experimental mechanics. In 2000, he established Textile Composites Group in order to deliver world-class research.
Connie Qian
Dr Connie Qian is a Senior Lecturer in Composites at the University of Sheffield, specialising in experimental characterisation and numerical simulation for composites forming processes, notably compression moulding for discontinuous fibre composites. She also has strong background in multi-scale modelling and structural optimisation for discontinuous fibre composites. Prior to joining the University of Sheffield in 2024, she obtained her PhD and continued as a postdoc at the Composites Research Group at the University of Nottingham, and later joined the University of Warwick as a Research Fellow and then an Assistant Professor. She has a wide range of experience working on fundamental, applied and commercial research projects, through which she has also developed other areas of expertise such as process simulation for injection moulding, over-moulding and HP-RTM.