Welcome to the Auxetic Materials Network

Network Membership Profiles

Dr Kim Alderson, The University of Bolton

Dr Kim Alderson has worked in the field of auxetic materials since 1989, when she joined Ken Evan’s group at the University of Liverpool. Since then, she has worked on developing processing routes for auxetic polymers and is the coholder of 2 patents on producing auxetic cylinders and auxetic polymeric fibres, and on determining the mechanical properties of auxetic polymers and composites.[Publications]


Professor Andy Alderson

Centre for Materials Research and Innovation, The University of Bolton, Deane Road, Bolton BL3 5AB, Tel: +44 (0) 1204 903513, Email: A.Alderson@bolton.ac.uk

Professor Andy Alderson received his BSc (Honours) in physics in 1987 and his Doctorate in physics in 1991 from the University of Liverpool, UK. From 1992-1995 he was a Research Associate at Liverpool working on theoretical investigations into auxetic materials. His research into auxetic materials continued during 1995-1998 when he was a Research Associate in the Advanced Materials team at BNFL, where he also undertook research into conductive polymers. He joined the University of Bolton in 1998 and was the Acting Head of the Centre for Materials Research and Innovation at Bolton from January to October 2003. He is the Technical Director of the University spin-out company Auxetic Technologies Ltd. He chairs the Steering Group of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)-funded Auxetic Materials Network (AuxetNet – www.auxetnet.org.uk), has served on three EPSRC Structural Materials panels and is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College for 2003-present. He is a member of the Management Committee of the newly-created Northwest Composites Centre involving the universities of Bolton, Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster in the UK. He has published over 80 papers, 5 review articles and 3 patent applications, and regularly delivers invited seminars on auxetic materials to industry, academia, conferences and schools. The auxetic materials group at Bolton have research interests and on-going activities into auxetic microporous polymers, fibres, films, cellular solids, composites, thermal materials, and nanomaterials. Experimental and theoretical methodologies are employed to develop auxetic materials for a range of potential applications including filtration, energy absorption, drug-delivery and medical devices.[Publications]

The group at The University of Bolton consists of Drs Kim and Andy Alderson and 5 PhD students, plus input from 1 research assistant and 1 postdoctoral researcher, who is an expert in the technical textiles field, which is a particular strength of Bolton in terms of expertise and equipment. The group has attracted funding for its auxetics activities from EPSRC, the Nuffield Foundation, Proctor and Gamble and Bolton and Bury Chamber’s Business Link plus support from Hexcel, Univar plc, DuPont and BNFL.

The group has published 37 peer review journal and conference papers, 4 invited reviews and 3 patent applications in the field of auxetics. Dr Kim Alderson and one of the group PhD students were finalists in the British Female Inventor of the Year 2002 with their invention of auxetic fibres.0

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Prof Ken Evans and Dr Chris Smith, University of Exeter

Prof. Ken Evans is Head of the Materials and Process Engineering Research Group, Director of Exeter Advanced Technologies and Head of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Exeter. He was appointed to the Chair of Materials Engineering, at Exeter University, in July 1994. Prior to that he held the post of Reader in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Liverpool University. From Oct 1989 to Oct 1994 he was also an EPSRC Advanced Fellow. From 1981 to 1983 he was a senior Research Scientist at ICI. In 1993 he received the Leslie Holliday prize of the Institute of Materials for his research into novel materials.

Throughout this period his research activities have been concerned with microstructure, its evolution during processing and its effect on mechanical properties. For the last ten years Prof. Evans’ research has concentrated on auxetic materials and structures. This work has led to three patents with industrial funding in excess of £1 million from companies including BNFL, ICI, MOD, Proctor & Gamble, WL Gore Inc, Guidant and Dow Corning, with a wide range of potential applications currently under consideration. He has published over 130 refereed journal and conference papers.

Dr Chris Smith is a Lecturer in the Department of Engineering at the University of Exeter. He has interests in both the modeling and experimental measurement of auxetic materials and in biomimetics. His work on natural auxetic materials (e.g. certain types of skin and bone) has been sponsored by ICI and the EPSRC and he has 4 publications in the field of auxetics. [Publications]

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Prof Geof Tomlinson, University of Sheffield

Prof Geof Tomlinson’s interests in auxetic materials are threefold. Firstly, he is interested in damping coatings where one can invoke the orthotropic properties due to auxetic behaviour. He is also investigating the ability to control the geometric behaviour at a molecular level so that energy dissipation properties can be modified by having control of the nanostructural geometries, and in the impact behaviour of auxetics.

Dr Fabrizio Scarpa, Bristol University

Dr Fabrizio Scarpa obtained a MEng in Aeronautical Engineering and a PhD in Machine Design at the Politecnico of Torino, Italy. In 1997 he joined the Dynamics Research Group at the University of Sheffield to work in the field of negative Poisson's ratio materials for vibroacoustic applications. He then became Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Sheffield working as Aerospace Departmental Coordinator and International Student Exchange Officer. He joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering in Bristol in 2005.

His research activities span the field of auxetics (foams and honeycombs), shape memory alloy honeycombs, smart multifunctional cellular solids, viscoelasticity and structural-acoustic coupling. Dr Scarpa is Principal Investigator in EPSRC, European Framework 6, Transfer Technology partnerhips and DTI projects, working also in International Collaboration projects with US Army ARO and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr Scarpa is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and features in the Editorial team of the Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Journal.

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Dr Steve Moratti, University of Cambridge

Dr Steve Moratti’s research is into synthesis of novel materials and polymer architectures and the structure property relationships of these materials. Specific topics have included optoelectronic materials and auxetic materials, where his experience in controlling polymer architecture is of prime importance.
His auxetic materials work has been sponsored by EPSRC through a ROPA and Raychem. He has 1 PhD student in the area of auxetics.[Publications]

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John House of QinetiQ

An experienced physicist specialising in noise and vibration research and a Member of the Institute of Acoustics. He joined the Ministry of Technology in February 1968 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, working as a scientific assistant in the weapons department. In February 1969 he transferred to the Ministry of Defence at the Admiralty Materials Laboratory, Holton Heath carrying out research into polymeric materials for the reduction of noise signatures of RN ships and submarines. He studied physics at Bournemouth College of Technology, gaining HNC in Applied Physics in 1973 and then Supplementary Studies in Applied Physics in 1974. He was promoted to Principal Scientific Officer in 1989 and became a section leader, leading the technical aspects of many MoD research programmes. More recently he has been involved with adapting MoD related research to the needs of the civilian world particularly in the field of environmental noise and pedestrian safety. He is currently the QinetiQ/FST Technology Chief for Vibroacoustic Materials at Farnborough leading both MoD and Non MoD technical programmes and involved with marketing the research and bidding for work both at home and abroad.
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Dr. Ian Moss of Dow Corning

Dr. Ian Moss is manager of external contracts and sponsored research for Dow Corning Corporation's Advance Technologies and Ventures Business and is based at their site in Barry, South Wales. He has an MA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in synthetic inorganic chemistry from the University of Exeter. He joined Dow Corning Ltd. in 1995 from Aldrich Chemicals and has held a number of positions in R&D management within the company. He has extensive experience in R&D management both at a strategic and project management level. Ian is a director of Auxetix Ltd., a spin-out from the University of Exeter in which the University and Dow Corning are shareholders.

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Dr Joseph Grima

Dr Joseph Grima is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Malta. He has worked in the field of auxetic materials since 1996, when he joined the research group of Professor Evans at the University of Exeter. He is particularly interested into the analytical and/or molecular modelling of micro/nano structured materials and the relationships between the internal structure and the macroscopic properties of these materials. His publications on auxetic materials include papers on macrostructures, foams, organic networks and zeolites.
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Professor Anne Neville

Anne Neville (AN), is a EPSRC Advanced Fellow and she joined the Department of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering as a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in September 1995 having completing her PhD at the University of Glasgow. In the last 7 years she has built up a research group comprising 24 researchers (5 PDRAs) through a range of collaborative links within and outwith the University. She was awarded an EPSRC (fast track) grant (GR/L74163) in October 1997 and a further two in the same area of lubrication engineering in 2000 (GR/N12541 and GR/R12497). She has also attracted a range of other research funding including the Royal Society and a number of industrial companies (to in excess of £2.5M). She was promoted to Reader in October 1999 and to Professor in August 2002. She has published over 120 papers on corrosion and surface engineering related topics [e.g.1-10]. Her work is focused in the field of corrosion and surface engineering particularly stressing the application of advanced structural techniques such as Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. She has also been addressing fundamental issues involving mechanical and electrochemical interactions under tribo-corrosion conditions on metallic materials and on novel ceramic/metal systems. She was awarded the Makdougall-Brisbane prize from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in October 2000 for ‘an outstanding contribution to engineering science’. In May 2001 she was awarded the Guy Bengough prize from the Institute of Materials for her contribution to the corrosion literature. In April 2002 she delivered a Keynote lecture at the Additives 2003 conference entitled ‘Lubricant-surface interactions and their importance in optimising tribological systems to operate in boundary lubrication’ where her work in the lubricant additives field and vision for future research (as proposed here) were presented.

In Nov 2003 she takes up the Chair in Tribology and Surface engineering at the University of Leeds.
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