The Team

Professor Michael Wisnom

University of Bristol

Director of Bristol Composites Institute (ACCIS), Michael is a leading authority on failure of fibre reinforced composites.

He has made key contributions on fundamental failure mechanisms, providing new insights into failure processes, understanding of controlling factors and models to predict response.

He is Editor-in-Chief of Composites Part A, Fellow of the American Society of Composites, past President of the International Committee on Composite Materials and holder of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Professor Alexander Bismarck

Imperial College London

Professor of Polymer Materials at Imperial and Professor of Synthetic Materials Chemistry at the University of Vienna, Alexander is an expert in polymer materials and composites, particularly FRPs, fibre modification and fibre/matrix interaction, macroporous polymer composites and hierarchical composites with applications in harsh environments.

He was awarded the International Materials Science Prize 2009 by PolyCHAR Forum for work on nanocomposites and successful international cooperations.

Professor Kevin Potter

University of Bristol

Deputy Director of the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Hub and National Composites Centre Professor of Composite Manufacture, Kevin is recognised worldwide for work on composites manufacturing, particularly on reinforcement deformation, dimensional variability and defect generation.

He is the only academic recipient of the Royal Aeronautical Society Peter Allard Silver Medal for practical achievements leading to the use of composites in aerospace.

Professor Paul Robinson

Imperial College London

Head of the Composites Centre at ICL, Paul is an internationally recognized expert in fracture mechanics of polymer composites. His research extends from understanding micromechanics of fracture to developing modelling tools for designers.

A new strand of his research concerns development of innovative composites for adaptive wing structures.

Professor Milo Shaffer

Imperial College London

Professor of Materials Chemistry and co-Director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, Milo has extensive experience of carbon and inorganic nanomaterials synthesis, modification, characterisation and application, particularly for nanocomposite and hierarchical systems.

He was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Meldola medal in 2005.

Professor Ian Bond

University of Bristol

Head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ian is an expert on multifunctional composites; including self-healing, adaptive materials, damage tolerance and bioinspiration/biomimetics.

He develops, characterises and optimises a variety of innovative and ingenious approaches which provide functionality to fibre reinforced polymer composite materials and take them beyond their structural role.

Professor Paul Weaver

University of Bristol

Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Composites, Paul is an expert in stiffness tailoring with composite materials.

His innovative structural solutions in composites find end use in Airbus, EADS Military Air Systems (Germany), Vestas and NASA. His design for aeroelastically tailored rotor blades is currently in production for the AgustaWestland EH101.

Dr Joachim Steinke

Joachim was a brilliant and creative polymer and materials chemist, who played an important role in the creation of HiPerDuCT. He died tragically and unexpectedly early in 2013, and is sorely missed by both the project team and all those who knew him. An obituary is available here.