The 12th edition catches up on staff movements within the IRC - with a lot of old names taking on new positions. Highlights include:

• ACS Prize award for Durham team Modifying and repairing surfaces with functional polymers
• New appointment for Tom McLeish
• Science of confined polymer films
• Durham meeting celebrating the career of Randal Richards (19 Dec. 2008)
• R&D Stimulated by Micro & Nano Moulding Centre
• Changes at the Polymer Centre
• IRC’s associate director promoted

Polymer Links 12 (250kB PDF)

An engineer or physical scientist with experience at working at the interface with life sciences is sought to work on the nanoscale patterning of surface-supported lipid bilayers for probing cell-receptor interactions. Joining the Bio-interface Engineering group at IRIS (Swinburn University of Technology, Australia), the successful candidate will have expertise in surface modification and/or the characterisation of biological/polymer surfaces.

This position is a 2 year, fixed term appointment from 2009 to the end of 2010. Vacancy posted 2nd December 2008, no closing date given, but appointment expected in January 2009. For more information, please see the linked PDF:

PDRA: Nanoscale patterning

The Deformation and Fracture of Composites series provides an unrivalled opportunity to discuss the issues and impact of composite materials on different industry sectors. Since 1991 this series has atttracted high quality papers and delegates from industry, research associations and universities worldwide, and has successfully brought together researchers from a variety of backgrounds to discuss common interests.

For more information, please visit the conference website:

DFC10 website

The Basic Polymer Science modules (parts I and II) were initially developed at the University of Lancaster, but are now a well established part of the IRC course structure. They offer an excellent (and very popular!) introduction to polymer sciences for employees with backgrounds in other scientific disciplins, enabling them to get to grips with the fundamental science of polymers and contribute more fully in polymer and related industry. Delegates can choose to take either or both modules, at a price of £330 per module.

More details about these courses can be found through the links below:

Basic Polymer Science course part 1 30th March 2009

Basic Polymer Science course part 1 30th March 2009

Advanced notice - the 2009 IRC course will be held between 26th October – 5th November 2009, at the Novotel Hotel Sheffield.

This very popular modular course, which allows delegates to pick the options of most interest and relevance to them, has been run for a number of years now. Further details can be found on our short courses page:

Short courses in polymer science and technology

A two day international symposium on fire Retardants - vital chemicals protecting people and property in all walks of life and particularly in areas such as mass transport, furnishings, construction, electrical equipment and electronics. Different fire retardant strategies have evolved from halogen flame retardants to metal hydroxides and more modern char forming and intumescent fire retardants. More recently phosphorus based materials and nanocomposites have shown potential to reduce flammability whilst addressing environmental concerns.

FRT09: Fire Retardant Technologies 2009

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have received £2million to invest in a research centre which will help develop cutting edge technology from personal care products to the next generation of medical supplies.

The Molecular Engineering Translational Research Centre (METRC), funded by the N8 Research Partnership, will combine the research strength of the N8 group of universities to explore molecular engineering and nanotechnology to develop new products. The investment comes from a grant awarded to N8 from the Northern Way Growth Fund.

By combining world-class research expertise from the Universities of Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York, the new Centre will help move technology past the concept phase to highly functional products for use in everyday life.

The centre, which is led by Professor Tony Ryan OBE, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Pure Science at the University of Sheffield, will collaborate with businesses in the North and internationally, to share knowledge to develop new products, processes and services to help them innovate faster and take a larger share of rapidly-changing global markets.

Researchers at the centre will focus on a number of market sectors, including home and personal care, medicine and healthcare, and energy. Developments could include sensors and implants providing healthcare through human-device interfaces, easier interaction between humans and IT, and smart homes and fabrics.

Professor Tony Ryan said: “The fundamental objective of METRC is to stimulate economic growth. The old corporate research labs have gone and we’d like to create space where industrial and academic scientists can work alongside each other to turn cutting edge University research into exciting new products and processes for UK and global companies. Molecular engineering underpins a wealth of existing and new products - from soap to solar cells. Our business is in the science of everyday things.”

Professor Keith Burnett, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and Chair of the Board of N8, added: “The N8 universities undertake more than £720m of research and employ over 8,200 academic staff. N8 is the largest ‘research pooling’ partnership ever undertaken in the UK and represents a unique combination of complementary research strengths and capacity which is of proven world-leading quality. Our aim is to maximise the impact of our research capabilities on the reputational and economic standing of the North and the UK, and the development of this Research Centre with financial assistance from the Northern Way is a significant step towards achieving this.”

Please visit the METRC website for more information:

www.molecularengineering.co.uk

The Polymer Centre seeks a Business Development Consultant to join our team at Sheffield, which provides business liaison services and collaborative project management support to the University’s 40-strong network of academic groups active in polymer science and engineering.

Reporting to the Polymer Centre Manager, the postholder will stimulate interest in the technology, expertise and facilities within the Polymer Centre by proactive engagement with business, civil service and other external partners and subsequent running of technical projects. The successful applicant will be IT literate, educated to degree level (or equivalent), with experience of research & development (ideally in both an academic and industrial context) in polymers or a related field, technology transfer/commercialisation and project management, and will have a good understanding of the issues associated with business-university interactions.

This post is fixed-term and is available from 1 December 2008 for a period of 12 months. Closing date for applications is November 7.

Please follow the link below for more information on post ref R06769.

University of Sheffield vacancies

After five years at the helm of Sheffield’s Polymer Centre, Dr Malcolm Butler has been appointed Faculty Director of Operations for the University’s Faculty of Engineering.

When Malcolm returned to the University of Sheffield after 12 years with Corus, the Polymer Centre looked very different. A group of primarily polymer chemists under the direction of Prof John Ebdon and Prof Tony Ryan with a modest database of 300 contacts has since grown to a network of 40 Sheffield research groups in science, engineering and medicine communicating with outside contacts numbering over 2000.

The Polymer Centre now offers an extensive range of training and education courses via the Polymer IRC modular course, bespoke training courses for companies and Sheffield’s taught MSc in Polymers for Advanced Technologies. The team further applies its event management expertise in running conferences and seminars for academic groups across the University.

The team now provides a comprehensive business liaison service, mapping client needs onto the expertise and facilities available across the academic network, recommending project formats and assisting in project management where necessary.

One of Malcolm’s most significant achievements was the foundation in 2005 of FaraPack Polymers Ltd (FPP), Sheffield’s spin-out contract polymer R&D company, which delivers the short– and medium-term research projects that clients often want but which can be difficult to manage through university systems.

Malcolm has now stepped down as Polymer Centre Manager and Managing Director of FPP. Dr Liam Sutton, Business Research Fellow responsible for technical liaison operations since April 2006, becomes the new Polymer Centre Manager and Director of FPP.

An international conference covering thin polymer films including polymer crystallisation, polymer brushes, glass transition, soft nanotechnology. Deadline for abstract submission is July 31st 2008. Confirmed speakers include:

Jan Genzer: Creating heteropolymers with adjustable monomer sequences via templated chemical “coloring”
Wilhelm Huck: Polyelectrolyte Brush Amplified Electroactuation of Microcantilevers
Elie Raphaël: Dewetting Dynamics of Thin Polymer Films
Jürgen Rühe: Wetting of Surfaces- How important is the nanoscale?
Tom Russell: Capillary wrinkling of floating thin films
Tony Ryan: Polymer Crystallisation: Influence of flow and interfaces
Ashu Sharma: Self-organized Adhesion and Pattern Formation in Elastic Solid Films
Jens-Uwe Sommer: Polymer Brushes at moderate and high grafting densities: Effects of chain stretching and end-groups
Uwe Thiele: Rupture and coarsening pathways for dewetting two-layer films and films of binary mixtures
Ophelia Tsui: Examination of Non-liquidlike Behaviors in Molten Polymer Films
Uli Wiesner: Nanostructured Metals from Soft Designer Macromolecules
Mitch Winnik: Living self- assembly of block copolymers into fibre-like structures in solution and from surfaces

PolyFilm conference website