Professor John Ebdon

Professor John Ebdon obtained a PhD in polymer chemistry at the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1968, before joining the staff of the Chemistry Department at the University of Lancaster, where he became Professor of Polymer Chemistry and Director of the Lancaster Polymer Centre. In 2000, he moved to the University of Sheffield where he was the founding Director of the Sheffield Polymer Centre. Professor Ebdon retains an Emeritus Chair at Sheffield but is also an Honorary Professor at Bolton University and a Visiting Professor at the University of Central Lancashire. Professor Ebdon's interests and expertise centre around polymer synthesis, chemical modification and characterization; fields in which he has published over 150 papers, two monographs and several book chapters

Dr. Barry Hunt

Dr Barry Hunt joined the staff at Sheffield University in 2000, having previously been a Research Officer in Polymer Chemistry at Lancaster University. Dr. Hunt studied chemistry in London for his Graduateship of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Subsequently obtained his MSc and PhD degrees at Lancaster University under the supervision of Professor John Bevington. His main research interests involve the characterization of polymers by thermal and chromatographic techniques, use of suspension polymerisation for the preparation of chromatographic supports and the chemical modification of polymers to improve their flame retardance. Dr. Hunt has over 60 publications, including two edited books: Size Exclusion Chromatography and Polymer Characterization, and until retirement in 2007 was the Assistant Director of the Sheffield Polymer Centre.

Dr. Alma Hodzic

Dr Alma Hodzic is a Senior Lecturer in Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sheffield, UK. Dr Hodzic has taught and performed research in the areas of Advanced Composite Structures, Nanocomposites, Engineering Materials and Aircraft Design since 1997. She holds her PhD in Science of Engineering Materials from The Australian National University, and BSME in Aeronautical Engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from The University of Belgrade. Dr Hodzic manages Composite Systems Innovation Centre (CSIC) at Kroto Research Institute at Sheffield. The main focus behind multidisciplinary projects of CSIC is to improve the environment by replacing traditional technologies with sustainable composite structures. Dr Hodzic is the editor, author or co-author of over 50 peer reviewed publications and two patents. She is currently an active Fellow of Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow of Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, Member of Royal Aeronautical Society and Intreader for Australian Research Council.

Professor Constantinos Soutis

Professor Constantinos Soutis has taught and performed research in the areas of mechanics of aerospace composite materials and structures at the University of Cambridge (1986-1991), University of Leicester (1991-1994), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, in the United States of America (2000-2001 as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics) and Imperial College London (1994-2002), where he held a personal chair in composite structures in the department of Aeronautics. Since January 2003, he was the Head and Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Sheffield. He has made significant research contributions in computational modelling of composites structures, and he has developed strong collaborations with the lading corporation in the field of aviation technology and more. Professor Soutis is the author or co-author of over 200 publications. He is an associate editor of the RAeS Aeronautical Journal and member of the Editorial Board of the Composites Science & Technology Journal, the Journal of Applied Composite Materials and the Journal of Structural Integrity and Durability.

Dr. Mariam AlMa'adeed

Dr. Mariam AlMa'adeed is the Head of the Materials Technology Unit in Qatar University. She received her PhD in Materials Science from Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt in 2001 and joined Qatar University the same year. Dr. Mariam has had a long experience and internationally recognized work in the field of polymers characterization. This has been demonstrated in many research grants and published papers in international journals and conferences. She attained the title of associate professor in 2006. She has given many consultations and presentations to a diverse group of organizations such as: Qatar Chemical Company (Q Chem.), Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves, and Arab Network for Women in Science & Technology. Dr. Mariam designed and contributed to many workshops, symposiums and conferences in the area of materials science and in teaching and learning strategies.

She is an enthusiastic supporter of environmental rights and implementation of materials science in recycling.

Dr. Ramazan Kahraman

Dr. Ramazan Kahraman is a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department and the Head of the College of Engineering Requirements Unit at Qatar University. He received his B.S. from Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and M.S. and Ph.D. from Montana State University in USA, all in Chemical Engineering. He has taught many undergraduate and graduate courses at different levels and areas of specialization including "Polymer Technology", "Materials Evaluation and Selection", "Corrosion" and "Transport Phenomena". He has been involved in teaching short courses in the mentioned areas, and has been actively involved in research in the areas of polymer composites, materials characterization, corrosion and transport phenomena. He has received the award of "Excellence in Teaching Award" in the academic year 2005/2006, he also received the "Distinguished Researcher Award" in 2001 and the "Funded Research Project Award" in 2005. He has published over 65 journal and conference papers.

Jan C.T. Kwak

Jan Kwak FCIC was born and educated in the Netherlands completing his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam in 1967. Following postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley from 1968 to 1970, he was appointed Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1970, followed by promotions to Associate (1976) and Full Professor (1983). At Dalhousie University he served several terms as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. He served as a member and as Chair of Grant Selection Committees of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). For the period 2006-2008 he was NSERC Group Chair for Chemistry and Physics. He served the Canadian Society for Chemistry as Director for Physical Chemistry and Chair of the CSC Accreditation Committee from 1998 to 2002, and continues as a member of that committee. Dr. Kwak was Conference Chair for the CSC's 89th International Conference in Halifax in 2006. He was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry at Qatar University in 2007. His research interests have covered diverse topics in physical, polymer and colloid chemistry, most recently in the area of water-soluble polymers, surfactants, hydrogels and photoresponsive polymer gels. In his research he used synthetic and characterization techniques to produce water-soluble polymers and co-polymers. The properties of polymer solutions and gels were studied using thermodynamic and spectroscopic techniques and rheology. Together with his group members he has published more than 110 articles in international journals.

Dr. Nabil Madi

Dr. Nabil Madi obtained his PhD in Experimental solid state physics at the institute for nuclear studies, Warsaw-Poland, in 1991. His permanent address is professor of solid state physics at the University of Alexandria, Egypt. In 1999-2006, he joined Physics Department, Qatar University, as staff member. In 2009, he come back to join the research team at Materials Technology Unit (MTU), Qatar University, Qatar. His main research interests center about ion beam modifications of solids. He was the PI of two research projects on "Ion Irradiation of polymers", and "Tailoring of surface properties of Selected Polymers by Ion Implantation for Technical and Biomedical Applications". He is also the Co PI of research project on "New Design of Hybrid Thin film Solar Cell". His Current Research Interests is preparation and characterization of polymer blends and composites. Dr. Nabil is the author and co-author of about 40 publications.

Dr. Elsadig A. Mahdi

Elsadig A. Mahdi, PhD is an associate professor at the department of mechanical and industrial engineering department. He is also group leader of high performance materials and structures lab. His current research interests include: Damage tolerance of composite structures, mechanics of composite materials, aerospace engineering, computational mechanical and Nano-composites. He has published more than 100 international journal articles and conference proceedings in the field of composite materials and computational for automotive and aerospace application. Prior to joining Qatar University, Dr. Mahdi was attached to the department of aerospace engineering, University Putra Malaysia and International Islamic university Malaysia, also American University Sharjah, UAE.