(FRSC, FIMMM) is the Professor of Polymer Science in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Manchester where he leads initiatives in sustainable polymers, plastics and materials for the School and for the Henry Royce Institute, the UK’s national advanced materials science centre. Following a PhD in his native Canada from the University of British Columbia and an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Imperial College London, he began his independent research career at the University of Prince Edward Island before moving to Scotland in 2012 where he was a Chancellor’s Fellow, Reader and finally Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. He is now Director of Sustainable Futures, a pan-university initiative growing interdisciplinary research in sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. He is also Director of the Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub, in which his active research sits, developing sustainable plastics, polymers and composites and the systemic challenges that enable or disable their mechanical, chemical or enzymatic recycling. His work ranges from fundamental projects rooted in monomer design to translational projects in plastic packaging, waste management and circular systems. He was the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Green Materials and Editor of the European Polymer Journal. He has published >100 papers and been recognised with >80 invited/plenary lectures, the MacroGroup Young Polymer Scientist award (2015), Young Academy of Scotland (2014-2018) and two Canada Foundation for Innovation Leadership Awards (2010, 2012) as well as Fellowships in both the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining.

Our team recognises that challenges in plastics and sustainability are necessarily interdisciplinary. While at our core we are polymer chemists, we have built an increasingly diverse team of researchers that includes chemical physics, social science, economics and life cycle assessment. This diversity leads to a unique approach to tackling challenges in sustainable polymer science, including developing new self-healing polymers, medical sensors, sustainable commodity plastics and degradable materials. To learn more head to smihub.ac.uk and greenmaterialslaboratory.com.