Welcome to the Rubber Research Group

The rubber research group in the Department of Materials at QMUL is the largest group working in elastomer materials in the UK. Since its foundation in 1965, it has had a long and distinguished track record working in the general areas of failure prediction resulting from crack growth or aging, predicting the mechanical behaviour of components, investigating crystallisation phenomenon, as well as providing insight into a wide range of fundamental elastomer physics problems. Many of the former researchers in the group such as Prof. Fukahori (Head of Materials, Bridgestone), Prof. Tony Kinloch (Professor in Adhesion, Imperial College), Prof. Bob Young (Professor of Polymer Science and Technology, UMIST), Prof. Edgar Andrews (Head of Materials, Queen Mary, University of London), Dr. Andrew Stevenson (Founding Director, MERL), Dr Andrew Carter (Head of Materials Research, Smith and Nephew), Dr. Keizo Akutagawa (F1 tyre team, Bridgestone), Rishi Nijhawan (founder of Polymax) and Dr. Ong Eng Long (Head of Research, RRIM) have gone on to have distinguished careers working in this area.

From Left to Right: James Busfield, David Lowe, Yoshihide Fukahori, Philip Gabriel, Alan Thomas, Nutthanun Suphadon, Rob Shorter, HG Lee, Kartpan Sakulkaew, Vineet Jha. (Missing from photo Samuel Asare)

Since 1994 the group has been lead by James Busfield (J. Busfield's Home Page), who prior to his appointment worked in industry (at Trelleborg) where he was responsible for the introduction of finite element analysis techniques into the design process for bonded elastomer components. Currently this international group, with researchers from Malaysia, Japan, India, Thailand as well as the UK consists of 15 workers. If you require any further information about any of the research described in these pages or if you are interested in collaborating with or joining the centre then you should contact James Busfield directly.