Prof James Busfield
FREng, MA, PhD, CEng, FIMMM, FHEA

Research Group News

March 2024

Postgraduate students present research at ILF March 2024 18 March 2024 Our MEng and MSc students presented their Research Projects at the Industrial Liaison Forum on 6th March 2024. Our MEng students conduct team projects in their fourth year in groups of four to six students. Currently towards the end of their projects, they were able to present a mix of prototypes, … [more]

MSc Extended Research Project poster prize winners at ILF March 2024 17 March 2024 Our MSc students presented their Extended Research Projects at the Industrial Liaison Forum on 6th March 2024. Our MSc projects run from semester 1 through to August, so they are currently only about half-way through their projects. Nonetheless, they were able to give an excellent account of their work so far and … [more]

January 2024

Engineers Celebrate Athena Swan Success 18 January 2024 Gender equality recognised by Athena Swan Bronze Award First recognised in 2010, the School has now had this award conferred for another five years until 2029, where the conditions were met "directly and fully". The Athena Swan Charter works across the globe to support and transform gender equality in Higher … [more]

December 2023

William Kyei-Manu from James Busfield's Soft Matter Group passes his PhD exam 6 December 2023 William Kyei-Manu has become the latest member of James Busfield's Soft Matter Group to pass his PhD exam. William completed his PhD viva on the 6th December 2023 defending a thesis entitled, "Carbon Black Reinforcement of Tyre Tread Compounds." His external examiner, Prof Ian Kinloch from Manchester University … [more]

November 2023

SEMS team recognised at QMUL Academic Promotions Event 21 November 2023 On 21st November QMUL hosted an event to celebrate the staff who have been promoted in the most recent academic promotion rounds. As we reported back in September, this was a very successful outcome for SEMS with 12 of our colleagues being promoted across all the different academic grades, reflecting the … [more]

Two Soft Matter Group students William Kyei-Manu and Evangelos Koliolios both win awards at the International Rubber Conference 2023 10 November 2023 The latest International Rubber Conference 2023 has recently completed in China. Five of James Busfield's Soft Matter Group presented their work. At the closing ceremony two of the group were amongst the five students awarded prizes for their presentations. The winners were William Kyei-Manu and Evangelos Koliolios who won awards for … [more]

July 2023

Three more PhD students join the role of honour for the Soft Matter Group in SEMS 25 July 2023 At the graduation ceremony on the 25th July 2023, three more PhD students graduated from James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group at QMUL. Dr Anureet Kaur completed her Phd on a self-healing elastomers funded by Weir Group, Dr Travis Hohenberger completed his PhD on leak prediction in high pressure seals … [more]

Formula Student Team excel at Silverstone 24 July 2023 Queen Mary Formula Student Team competed brilliantly at the IMechE FSUK competition at Silverstone this past weekend. The team brought the first QMUL build in 5 years and managed to achieve the 2nd best team from London just 5 points (on a scale out of 1000) behind Brunel University. Some notable points include … [more]

June 2023

Soft Matter Group Team Wins the 2023 EuroEAP Challenge Competition 8 June 2023 Congratulations to Giacomo Sasso, Yutong Sun and Renzo Ramirez Herrera whose team won the EuroEAP Society challenge (the overall top prize sponsored by Toyota) at the European Electro Active Polymer Conference held this year in Bristol in the UK. Giacomo's team demonstrated a 3D soft touch pad that changes … [more]

May 2023

Soft Matter Group at RubberCon 2023 in Edinburgh 11 May 2023 The largest ever group of Soft Matter Group members and former members joined together to participate in RubberCon 2023. This global conference on Elastomer Materials was held in Edinburgh from the 9-11th May. With more than 300 international delegates the event was the largest rubber conference in the UK since the … [more]

January 2023

Philip Hurrell awarded the James S Walker Award by IOM3 5 January 2023 Philip Hurrell, a MSc graduate Materials Research in SEMS from 2021, has been presented with the 2022 James S Walker Award from IOM3 for his MSc project on "Wear of carbon black reinforced natural rubber compounds" at an Awards Ceremony on the 8th December 2022. This national award and £450 prize, … [more]

Han Zhang is presented the Silver Medal and Prize by the IOM3 2 January 2023 Han was presented with the Silver Medal and Prize at an Awards Ceremony at the IOM3 on the 8th December 2022. The Silver Medal is a Premier award for an early career researcher making an outstanding contribution within the materials field. The award was given in recognition of Han’s … [more]

Dimitrios Papageorgiou is presented the Rosenhain Medal and Prize by the IOM3 1 January 2023 Dimitrios was presented with the Rosenhain Medal at an Awards Ceremony at the IOM3 on the 8th December 2022. The Rosenhain Medal and Prize is a highly competitive award that recognises distinguished achievement in any branch of materials science. The award was given in recognition of Dimitrios’ research which has … [more]

December 2022

Kirsty Rutherford wins the IRCO Prize at IRC2022 5 December 2022 The latest International Rubber Conference 2022 recently completed in India. Five of James Busfield's Soft Matter Group presented their work there. At the closing ceremony one of the group, Kirsty Rutherford, took home the IRCO Best Student Presentation Award for her paper on "The development of a robust method … [more]

September 2022

Anureet Kaur successfully completes her PhD in the Soft Matter Group 27 September 2022 Anureet Kaur has become the latest member of James Busfield's Soft Matter Group to pass their PhD exam. Anureet completed her PhD viva on the 27th September defending a thesis entitled, " Development of Self-healing and Recyclable Elastomers." Anureet was also supervised by Julien Gautrot and Gabriel Cavalli. … [more]

London City Institute of Technology (LCIoT) Opens 19 September 2022 This month, the London City Institute of Technology (LCIoT) opens its doors to its first cohort of students at London City Island. The LCIoT is a partnership between Queen Mary, Newham College and a wide range of employers. The Institute will deliver higher technical education and apprenticeships with a focus … [more]

Soft Matter Group Returns to European Conference on Constitutive Modelling of Rubber in Milan 11 September 2022 After the Covid hiatus, it was great to take 12 of the Soft Matter Group to Milan with me to participate in European Conference on Constitutive Modelling of Rubber (ECCMR) 2022. It was fantastic opportunity to see so many old friends in person and to see what the community has been up … [more]

June 2022

Anureet Kaur wins the IRCO Prize at IRC2021 30 June 2022 The postponed International Rubber Conference 2021 has just completed in Germany. In the closing ceremony, Anureet Kaur from James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group took home the IRCO Best Student Presentation Award for her paper on "Development of Self-Healable and Recyclable Elastomers." The judging was done using online … [more]

Eduardo Yanes Nunez successfully completes his PhD in the Soft Matter Group 16 June 2022 Eduardo Yanes Nunez has become the latest member of James Busfield's Soft Matter Group to pass their PhD exam. Eduardo completed his PhD viva on the 16th June defending a thesis entitled, "Frictional Behaviour of Elastomer Seals." This was the fourth industrially funded PhD project sponsored by … [more]

May 2022

SEMS Academics Perform Exceptionally in REF 2021 12 May 2022 The scores have been announced for REF2021. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a 7 year cycle used to measure research and determine funding in UK universities. The result for SEMS is excellent as not only have we come seventh overall in Engineering amongst all 89 universities who were being assessed in … [more]

April 2022

Travis Hohenberger successfully completes his PhD in the Soft Matter Group 26 April 2022 Travis Hohenberger has become the latest member of James Busfield's Research Group to pass their PhD exam. Travis completed his PhD viva on the 26th April defending a thesis entitled, "Prediction of Leakage in Elastomeric Seals for High Pressure Applications." This was the third industrially funded project … [more]

December 2021

Mohammed Deera awarded the James S Walker Award by IOM3 8 December 2021 Mohammed Deera, a first class BEng Materials and Design graduate from 2020, has won the 2021 James S Walker Award from IOM3 for his final year project on "A Potential Route to Re-processable Natural Rubber". The idea that he explored experimentally was the creation of labile crosslinks that … [more]

November 2021

Daniel Mills wins the Royal Charter Prize of the IOM3 17 November 2021 Daniel Mills - a 2021 MEng Materials graduate - has been awarded the Royal Charter Prize of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3). This award is given to the best Materials Science graduate on any accredited materials degree course, regardless of discipline. This is a competitive … [more]

May 2021

Prof Federico Carpi Rejoins SEMS as a Visiting Professor 18 May 2021 Federico Carpi is returning as a new Visiting Professors in SEMS. Federico was previously an academic in SEMS until 2016, when he took up a position at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (UniFi). Since then, he has continued his collaboration with colleagues in SEMS acting as a co-supervisor of 5 … [more]

April 2021

Industrial Liaison Forum #5 MEng Group Prize Winners Announced 29 April 2021 The fifth Industrial Liaison Forum (ILF#5) took place online on 28 April 2021. ILF#5 was the 4th year MEng Group Project Showcase. All 10 groups were invited to present their projects this year. The event attended by many external visitors including several of our Industrial Advisory Board Members, potential new … [more]

September 2020

James Busfield elected to Royal Academy of Engineering 22 September 2020 The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced the 50 new Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and 3 International Fellows. James Busfield, Professor of Materials, Director of Industrial Engagement in the School of Engineering and Material Science and Yang Hao (School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science) have been elected. … [more]

June 2020

Queen Mary Confirms Position Among World's Best Universities 10 June 2020 QMUL has climbed twelve places up the QS 2021 World University Rankings, published on Wednesday 10 June, to confirm its position as one of the world’s top universities. The University placed 114th in the world and remains in the top 20 in the UK. The Complete University Guide for 2021 was also released … [more]

April 2020

Dr Ralph Stevens 8 April 2020 It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Dr Ralph Stevens. Ralph arrived to Queen Mary in 1964 as a lecturer in The Department of Mechanical Engineering, from where he went on to help establish the Materials Department. Prof Bill Bonfield (former Head of Materials) notes that, “Ralph … [more]

March 2020

SEMS staff recognised in Education Awards 26 March 2020 Two of our academic staff have been recognised this year at the QMSU Education Awards. This event is the annual QMUL ‘OSCARS’ ceremony with 12 different award categories. This year James Busfield won the Employability Enhancement Award and Folashade (Shade) Akinmolayan won the Innovative Teaching Award. The citation for Shade states, “… [more]

Michele Ghilardi successfully completes his PhD in the Soft Matter Group 16 March 2020 Michele Ghilardi became the third of James Busfield's PhD students to pass his PhD already in 2020. Michele completed his PhD viva on the 16th March defending a thesis entitled, "Soft smart machines: electrically tuneable devices made of electro-responsive elastomeric smart materials." Michele was also significantly supported by Prof Federico Carpi … [more]

January 2020

Double Soft Matter Group PhD Success for Barnabas Shaw and Leihao Chen 17 January 2020 Barnabas Shaw and Leihao Chen have both successfully passed their PhD vivas within a week of each other. Barnabas completed his PhD viva on the 10th January with a thesis entitled, "Characterisation of Elastomers for Dynamic Sealing Applications ." Leihao completed his PhD viva on the 17th January with a thesis … [more]

September 2019

Leihao Chen Wins Best Student Presentation Award at IRC2019 5 September 2019 Leihao Chen won the IRCO Prize for the best student presentation at the International Rubber Conference 2019 for his paper on "Changes in Optical Transmission of a Soft Membrane Using a Dielectric Elastomer Actuator." The judges commented that Leihao's work was not only professionally prepared but it was the most significant … [more]

Eduardo Yanes Nunez Wins Best Student Poster Award at IRC2019 5 September 2019 Eduardo Yanes Nunez won the IRCO Prize for the best student poster presentation at the annual International Rubber Conference 2019 hosted this year in London for his paper on "Friction Characterisation of Elastomers." Eduardo's supervisor, Prof James Busfield commented that Eduardo's work is concerned with the very practical problem of measuring … [more]

SMG reunion after IRC2019 5 September 2019 16 current and former QMUL Soft Matter Group members met up for a reunion in a traditional London pub after the closure of IRC2019 in London. Shown in the photo are all the current group members plus former colleagues including from the right (Dae Un Sung, Keizo Akutagawa, Lewis Tunnicliffe, David … [more]

Prof James Busfield Chairs the International Rubber Conference 2019 in London 3 September 2019 The largest International Rubber Conference (IRC) in the UK this century took place from the 2nd to the 5th September 2019 at the Oval cricket ground in London. Prof James Busfield was the co-chair for the event which attracted 150 oral presentations, 65 posters, 50 exhibitors and 600 delegates. This conference moves around the world … [more]

May 2019

Materials science research project wins national Engineering Excellence Award 7 May 2019 A Queen Mary research project has won a national Engineering Excellence Award at Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Best of the Best awards. The award was presented at The Royal Society of Chemistry in London to LMK Thermosafe, which entered into a KTP with Queen Mary and KTP … [more]

Huge Grant Win for QMUL in Transport Engineering 2 May 2019 The Department of Education and other funding partners have together pledged a significant grant to QMUL and our partner Newham College to establish the London Institute of Transport Technology in East London’s historic Royal Docks. A total of 12 Institutes of Technology (IOTs) will be established with total funding of … [more]

April 2019

Prof Alan Thomas (1927 – 2019) 23 April 2019 It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Prof Alan Thomas (1927 – 2019). Prof Thomas was one of the world’s leading rubber physicists. His career started as a Physics graduate from Brasenose College at Oxford University from where he moved into a position working for the British Rubber … [more]

KTP Project in SEMS Shortlisted for Award 10 April 2019 The Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) has announced that the recently completed Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between LMK Thermosafe Ltd and QMUL has been shortlisted for their Exceptional Engineering Excellence Award. The research associate during the KTP was Dr Harshit Porwal, who now works for the company as a Business Unit … [more]

January 2019

Two Soft Matter Group Alumni Reunited 7 January 2019 Two doctoral alumni of the Soft Matter Group in SEMS, Dr Guangchang Wu (2017) and Dr Lewis Tunnicliffe (2015) were reunited today as Chang joined Lewis in working for the world's largest manufacturer of carbon black, Birla Carbon. Both graduated under the supervision of James Busfield and worked on different aspects of … [more]

December 2018

Hedi and Richard graduate from the Soft Matter Group 21 December 2018 Dr Hedi Zahabi and Dr Richard Windslow both graduated from the Soft Matter Group at QMUL during the December 2018 graduation ceremony.

SEMS bids farewell to Prof Ton Peijs 13 December 2018 After nearly 20 years of great service to QMUL, we announce that Prof. Ton Peijs will be leaving SEMS for a new role at Warwick University in January 2019. Ton has been an inspirational research leader in SEMS, not only evidenced through his research group which has clearly had a significant impact … [more]

November 2018

Yinping Tao passes her PhD 23 November 2018 Yinping Tao has successfully completed her PhD viva today on a thesis entitled, "Predicting the fatigue life and introducing structural health monitoring in cord reinforced rubber composites." She was supervised by James Busfield and Emiliano Bilotti and was also significantly supported by Ton Peijs and Han Zhang. Yinping's work has … [more]

Yi Liu passes her PhD 21 November 2018 Yi Liu has successfully completed her PhD viva today with a thesis entitled, "Flexible Self-regulating Heating Composites." She was supervised by Emiliano Bilotti and James Busfield but was also significantly supported by Han Zhang and Ton Peijs. Yi's work on optimising the mechanical and pyroresistive behaviour of conductive polymer composites … [more]

Hugh Boys passes his PhD 16 November 2018 Hugh Boys has passed his PhD today. His project was funded by the EPSRC MAT Programme grant. The examiners (Giuseppe Zurlo, National University of Ireland and Kaspar Althoefer, QMUL) noted, "Hugh did a lot of thorough work. The systems engineering was very impressive combining a low-cost tracking system, tactile rendering … [more]

Two Materials Graduates win National Awards 13 November 2018 Adaeze Siwoniku has been awarded the Royal Charter Award of the IOM3 for being the best materials graduate in the UK in 2018 and Ruhi Patel has been awarded the RH Craven Award of the IOM3 for being the best graduate in the UK in Polymer Materials. James Busfield noted, "… [more]

July 2018

David Graduates from the Soft Matter Group 27 July 2018 Dr David Stratford-Devalba graduated from the Soft Matter Group at QMUL during the July 2018 graduation ceremony.

SMG celebrate James' 50th Birthday 13 July 2018 To mark the occasion of James completing his first half century, the group gathered in his office for the customary group birthday cake.

June 2018

Richard Windslow passes his PhD 15 June 2018 Dr Richard Windslow has successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Computational Modelling of Fracture Processes in Elastomeric Seals." This project was sponsored by Schlumberger, the worlds largest oilfield services company. They have a significant interest in predicting the lifetime of a very diverse range of elastomer components. Richard was supervised … [more]

QMUL team at EuroEAP 7 June 2018 Three current students (Hugh, Leihao and Michele) and two former students (Gabriele and Luigi) from QMUL met up at EuroEAP 2018 with Prof Federico Carpi (now at the University of Florence) and Prof James Busfield in Lyon. Luigi won the best presentation award this year which followed on from Michele winning … [more]

April 2018

Soft Matter Group present at the European Rubber Research Seminar in Poland 25 April 2018 Two first year PhD students in the Soft Matter Group at QMUL, Eduardo Yanes Nunez and Travis Hohenberger both got their first experience of an international conference by presenting their projects at the Annual Rubber Research Symposium hosted at the Politechnika Lódzka in Lódz, Poland. [more]

March 2018

SEMS Industrial Liaison Forum is a Great Success 7 March 2018 The Spring SEMS Industrial Liaison Forum was a very popular event again this year. In the morning the annual taught student showcase took place in the Octagon which was followed in the afternoon by a wide range of alumni lead panel and networking sessions. There was also an Industrial Advisory … [more]

February 2018

Record Numbers of Alumni Signup for our next Industrial Liaison Forum 9 February 2018 QMUL alumni from any Engineering, Materials or Design discipline are welcome back to the next Industrial Liaison Forum (ILF) on Wednesday, 7th March 2018. At this early stage we have more registrations than ever before with alumni coming back from a very diverse range of career paths. The ILF provides an … [more]

October 2016

Join us for Professor James Busfield's Inaugural Lecture 27 October 2016 Prof James Busfield's Inaugural lecture will be taking place next week on Wednesday 2nd of November in the Skeel Lecture Theatre starting at 18.30. 'Remarkable rubber – An insight into the magical world of rubber physics' will see James explore will what makes rubber so magical that it can sustain a $1,000,000,000,000 industry … [more]

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Other News

Oct 2017 - James plus three former students and four current students meet up at the IRC in Cleveland Ohio. From left to right (Katz Tsunoda (Bridgestone), Ken Yamaguchi (Bridgestone), James, Yinping, Francesca, Barnabas, Lweis Tunnicliffe (Birla Carbon) and Richard.

Sept 2017 - James (plus two daughters) and four of the group (Barnabas, Francesca, Yinping and Richard) plus one sponsor (Chris Stevens from NGFE) enjoy the conference meal at ECCMR in Munich, Germany. 

July 2017 - Some of the group join Chang (4th left) and his wife Shanshan (3rd left) for dinner to celebrate his graduation.

June 2017 - Michele Ghilardi has won the Best Presentation Prize at EuroEAP 2017. In his talk an entirely novel design for a dielectric elastomer actuator-driven positioning system was deomnstrated live. The demonstrator, created in partnership with Hugh Boys, was very highly regarded by the judging panel as a highly accomplished prototype. The QMUL six (James, Leihao, Michele, Hugh, Gabriele and Federico) are photgraphed in a Roman era theatre during the conference.

December 2016 - Dr Guanchang Wu passed his PhD examination with glowing comments from the examiners. His project was on understanding the abrasion mechanisms that are found in tyres. His project was sponsored by Cabot in the USA and in the last few months he has been working on a related project with SRI in Japan. His supervisor, James Busfield, commented that his examiners were very impressed with the amount of work that Chang has undertaken during his PhD. (The photo is taken at graduation in July 2017)

December 2016 - The majority of the SMG attends the IOM3 conference in London on Innovations in Rubber Design. The group contributed three of the 27 presentations and 4 of the 20 posters at the meeting. (From left in a clockwise direction - Barnabas, Francesca, Richard, Chang, Lewis, Hedi, Jakub, Michele, Leihao, Yinping & David - with James in the background.)

November 2016 - Dr Hedi Zahabi passed her PhD examination  with flying colours. Her project was on colour changing electro active polymer systems sponsored by ARTIS. Her supervisors have been James Busfield, Federico Carpi and Kees Bastiaansen with support from Olivier Picot. 

November 2016 - James delivers his innaugural lecture on the Magic of Rubber

October 2016 - Hedi Zahabi and Dr Jakub Kadlcak got married on the 29th October at a register office in Chelsea. They met whilst studying in the Soft Matter Group at QMUL. James who supervised both was delighted with the news and wishes them the greatest future happiness together.

October 2016 - Guangchang Wu (on the right) and Shanshan Liang were married on the 18th October 2016 in Beijing, China. They are pictured at the formal part of the marriage ceremony which was attended by their nearest family members.

October 2016 - Richard Windslow and Francesca Carleo have both won best presentation awards at the International Rubber Conference 2016 held in Japan. With more than 90 students to choose from this year, this was some achievement. Francesca discussed a wide range of constitutive rubber models for use in component design and Richard discussed the modelling of cavitation in elastomer seals. Richard and Francesca are left and 2nd left.

October 2016 - During his visit to IRC 2016 in Japan, James met up with three former Japanese members of the Soft Matter Group. Pictured left to right are Katz Tsunoda, James, Ken Yamaguchi and Keizo Akutagawa. All three are now research fellows within Bridgestone.

April 2016 - Prof James Busfield (16th from the left) travelled to Texas to deliver a 2 day training course on “Rubber Materials used in the Oil Industry”. The course attracted more than 35 delegates and was on this occasion hosted at a Schlumberger facility in Houston. Former QMUL researcher Dr. Lewis Tunicliffe (21st from the left) who now works in the rubber industry in the USA and current QMUL PhD student Richard Windslow (10th from the left) assisted James in the teaching of the course. This means that in excess of 100 professionals working in the oil and gas industry in the USA have now attended the course in the last 6 months.

Febuary 2016 - Richard Windslow wins the London Region Young Person Lecture Competition organised by the IOM3. In a strong competition with many excellent contestants, his talk on how materials science can improve the design of elastomer seals for the oil and gas industry was ranked highest by all the judges. Richard was commended for his excellent preparation and delivery. (Richard is pictured with the runner up Kseniya another QMUL student)

December 2015 - Dr Menglong Huang joined the distinguished role call of PhD alumni from the Soft Matter Group at QMUL. His project developed a pioneering technique to measure the dielectric behaviour of a filled elastomer under strain whilst simultanously characterising the mechanical behaviour. This project can lead on to smart stretchable sensors and can also enhance understanding of filler reinforcement. He was supervised by Prof. James Busfield assisted by Dr. Haixue Yan, Dr. Emiliano Bilotti and Prof. Alan Thomas. After the exam Prof. Peter Foot one of the examiners commented, "It was a pleasure to meet Menglong. I have done many PhD vivas over the years, and Menglong's viva performance was amongst the very best that I've experienced. He is a fine scientist. The quality of the work described was excellent and the outcome certainly does QMUL credit." Menglong is joining one of Europe's best elastomer groups at the Laboratoire Polymères et Matériaux Avancés, CNRS/Solvay, France as a research assistant. (Menglong is pictured with his two examiners immediately after the viva.)

November 2015 - A farewell celebration for Dr Lewis Tunnicliffe and Menglong Huang, both of whom were moving to new opportunities in the new year. Lewis is moving to the USA and Menglong to France to work in research roles related to their studies at QMUL. The group gathered in The Pride of Whitby in Wapping to mark the occasion. (Left to right: Lucie, Maddie, Fernanda, Lewis, Richard, Chang, Hedi, Jakub, Freddie, Thomas, Francesca, Yi, Yinping, David, Menglong and James)

On the 31st October at a former student reunion hosted by Caroline Jee and Alan Leung, James was delighted to meet the first child from the Soft Matter Group. Dr Jing Kang and Dr Vineet Jha met whilst both studying in the group in 2005. In their picture below they are photographed with their daughter Lily.

Richard Windslow a 2nd year PhD student in the SMG won the ARTIS research prize at the annual industrial research showcase on the 29th October 2015. His poster on the modelling of rapid gas decompression was highly regarded by all the judges at the event. Richard is seen in the photo below being congratulated by Martyn Bennett of ARTIS.

Prof Yoshi Fukahori, a former PhD student from the group in 1975 and visiting professor to the group after his retirement from Bridgestone, visited the group in November 2015. A team photo was taken during the obligatory visit to JD Weatherspoons. (Clockwise from left: Theresa, Barnabas, Francesca, Yinping, Hedi, Thomas, Bin, David, Fernanda, Lewis, James, Yoshi and Chang)

European Conference Constitutive Modelling of Rubber in Prague in Sept 2015. 10 of the team participated in the conference with papers from three of the group and posters from five more. The photo  below shows James with former group members Dr Keizo Akutagawa (right) and Dr Katz Tsunoda(left) and in the front row Lucie, Maddie & Rachael at the conference gala dinner.

The picture below shows members of the group enjoying a meal out during the conference. (Clockwise from left, Dr Katz Tsunoda (ex QMUL and now at Bridgestone), Jakub, Hedi, Maddie,Bin, Yinping, Francesca, Chang, Richard, David, Lewis, Rachael, Lucie, James, Dr Keizo Akutagawa (ex QMUL and now at Bridgestone) and Yoshihiro Morishita (of Bridgestone).

Dr Lewis Tunicliffe  successfully defended his thesis entitled, "Particulate Reinforcement of Elastomers at Small Strains" on 11th May 2015. The external examiners both commented on how well he had performed in his viva. Lewis (2nd right in the photo below) is shown celebrating his success with other members of the Soft Matter Group after his examination.

James (2nd on the left in the photo below) was delighted to participte in January 2015 in his first ever Dutch PhD defence of Dr Kannika Sahakaro (4th from the right) from the research group of Prof. Jacques Nordermeer at the University of Twente.

The group gathered together to celebrate Christmas 2014 at the home of Lewis. Shown in the photo are the following group members James BUSFIELD,  Thomas BAUMARD, Francesca CARLEO, Bin CHEN, Menglong HUANG, Yi LIU, David STRATFORD DEVALBA, Yinping TAO,  Lewis TUNNICLIFFE, Richard WINDSLOW, Guangchang WU & Hediyeh ZAHABI as well as James' wife and children.

Various former members of the group came to visit in November 2014 including both Dr Ken Yamaguchi (in the middle) and Dr Katz Tsunoda (on the left), both of whom now work together as research fellows at Bridgestone. It was the first time since Katz graduted in 2001 that both were at QMUL together.

Six of the group presented papers at the IRC in Bejing in October 2014. Shown in the left hand photo (left to right) are Menglong HUANG, Guangchang WU, Lewis TUNNICLIFFE, David STRATFORD DEVALBA,  James BUSFIELD and Keizo Akutagawa (now at Brigestone and who obtained his PhD in the group in 1995). Taking the photo was Bin CHEN. The photo on the right is of the group admiring the Olympic Stadium in Beijing.

  

In July 2014 two further members of the group graduated with their PhDs. Dr Rob Shorter (on the left) and Dr Sam Asare (on the right).

Lewis Tunnicliffe and Guanchang Wu presented their work at the ACS Rubber Division Meeting in Cleveland Ohio, October 2013. The QMUL contingent also included Prof. James Busfield, Dr Woomin Kyoung and Dr. DaeUn Sung.

In September 2013, Dr Samuel Asare became the latest member of the group to complete his PhD. Pictured with the rest of the group (3rd from the right) celebrating his success.

A total of 10 members of the Soft Matter Group attended ECCMR in San Sebastian in Spain in June 2013. The group presented a total of 6 papers or posters and was rewarded with the best poster prize awarded to Guanchang Wu.

The soft matter group enjoying TAPAS at ECCMR in June 2013. Clockwise from front left Chang WU, Hedi ZAHABI, Thomas  BAUMARD, Alan THOMAS, James BUSFIELD, Dae Un SUNG, Yu Jin SUNG, Jae Yoon LIM, Menglong  HUANG, Woomin KYOUNG, Pat THOMAS, Lewis TUNNICLIFFE and Bin CHEN.