At the IOM3 Awards Ceremony on 5 December 2024, Professor James Busfield was honored with the T B Marsden Professional Medal for his substantial, long-term contributions to the institute and materials science profession.

James’s dedication to the IOM3 rubber community spans 30 years. His journey began with the Rubber in Engineering Group — now known as the IOM3 Elastomer Group — which he has chaired for the past 14 years. Under his leadership, the group has organized more than 100 conferences, events, and discussion meetings. Historically, these gatherings attracted 50–100 delegates in person; however, since transitioning to a hybrid format, attendance has frequently exceeded 200 registrations and sometimes even surpassed 500.

In addition, James has successfully chaired several global conferences hosted by IOM3, including RubberCON 2014 in Manchester, RubberCON 2023 in Edinburgh (310 delegates), and the International Rubber Conference 2019 in London (550 delegates). Each of these conferences was secured through an international competitive tendering process led by James. Most recently, he has secured the European Conference for Constitutive Modelling of Rubber, scheduled to take place in 2026.

James’s contributions extend further: he has served on the IOM3 Polymer Group (and its antecedents) for over 25 years and currently serves as the rubber paper editor for the IOM3 journal Plastics, Rubber and Composites: Macromolecular Engineering.

The School of Engineering and Materials Science congratulates James on this well-deserved accolade.