Congratulations to Dr Aaron Duncan who has passed his PhD viva on the 29 October 2025 defending a thesis entitled, “Advanced Characterisation and Modelling of Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Aged in Thermal and Chemical Environments.” His examiners, Chinnapat Panwisawas (from QMUL) and Liu Yang (from Uni of Strathclyde) commended Aaron for “… demonstrating a wide breadth and depth of knowledge about nitrile butadiene rubber used in harsh environments, using extensive experimental and modelling approaches. It is impressive that this industry-funded project has successfully translated soft matter research into real world applications already.”

Aaron’s PhD project was funded by an Industrial Case Award from EPSRC and SLB in Cambridge, UK. SLB who have been impressed with several recent collaborations with QMUL have recently started a new fully funded PhD project with James Busfield’s group and another iCASE studentship with Ana Jorge Sobrido in SEMS.

James Busfield notes that “Aaron has been a remarkable researcher in the Soft Matter Group for the last four years. He has explored a wide range of different constitutive models to characterise elastomer materials used in sealing applications. Already three papers have been published on his work and a further two are due for submission in the next few weeks.” Aaron has already started a new role as a structural engineer at BRE in Watford.