We are proud to announce that Professor Tony McNally has been selected by China’s Ministry of Education and State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs under Plan 111 as a Foreign Expert to advise in the manufacture and characterisation of functional composite materials.

China’s Plan 111 is jointly organised by the Ministry of Education and State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, P.R. China. It aims to gather groups of first-class minds from around the world to work with leading Chinese researchers on the creation of 100 dedicated innovation centres.

Over the next 5 years Professor McNally will be working in collaboration with the International Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing proposed by the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT).

Professor Tony McNally, who heads up Nanocomposites research at WMG has been announced as the first Editor-in-Chief of the newly formed journal, Functional Composite Materials.

The Associate Editors and the Editorial Board, led by Professor McNally, include the leading academics in the field from around the world. The journal will consider contributions on all types of composite materials where composite functionality can be clearly demonstrated.

Functional Composite Materials is published by SpringerNature. The publisher producers a number of key research journals and books globally on science, technology, medicine, humanities and social sciences.

Our team of experts will be out in force at the New Statesmen Emerging Technology Conference on 20^th November at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in London.

The Conference programme is split into two streams, one tackling intelligence, software and machine learning, and the other infrastructure, advanced materials and robotics. The event brings together engineers, data analysts, IT and technology specialists, and senior management professionals, from across a variety of sectors, to discuss and debate technologies of the future.

Inspired by the materials that helped astronauts survive Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, Professor Tony McNally has focused his career on developing new composites based on nano materials. WMG’s Professor McNally, who is based at the International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing (IINM), was recently interviewed for Reinforced Plastics (www.reinforcedplastics.com), below is a snapshot of his thoughts on the challenges facing his research field.

While my research is rooted in fundamental engineering science, the target is functional composite materials that can be readily manufactured into products in high volumes.

Professor Tony McNally, Dr Chaoying Wan, and Dr Lukasz Figiel will be representing WMG at the 2^nd Sino_UK Bilateral Symposium on Polymer Nanocomposites with a series of lectures from 27-30 October.

The conference will take place at Donghua University in Shanghai, China, and will bring together experts from around the world.

Professor McNally will act as a Co-Chair for the four day event alongside representatives from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Donghua University. Professor McNally will also be delivering his own seminar on 28 October entitled ‘Electrical and Rheological Percolation of Composites of Polymers and MWCNTs’.

Also on 28 October, Dr Chaoying Wan will deliver ‘Dispersion and Interphase of Polymer Nanocomposites’ and Dr Lukasz Figiel ‘Prediction of Overall Behaviour of Polymer Nanocomposites Via Multi-Scale Modelling’.

International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing (IINM) at WMG

Nanocomposites research within IINM encompasses both fundamental and applied research, associated with the manufacture of novel materials, devices and components with tailored functionality and properties. For more information visit warwick ac.uk/wmgresearch/nano

WMG's Professor Tony McNally, Director of the International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing will be delivering a plenary lecture at the 6th International Conference on Advancements in Polymeric Materials (APM2015), which is taking place at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India from 20-22 February 2015.

Professor McNally will be speaking on 'Primary and Secondary Processing of Polymer Nanocomposites'.

APM2015 will be themed around marching towards smart product design & development with multi-funtional materials. It will be an International Forum for those who wish to present their projects and innovations, with the opportunity to discuss the main aspects and the latest results in the field of polymer science and product development.The general aim of the conference is to promote international collaboration in Education and Research in polymer science and product development.

For more information, visit the APM2015 conference site >>

WMG is very pleased to welcome a number of new academic appointments this month, who will take a leading role in some of our exciting research areas.

Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has joined WMG to take up the Research Chair in Low Carbon Materials Technologies, sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Tata Steel. Professor Seetharaman joins us from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he was the POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Co-Director of Center For Iron and Steel Research. Professor Seetharaman will be leading a new programme in the manufacture and application of advanced steels in low carbon technologies and setting up a new team, within WMG's existing Materials and Manufacturing theme, to work with Tata Steel to address the current international priorities of the low carbon agenda.

Professor Tony McNally has joined WMG to lead our developing research in the area of Nanocomposites. Professor McNally joins from Queen's University Belfast, where he was Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Director of the Polymer Processing Research Centre. The Nanocomposites team, based in WMG's International Institute for Product and Service Innovation, will span WMG's work in Digital Technologies, Materials and Manufacturing.

Dr Claire Dancer has also joined WMG this week to develop WMG's work in Nanocomposites. Dr Dancer joins from the University of Oxford, where she worked as a researcher in the Department of Materials, specifically looking at Manufacturing Methods for Metamaterials.

We also welcome Dr Kwabena Agyaping-Kodua who is joining WMG from the University of Nottingham where he has been Senior Research Fellow in Digital Manufacturing and Systems Engineering at the Precision Manufacturing Centre. As part of WMG's Digital Lifecycle Management team, Dr Agyapong-Kodua will be continuing to develop research activities in the digital manufacturing and systems engineering field, particularly within the remit of high value manufacturing.