The network comprises a wealth of experience from both academic and industrial partners. Combined, the academic supervisors in the network have supervised 30 Postdocs, 60 PhDs and 300 MScs and published in excess of 800 journal publications.
Professor and Project Coordinator
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
University College Dublin
https://people.ucd.ie/michael.gilchrist
Michael Gilchrist, PhD, DEng, is Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University College Dublin. He has supervised and mentored more than 60 research masters, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows and authored some 250 journal articles. His research interests relate to the dynamic mechanical performance of viscoelastic materials, with applications focussed on precision moulding and thermoforming of polymers, and impact biomechanics of soft biological tissue. He has previously served as Head of UCD’s School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering (2011-18) and is Ireland’s representative to IUTAM, the International Union of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, the Institute of Physics, Engineers Ireland, and the Institute for NanoManufacturing. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa since 2010 and previously at the CNRS and ENSAM-Paris in 2003-04. His most recent major funding is provided by Science Foundation Ireland, the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT-Manufacturing), and the EU (Marie Skłodowska-Curie), including two MSCA ITNs (www.heads-itn.eu and simppermeddev.eu). He is also a founding director of MiNAN Technologies Ltd. (www.minan-tech.com).
Lecturer/Assistant Professor
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
University College Dublin
https://people.ucd.ie/nan.zhang
Dr Zhang is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor at University College Dublin. His research areas include Polymer micro/nano manufacturing, including UV-LIGA, micro injection moulding and nanoimprinting, mass production of plastic microfluidics, and their applications towards nanomedicine and molecular diagnostics, functional surfaces and polymeric miniatured medical devices, Atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing. Dr Zhang has published more than 50 publications, including over 30 peer-reviewed journal papers, and he also held 2 patents (1 filed, 1 pending), and submitted 5 invention disclosures of which 2 are under negotiation for filing with investment. He was chairman of the 6th international conference of Polymer Replication at Nanoscale (PRN2019), and is a member of International Society of Nanomanufacturing, Society of Plastic Engineers and the MicroFluidics Association. Dr Zhang is a Co-PI of H2020-MSCA-SIMPPER_MedDev ITN and has been funded twice by Science Foundation Ireland on future innovator programme.
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Technical University of Denmark
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/persons/aminul-islam
Associate Prof. Aminul Islam is the current Head of Studies for Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering at the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark. His career strikes a delicate balance between academia and industry, where he spent the past decade innovating and popularizing techniques associated with micro-scale polymer processing, multi-material molding, advanced 3D printing, molded interconnect devices, high performace composites, etc. The recent focus of his research is 3D printing of biomaterials, nanocomposites, advanced materials & processing, Hearing Aid systems & technology, etc. Prof. Islam is a member of the International Academy For Production Engineering (CIRP), Polymer Processing Society (PPS), Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), European Network of Excellence on Multi-Material Micro Manufacturing (NoE 4M), and the scientific committee member of European Society for Precision Engineering and Nano Technology (EUSPEN).
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Technical University of Denmark
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/persons/yang-zhang
Prof. Yang Zhang is currently employed as associate professor at the Manufacturing Engineering group of Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). She is an experienced researcher with a demonstrated history of working in the research and industry. Skilled in Polymer injection moulding, AM involved process chain, Surface Metrology, Polymers, Laser Processing, and Project Management.
Prof. Yang Zhang has for the last 10 years been acting as technical project manager or project manager on national Danish projects involving industrially oriented research for design and fabrication of polymer products in different fields. She has close collaboration with industrial partners.
Prof. Yang Zhang is an active associate member in CIRP (International academy for production engineering)
Professor
Chair of Laser Processing of the Faculty of Engineering Technology
Department of Mechanics of Solids, Surfaces & Systems
University of Twente
https://www.utwente.nl/en/et/ms3/research-chairs/lp/RomerGRBE/RomerGRBE/
Prof.dr.ir. Gert‐willem Römer holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (1999) of the University of Twente in The Netherlands. He has 20 years of experience in executing as well as managing national and international research projects in the field of laser-material processing, for a large number of public bodies and companies. His scientific focus is on the fundamental physical phenomena occurring during laser‐material interaction, in order to optimize laser‐material processing for laser‐based manufacturing. Main processes are material processing using ultra short pulsed laser sources for micro‐ and nano‐machining, and laser cladding and additive manufacturing (3D printing) using high power laser sources. As well as, the development of models, as well as sensors and real‐time control algorithms for laser‐material processes (to ensure reliable processing results). Since 2017 he is leading the Chair of Laser Processing at the University of Twente.
Researcher/Assistant Professor
Chair of Laser Processing of the Faculty of Engineering Technology
Department of Mechanics of Solids, Surfaces & Systems
University of Twente https://people.utwente.nl/m.feinaeugle
Matthias is a researcher and educator and has been working as assistant professor at the Chair of Laser Processing of the University of Twente (NL) since 2019. His general research interests are in the fields of thin film technology and laser-assisted processes for developing innovations for electronic, photonic, micro-mechanic and biomedical applications. His research focus lies on laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) for use in 3D printing of functional materials.
Originally from the south of Germany, he went on to study electrical engineering and optoelectronics in Germany and Spain. He obtained his PhD in photonics in 2014 working on laser-assisted additive micro-fabrication at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, Southampton (U.K.). He is also an avid maker, climber, player of Ultimate Frisbee and loves the outdoors.
Senior Sustainability Scientist
Materials, Packaging & Sustainability
Novo Nordisk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesperbogelund/
With a university background in environmental and materials chemistry Jesper Bøgelund have worked as research scientist, consultant, lecturer and Materials Expert within polymer based products for 20 years. For more than 10 years he has been a returning speaker at Danish conferences and seminars on various polymer related topics like accelerated ageing, radiation resistance, sustainability and bioplastics.
Since 2013 he has been responsible for the environmental stewardship of the device research and development in Novo Nordisk, an area that experienced a huge increase in focus with a new corporate wide environmental strategy in 2019. Following the strategy work, his team has developed the current design guidelines used in Novo Nordisk device development to make sure to meet the targets of 50% reduction of the corporate environmental impact by 2030.
Accordion Content
Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering
Università di Padova
http://www.cmbm.unipd.it/members/pages/bruschi.html
Stefania Bruschi is full professor of Manufacturing Technologies at University of Padova, Italy, and currently Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering.
She graduated in Materials Engineering and got the PhD degree in Industrial Engineering.
She is author of more than 230 publications indexed in Scopus and published in peer-reviewed journal and international conference proceedings.
Her research activities deal with testing and modeling material response in forming and machining operations.
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering
Università di Padova
http://www.cmbm.unipd.it/members/pages/lucchetta.html
Giovanni Lucchetta is an Associate Professor of Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Padova. His
research is focused on forming technologies of polymeric materials and on micro technologies, with
particular reference to precision injection molding.
The main research topics are:
1) Modeling and characterisation of the tribological effects of the mold surface properties in the injection micro-molding
process.
2) Replication of micro- and nanostructured surfaces.
3) Injection molding of polymer materials reinforced with glass fibers.
Combining experimental polymer processing, material characterisation and numerical simulations, he develops and models innovative manufacturing technologies for plastics. He has published more than a hundred papers in international journals and conference proceedings. The majority of these are related to injection molding and published in high-ranked peer-reviewed journals. His
academic work is motivated by industry experiences.
Staff Design Development Engineer
R&D, Pharmaceutical Systems
BD Research Centre Ireland Ltd
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevebeguin/
Steve holds a PhD in Biomedical Technology Innovation (Swinburne, Australia), a Master’s degree in BioEngineering (EPFL, Swiss Institute of Technology), supplemented by a Bachelor’s in Microengineering (HEIG-VD, Switzerland), a Bachelor’s in Biology (UNINE, Switzerland) and is a trained precision mechanical parts machining operator.
Steve joined BD in 2019 and is leading the Microfluidics, Injection Science and Innovation group which is part of the Pharmaceutical Systems R&D team in the Dun Laoghaire office. Steve has worked for different startup companies in the Medical Device industry in Switzerland and Australia and sums up 8+ years of experience in R&D and New Product Developments with broad knowledge in Microfabrication, Microfluidics, bioMEMS and electromechanical systems.
Professor
Head of the Institute of Polymer Nanotechnology (INKA)
School of Engineering
FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
https://www.fhnw.ch/en/people/magnus-kristiansen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/per-magnus-kristiansen/
“PRN conference series”: prn-conference.com
Prof. Dr. Per Magnus Kristiansen is head of the INKA Institute of Polymer Nanotechnology at FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. He studied Materials Sciences and did his PhD in Polymer Technology both at ETH Zürich. From 2004 to 2009, he gained industrial experience at Ciba Specialty Chemicals, first in R&D on supramolecular additives for nucleation/clarification, breathable films, and electret filters and later focusing on stabilizers and functional additives as application specialist for the automotive industry. Since 2009, he is Professor in Polymer Nanotechnology at FHNW and since 2016 head of the institute INKA. In 2020, he was appointed Visiting Full Professor at the University College Dublin in connection with the H2020 MCS-ITN project SIMPPER_MedDev.
His primarily applied research focuses on the functionalization of polymers by surface structuring on the micro- and nanoscale with particular emphasis on industrial replication technologies for microfluidic diagnostics, life science and optics applications as well as other types of functional polymer surfaces. Further research topics at INKA include laser ablation of polymeric materials and functional coatings by means of irradiation (UV, Ebeam) and atmospheric plasma processes, as well as polymer nanocomposites, polymer phase behavior and structure-property relations.
Per Magnus Kristiansen is author/co-author of 28 peer-reviewed papers and 9 patent applications, a frequent speaker at conferences and events related to functional polymer surfaces and co-organizer of the PRN conference series. He is member of the executive committee of the Swiss Nanoscience Institute, engaged in serveral advisory boards of Swiss SMEs and co-founder of the startup BottNeuro AG.
Dr. Maciej Skolimowski
Research Manager and Senior R&D Scientist
Micronit Microtechnologies
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maciej-skolimowski
Maciej is a Research Manager at Micronit. He is working on polymer microfluidics for biomedical applications and life science. He obtained his MSc degree in biotechnology at Warsaw University of Technology, and PhD in Micro- and Nanotechnology at Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He has 4 years postdoc experience at DTU and University of Groningen. He specializes in microfabrication techniques and application of microfluidics for mimicking biological systems.
Project Manager
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
University College Dublin
Ger holds an honours Business Degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Information Systems from University College Dublin. Ger is a PRINCE II Practitioner in project management and has in excess of 15 years of Research Project Management in an academic setting. Ger has extensive experience in managing and coordinating the start-up of large-scale EU research projects including programme management, grant administration, digital communication strategies (including research impact and dissemination strategies and web development), coordination and funding body regulations (including financial) of FP7, INTERREG, H2020 and national Irish funding. SIMPPER_MedDev is the third MSCA Innovative Training Network that Ger has managed under Horizon 2020.
Ger is an active member of the European Research Manager community and has held various committee roles with EARMA (European Association of Research Managers and Administrators) as well as a member of The Network for Advancing and Evaluating the Societal Impact of Science (AESIS Network).
