University of Birmingham

Professor Jon Binner FIMMM, FECerS, FACerS  has an international reputation for the generation of scientific understanding and engineering solutions for the development of processing routes for a wide range of ceramic-based materials, from traditional to nanostructured ceramics, ultra-high temperature composites to ceramic foams. He has published ~215 refereed papers (h-index 27), edited or contributed to 19 books; won 125 research grants totalling ~£15.6M (~£5.8M held currently) and holds 7 patents. He has trained 32 PhD & 2 MPhil students and 33 PDRAs. The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) has awarded him the Holliday Prize (1995), Ivor Jenkins Medal (2007) and Verulam Medal & Prize (2011). He has translated key developments into industry, both through licensing and the creation of a spin out company. He is the current Past-President of the IOM3, the current Chair of the UK Ceramic Society, a Council Member and the UK representative on the Permanent Executive Committee of the European Ceramic Society and is a Visiting Professor at two Chinese universities.

Professor Tim Button FIMMM, FInstP has over 30 years’ experience in the processing and application of functional materials. He leads the Functional Materials Group (FMG) and has been involved predominately with developing processing routes for the direct fabrication of a wide range of ceramic materials to complex shapes at both the micro and macro scales, and their associated use in new device concepts. He has been successful in obtaining grants from EPSRC, EU and direct industry sources and has trained over 35 PhD and 10 Masters students. Thick film and ceramic extrusion technologies have been transferred to industries in the USA and UK. Current projects are concerned with new processing routes for vibration and thermal energy harvesting devices, the development of SOFCs and micromoulding technologies for novel composite structures. He has published over 200 papers (h-index of 23) and holds 6 patents. He is also founder and MD of spin out company Applied Functional Materials Ltd (www.afm-ltd.com) which is exploiting some of these process technologies in high frequency ultrasound devices.