Polymer Scientists awarded recognition for work at IOM3 ceremony

Two polymer scientists have been recognised for their outstanding achievements at the recent IOM3 awards in London.

Dr Ivan Parkin, a mid-career scientist whose whole career has been devoted to the development of new methods to make, characterise and functionally test materials, was awarded the The Griffith Medal and Prize.

His work covers solid-state chemistry for bulk materials, thin film coatings through to antimicrobial polymers. His work is characterised by innovative synthetic insight, the development of new classes of materials and the development of fundamental understanding.

His work has already had an immediate commercial, societal and scientific impact. He is cited in the world's top 600 materials scientists, and in the world’s top chemists lists based on ESI Thomson analysis. He has more publications in the Journal of Materials Chemistry than any other author.

Also recognised was Andrew Lewis, a member of the EPSRC Strategic Advisory Team for Healthcare Technologies and a visiting Professor of Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at the University of Brighton.

Lewis was heavily involved in the development of the first commercial drug-eluting bead (DEB) technology for the locoregional treatment of malignancies in the liver. The DEB technology is now available in more than 600 hospitals globally, with more than 100,000 reported procedures to date.

This product won the PLC Best Technology Award in 2003 and, in 2011, was further recognised by the IOM3 Prince Philip Award for ‘Polymers in the Service of Mankind’.

To date, he has generated close to 200 scientific publications and articles (H-index 42), 11 book chapters and 48 patent families/applications in the fields of polymers, biomaterials and drug delivery (28 of which are granted US patents.)

To read the full list of winners, visit www.iom3.org/iom3-awards-2015