Mel Richardson

Mel Richardson currently holds the Chair of Manufacturing in The Centre of Excellence - Manufacturing (RCMI), Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Portsmouth University, UK. He is also visiting Professor to Sichuan Union University (in PRC China) and UTM - Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Malaysia). He was awarded the MBE for 'humanitarian services to Tibet and China' in 1998.He is active in research, consultancy (over 80 assignments including Expert Witness Litigation) and teaching associated with Composite/Plastics Materials Engineering, Design Engineering and Distance Learning/Communications using low level satellite technology. He was the National Chairman of 'Plastics in Building and Construction Committee' for The Plastics and Rubber Institute. He currently heads up a research team looking at the mechanical properties of fibre reinforced composite structures and his Consortium has won various prestigious grants including a £1.0 M UK Government 'Foresight Challenge' Grant to study natural fibres and forestry waste as reinforcements for constructional composite materials (such as processing/fabrication of composites made from polypropylene and wood waste). He is leader of both the CHINAFIM Network Natural Fibre Composite Materials Group involving researchers from UK/China/Italy/Sweden and the FINATURA Network Natural Fibre Composite Materials Group involving researchers from UK/Mexico/Columbia/Ecuador/Spain/France. He was also the research team leader of a £400,000 EPSERC/DTI 'LINK' ENVIROPASS Project entitled 'Studies of Chromate Free Passivation of Aluminium and Zinc Surfaces'. He has over 190 publications including 60 refereed papers and books and has, or is in he process of, supervising 14 PhD Students, 20 MSc Project Students and 10 Post-Doctoral Researchers. He has obtained a total of over £1,800,000 Research Grants for various EU/DTI/SERC Projects and was the Team Leader and Co-ordinator of the International EURAM/BRITE Project on Hybrid Composites. His current interestsinclude studying structure/property relationships of low energy cure fibre reinforced plastics and failure prediction of composites using concurrent engineering finite element analysis techniques. He holds the World Altitude Record for Hovercraft obtained in China whilst using and testing experimental composite materials. He has acted as External Examiner to PhD students at Manchester, Liverpool, Portsmouth, and Bournemouth Universities (UK) and shortly at Coimbra University (Portugal) and Sichuan Union University (China). He has extensive contacts in China and created special links with Sichuan Province having led several major scientific/humanitarian expeditions over 10 years involving a total of over 90 personnel from 9 different nationalities and supported by major European Companies such as Neste (Scandinavia), ICI (UK)., and Renault (France). He has been personally commended for his scientific projects and efforts in fostering good relations between the European Union and China by both the Governorof Sichuan Province and John Major the former British Prime Minister. Likewise he enjoys the support and patronage of the Chairman of Leicestershire County Council (Leicestershire UK being twinned with Sichuan Province PRC). He has been nominated for Honorary Citizenship and Freemanship of the City of Chengdu by the Chinese Science and Technology Commission. He has personal interests and concerns for the Developing World and has set up a Charitable Trust called 'The Care and Share Foundation' to help fundsupport projects.

Special research, personal and commercial expertise and links with China PRC , Malaysia, Singapore and Europe.

Greater London Council Scientific Branch 1972-1974

http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~mpmor/MelWeb2.htm.

Chartered Chemist (C.Chem).

CURRENT RESEARCH GRANTS:

1. 'SAFECOMP' LOW ENERGY CURE LAMINATES FOR HIGH ENERGY ABSORPTION APPLICATIONS IN SPORTS GOODS AND AND OTHER SAFETY CRITICAL AREAS
EU CRAFT/ ACG Ltd/ 12 European Partners

2. IN SITU QUANTITATIVE FLAW DETECTION USING ADVANCED OPTICAL INSPECTION TECHNIQUES
EPSRC Structural Integrity Managed Programme

3. VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY DISSEMINATION 'INNOVATIVE POLYMER ENGINEERING COMPOSITES' MODULE
EU ESF/ADAPT/TIME

RECENTLY COMPLETED RESEARCH GRANTS

1. ELECTRONIC SPECKLE PATTERN INTERFEROMETRY (ESPI) NDT OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS
BRITISH COUNCIL

2. ENVIRONMENTAL RESISTANCE OF PULTRUDED GRP 'REBARS' FOR CONCRETE
EU / INDUSTRIAL / INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM

3. THE MECHANICALPERFORMANCE, BONDING AND SURFACE PROPERTIES OF THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
EU / INDUSTRIAL / INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM

4. CHROMATE FREE PASSIVATION OF ALUMINIUM AND ZINC SURFACES
EPSERC / DTI 'LINK'CONSORTIUM

5. THE RESIN TRANSFER MOULDING (RTM) OF NATURAL FIBRE/ PHENOLIC COMPOSITES
DTI 'FORESIGHT CHALLENGE' CONSORTIUM

6. 'CHINAFIM' NATURAL FIBRE COMPOSITE RESEARCH CONSORTIUM
EU / UK /CHINA / ITALY / SWEDEN Network

7. 'FINATURA' NATURAL FIBRE COMPOSITE RESEARCH CONSORTIUM
EU/UK/MEXICO/COLUMBIA/ECUADOR/SPAIN/FRANCE Network

My research in innovative polymer engineering composites is directly applicable to industry and commercial organisations worldwide.