Prof. Matt Unthank - LinkedIn

Matt Unthank is a Professor of Chemistry at Northumbria University and has an established track record in polymer, coatings and surfaces research. Specifically, his expertise in functional polymers for network forming reactions, for use in thermoset coatings and composites is demonstrated with >15 years of patents, publications and speaker awards in this field. His career boasts both industrial leadership roles (AkzoNobel – Polymer Research Manager, GlaxoSmithKline – Senior Process Chemist) and academic roles (visiting academic at University of Manchester, Professor of Chemistry at Northumbria University). Over the last five years he has been awarded research grants from a wide range of funders including UKRI, EPSRC, DSTL and OfWAT in addition to higher TRL projects working with industrial partners such as AkzoNobel, Altana, Allnex, Northumbrian Water and others. He is an EPSRC Researcher in Residence Fellow, with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (CPI and NCC) to develop sustainable high-performance composites and coatings, a member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum (ECF) in Manufacturing Research (https://ecfmanufacturing.com/current-members/) and co-lead for the bulk chemical sector in the £5M EPSRC-TransFire Hub involving 12 academic institutions, >100 companies and 14 non-governmental organisations (EP/V054627/1, https://transfire-hub.org/). Further to this he is a founding member of the ‘Synthesis and Polymer Innovation’ centre at Northumbria (SPIN, www.northumbria.ac.uk/spin) to support polymer, coatings and composite scale-up and commercialisation projects with industrial partners.