About us

James has an undergraduate degree (BEng) from Imperial College, London, in Materials Science and Engineering. He also has a Masters Degree (MSc) from Cranfield University in Thermal Power (Gas Turbine Engineering) where he was supported with a Rolls Royce UTC Scholarship. He then obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, with funding from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Ministry of Defence). He has since held Research Assistant and Senior Research Associate positions at Cambridge, supporting research activities in the field of indentation testing and advanced numerical modelling. During this period, he wrote and delivered a lecture course to undergraduate and graduate students on The Finite Element Method. He is a recipient of an Armourers and Brasiers’ Fellowship Award.

In 2011 he joined the leading systems and engineering technology company, Frazer-Nash Consultancy, supporting projects in the aerospace and nuclear industries. He then returned to Cambridge in 2012 to pursue research into the development of methods and models for the measurement of material strength parameters from indentation data. He has published over 30 papers concerning the deformation and mechanics of materials, has delivered several invited talks and plenary lectures at international conferences, and has an international reputation in the field of indentation and finite element analysis.

James also established (in 2012) his own consultancy firm, Double Precision Consultancy (DPC), which specialises in the provision of mathematical and multiphysics modelling services to a wide range of industrial clients. James sold this company to Element Materials Technology in January 2021.

In February 2018 he joined the Centre for Scientific Computing at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge (Department of Physics), where he accepted a position as Coordinator of the EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Computational Methods for Materials Science.

In 2019 James left the University of Cambridge after 15 years to concentrate on activities associated with Plastometrex, which he co-founded in late 2018.

‍

Jimmy has an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (2013). In 2014 he joined the Composites and Coatings Group under the supervision of Professor Bill Clyne and Dr. James Dean. Jimmy has recently completed his PhD, which focused very heavily on the further development of experimental methods and computer models for measuring mechanical properties from indentation data.

One of Jimmy’s greatest successes to date was the identification of a fundamental flaw in an analytical calculation method used extensively in the indentation community. His work highlighted with great clarity the deficiency in this method, and demonstrated (indisputably) that problems of this nature could only be tackled with advanced numerical modelling. Jimmy has since gone on to publish more than 7 high-impact, peer reviewed journal papers during the course of his PhD – the average is approximately 2 – and he has presented his research at several international conferences.

Much of his recent work has involved validation of the Indentation Plastometry methodology – work that subsequently led to the development of a quicker, more reliable methodology that is currently incorporated in the latest SEMPID software packages.

Mike has a PhD in materials science from The University of Cambridge. His research was focused on developing low-cost materials enabled water purification systems for use in resource constrained settings. Alongside research work, Mike has experience in VC investing, creating and developing social impact ventures in East Africa, and startup support programmes for tech innovators.

At Plastometrex Mike leads up the commercial efforts and strategy.

After completing his first degree and PhD in the Materials Science Department at Cambridge, Bill Clyne held University lecturing posts in Brazil, Switzerland and Surrey (UK), before returning to Cambridge, where he was appointed in 1999 to a chair in the Mechanics of Materials. He has been the Director of the Gordon Laboratory since its opening at that time.

His research interests centre on the thermo-mechanics of composites and coatings, particularly processing, numerical modelling and fine scale mechanical interrogation. Details are available at www.ccg.msm.cam.ac.uk.

He has authored over 300 papers, two textbooks (on composites) and 10 educational software packages. He is in the original ISI Highly Cited list (www.isihighlycited.com). He has been sole supervisor for over 80 PhD students in Cambridge and has given about 50 Invited Keynote Talks and Colloquia over the past 10 years. He was President of the Federation of European Materials Societies and is now an Honorary Member.

He has been Principal Investigator for many large projects, with an aggregate value running into several tens of £M, and has chaired 8 large international conferences. He is also the Director of DoITPoMS (www.doitpoms.ac.uk/), which maintains a globally-accessed Educational Materials Science website. Current Scientific Council memberships include IMDEA (Madrid), The Materials Science Cluster of Excellence (Erlangen) and the Jülich Helmholtz Centre for Energy & Climate Research.

In 2004, he was awarded the Griffith Medal, a premier prize of the Institute of Materials. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and Helmholtz International Fellow in 2014.

Max holds a Natural Sciences degree from the University of Cambridge (2015), where he specialised in Materials Science. He went on to study for a PhD, with support from AWE in the Composites and Coatings group under the supervision of Professor Bill Clyne. This work focused on the development of methods for the extraction of mechanical properties via the processing of indentation data using iterative FEM modelling. Specifically, this related to methods characterising the creep, high strain rate plasticity and dynamic fracture response of metallic materials. The procedures for these methods are detailed in the 3 papers he published during this time.

Maria is a mechanical engineer with a PhD in the field of hard tissue biomechanics. She has several years of experience in engineering consultancy, where she provided advice to clients across various industries using her expertise in multiphysics simulations. As an Engineering Project Manager at Plastometrex, Maria is overseeing the technical aspects of some of our engineering projects, including design, testing, and implementation.

Henry studied for an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge before joining the University of Oxford, where he completed a PhD on processing of aluminium matrix composites. He then worked for TWI Ltd for 10 years, leading the surface, corrosion and interface engineering team who performed a variety of applied research and consultancy projects across a broad range of industry sectors.

He now manages PLX’s Application Engineering team, whose expert materials scientists provide support to customers and ensure they are getting the most out of PIP testing.

‍

With broad experience from start-ups and established businesses within materials science, renewables, oil & gas, and manufacturing, Amalie is driving strategic marketing to support the growth of Plastometrex.Prior to specialising in marketing, Amalie has created and led large culture initiatives, which has provided valuable exposure to wide groups of people within the types of organisations that Plastometrex serves. Specialising in B2B marketing strategy and planning, Amalie uses her people insights to build initiatives based on the personalities and challenges of the people involved with the various stages of purchase decision-making.

Olly has worked in materials science for over 10 years. His experience includes academia, start-up and global consumer electronics companies, and his expertise is in collaborative commercial strategy, technology maturation and product development. As Business Development Manager, Olly is creating the links and sustaining the relationships that will deliver our products into new markets and shape our product development in support of our customers, partners and collaborators future needs. If you have a suggestion for how we could work together then please get in touch with him.

Rachael has previously worked for a successful technical consultancy in Cambridge and gained her 'Association of Accounting Technicians' qualification (AAT) during her time there. At Plastometrex she works on all the office administrative and financial duties, along with purchasing and invoicing. Rachael is responsible for ensuring smooth and efficient customer service in relation to contract negotiation alongside the procurement and shipping of our machines.

Ronnie has over 12 years of experience within the Engineering and Manufacturing industry, both technically and commercially. He is a results-driven, experienced, and collaborative technical sales leader, who was brought onboard to execute and enhance all aspects of the sales process. Ronnie is currently working as the Sales Manager at Plastometrex where he will focus on managing the sales team, as well as closing strategic accounts, working closely with the technical team to support the technical product demonstrations and industrial trials.

Marcus has an undergraduate degree in Materials Science and Metallurgy and a PhD, “Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) based on Magnesium-Lithium Alloys”, both from the University of Cambridge. He then worked at BP’s Sunbury Research Centre characterising protective coatings on silicon carbide monofilaments for use in titanium-based MMCs, and developing numerical simulations of novel dehydrogenation reactors.

In 1993 he joined the Department of Materials Science at Cambridge as a Research Associate developing fracture-resistant silicon carbide laminates for applications in turbine engine combustion chambers, before moving to a role as Process Technologist, then Process Technology Group Manager at Ciba Composites/Hexcel in Duxford. In these roles Marcus led new product introduction and process improvement projects for a wide range of materials, including primers, adhesives, polymer composites, aluminium honeycomb, and non-metallic honeycomb.

Marcus joined TWI in 2002, initially in the Polymers Section, leading consultancy projects and building new business, across a range of industry sectors, in the fields of composites and laser welding of thermoplastics and textiles. He then took on the role of Manager of the Numerical Modelling Section, with a focus on weld distortion prediction and minimisation, automated FEA for  fitness for service assessments, and development of expertise in simulation of powder-bed metal additive manufacturing processes. From 2016 Marcus took on the role of R&D Product Manager, which included programme management of approximately 60 internal research projects, selected by TWI’s Research Board to develop new capabilities for the organisation.

In 2021 he joined Plastometrex with an initial focus on the development of several product development projects, set for launch in 2022.

‍