Dr. Aline Miller joined the department in 2002, having previously held a New Hall Research Fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. She obtained her Ph.D. from the IRC in Polymer Science and Technology, Durham University and her first degree in Chemistry from Strathclyde University, where she was awarded the Sir George Beilby Medal. Aline is currently a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Physical Society and is co-ordinator for the North West Division of the Association of Women in Science and Engineering.

Dr. Alberto Saiani was awarded an European PhD in 1997 by the University Louis Pasteur, (Strasbourg, France). Following his PhD he was awarded a Fellowship by the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), which allowed him to spend one year as postdoctoral research fellow at Osaka University (Japan). In 1998 he was recruited as postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College in the Chemical Engineering department where he stayed two years. In September 2000 he was appointed to a lectureship at the Université Blaise Pascal (Clermont-Ferrand, France) and in September 2002 he was appointed to a lectureship in Materials Characterisation in the School of Materials, The University of Manchester.

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Guilbaud graduated from the Graduate School of Chemistry and Physic (ENSCPB, Bordeaux, France) in 2003. Thereafter he moved to the University of Liverpool to undertake a PhD studying drug-polymer interactions in pharmaceutical formulations by solid-state NMR, in collaboration with AstraZeneca. In 2007 he was employed by AstraZeneca to develop and validate versatile and generic solubility measurement methods for the development and screening of novel solid dispersion formulations. He is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate focusing on the design of peptides with specific association mechanisms and peptide-polymer conjugates for biomaterial applications.

Maria Simon-Saenz graduate with a MChem. degree in Inorganic and Physical Chemistry in 2004 from the University of Salamanca in Spain. During her studies she was awarded a Socrates fellowship, which allowed her to spend her last year at the University of Liverpool. She then remained to undertake a MSc(Eng) in Advance Engineering Materials. In 2005 she started her PhD at the University of Manchester where she is currently working on UV-induced reactions in Langmuir monolayers.

Martyn Cornish graduated with an MEng degree in Materials Science and Engineering with Industrial Experience in 2005 from UMIST. During this time he spent an industrial year at Huntsman Polyurethanes in Belgium, then did a final year project on the degradation of poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid copolymers in the group. Martyn is now in the final stages of his PhD working on the structure-property relationships in poly(urethane-urea) elastomers in collaboration with Huntsman Polyurethanes.

Omar Al-Sayari graduated from King Saud University in Saudia Arabia with a BSc in Chemical Engineering in 1997. He subsequently joined SABIC and worked on several of their industrial sites and research centres. In 2003-04 he was awarded a scholarship by SABIC to do a MSc in Polymer Technology and Engineering at Loughborough University, UK. In 2006 he was awarded another scholarship by SABIC and moved to The University of Manchester were he is currently working toward a PhD on the structure-properties relationships in polyethyelnes synthesised using novel catalysts.

Claire Tang graduated from The University of Bordeaux 1 (France) with a BSc in Biochemistry and a MSc in Chemistry, including a final year project under Dr R. Oda on physico-chemical characterisation of lipopeptide gels. She then moved to The University of Manchester, where she is currently working toward a PhD in peptide gels used for 3D cell culture.

David Adams graduated in 2007 from Lancaster University with a BSc (Hons) Combined Science degree in Physics and Chemistry. Later that year he commenced his PhD studying the 'Self-assembly and gelation behaviour of protein hydrogels for biomedical applications' at the University of Manchester.

Stephen Boothroyd graduated in 2007 with an MEng degree in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from The University of Manchester. Having completed a masters project with the group, he began his PhD in September 2007 continuing his work looking at improving and controlling the mechanical properties of self-assembled peptide biomaterials.

Antons Maslovskis graduated from The University of Latvia (Riga) with a BSc in Chemistry in 2005 and a MSc in Chemistry in 2007. He was awarded a scholarship from the French association "Le Pont Neuf" to undertake a one-year research project in Paris (France) leading to the award of a Master's degree of Fundamental and Applied Chemistry, Polymer Materials at the 6th University of Paris (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) in 2007. He started his PhD research at The University of Manchester in September 2007 on the thermoresponsive polymers and their conjugates with peptides for biomedical applications.

Ayeesha Mujeeb graduated from the University of Manchester with a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Materials Science in 2006. She then remained in Manchester for a further year to undertake her MSc degree in Biotechnology in 2007. Ayeesha is currently working towards a PhD where she is exploring the effect of material properties of peptide hydrogels on their potential for use as 2D/3D tissue engineering scaffolds.

Achilleas Tsiotas graduated in 2006 from the University of Crete, Heraklion-Greece, with a MEng in Material Science and Technology. He spent the last 9 months of his degree at the Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser, F.O.R.T.H. at Heraklion, Crete, carrying out research in ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for automotive-aerospace applications (nano-complex materials group). Currently, he is pursuing a PhD degree at the University of Manchester, Materials Science Centre, working on segmented, high hard block content polyurethanes and the correlation between their structure, properties, and thermodynamics.

Jie Gao graduated from Tsinghua University in China where she obtained a first degree in Polymer Materials Science and Engineering. She then moved to the University of Manchester where she was awarded an MSc and completed her MSC dissertation within the group. In 2008 she was awarded an University of Manchester Alumni Fellowship and is currently working towards a PhD on the gelation properties of model peptides.