Joshua comes from Poulton-Le-Fylde, which is a very old town in Lancashire. In fact, it's 12000 years old. And one would expect a town that old to have its fair share of great people associated with it. And indeed it does. Keith Harris was from Poulton. I don't know about the duck. Anyway, despite, or perhaps because of, this auspicious start, Josh was at school at Millfield Science and Performing Arts College, where he became Head Boy. During this time he won the North West Young Scientist of the Year in a competition sponsored by BAE Systems. After A levels, Josh studied Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University and obtained a first class degree in 2021. Later that year, he started his doctoral work with me in an industrially sponsored project, and co-supervised by Prof. Steve Bull. Tyres are not always perfect after coming out of a mould, and Josh is trying to understand what is happening. Josh is not all about academic things; he has performed admirably at cross country in national competition, for example. But best of all, Josh regularly goes to the Etihad to see football at its finest. A man of great taste. I photographed him at the Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, but this was the second time that I and a PhD student were attending an Internazionale match. On Friday January 16, 2026 Joshua defended his PhD in front of his examiners, the formidable pairing of Professors Lidija Šiller (Newcastle University) and James Busfield (Queen Mary University of London). As with the majority of PhDs, before he gets to wear the gown, he has to implement their recommended corrections, which is occupying his time at the moment.
Oral presentations:
ACS Spring meeting, San Diego, USA, March 2025
UK National Ion Beam Centre User Day, Guildford, December 2024
5th International Conference on Advanced Polymer Science and Engineering, Athens, Greece, October 2024
ACS Fall meeting, San Francisco, USA, August 2023
Last updated in May 2026.