Amy Fitzgerald has recently completed her doctorate with the University of Surrey that addressed the large gap in environmental data for carbon fibre production. She is now employed by the National Composites Centre to disseminate the output of this project, securing the place for carbon fibre composites on the sustainable agenda.
Julien Sellier, STRUCTeam’s Co-Founder and Managing Director, has over 20 years of industry experience in advanced materials and structural engineering. After earning a Master’s degree from École Centrale de Nantes, Julien held various Senior Structural Engineering positions before co-founding STRUCTeam in 2010. Julien supports clients across the renewables, marine and construction sectors and is leading the business on an ambitious and continued growth strategy. Specifically in Wind Energy, STRUCTeam has established itself as the spar cap specialist with years of experience enabling the growth of blades.
Dr Agi (Agnieszka) Brandt-Talbot is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, and co-founder and director of bioeconomy start-up Lixea. Her research interests are developing chemical technologies that convert wood biomass into renewable chemicals and materials or processes that enable plastic recycling. Agi held an Imperial College Research Fellowship before becoming a Lecturer in 2022, enabling her to develop a research programme in the conversion of lignin to carbon fibres. Agi is a recipient of Imperial's President's Award of Excellence for Outstanding Early Career Researcher and the Department of Chemical Engineering's Sir William Wakeham Award.
Studied aerospace engineering at university of Stuttgart until 2005
2006 – 2010: Scientific employee at Fraunhofer Project Group for Ceramic Composites in Bayreuth
2010 – today: Fraunhofer IGCV, Scientific employee
2015: Head of Recycling of Composites Group,
2022: Head of Sustainable Composites Department
since 2018: elected member of the scientific technical board of the Fraunhofer Insitute.
2005 – 2011: RWTH Aachen University, Diploma - Mechanical Engineering/Plastics Technology
2008 – 2012: RWTH Aachen University, Master of Business Administration (MBA) - Economics
2012 - 2017: Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University, Research Assistant, Composites and Polyurethanes
- Doctor Degree/PhD in the field of composites processing
Since 2017: Mitsui Chemicals Europe GmbH, Duesseldorf (HQ Europe),
Senior Manager Business Development,
Responsible for Thermoplastic Composites Business and Development in Europe
Graduated with a degree in material science in 1985, and spent his early career in the fledgling wind energy business, working on materials characterisation and blade design and manufacture.
Spent 10 years working on the use of carbon fibre composites in marine, defence, oil & gas and civil engineering applications, before moving to Cytec Engineered Materials and focussing on composites in aerospace. With Cytec, he spend 4 years in the US and then 4 years in China, establishing the Asia Pacific business and then building a plant near Shanghai. Frazer then spent a further 3 years in China, helping Hengshen establish its carbon fibre composites business.
Returned to the UK in 2014, to lead the development of ELG Carbon Fibre from an R&D to a commercial business, and then led the MBO of ELG Carbon Fibre that led to the formation of Gen 2 Carbon.
Axel Seifert has dedicated his entire professional career to composites design and processing:
• 1985-1990: as student assistant at the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) in Aachen, he discovered the potential of computer-controlled filament winding.
• 1990-2010: as co-founder of MATERIAL SA (a company focusing on software development and sales) and as an expert in filament winding, he has trained people from different industries on all continents.
• 2010-2018: as managing associate of Optimum CPV and ComposicaD, he led a young and dynamic engineering team to find innovative designs for composite pressure vessels.
• 2018-2022: after the acquisition by PLASTIC OMNIUM (a French Tier 1 supplier) and in the position of business development director, he helped to secure major projects for H2-tank development and production for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV’s).
• April 2022: he founded SHARP Composites to focus on clean mobility with applications involving design of advanced composites and processes for mass-manufacturing.
A highly experienced composite materials and manufacturing engineer. He has 35 years’ experience in composites manufacturing research and applications development with industrial partners in the automotive, aerospace, defence, renewable energy and motorsport sectors.
Currently he is heading a manufacturing technology group at Cranfield University and consults for UK companies on new applications feasibility, design and manufacturing costing.
His research team is focused on the cost effective manufacturing of lightweight composite structures in close partnership with industry.
Starting with Airbus, on manufacturing process development for the A320’s carbon fibre components, he then moved to Courtauld’s to develop aircraft and medical applications.
At Cranfield, he has led projects developing; wing box structures and high speed fabric laminating systems for Airbus UK, UAV airframes for BAE SYSTEMS, wing components with Bombardier, new types of prepregs and fabrics with Hexcel Composites and Sigmatex, automotive platforms with Caterham Cars and Axon Automotive, an electric sports car body with Nissan UK and Lotus Cars, Formula 1 car suspension components and crash structures with McLaren Racing, a motorcycle sub-frame with Métisse Motorcycles.
Currently, he is investigating four areas of composites design and manufacturing through EPSRC, Innovate UK and industrial funding.
Daniel Pichler has more than 35 years experience in carbon fiber, composite materials, and other high performance materials and components. He is Partner / joint Managing Director of CarbConsult GmbH – specialists in strategy, restructuring and technical consulting in carbon fiber, composite materials, and other specialty materials. CarbConsult’s clients include carbon fiber and composites companies, chemical companies, investor groups and other interested parties in Europe, Asia and the US. Previously, Mr. Pichler has lead carbon fiber businesses and developed business with Hitco Carbon Composites (Armco Inc.), SGL Group, AKSA (now DOWAksa), HCC/Prepreg-ACM and others. Dan lives in Florida and spends summers in Sweden.
Dr. Barnett received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, where he worked under the advisement of Professor Scott R. White in the Autonomous Materials Group studying microvascular composites for electric vehicle battery cooling and crash protection. Following his undergraduate studies, he completed his PhD in Energy Science and Engineering in 2020 at the University of Tennessee Knoxville under the advisement of Professor Dayakar Penumadu, where he developed high performance recycled carbon fiber composites in collaboration with partners in the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation. After graduation, he studied agile manufacturing of multifunctional composites as a National Research Council postdoctoral scholar at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. In April 2023, he returned to Tennessee as an Assistant Research Professor of Clean Manufacturing in the newly formed University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute. Dr. Barnett seeks to change the end-of-life and waste paradigms for fiber-reinforced composites by developing the manufacturing methods and predictive modeling capabilities to enable new low energy, high value recyclable and recycled composites.
Vincenzo Di Giandomenico is an Aeronautical Engineer with solid background in composite materials gained by means of both engineering master degree in aeronautical structures (La Sapienza, University of Rome) and the master By research degree in Advanced Materials (Cranfield University).
In 2014 started to work as Composite Materials research Assistant at Cranfield University and then in December 2014 joined Automobili Lamborghini as External consultant on Composite Design Engineering.
Since 2019 he joined Automobili Lamborghini as member of Composite Materials & Technology Center focusing on design for manufacturing for CFRP Components (Exterior and Interiors) and development of new materials and technologies.
In addition, he is involved on Sustainability team to investigate and develop more sustainable CFRP materials and technology.
Siddhartha Bhargava works in the Corporate Strategy Team of Reliance Industries Limited and is driving the Net Zero transition for the past 7 years at RIL. Over the past two years, RIL has accelerated investments in the new energy space and is moving swiftly towards a formidable position in the Renewable Electricity value chain. Additionally, he is heading the Strategy and Business Development function of RIL’s latest foray into Carbon Fiber which is increasingly being used in big wind turbines. He is also the portfolio manager of all semi-commercial projects in the Research and Technology division of RIL with an annual budget of $ 30 mn.
Earlier working closely with the promoters, Siddhartha had contributed to building Kiran Energy – one of the pioneering Solar IPPs in India with projects of about 80 MW in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Energy Transition is Siddhartha’s passion for the past 15 years and stems for his first days as an Engineer in Shell Singapore refinery where he helped in building one of the world’s first Carbon Energy Management Information Systems.
I am a versatile and innovative problem solver with strong engineering fundamentals focused on aerospace and advanced carbon fiber composites.
I am deeply passionate about carbon fiber composites, aviation, and electric technology, and I possess an unwavering commitment to learning and innovating in ways that positively impact the world.
I have a Master of Science in Mech. Engineering with a focus on Aerospace. My research focuses on rapid M&P and fastener free assembly. I specialize in Advanced carbon fiber composites (Thermoplastic & Thermoset), composites M&P, Thermoplastic induction welding and composites automation.
Patrick took his Master of Aeronautical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2019. He defended his thesis
on Development of innovative tooling based on high modulus pitch fibres for structural aeronautical
components, with the support of GP Marketing Consulting (GPMC) he analysed the main differences
between PAN and pitch-based carbon fibres in terms of both mechanical and thermal properties.
He joined the GPMC team right after, where he enhanced both his technical and commercial skills, by
following different companies and projects in which GPMC was involved. He took care of both technical and
commercial aspects, helping to develop and introduce new products and solutions, also attending sectorrelated conferences.
The collaboration was later extended in 2022 to the newly established RECARBON Srl, an innovative start-up
dedicated to the development and production of both thermoplastics and thermosets intermediate
products, based on recycled carbon fibres, focused on a virtuous sustainability process in the field of
advanced composites. He joined them as a full time Project Manager.
He is now a technical and commercial full-time support for both GPMC and RECARBON.
Mikael Nordlander joined Vattenfall in 2001 and has held various position in R&D and business development. He has had different responsibilities in strategic projects, mostly in Northern Europe. Since 2016, Mikael is leading Vattenfall’s work on decarbonisation of industrial processes in partnership with large companies, e.g. the HYBRIT project for fossil-free steel with SSAB and LKAB. He holds a MSc degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics from Linköping University and a post graduate diploma in Strategy and Innovation from Oxford.
Paolo Grati took his Master of Engineering in Aeronautics in 1983. After some years as sales manager in a
private company producing thermo-acoustic insulation products, he moved to the composites world as
Commercial Director of a leading European weaving and prepregging company.
In 2006, after 16 years in the international market he founded the GP Marketing Consulting Sas and now
offers to share his expertise and skills working with proactive attitude in the marketing and development of
composite materials, with a particular focus on carbon reinforcements. He proactively cooperates with
leading national and foreign based companies for the development of new products and the search of
alternative raw materials worldwide.
He follows the applications of the carbon fibres both from PAN and PITCH precursors focusing on processing
of continuous fibres (weaving, multiaxial manufacturing, pultrusion, filament winding, UD prepregs, RTM and
resin infusion technology). He assists the customers on designing and developing new innovative projects on
behalf of partner companies, following both technical and commercial aspects, mainly in the automotive and
industrial fields.
Philipp Rosenberg (M) studied mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT). In 2018 he received his phD dealing with the development of a new RTM process variant – the pressure controlled RTM and took the lead of the research group “Structural Composites”. His research group works in the field of large-scale manufacturing methods with structural composites for high performance applications with focus on Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), Thermoplastic tapes and Pultrusion.
I am responsible of sustainable factory planning and production planning at
the Fraunhofer IGCV with about 15 scientific employees. My research focus is
on the sustainable planning and optimization of production systems. The
research spectrum ranges from the development of sustainable energy supply
concepts to the use of sustainable materials for the manufacturing of products.
In this context, we work with various industries, particularly in the area of life
cycle assessment in the supply chain and in production.
Study at RWTH Aachen, Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik
Different companies, working in composite design, process technology and production
Since 1999 working at BMW
-Attilio “Paolo” Masini is Responsible Coordinator of Composites Materials & Technologies Center’ focuses on Manufacturing Developments, Materials , Processes, Scouting of polymer from Prototype development to Series including tooling design and construction, Repair Technology and material manufacturing characterization (TUV Certified).
-Mr. Masini joined Automobili Lamborghini in April 1985 as part of E.Co., and participated in the very first Lamborghini R&D program involving Composite Materials from Countach.
In 1998, when Lamborghini became part of the AUDI/ VW group. Mr. Masini focusing on all aspects of Composites.
-In 2007 developed a concept of a new all-carbon fiber monocoque for Aventador with new out-of-autoclave technologies.
-Since 2010, with a dedicated Team, started the development of new compression molding technologies focused on the ‘automation process’ (JEC Innovation Award 2016 – Paris).
-In 2023 Attilio Masini with his team, started some attention and skills related to the 'Eco-Sustainable' strategics Mind Set for scouting & Innovation Technologies.
Manuel Clauss is a polymer and fiber chemist and is responsible for the operational management of the specialty nonwovens company Phoenix Non Woven. The company has its roots in the former traditional paper mill Scheufelen. After studying chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, he specialized and completed his doctorate at the German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) Denkendorf in the fields of renewable raw materials and high-performance fibers. Following this, he joined the technology group centrotherm international AG (renewable energies) to set up a new business unit. Innovation management especially innovation in medium-sized companies and in situations of change are central elements of his work.
