Steve Howdle was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England in 1964. He obtained a first degree in Chemistry from Manchester in 1986 and his PhD on "Spectroscopy in Liquefied Noble Gases"from Nottingham in 1989. Steve's research focuses on the utilisation of supercritical carbon dioxide for polymer synthesis, polymer processing and preparation of novel polymeric materials for tissue engineering and drug delivery. He holds a chair at the School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham and prior to this held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (1991-1999). He has received the Jerwood-Salters' Environment Award for Green Chemistry (2001); RSC Corday - Morgan Medal and Award (2001); Royal Society - Wolfson Research Merit Award (2003); RSC Interdisciplinary Award (2005); DECHEMA-Award of the Max Buchner Research Foundation (2006) "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the innovative use of supercritical fluids for the synthesis and processing of polymers with a wide range of applications"; and RSC/SCI Macro Group UK Medal (2008).

Dr Daniel J. Keddie is Senior Research Officer in Polymer Synthesis in the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, UK. After completing both his BAppSc (hons) (2003) and PhD (2008) in synthetic organic/ radical chemistry at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, he undertook postdoctoral research at the same institution in the area of silicone polymer synthesis. In 2009, he moved to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia to undertake an OCE postdoctoral fellowship working with Dr Graeme Moad, co-inventor of the RAFT process. He remained at CSIRO until taking up a position as Lecturer of Organic Chemistry at the University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, Australia in late 2012, relinquishing this role in early 2015. He subsequently relocated to the UK and following a short appointment undertaking commercial research at the University of Warwick, he moved to the University of Wolverhampton as Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry where he remained from mid-2015 until late-2022. Dr Keddie commenced his current role at Nottingham, working alongside Prof. Steve Howdle in November 2022. His research interests include the development of new methods in polymer synthesis, the characterization and application of novel polymeric materials and the design and synthesis of functional small molecules.

From Riga, Latvia, Eduards obtained his MSci in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham in 2018.  His master project was based on the RAFT polymerization of terpene-based monomers. During his undergraduate degree he undertook a year in industry in IBTI in Riga, this work was based in food chemistry.  His PhD project started in 2018 and aims to produce novel polymers for 3D printing.

Chris was born just outside of The Hague (The Netherlands), but is actually Swedish. July 2019, he graduated from the University of Nottingham with a Master’s degree in chemistry. During his undergraduate research project, in the Howdle group, Chris investigated the use of scCO₂ for the synthesis of glycerol-based polycycloacetals. 

October 2019 Chris re-joined the Howdle group to undertake a PhD project in collaboration with the Paradisi group about enzymatic approaches to renewable monomers and polymers.

Pippy graduated in July 2019 with an MChem degree from the University of Liverpool. During her third year she undertook a placement at Innospec, Ellesmere Port, developing fuel additives. Her master's project focussed on the enzymatic transesterification of bioderived polyesters and their precursors. 

Pippy joined the University of Nottingham in October 2019 as part of the CDT in Sustainable Chemistry. She is working with the industrial sponsor Lubrizol to look at sustainably sourced polymers.

Bradley graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2020 with a Master’s degree in Chemistry.  He completed the course under the supervision of Professor Peter Licence, investigating the electrosynthetic oxidations of alcohols in binary mixtures of room temperature ionic liquids. Over the course of his studies, he developed a strong interest in polymer chemistry and the ongoing work concerning the development of novel sustainable chemical processes, which drove him towards his current research focussed on plastic recycling.

For his PhD, Bradley is investigating the microwave degradation of commercial polymers as a rapid route for selective oligomer and monomer production. He is employing supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent for this process, to modify the properties of these polymers to improve the efficiency of the microwave degradation.

Morgan graduated with a master's in chemistry from the University of Nottingham in 2021. His 4th year master's project was investigating the synthesis of core-shell polymers in scCO₂ as a member of the Howdle group. 

He rejoined the Howdle group for his PhD studies, funded by Lubrizol. His project is titled "Renewably sourced monomers for industrial application". He can be found on twitter @morgan_rgreen

In his spare time, Morgan enjoys running, cycling, and baking.