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Professor Peter Lovell gives Sir Eric Rideal Lecture


On 12 April 2019, Professor Peter Lovell was awarded the Sir Eric Rideal Lecture by the SCI’s Colloid & Surface Chemistry Group and RSC’s Colloid & Interface Science Group. The Sir Eric Rideal Lecture is awarded


to an individual in recognition of their commitment to, and significant impact on, colloid and interface science in the UK throughout their professional career. This lifetime achievement award was first introduced in 1970 and is named after Sir Eric Rideal, who is known for the Eley-Rideal mechanism and was a long-standing SCI member. The 2019 Lecture was awarded to globally


renowned Peter Lovell from the University of Manchester, whose research covers polymers, composites and emulsion. Lovell is well-known for his co-edited


book Emulsion Polymerization and Emulsion Polymers, which is considered a ‘bible’ within his field. He is also a co-author on a bestselling and world-leading introductory textbook to polymer science, Introduction to Polymers, which has more than 2,000 citations. Peter has also had six patents granted, all of which are now used in products.


A clear winner ‘As with all of its awards, the members of the committees of SCI’s Colloid and Surface Chemistry group (CSCG) and RSC’s Colloid and Interface Science group (CISG) voted for their top choice,’ said Chris Blanford, from the event’s organising committee. Lovell was a clear winner from the early stages of the voting process. To celebrate, a one-day symposium took


place at SCI HQ in London on 12 April 2019. The day featured six speakers – all of whom are previous colleagues and friends of Lovell’s – and concluded with the awardee’s lecture Polymer colloids research – A captivating fascination. Topics covered on the day ranged from


microemulsions and nanocarriers in the context of biomedicine, to volatile organic compound-free paints for coating buildings to reduce ambient temperatures.


Professor Lovell with poster prize winners Matthew McDonald, above, and Samuel Wilson, below


Professor Lovell receives his award from Dr Jeroen Van Duijneveldt.


to do PhD research in the field of high- temperature resistant polymers. In 1981, Peter went on to work in the


A judging session of the posters also took


place and the prizes were awarded to Samuel Wilson-Whitford (Soft Matter Prize) and Matthew McDonald (Polymer Chemistry Prize), both from Professor Stefan Bon’s research group at Warwick University.


Honoured and privileged Upon starting his lecture, Lovell expressed how he is ‘extremely honoured and privileged’ to receive this award, adding that it is ‘particularly humbling to have been chosen considering previous recipients such as Sir Harry Melville (1976), Ron Ottewill (1985), Sir Sam Edwards (1990) and Brian Vincent (1997)’. The awardee’s fascination with colloid and


interface science started during his BSc in Polymer Science and Technology (Chemistry) in 1977. Due to his passion for polymers, he aimed to work in the coatings industry, but instead an unexpected sequence of circumstances led him to take up a teaching position at UMIST, which allowed him time


photographic industry for Ilford, where he spent most of his time running the polymer science research group, developing polymers for use in aqueous-based gelatin coating solutions. Following this, he returned to UMIST as


a lecturer, where his early research focused on structured particles and improving the performance of PSAs. The studies of PSAs led to extensive research on chain transfer to polymer in emulsion polymerisation, both in terms of branching and its contribution to control of soft polymer properties, as well as to the grafting of water-soluble polymers to particle surfaces. He noted that his research interests


are ‘always directed to end applications of polymers’ and went on to describe several other areas of research, including click- coupling to particle surfaces.


Instrumental in his field Speakers said it was an ‘absolute pleasure’ to celebrate a dear colleague. One described Peter’s work as ‘absolutely instrumental’ in this field. It was remarked by one of Lovell’s colleagues that you don’t get anywhere in this career without the support from people like Peter.


48 06 | 2019


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