Robert Joseph Young (born 29 May 1948) is a British

materials scientist Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials scien ...

specialising in

polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

s and composites. He is a Professor of Polymer Science and Technology at the

National Graphene Institute The National Graphene Institute is a research institute and building at the University of Manchester, England, that is focused on the research of graphene. Construction of the building to house the institute started in 2013 and finished in 2015. ...

of the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

Education

Young was educated at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he received his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degrees.Robert Joseph Young

Research and career

Young has published over 330 research papers which have been cited over 37,000 times, leading to a h-index of 91. He is known for research on the relationships between the structure and mechanical properties of polymers and composites. A particular focus of his work has been the study of how materials such as

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...

s and

spider silk Spider silk is a protein fibre or silk spun by spiders. Spiders use silk to make webs or other structures that function as adhesive traps to catch prey, to entangle and restrain prey before biting, to transmit tactile information, or as nest ...

deform at the molecular level. He has also studied

carbon-fibre composite Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range ( nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized: * ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''S ...

s and the deformation of

graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...

— a one-atom thick sheet of

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

. Among his work on polymer-graphene composites, one important result elucidated for the first time the relationship between composite reinforcement and matrix modulus. In his research, Young made a novel use of

Raman spectroscopy Raman spectroscopy () (named after physicist C. V. Raman) is a Spectroscopy, spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Ra ...

. In this technique,

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

light is shone onto a material and the wavelength and intensity of the resulting

scattered Scattered may refer to: Music * ''Scattered'' (album), a 2010 album by The Handsome Family * "Scattered" (The Kinks song), 1993 * "Scattered", a song by Ace Young * "Scattered", a song by Lauren Jauregui * "Scattered", a song by Green Day from ...

light is measured and analysed. The changes in the light relate to changes in

bond length In molecular geometry, bond length or bond distance is defined as the average distance between Atomic nucleus, nuclei of two chemical bond, bonded atoms in a molecule. It is a Transferability (chemistry), transferable property of a bond between at ...

between the atoms of the molecules in the material when the material is deformed. He has also co-authored the widely used textbook: ''Introduction to Polymers''.

Awards and honours

Young received the 2011 Leslie Holliday Prize and the 2012 Swinburne Medal from the

Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a British engineering institution with activities including promotion of the development of materials science. It has been a registered charity governed by a royal charter and a member ...

, and delivered the Swinburne Lecture in 2013. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: His certificate of election reads:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Robert 1948 births Living people British materials scientists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Institute of Physics Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Manchester Fellows of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining