Professor Ivan Parkin – Smart Materials and Surfaces

Professor Ivan Parkin from University College London delivered the first ICAM webinar of 2017 on smart materials and surfaces.

Professor Parkin described the role of surface chemistry and microstructure in determining a material’s functional properties. He looked at water repellent superhydrophobic coatings and showed how these coatings require surface roughness and an intrinsic low-surface energy interaction with water.

He obtained his BSc and Ph.D. degrees from Imperial College London and did post-doctoral research at Indiana University with Professor Chisholm FRS. He was appointed to a temporary lectureship at the Open University before moving to UCL in 1993. He has been at UCL ever since, and, having been head of the Chemistry Department for 6 and a half years, has recently been appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

His group are mainly concerned with the synthesis of new materials and coatings. He works extensively in Chemical Vapour Deposition; nanoparticle synthesis; antimicrobial coatings; gas sensing and superhydrophobic surfaces. He has collaborated extensively with industry, in particular with NSG-Pilkington glass on a variety of projects from self-cleaning to energy efficient window coatings.