After completing in 2000 a PhD in Polymers obtained at the Materials Science Department of the University of Louvain (Belgium) Philippe joined the Certech (a university spin-off center in Belgium) working as project manager and being involved in many different applications from Polyolefins Gamma irradiation resistance to polyvinyl butyral modification. Philippe joined Total Elastomers Technical Support group in 2002 and then moved as block copolymers synthesis R&D manager in 2004 in the Lacq Research center (France). From 2007 to 2009 he moved back to the headquarters and managed the licensing activity of styrene (in collaboration with the Shaw Group) and Polystyrene. Late 2009 Philippe has been in charge of the relocalization of the Styrenics R&D activity to the Feluy Research Center (Belgium) dealing with R&D and Customers technical support activity. At the same period a new activity dealing with polymer foams has been created in order to support the future expandable polystyrene business. Starting late 2012 Philippe took the lead of a new department dealing with Polymer Materials Science in the Total Research & Technology Feluy center.

Tony Ryan is the Pro Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield where he was previously the ICI Professor of Physical Chemistry, Head of the Chemistry Department and Director of the Polymer Centre. . His research covers the synthesis, structure, processing and properties of polymers and he was in at the beginning of polymer nanotechnology. He has coauthored more than 200 papers and 8 patents and written a book on polymer processing or how things are made from plastic. Tony presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on Channel 4 in 2002 and is a regular contributor to TV, radio and newspapers. He was born in Leeds and got his three degrees from UMIST. Married with two daughters, Tony is a creative cook, a keen cyclist and an occasional mountaineer with a weakness for gadgets. He was made an OBE in 2006 for ‘Services to Science’