Mike Turner is Professor of Materials Chemistry and Director of the Organic Materials Innovation Centre at the University of Manchester (www.omic.org.uk).

Research Topics

My principal research interests concern the synthesis of novel conjugated molecules, particularly conjugated liquid crystals and conjugated polymers, and in using these novel molecules in organics electronic and electro-optical devices such as organic transistors, organic light emitting diodes, sensors and solar cells. This research is carried out as part of the Organic Materials for Electronics Consortium (www.omec.org.uk) of the EPSRC, an interdisciplinary consortium that consists of research groups from the School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Cardiff and Merck KGaA, Manchester. Other areas of interest include sol-gel chemistry, polymer synthesis, auxetic materials and device fabrication at the nanoscale.

Career

Mike Turner obtained his first degree and a PhD from the University of Bristol, working with Professor Selby Knox on the synthesis of new organometallic complexes, before moving to the United States to work with Professor Harry Allcock investigating new routes to polyphosphazenes. He returned to the UK to work at the University of Sheffield with Professor Peter Maitlis on the mechanism of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction and was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 1993 to investigate the synthesis of novel polymers. He joined the staff of the Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield as a Reader in 2000 and in April 2004 moved to the University of Manchester to a Chair in Materials Chemistry and to be Director of OMIC.

The Organic Materials Innovation Centre (www.omic.org.uk) is a DTI-supported University Innovation Centre for the speciality organic materials and polymer industries, and is bridging the gap between the knowledge which Universities generate and that which businesses need in order to innovate and grow. OMIC aims to provide solutions tailored for industries needs, such as people, training, equipment, consultancy, innovative opportunities, access to facilities, networks, analysis, custom synthesis and links with other parts of the industry as well as a tailored and coordinated research programme. OMIC acts as an umbrella organisation for research in organic materials at higher education institutes in the North West of the UK, and has newly refurbished laboratory facilities within the School of Chemistry, the University of Manchester.