E-TEXTILES NETWORK - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Co - Director, Power Textiles Limited and Emeritus Professor of Physics, Heriot - Watt University

John has over 40 years experience in research and development of thin-film materials for photovoltaic solar cells and other engineering applications, especially using plasma processing. He retired as Head of Physics at Heriot-Watt University in 2012 and is a joint Director of Power Textiles Limited, founded in 2007 to develop flexible solar cells on textiles. Currently he is on the Technical Advisory Board of Evince Technology Limited, that develops CVD diamond devices, and gives courses on Photovoltaic Solar Power for the European Energy Centre. Research results have been presented at international meetings and published in over 200 papers and book chapters. Technology was transferred to companies and research institutes in several countries and he has supervised over 30 successful PhD and MSc students. Last year he worked with a small group and the Turing Trust to design and deliver a solar-powered computer laboratory for Malawi. He holds BSc and PhD degrees from Durham University, is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Physicist.

Job Titles:

• Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Art
• Professor and Chair of Textile Science and Engineering, University of Manchester

Prof. Yi Li is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Art, Commerce and Manufacturing and International Biographical Association and Fellow of the Textile Institute, and adjunct professor of a number of universities in China and a member of several professional bodies. He is the Chairman of Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Society and the Editor-in-Chief of "Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics". By securing over £10 million in research funding and obtaining support from government funding bodies and industry, he established the Textile Bioengineering Framework to conduct systematic research in textile thermal bioengineering, biomechanical engineering, sensory bioengineering and biomedical engineering, with significant research outputs in biomaterials, nano scale drug delivery systems, nano fiber based scaffolds and textile devices for tissue engineering and stents, graphene and 2D material fibers and fabrics, smart e-textile materials and components, intelligent wearables, textile material functional testing and characterization, digital apparel and clothing functional design, cloud computational technology for fashion bid data business models, textile ecological and carbon footprint and industry sustainability and strategic technology roadmap development, which has become an international platform of design and engineering textiles to promote industry-university cooperation and accelerate technology transfer. On-going projects include EU H2020 "Welding e-textile for interactive clothing" and "Fashion Bid Data Business Models". He has supervised over 50 PhD students and more than 130 research personnel. He has over 500 scientific publications, including 422 SCI/CPCI papers and peer reviewed conference papers with 10152 citations and h-index of 54 and i10-index 203 as being recognized as an international leading expert in smart functional textiles. He is selected on the list of "Highly Cited Researcher" in 2013 by THOMSON REUTERS.He owns more than 80 patents, including 46 patents granted in China, USA and Australia and 27 IP properties transferred to industry. With over 110 invited keynote/plenary lectures in conferences, he has more than 54 awards on outstanding research papers, patent inventions and technology transfer. The inventions from his team have been successfully commercialized.