Group Leader, Prof G. Peter Matthews studied chemistry at Oxford University. He then gained his PhD there, carrying out research into the intermolecular forces of fluids under the supervision of Prof. E. Brian Smith, a pioneer of computer simulation methods. Following an untenured lectureship in Physical Chemistry at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and a post in charge of the University's physical chemistry teaching laboratories, he moved to a lectureship in Plymouth in 1984, and set up the Environmental & Fluid Modelling Group. His textbook on "Experimental Physical Chemistry", published by Oxford University Press, has sold extensively in 18 countries world-wide. He has published 85 papers and 33 consultancy reports, and won nearly £2m of research income from the UK research councils (BBSRC, EPSRC and NERC) and industry. See also short research cv (updated September 2008), and full CV (updated January 2010).

Daniel Gantenbein gained his BSc degree in chemistry at The University of Applied Sciences Basel in 2005 and received the Davy Diploma prize for achieving the highest grades. He worked for the company F. Hoffmann – La Roche AG in Basel in the Pharma Research laboratory mainly concentrating on the synthesis of relevant pharmaceuticals. He worked for Synphabase AG in Muttenz performing synthesis of organic molecules to suit specific customer needs. He also worked in the group of Prof. H. Wennemers at the Univeristy of Basel in the field of organocatalysis. He is now based at Omya Development AG in Oftringen, Switzerland. In his work he investigates the interaction of organic materials, mainly wood compounds and other components occurring in paper production plants, with mineral particles. Furthermore, he is the group leader of a talc and surface chemistry group.

Debbie Holtham, from Newport, South Wales, gained an Honours degree in Environmental Science from the University of Plymouth in July 2000 with a first class mark for her project on the soil properties and mineral status of some Kenyan soil profiles. In 2006, she was awarded a PhD for project jointly based at the University of Plymouth and the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), North Wyke, investigating the structuring of soil under white clover relative to ryegrass which has implications for organic farming. She is now employed as a postdoctoral research fellow by IGER, as part of the £1.1m BBSRC SPQR (Soil Programme for Quality and Resilience) research programme.  In her spare time, she also provides customer support for Pore-Cor RS.

Alex Matthews studied theoretical physics at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, where he was one of the top students in his year. Alex created the virtual reality system, the many different behaviours controlled by the dongle, the Euler beta throat size distribution, the audio visual tour of the software, and the bases of the interactive vision representations of Pore-Cor which will shortly be on display in the University of Plymouth’s new immersive vision theatre. He is currently working for an Oxford University spin-out company developing an intellligent electricity meter for Eon.

Anthony Johnson gained his undergraduate degree in Environmental Geology from The University of Sheffield and a MSc degree in Information Systems Technology from The University of Liverpool. He is currently researching the migration of aqueous and organic pollutants through B-Horizon soils. Experimental data is produced by a specially constructed high resolution, half metre scale lysimeter. The incorporation of a soil module into Pore-Cor will be used to improve capabilities for predicting the transitivity of pollutants through soil bodies, with a relational database utilising a soil data-set leased from the National Soil Research Institute (NSRI), University of Cranfield. Programming work has included the use of Visual Basic in the Pore-Cor module and data manipulation using SQL with Visual Basic for Applications. The National Grid Co plc funds this Ph.D. project, which is co-supervised by Paul Worsfold and Kevin Andrew.

Phone: ++41 (0) 62-789 24 22 Fax: ++41 (0)62 -789 24 10
E-mail: joachim.schoelkopf@omya.com

Joachim Schoelkopf was trained at the Berufschule der Stadt Zuerich, and later worked at Eternit AG and Habasit AG on the development of new materials. He is now based at Omya AG in Oftringen, Switzerland. His research concerned the experimental investigation of the pore structure of the calcium carbonate components of high-performance paper coatings, and the measurement of the permeation of fluids into these structures. His project was fully funded by Omya AG, and he obtained his PhD in November 2002. He is now leader the Minerals and Surface Chemistry Research Group within Omya, and a member of the technical committee of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI).

Louise MacDonald gained her undergraduate degree in Physical Geography at the University of Reading. She joined the Environmental & Fluid Modelling Group, at the University of Plymouth, in October 1996. Her thesis, entitled 'Local pollutant migration into aquifers', gained her a doctorate in March 2000. Her work mainly involved studying the movement of mineral oil through various soil and rock types and was funded in part by the National Grid Company Plc. She moved with her husband to become an environmental consultant with Golder Associates based in Sydney, Australia, specialising in polluted sites. In 2004, she became head of the Contaminated Sites team of Sinclair Knight Merz.

E-mail: cathy.ridgway@omya.com

Dr Cathy Ridgway studied for her degree in Mathematical Studies at the University of Plymouth with a project thesis on computer software for modelling differential equations. Following her degree she gained her PhD titled "Modelling Pore-level Properties of Porous Materials". She then continued as an EPSRC funded Post-Doctoral Research Fellow within the Environmental & Fluid Modelling Group, followed by industrially funded research projects. In January 2000 she moved to Omya AG in Oftringen, Switzerland, as a senior scientist studying the permeation of inks into paper coatings. Her expertise includes porosimetry, modelling the data obtained with the Pore-Cor computer program developed within the research group, and programming new Fortran 90 algorithms.

Phone: +44 (0)1752 233020 Fax: +44 (0)1752 233021
E-mail: tobym@cix.co.uk

Toby Mathews gained his undergraduate degree in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Plymouth. His PhD, awarded in November 1999, was concerned with the development of methods of modelling flow and transport behaviour through porous media, to be incorporated into Pore-Cor. This work involved the experimental examination of solute transport through samples of up to 0.5 metres cubed in size, as well as the microscopic study of levels of correlation in the spatial distribution of void sizes within samples. Approximately half of the project was computer modelling, carried out on the groups network of PC's using Visual Basic, VBA and FORTRAN 90. He is now working as a computer modeller, databaser and website expert at CIX in Surrey.