Supported by a team with over 100 man-years of research and innovation experience, and the world leading institutions to be found in and around Cambridge University, Cambridge Smart Plastics is a start-up that aims to revolutionise commodity plastics, accelerate innovation and technology translation, and fosters our next generation of innovators. Embedded in the University of Cambridge, we build our understanding of the novel chemistry of dynamic covalent bonds, which has the potential to enable not just waste plastic recovery, but an entirely new set of smart functionalities in plastics: new strengths, welding, shape-memory, and recyclability. We deliver next-generation adhesives and bonding products to assist additive manufacturers, producing stronger, safer, and lighter products, and offer consulting services to industry more widely on improving their use of modern polymers.
The overall business development, planning and financing responsibility is with Andrew Terentjev, who is the CEO of CSP. Andrew is a qualified commercial banker, having worked at Barclays, Santander and most recently as a head of corporate risk at Mercedes-Benz Bank AG.
The technical team is lead by Mohand Saed, who is a Senior Researcher at the Cavendish Lab and CTO of CSP. Mohand pioneered the use of 'click' chemistry in liquid crystal elastomers, and is responsible for the new wave of LCE materials and processing techniques that led to many marketable applications in recent years.
He is supported by Professor Eugene Terentjev, member of the Cavendish Laboratory for 27 years. Eugene has extensive experience in polymer science, in particular, in the areas of functional polymers and networks, and is also the Founder-Chairman of CSP and the Chief Scientific Advisor.
We operate from rented lab space in the Physics of Medicine Centre at the Cavendish, a lab with quite some heritage. It is known to be where
almost half of all physics discoveries were made, with over 30 Cavendish researchers
winning Nobel Prizes for their research. A world-class research facility
currently undergoing its third expansion with a £75 million investment, and giving us access to state-of-the-art tooling and expertise.
Our labs at the Physics of Medicine Centre
Hsin-Ling Liang - a top chemist and engineer, whose recent studies into cellulose nanocrystals convinced her of her credentials and ability to advance our sustainablilty product portfolio. She leads our consulting work, and supports the team more broadly expert in applied sciences. Hsin-Ling has been with CSP since November 2020.
In March 2022, we welcomed two top talents to the team:
Shenghui Hou - an outstanding chemist with an expertise in formulation, coatings, and is our project lead on the nanocellulose chemistry. He brings us both industrial and academic experience, having studied and worked across the UK, most recently at the University of Sheffield.
Cambridge Smart Plastics are always interested in top talent and highly motivated young academics and innovators. Interested candidates may contact us at contact@smart-plastics.co.uk
We currently have no open vacancies, but contact us as we are planning to grow the team towards the second half of 2023.
Working under Covid-19