Stephen Eichhorn

Last updated

Professor
Stephen James Eichhorn
CEng FREng FRSC FInstP FIMMM ACSF
Stephen Eichhorn selfie.jpg
Professor Stephen Eichhorn in his home office, 2022
Born
Manchester
EducationLeeds University, UMIST
Alma materLeeds University
Children2
AwardsRosenhain Medal, Hayashi Jisuke Prize, Swinburne Medal
Scientific career
Fieldscellulosic materials
InstitutionsManchester University, Exeter University, Bristol University
Doctoral advisor Wadood Hamad
Other academic advisorsProfessor Robert Young FRS FREng

Stephen James Eichhorn (born 24 July 1972) FRSC FInstP FIMMM ACSF CEng is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Bristol. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining.

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Manchester and brought up near Nantwich, Eichhorn attended Malbank High School. On leaving school he went to University of Leeds to study Physics, graduating in 1993. He then went on to study for an MSc in Forestry and Paper Industries Technology at UMIST and Bangor University until 1996. He then undertook doctoral research into cellulose fibres as a PhD student, graduating in 1999. Following this he undertook postdoctoral research at UMIST under the supervision of Robert Young where he worked on cellulose fibres and micromechanics using Raman Spectroscopy. [1]

Academic career

Eichhorn was hired as a Lecturer in 2002 in Polymer Physics and Biomaterials and was promoted to Senior lecturer in 2006 and Reader in 2008, all at UMIST and the newly formed University of Manchester. [2] In 2011 he moved to the University of Exeter as Chair in Materials Science and was Head of Engineering from 2014-2017. [2] In 2017 he moved to the University of Bristol as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and was interim Head of School (in 2017/18). [2] He was awarded an EPSRC ED&I fellowship in the Physical Sciences in 2021. [3]

Research

Eichhorn's research focusses on the structure property relationships of cellulose and renewable materials as well as an interest in decolonisation of STEM subjects and has published in this area, [4] [5] Other published on this topic include a book titled "Can Higher Education Be Decolonised?" [6] and an article (co-authored with Selim Tudgey) in the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining magazine Materials World "Decolonising Materials Science". [7]

In 2021 he was one of the authors of a paper in the journal Science on moldable wood. [8] He published the first paper that showed that the modulus of tunicate cellulose nanocrystals was exceptionally high (around 143 GPa), [9] and also carried out similar work on bacterial cellulose [10] and microcrystalline cellulose. [11] He has since demonstrated the use of cellulose in a variety of potential applications, including supercapacitors [12] and lithium-ion batteries, [13] sodium-ion batteries, [13] and sodium metal batteries. [14] [15] He is the first author of two highly-cited review papers in Journal of Materials Science on the subject of cellulose fibres and natural fibre composites. [16] [17]

Other research has included the production of synthetic seashell structures in collaboration with the chemist Fiona Meldrum [18] [19] and also work on the mechanical properties of fingernails, [20] [21] stories about which appeared in the UK press. [22] [23] [24]

Eichhorn has over 20,000 citations to his published works, and an H-index of 62. [25]

Awards and honours

Eichhorn was awarded the Rosenhain Medal & Prize from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in 2012, the Hayashi Jisuke Award from the Japanese Cellulose Society in 2017, [26] and the Swinburne Medal in 2020 again from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. [27] Eichhorn was a runner up for a prize for the best paper to be published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface [28] for a paper co-authored with Professor William Sampson, Manchester University. [29] He was the first UK based scientist to be a Chair of the Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division of the American Chemical Society in 2015. [30] In 2025 he was made the first ever UK-based Fellow of the American Chemical Society. [31] [32] , and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. [33]

He was also a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Henry Royce Institute [34] until 2025 and was a member of the Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) for Engineering at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. [35]

Other work

Eichhorn appeared in an episode of the One Show with talking about the strength of nanocellulose, [36] and has contributed comments on other people's research in various articles. [37] [38] [39] In 2011 Eichhorn also got the local council to remove double yellow lines from outside a house he was renting out in Glossop, the story of which appeared in the Manchester Evening News . [40] He was a co-opted member of the Windrush Commemoration Committee chaired by Floella Benjamin. [41]

References

  1. ↑ "Professor Steve Eichhorn - Our People". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Professor Steve Eichhorn - Our People". University of Bristol . Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  3. ↑ "Grants on the Web, EPSRC: "Realising Functional Cellulosic Bio-based Composites"".
  4. ↑ Eichhorn, Stephen J. (January 2020). "How the West was Won: A Deconstruction of Politicised Colonial Engineering". The Political Quarterly. 91 (1): 204–209. doi:10.1111/1467-923X.12773. hdl: 1983/fea2ee67-7571-48e0-9882-d2d40206d62b . ISSN   0032-3179. S2CID   211434531.
  5. ↑ Eichhorn, Stephen J. (23 February 2022). "Resource extraction as a tool of racism in West Papua". The International Journal of Human Rights: 1–23. doi: 10.1080/13642987.2022.2036722 . hdl: 1983/1ee30efe-5b84-4078-947a-07fb063ce883 . ISSN   1364-2987. S2CID   247094198.
  6. ↑ bloomsbury.com. "Can Higher Education be Decolonised". Bloomsbury. Archived from the original on 24 February 2025. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
  7. ↑ IOM3. "Decolonising materials science". www.iom3.org. Retrieved 25 May 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Xiao, Shaoliang; Chen, Chaoji; Xia, Qinqin; Liu, Yu; Yao, Yuan; Chen, Qiongyu; Hartsfield, Matt; Brozena, Alexandra; Tu, Kunkun; Eichhorn, Stephen J.; Yao, Yonggang; Li, Jianguo; Gan, Wentao; Shi, Sheldon Q.; Yang, Vina W. (22 October 2021). "Lightweight, strong, moldable wood via cell wall engineering as a sustainable structural material" . Science. 374 (6566): 465–471. Bibcode:2021Sci...374..465X. doi:10.1126/science.abg9556. hdl: 1983/42254c72-9df6-4b0f-b7ce-2f1da2ea48ff . ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   34672741. S2CID   239455815.
  9. ↑ Šturcová, Adriana; Davies, Geoffrey R.; Eichhorn, Stephen J. (1 March 2005). "Elastic Modulus and Stress-Transfer Properties of Tunicate Cellulose Whiskers" . Biomacromolecules. 6 (2): 1055–1061. doi:10.1021/bm049291k. ISSN   1525-7797. PMID   15762678.
  10. ↑ Hsieh, Y.-C.; Yano, H.; Nogi, M.; Eichhorn, S. J. (1 August 2008). "An estimation of the Young's modulus of bacterial cellulose filaments" . Cellulose. 15 (4): 507–513. doi:10.1007/s10570-008-9206-8. ISSN   1572-882X. S2CID   136539076.
  11. ↑ Eichhorn, S.J.; Young, R.J. (1 September 2001). "The Young's modulus of a microcrystalline cellulose" . Cellulose. 8 (3): 197–207. doi:10.1023/A:1013181804540. ISSN   1572-882X. S2CID   137518391.
  12. ↑ Deng, Libo; Young, Robert J.; Kinloch, Ian A.; Abdelkader, Amr M.; Holmes, Stuart M.; De Haro-Del Rio, David A.; Eichhorn, Stephen J. (23 October 2013). "Supercapacitance from Cellulose and Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposite Fibers". ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 5 (20): 9983–9990. doi:10.1021/am403622v. ISSN   1944-8244. PMC   3807724 . PMID   24070254.
  13. 1 2 Wang, Jing; Xu, Zhen; Eloi, Jean‐Charles; Titirici, Maria‐Magdalena; Eichhorn, Stephen J. (April 2022). "Ice‐Templated, Sustainable Carbon Aerogels with Hierarchically Tailored Channels for Sodium‐ and Potassium‐Ion Batteries". Advanced Functional Materials. 32 (16): 2110862. doi:10.1002/adfm.202110862. hdl: 1983/e494a5f8-1dd3-41f2-a06b-71602d030cf7 . ISSN   1616-301X. S2CID   245792572.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  14. ↑ Wang, Jing; Xu, Zhen; Zhang, Qicheng; Song, Xin; Lu, Xuekun; Zhang, Zhenyu; Onyianta, Amaka J.; Wang, Mengnan; Titirici, Maria‐Magdalena; Eichhorn, Stephen J. (20 September 2022). "Stable Sodium Metal Batteries in Carbonate Electrolytes Achieved by Bifunctional, Sustainable Separators with Tailored Alignment". Advanced Materials. 34 (49): 2206367. doi:10.1002/adma.202206367. hdl: 1983/0091262b-bc80-42dc-9055-38ecbc87e062 . ISSN   0935-9648. PMID   36127883. S2CID   252405328.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  15. ↑ McGrath, Ciaran (6 January 2022). "Brexit Britain win as experts 'astounded' by battery results". Daily Express . Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  16. ↑ Eichhorn, S. J.; Dufresne, A.; Aranguren, M.; Marcovich, N. E.; Capadona, J. R.; Rowan, S. J.; Weder, C.; Thielemans, W.; Roman, M.; Renneckar, S.; Gindl, W.; Veigel, S.; Keckes, J.; Yano, H.; Abe, K. (1 January 2010). "Review: current international research into cellulose nanofibres and nanocomposites" . Journal of Materials Science. 45 (1): 1–33. Bibcode:2010JMatS..45....1E. doi:10.1007/s10853-009-3874-0. ISSN   1573-4803. S2CID   137519458.
  17. ↑ Eichhorn, S. J.; Baillie, C. A.; Zafeiropoulos, N.; Mwaikambo, L. Y.; Ansell, M. P.; Dufresne, A.; Entwistle, K. M.; Herrera-Franco, P. J.; Escamilla, G. C.; Groom, L.; Hughes, M.; Hill, C.; Rials, T. G.; Wild, P. M. (1 May 2001). "Review: Current international research into cellulosic fibres and composites" . Journal of Materials Science. 36 (9): 2107–2131. doi:10.1023/A:1017512029696. ISSN   1573-4803. S2CID   2849145.
  18. ↑ Kim, Yi-Yeoun; Ribeiro, Luis; Maillot, Fabien; Ward, Oliver; Eichhorn, Stephen J.; Meldrum, Fiona C. (4 March 2010). "Bio-Inspired Synthesis and Mechanical Properties of Calcite-Polymer Particle Composites" . Advanced Materials. 22 (18): 2082–2086. doi:10.1002/adma.200903743. PMID   20544895. S2CID   22228300.
  19. ↑ Kim, Yi-Yeoun; Ganesan, Kathirvel; Yang, Pengcheng; Kulak, Alexander N.; Borukhin, Shirly; Pechook, Sasha; Ribeiro, Luis; Kröger, Roland; Eichhorn, Stephen J.; Armes, Steven P.; Pokroy, Boaz; Meldrum, Fiona C. (November 2011). "An artificial biomineral formed by incorporation of copolymer micelles in calcite crystals" . Nature Materials. 10 (11): 890–896. Bibcode:2011NatMa..10..890K. doi:10.1038/nmat3103. ISSN   1476-4660. PMID   21892179.
  20. ↑ Farran, L.; Ennos, A. R.; Starkie, M.; Eichhorn, S. J. (19 June 2009). "Tensile and shear properties of fingernails as a function of a changing humidity environment" . Journal of Biomechanics. 42 (9): 1230–1235. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2009.03.020. ISSN   0021-9290. PMID   19380141.
  21. ↑ Farran, Laura; Ennos, A. Roland; Eichhorn, Stephen J. (December 2008). "The effect of humidity on the fracture properties of human fingernails" . Journal of Experimental Biology. 211 (23). The Company of Biologists: 3677–3681. doi:10.1242/jeb.023218. PMID   19011206. S2CID   966406 . Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  22. ↑ "Why Britain's weather is good for your fingernails". Evening Standard. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  23. ↑ Bunyan, Nigel (24 August 2009). "Britain's rainy climate perfect for 'growing fingernails'". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  24. ↑ Metrowebukmetro (26 August 2009). "Britain's weather 'good for fingernails'". Metro. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  25. ↑ "Stephen James Eichhorn". Google Scholar . Retrieved 29 September 2022.
  26. ↑ ""Exeter engineering expert secures prestigious international award"". www.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  27. ↑ "Award winners 2020". Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. n.d. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  28. ↑ "Journal of the Royal Society Interface celebrates 5th anniversary with £5000 ($8,400) EPSRC award". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  29. ↑ Eichhorn, Stephen J; Sampson, William W (22 September 2005). "Statistical geometry of pores and statistics of porous nanofibrous assemblies". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 2 (4): 309–318. doi:10.1098/rsif.2005.0039. PMC   1578270 . PMID   16849188.
  30. ↑ "Professor Stephen Eichhorn elected divisional Chair of American Chemical Society". University of Exeter. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  31. ↑ Cottle, Sara (21 January 2025). "ACS names 2025 fellows". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  32. ↑ Bristol, University of. "Bristol Professor elected as first UK-based fellow of the American Chemical Society". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  33. ↑ "RAEng Fellow 2025: Professor Stephen Eichhorn FREng". www.raeng.org.uk. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  34. ↑ "Profile of Professor Steve Eichhorn - Henry Royce Institute". Henry Royce Institute. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  35. ↑ "Memberships". UK Research and Innovation . Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  36. ↑ "Research into cutting-edge nanopaper to feature on BBC's One Show". University of Exeter. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  37. ↑ Sanderson, Katharine (16 March 2018). "Beetles inspire bright white coating – cellulose nanofibril material could someday replace titanium dioxide". Chemical & Engineering News . Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  38. ↑ Wilkins, Alex (19 May 2022). "Waste wood chemically recycled to produce material stronger than steel". New Scientist. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  39. ↑ Eichhorn, Steve (21 February 2021). "Transparent wood is coming, and it could make an energy-efficient alternative to glass". The Conversation. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  40. ↑ Rowley, Tom (17 February 2011). "U-turn over yellow lines 'in wrong place'". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  41. ↑ "Journey of the National Windrush Monument". Windrush Monument. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
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