Dr Ben Slater

Ben received his Ph.D. in rotaxane synthesis at Nottingham in 2011 followed by PDRA positions working variously with porous materials, radical synthesis, brewing science, and chemistry automation. He managed the University of Liverpool Impact Acceleration Account from 2017, supporting 42 collaborative projects. Through this, he developed a wide industry network before moving to the Materials Innovation Factory in 2019 as Business Development Manager, where he manages interactions with corporates, SMEs and start-ups. He has specific interests in entrepreneurship and commercialisation of digital, automation, and advanced materials projects. He currently divides his time between the Materials Innovation Factory and Gearu, a spin-out aiming to radically increase chemistry R&D efficiency using mobile robots.