Conor Wilkinson, Application Scientist at The Lubrizol Corporation. **

Lubrizol company (owned by Berkshire Hathaway)- polymers

conor wilikinson background consists of completing a masters in chemistry at the university of York, and a Applications Scientist in the field of printing inks and coatings industry supporting our platform of products through which designing new differentiating polymeric additives and supporting their  products in promotion to the market.

Connor gave us a brief background highlighting his career which consisted, completing a 6 week Nuffield foundation scholarship at the university of Salford in organic synthesis techniques in the development of cancer chemotherapy drugs, he then went further on the become a junior development chemist, which consisted of work in organic pigment synthesis, paints, coatings and product scale up. finally, this lead up to his current position as a platform scientist for the Lubrizol corporation. At the beginning of his journey in lubrizol he started as placement in synthesising polymers for the inks and coating market, then worked his way up the ranks as an application scientist, which included roles as application of novel additives in coatings and ink formulations, developing structure performance relationships and data processing and analysis. now at his current position as platform scientists, daily work consists of supporting new discovery advancement from lab to market, outlining and addressing technical gaps in production line for upcoming technologies and innovation project management.

Lubrizol specialises in performance coating materials. is a market-driven innovator of specialty chemicals that solve today’s challenges in the paints and coatings, printing and packaging, paper and textiles, plastics and composites, and digital print markets. in addition, such as working with interior fabric and woven coatings for seating, seatback, paint pigment and adhesion promoters. another aspect of his work which is the marketing side with emphasis on market mapping, voice of customers and value of proposition. he then delved into the project management side consisting of promotion of new products, via Brochures, trade shows, publications, product presentation, digital marketing aspect side by Building customer reports existing customers, customer visits, product trials, technical service, technical presentations. furthermore, on sustainability off products the issues and benefits of plastics, packaging and protecting food and alternative options for plastics. Conor went on to explain the different layer of coffe cupps, and the different types i.e biobased, biodegradable and ones that can be recycled. emphasis on the importance of flexible packaging, furthermore on printing flexible packages using water based and solvent based inks.

in summary, an extensive insight into the science and business aspect of his work and the main principle that he preached was the adaptability and the options for chemists to further venture out onto different fields such as the business aspect and that chemists can branch and merge out into different fields.

Project profile :

Technical profile + business case

Target + budget = project outline

%  of commercial + technical success

Project management