International Affairs Committee welcomes four new members

In 2025, four new members are joining the IOM3 International Affairs Committee to help deliver services to the international committee.

We are delighted to share that Dr Velram Balaji Mohan CSci MIMMM, Mr Sayee Raghunathan CSci FIMMM, Dr Yu (Roger) Dong FIMMM and Miss Hannah Hilton-Tapp have joined the International Affairs Committee (IAC). 

The IAC, chaired by Mr Martin Cox CEng FIMMM is responsible for communications and relationships betweek IOM3 and its international counterparts and communities. With an increased focus on international activity, this will be encourage the development of new activities and communities outside the UK. 

The IAC also consists of IOM3 Director of Membership Paul Skerry CEng FIMMM and IOM3 Head of International & Early Career Activity Efi Fragkou, and the expansion is set to help develop and deliver the Institute's international strategy.

• Dr Velram Balaji Mohan CSci MIMMM

  Dr Velram Mohan is an experienced R&D Engineer and Scientist based in New Zealand. He is a trained Polymer Engineer with qualifications from the University of Waikato and the Centre for Advanced Composite Materials (CACM) at the University of Auckland. His primary areas of expertise are polymer processing, testing, and understanding structure-property relationships.

  Prior to his current role at DEC Healthcare, Dr Mohan worked as a Research Fellow at the Plastics Centre of Excellence in Auckland. In this position, he developed several polymer blends incorporating nano/microparticulate and fibrous fillers, achieving tailored mechanical, physical, and chemical properties for specific applications.

  From 2016 to 2020, he also lectured and served as a Programme Convenor for postgraduate courses in Polymer Engineering at the University of Auckland. Additionally, he has authored numerous research articles and reviews in highly reputed international journals.

• Mr Sayee Raghunathan CSci FIMMM

  Professor Sayee Raghunathan is a Materials & Welding consultant at Saudi Aramco. An undergraduate in metallurgical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (Varanasi) with an MBA from LSE, Sayee has been actively involved in the complete lifecycle of equipment and components from design to decommissioning, onshore and offshore, as well as across energy sector. He has held prominent positions including Associate Director at TWI, Visiting Professor at Dalton Nuclear Institute, Manchester University and Board Member of the American Welding Society.
  
  Overall, he has over 30 years of experience in application of materials and associated technologies such as welding and corrosion. At Saudi Aramco, he balances his time between supporting life extension, repairs and assessments for operating facilities and material selection and fabrication during design and construction of new facilities including gas plants, refineries and petrochemicals.

• Dr Yu (Roger) Dong FIMMM

  Dr Yu Dong is currently Associate Professor at Curtin University, Perth, Australia.  He is also a Visiting Associate Professor at Waseda University, Japan and an Adjunct Professor at Indonesia Education University, Indonesia. He is among Stanford University's List of Top 2% Scientists worldwide for citation impact in Polymer Materials. His research interest includes polymer nanocomposites, shape memory materials, electrospinning, additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence. He published over 100 SCI-indexed journal articles and more than 10 authored/edited technical books by Elsevier, Springer Nature, MDPI, etc. Dr Dong is currently the Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3), UK, the Lifetime Fellow of International Society for Development and Sustainability, Japan, the Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK, and the Member of Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE), Australia.
  
  He received 2020 Finalist Award for ‘Waste Innovation of the Year’ by Western Australian Waste Authority and 2023 James Walker Award for sustainable food packaging using innovative bionanocomposites films by IOM3. He serves as an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Materials (Polymeric and Composite Materials Section) and Applied Nanoscience. He is a Journal Editorial Board Member for Functional Composites and Structures, Materials Today Sustainability, Nanomaterials, Materials, Polymer Composites, Journal of Nanomaterials, Journal of Composites Science, SN Applied Sciences, Smart Science, etc. Dr Dong is one of current and aspiring culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) leaders with the scholarship award for 2024 Auspire Multicultural Leadership Program, Australia Day Council WA. He was a technical mentor for the Curtin BHP Billiton Award Winning team in Sustainable Design and Appropriate Technology Theme in 2009 Engineers Without Border (EWB) Challenges, Australia (among 7491 first year engineering students participating from 26 universities throughout Australia and New Zealand).

• Miss Hannah Hilton-Tapp

  Hannah Hilton-Tapp is a final year PhD researcher at University of Leicester, working under the supervision of Dr Ramy Mesalam and Prof Karl Ryder. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with Forensic Science and a Master’s degree in Chemistry, both also obtained from University of Leicester. Her research focus is the electrodeposition of novel nanocomposite and alloy coatings for use as diffusion barrier layers in thermoelectric devices used in Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators.

  Alongside her PhD research, she is the Postgraduate Representative on the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)’s Advisory Council, a member of the IOM3’s Student and Early Career Committee and a committee member for the East Midlands Materials Society. In 2024, she placed 3rd in the National Final for IOM3’s Young Persons’ Lecture Competition, and was awarded the Peter Farr Memorial Award by the Institute of Materials Finishing for a paper published in their journal