Academic/Professional Background:

• 2018 – Present: Program Director PDE
• 2012 – Present: Lecturer in Sustainable Manufacturing at Loughborough University
• 2009 – 2012: Research Associate in the EPSRC-IMCRC project on biopolymer based packaging, leading to 1 year EPSRC-IMCRC Proof of Concept (PoC) project, Loughborough University, UK.
• 2009 – 2013: PhD Loughborough University, Wolfson School of MEME.
• 2007 – 2009: Founder, Director and Editor-in-Chief of CBS Media Ltd, Norwich.
• 2006 – 2007: Editor of Packaging Europe Magazine and Website for Positive Publications in Norwich, UK.
• 2001 – 2006: Head of Design and Innovation and Senior Consultant at Pira International, part of Ciba Expert Services Ltd. Leatherhead, UK.
• 1994 – 2001: Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of James Ross Consulting Ltd, Oxford, UK.
• 1990 – 1994: Senior Packaging Consultant at TPG International, London, UK.
• 1984 – 1990: IT Dealing Systems Operator and Software Development Administrator at the London Stock Exchange, London, UK.

Summary/Biography:

James received his BSc in Product Design and Innovation Management from the Open University in 1997 and a PhD on the Sustainability of Biopolymers in Packaging Applications from Loughborough University in 2013. He is a member of the IOM3 Packaging Society Board and has founded a number of start-ups in the UK with a combined annual turnover in excess of £7.5M.

James joined Loughborough University in 2009 as an RA in the Sustainable Manufacturing Research Group (SMART) and was appointed as a Lecturer in Sustainable Manufacturing in 2012.  James moved to the Additive Manufacturing Research Group (AMRG) in 2017 and lectures on UG and PG modules in Additive Manufacturing, Sustainable Manufacturing, Innovation Management and Design Engineering. 

James’ current/recent research activities include: Co-Investigator on a 4 year - €8m H2020 CIRC-01 programme - C-SERVEES project (Activating Circular Services in the Electrical and Electronic Sector), composed of 16 partners from 11 EU Countries.  Principle Investigator on the Resource Efficient Manufacturing Grand Challenge project within the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability (2011-2017) and Co-I on the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food (2014 to 2019).

James is a journal referee for: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (JLCA); The International Journal of Sustainable Engineering (IJSE); Production & Manufacturing Research (TPMR); Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy (JRSE); Journal of Resources, Conservation & Recycling (JRCR); Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering (TJCI) and Journal of Polymers and the Environment (JOOE) and has been a Guest Editor for The International Journal of Sustainable Engineering (IJSE).

Prior to joining Loughborough, James spent 25 years in industry where he consulted on and managed a range of packaging and processing management, innovation and design projects for some of the world’s largest manufacturers across a range of industry sectors. He has also successfully founded 3 start-ups companies in consultancy, publishing and innovation, with a combined annual turnover in excess of £7.5m (2016)

 

Research Interests:

• Additive Manufacturing and Biopolymers
• Repurposing of WEEE and Circular Economy
• Resource Efficient Manufacturing
• Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains
• Packaging Materials, Technologies and Management
• Sustainable Design and Life Cycle Assessment  

Publications 

• Chernukha, P., Spencer, A., & Colwill, J. A. (2018). The Effect of Manufacturing Tolerances on the Performance of Gas Turbine Air System Metering Holes with Chamfered Inlets. In ASME Turbo Expo. Oslo, Norway.
• Colwill, J. A., & Gardner, L. (2018). A Framework and Decision Support Tool for Improving Value Chain Resilience to Critical Materials in Manufacturing. Production and Manufacturing Research. doi:10.1080/21693277.2018.1432428
• Shin, K. L. F., & Colwill, J. (2017). An integrated tool to support sustainable toy design and manufacture. Production and Manufacturing Research, 5(1), 191-209. doi:10.1080/21693277.2017.1374894
• Gould, O. J. P., Simeone, A., Colwill, J. A., Woolley, E., Willey, R., & Rahimifard, S. (2017). Optimized assembly design for resource efficient production in a multiproduct manufacturing system. In 10th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering - CIRP ICME '16. Naples, Italy.
• Sisca, F. G., Angioletti, C. M., Taisch, M., & Colwill, J. A. (2016). Additive manufacturing as a strategic tool for industrial competition. In 2016 IEEE 2nd International Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Leveraging a Better Tomorrow, RTSI 2016. Bologna, Italy. doi:10.1109/RTSI.2016.7740609
• Garcia Garcia, G., Woolley, E. W., Rahimifard, S. R., Colwill, J. A., White, R. W., & Needham, L. N. (2016). A Methodology for Sustainable Management of Food Waste. Waste and Biomass Valorization, 6(6), 2209-2227. doi:10.1007/s12649-016-9720-0
• Colwill, J. A., & Shin, K. L. F. (2016). Societal Benefit Assessment: An Integrated Tool to Support Sustainable Toy Design and Manufacture. In Y. M. Goh, & K. Case (Eds.), Advances in Manufacturing Technology XXX Vol. 3 (pp. 381-386). Netherlands: IOS Press. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-668-2-381
• Colwill, J. A., & Gould, O. J. (2016). An Examination Of Application Scale For Material Flow Assessment In Manufacturing Systems. In Y. M. Goh, & K. Case (Eds.), Advances in Manufacturing Technology XXX Vol. 3 (pp. 393-398). Netherlands: IOS Press. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-668-2-381
• Colwill, J. A., Despoudi, S., & Bhamra, R. (2016). A Review of Resilience within the UK Food Manufacturing Sector. In Y. M. Goh, & K. Case (Eds.), Advances in Manufacturing Technology XXX Vol. 3 (pp. 451-456). Netherlands: IOS Press. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-668-2-451
• Colwill, J. A., & Gardner, L. (2016). A decision support tool for improving value chain resilience to critical materials in manufacturing. In Y. M. Goh, & K. Case (Eds.), Advances in Manufacturing Technology XXX Vol. 3 (pp. 363-368). Netherlands: IOS Press. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-668-2-393
• Colwill, J., Simeone, A., Gould, O., Woolley, E., & Mulvenna, C. (2016). Energy-efficient systems for the sensing and separation of mixed polymers. In 10th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering - CIRP ICME '16. Ischia, Naples, Italy.
• Sharmina, M., Hoolohan, C., Bows-Larkin, A., Burgess, P. J., Colwill, J., Gilbert, P., . . . Anderson, K. (2016). A nexus perspective on competing land demands: Wider lessons from a UK policy case study. Environmental Science and Policy, 59, 74-84. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2016.02.008
• Colwill, J. A., & Gardner, L. (2016). A Framework for the Resilient use of Critical Materials in Sustainable Manufacturing Systems. In 48th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems Vol. 41 (pp. 282-288). Ischia (Naples), Italy. doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.01.003
• Gould, O. J. P., Simeone, A., Colwill, J., Willey, R., & Rahimifard, S. (2016). A material flow modelling tool for resource efficient production planning in multi-product manufacturing systems. In Procedia CIRP Vol. Volume 41, (pp. 21-26). Ischia, Italy: Elsevier: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives License. doi:10.1016/j.procir.2015.12.139
• Gardner, L., & Colwill, J. (2016). A decision support tool for improving value chain resilience to critical materials in manufacturing. In Advances in Transdisciplinary Engineering Vol. 3 (pp. 363-368). doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-668-2-363
• Colwill, J. A., Shin, K. L., & Young, R. I. M. (2015). Expanding the Scope of LCA to Include ‘Societal Value’: A Framework and Methodology for Assessing Positive Product Impacts. In Procedia CIRP 29 (pp. 366-371). New South Wales, Australia: Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.procir.2015.02.076
• Colwill, J. A., Thornley, P., Benton, T., Stolz, N., Chimphango, A., Tomei, J., & Adams, P. (2015). A Bioenergy Research Prospectus for Southern Africa: A Bioenergy Research Prospectus for Southern Africa (1). UK: Supergen Bioenergy Hub. Retrieved from http://www.supergen-bioenergy.net/media/eps/supergen/A-Bioenergy-Research-Prospectus-for-Southern-Africa_FINAL_JUNE-2015.pdf
• Gould, O., & Colwill, J. (2015). A framework for material flow assessment in manufacturing systems. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 32(1), 76-87. doi:10.1080/21681015.2014.1000403
• Colwill, J. A., & Rahimifard, S. (2013). Impact of the use of renewable materials on ecoefficiency of manufacturing processes. Plastics, Rubber and Composites, 42(3), 129-133. doi:10.1179/1743289812Y.0000000043
• Rahimifard, S., Sheldrick, L., Woolley, E. B., Colwill, J., & Sachidananda, M. (2012). How to Manufacture a Sustainable Future for 9 Billion People in 2050. In A. nee (Ed.), 20th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (pp. 1). Singapore.
• Colwill, J. (2012). Introduction to polymers in sustainable engineering. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 5(1), 2. doi:10.1080/19397038.2012.648419
• Colwill, J. A., Wright, E. I., Rahimifard, S., & Clegg, A. J. (2012). Bio-Plastics in the context of competing demands on agricultural land in 2050. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 5(1), 3-16.
• Colwill, J. A., Wright, E. I., & Rahimifard, S. (2012). A Holistic Approach to Design Support for Bio-polymer Based Packaging. Journal of Polymers and the Environment, 20(4), 1112-1123. doi:10.1007/s10924-012-0545-z
• Colwill, J. A., Rahimifard, S., & Clegg, A. (2011). Eco-Design Tool to support the Use of Renewable Polymers within
• Packaging Applications. In Glocalized solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing (pp. 160-165). Berlin, Germany: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-19692-8
• Colwill, J., Rahimifard, S., & Clegg, A. (2011). Eco-design tool to support the use of renewable polymers within packaging applications. In Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing - Proceedings of the 18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (pp. 160-165). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-19692-8-28
• Colwill, J. A., Rahimifard, S., Clegg, A. J., Wright, E. I., Thomas, N., & Haworth, N. (2010). Opportunities for Bio-polymer Resource Conservation through Closed Loop Recycling. In Proceedings of GPEC 2010 on Sustainability & Recycling: Raising the Bar in Today's Economy (pp. .). Orlando, USA.
• Colwill, J. A., & Cox, G. (2004). Packaging Innovation and Organisational Design: Packaging Innovation and Organisational Design - A strategic futures report for full members of Pira Int..
• Colwill, J. A., Childs, T., Pennington, A., Rait, J., Robins, T., Jones, K., . . . Warren, S. (2003). Affective Design (Kansei Engineering) in Japan: AFFECTIVE DESIGN (Kansei Engineering) IN JAPAN. Media Services University of Leeds.