Dr Joseph Houghton

Biography

Joseph is an R&D Fellow in Green and Sustainable Chemistry at the UAL Fashion Textiles and Technology Institute, where he is responsible for working across industry and higher education research settings to elicit a step change in sustainable materials and renewable fibres R&D. His research aims to reduce the environmental impact of industrial waste biomass through valorisation routes, with a view to creating biorefinery systems for a more sustainable future. Working in collaboration with industry, economic and commercial feasibility is embedded across the entirety of Joseph’s research. Joseph has recently been awarded the status of Chartered Environmentalist in recognition of his work in the area of sustainability.

Current Positions and Projects:

Joseph is currently Project Leader on an SME R&D Project with Virustatic, supported by the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology Creative R&D Partnership, where he supports the company in the innovation of textile coatings to replace the use of toxic metal-based chemicals for the antimicrobial treatment of fabrics and textiles. Virustatic is an innovative protein science SME, developing sustainable, antipathogenic alternatives to the widespread use of chemicals with known negative externalities.

Joseph is also the lead Research Fellow on 'Challenge 6: Rethinking Material Resources' as part of UAL’s Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology Creative R&D Partnership where he is working at University of Leeds in collaboration with UAL to develop new and novel fibres from food waste for a more sustainable fashion industry.

Past Experience:

Joseph has worked within the area of sustainability and green chemistry in a combination of roles, from MChem project student, PhD student, to several post-doctoral and project lead roles. His background is mainly in valorisation routes for food waste, particularly through the sustainable development of biorefinery routes for industrial waste biomass, utilising or converting the waste into value added products to reduce the environmental impact of the industry while providing an economic benefit through new revenue streams. He has published in academic journals and book chapters, and has written numerous industrial reports focused around sustainability.

His research is collaborative in nature. Within the last four years he has been a part of several multi-disciplinary consortia focused on sustainability, affording him the opportunity to engage and collaborate with a host of different sectors: working with biologists, designers, chemical and process engineers, fabricators, electricians, plumbers, industrial partners, SMEs, legislative partners, stakeholders, retail specialists, manufacturing specialists and finance teams. Due to the highly multi-disciplinary nature of the collaborations throughout his research career he has had to effectively communicate sustainability and green chemical concepts to a variety of audiences.

Within his research career, Joseph has worked with over 20 different UK and international partners within the academic, industrial, financial, consultancy and funding sectors. This includes three months in the São Paulo district of Brazil working closely with The Federal University of São Carlos and a large scale citrus production company with an aim to reduce their environmental impact. His PhD research resulted in a successful Innovate UK funding application for a two-year project within a large consortium to scale up a lab-scale biorefinery system for a large UK based company who are now in the process of commercialising the research.