Eileen Harkin-Jones was appointed to the Bombardier-Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Composites Engineering at the University of Ulster on 1st October 2014. Prior to that she held the Boxmore Chair in Polymer Engineering in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011 and awarded an OBE for services to higher education in 2013.  Her main areas of research have been in processing of polymers and materials development, particularly polymer nanocomposites. She also has major interests in resource efficiency in polymer and composite processing. She has published over 150 papers and won research funding in excess of £8 million. She served as a panel member for REF 2014 and serves on the editorial boards of 3 international journals. She is a member of peer review research panels in the UK, Ireland, Norway, and Canada. She is currently Deputy Chair of The Higher Education Authority in Ireland.