Rate My Professor Jonny Blaker

Professor Jonny Blaker is Professor of Biomaterials in Materials Engineering at The University of Manchester, where he has served since 2014, initially as Lecturer and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018. He leads the Bio-Active Materials Group, established in 2014, and holds the position of Research Area Lead for Biomedical Materials at the Henry Royce Institute. Additionally, he is Adjunct Professor (Professor II) in the Department of Biomaterials at the University of Oslo since 2019. Blaker obtained his PhD in 2007 from the Department of Materials at Imperial College London under the supervision of Aldo Boccaccini, an MSc in Composite Materials from the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London in 2002, and a BEng from Brunel University. Prior to Manchester, he was a Research Fellow in the Polymer Composites and Engineering group at Imperial College London, developing bioinspired hierarchical composites and bioactive composites for medical use. He also completed a Medical Research Council-funded postdoctoral research associate position at King's College London and University College London. Earlier in his career, Blaker worked as a Design Engineer at Dyson Ltd from 1999 to 2001.

Blaker's research specializes in bio-inspired hierarchical composite materials and advanced materials derived from synthetic biology, with a focus on applications in regenerative medicine, including hierarchical fibre scaffolds, nanofibres produced via solution blow spinning such as silks from synthetic biology, bio-inks for 3D printing and biofabrication, and electrically conductive materials for peripheral nerve repair. His group explores bioactive medical materials, mask-less digital photolithography for 3D patterning, and shape-morphing composites. Blaker has produced 97 research outputs, including highly influential publications such as 'Biodegradable and bioactive porous polymer/inorganic composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering' (Biomaterials, 2006), 'Structure, morphology and thermal characteristics of banana nano fibers obtained by steam explosion' (Bioresource Technology, 2011), 'Piezoelectric materials as stimulatory biomedical materials and scaffolds for bone repair' (Acta Biomaterialia, 2018), 'Bioactive composite materials for tissue engineering scaffolds' (Expert Review of Medical Devices, 2005), and 'Development and characterisation of silver-doped bioactive glass-coated sutures for tissue engineering and wound healing applications' (Biomaterials, 2004). His work has amassed over 14,000 citations, underscoring his impact in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and composites.