Person

Hodgkin, Jonathon Howard (1938 - )

Born
12 September 1938
Kuala Lumpur, Malaya [later], Malaysia
Occupation
Polymer chemist

Summary

Jonathan Hodgkin's early work was as a natural products chemist involving the characterisation and synthesis of alkaloids. He became interested in polymer chemistry when employed by the Polymer Corporation in Canada in 1965 where he developed thermally stable elastomers foe automotive applications. At the Stanford Research Institute, from 1966, he worked with Boeing and NASA on thermally stable polyimides for aerospace applications. At CSIRO, from 1971, he was a key member of the polymer banknote project and was seconded to the Bank to manage the technology transfer. From 1988 until his retired in 2003 he managed a group in CSIRO that developed matrix resins for advanced composites. This involved working closely with Boeing, BAE Systems and the Australian company Quickstep.

Details

While at CSIRO Jonathan ran a polymer analysis group which carried out many less major commercial polymer analysis and development projects for the Australian industry. A number of these led to appearing as expert witness in legal proceedings.

His key publications include:

J H Hodgkin, G P Simon and R J Varley, Thermoplastic toughening of epoxy resins: A critical review Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 1998, 9, 3-10

B-G Min, J H Hodgkin and Z H Stachurski, Reaction mechanisms, microstructure, and fracture properties of thermoplastic polysulfone-modified epoxy resin, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 1993, 50, 1065-1073

R J Varley, J H Hodgkin and G P Simon, Toughening of a trifunctional epoxy system part VI. Structure property relationships of the thermoplastic toughened system, Polymer, 2001, 42, 3847-3858

B Dao, J Hodgkin, J Krstina, J Mardel amd W Tian, Accelerated aging versus realistic aging in aerospace composite materials. II. Chemistry of thermal aging in a structural composite. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2006, 1023, 3221-3232

Chronology

1959
Education - Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Organic Chemistry, University of Western Australia
1963
Education - Doctor of Philosophy in Organic Chemistry, Australian National University
1963 - 1964
Career position - National Research Council of Canada, Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Nova Scotia
1965
Career position - Research Chemist, Polymer Corporation, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
1966
Career position - Contract Research Scientist, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, California, USA
1971
Career position - Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Applied Chemistry, Fishermans Bend, Victoria, Australia
1979
Award - Fellow, Royal Australia Chemical Institute (FRACI)
1980 - 1981
Career position - Secondment to ICI Australia polymer research group
1982 - 1983
Career position - Secondment to Reserve Bank of Australia, Note Printing Branch, Craigieburn, Victoria to manage the polymer banknote technology transfer
1982 - 1987
Career position - Executive Editorial Board, High Performance Polymers
1995
Award - Fellow, Institute of Physics (UK)
2011
Career event - Retired from CSIRO

Published resources

Books

  • Solomon, David and Spurling, Tom, The plastic banknote: from concept to reality (Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, 2014), 240 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Hodgkin, J. H.; Morton, T. C.; and Spurling, T. H., 'Geoff Hawthorne, CSIRO polymer chemist', Chemistry in Australia, 2017 (March) (2017), 32-3. Details

Gavan McCarthy

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