Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a400e6123c38cc36

Jump to content

Michael Shaver

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Shaver
Shaver in 2019
Born
Canada
Education
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPolymer science, Materials science, Sustainability
Workplaces
Websitesmihub.ac.uk

Michael Shaver is Professor of Polymer Science in the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester, Director of the Sustainable Materials Innovation (SMI) Hub, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).[1][2][3] He is a polymer scientist specialising in the sustainability and circularity of plastics, and his research addresses mechanical, chemical and enzymatic recycling of plastics, sustainable polymer design, and systems-level approaches to materials circularity.

Education

[edit]

Shaver completed his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Mount Allison University in 1999.[4] He then earned a PhD in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia in 2005, with a dissertation entitled Small Molecule Activation by Diamidophosphine Complexes of Vanadium, Niobium and Tantalum.[5] He subsequently undertook an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Imperial College London.[4][1]

Career

[edit]

Shaver began his academic career at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), where he was appointed Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in 2007.[4] He rose to full Research Professor and held the UPEI Research Chair in Green Materials Chemistry from 2009.[4]

In 2012, he moved to the University of Edinburgh as a Chancellor's Fellow in the School of Chemistry, an early-career fellowship.[4] He was subsequently promoted, becoming Professor of Polymer Chemistry in August 2017, and during his time at Edinburgh served as Head of the Graduate School in the School of Chemistry from 2014.[4]

He joined the University of Manchester as Professor of Polymer Science in January 2019, based in the Department of Materials within the School of Natural Sciences.[4] He became Director of the Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub (SMI Hub) in July 2020, and was the inaugural Director of Sustainable Futures, the university's platform for interdisciplinary environmental sustainability research, from 2021.[6][3]

In 2023, he was appointed the Vita Group / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Sustainable Automotive Polymers.[2]

Research

[edit]

Part of his research concerns the degradation of plastics during mechanical recycling, where used plastic is sorted, washed, melted and re-formed.[7] Another 2024 study published in Nature Communications developed methods for quantifying and tracking the chemical degradation of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) through mechanical recycling cycling.[8] A further topic has been developing methods to quantify the proportion of recycled content in plastic products and packaging.[9]

Shaver and his group have also worked on chemical recycling, which breaks down polymer chains back to their monomer constituents for re-polymerisation.[10][11]

Michael Shaver has been an active contributor to plastics policy in the UK and internationally.[12]

Honours and recognition

[edit]

Selected publications

[edit]
  • Schyns, Z. O. G.; Shaver, M. P. "Mechanical Recycling of Packaging Plastics: A Review." Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2021, 42, 2000415.[7]
  • Patel, A. D.; Schyns, Z. O. G.; Franklin, T. W.; Shaver, M. P. "Defining quality by quantifying degradation in the mechanical recycling of polyethylene." Nature Communications 2024, 15, 8733.[8]
  • Clark, R. A.; Shaver, M. P. (2024). "Depolymerisation within a circular plastics system". Chemical Reviews. 124: 2617. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00575.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 "The future of recycling: One bin to rule them all". Royal Institution. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  2. 1 2 3 "Professor Michael Shaver, University of Manchester". Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  3. 1 2 "Professor Michael Shaver". Henry Royce Institute. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Michael Shaver". Research Explorer, The University of Manchester. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  5. ↑ Shaver, Michael P. (2005). Small Molecule Activation by Diamidophosphine Complexes of Vanadium, Niobium and Tantalum (Thesis). University of British Columbia. doi:10.14288/1.0061113.
  6. ↑ "The polymathic Professor Michael Shaver". Mewburn Ellis. June 2024. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  7. 1 2 Schyns, Z. O. G.; Shaver, M. P. (30 September 2020). "Mechanical Recycling of Packaging Plastics: A Review". Macromolecular Rapid Communications. 42. doi:10.1002/marc.202000415.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. 1 2 Patel, A. D.; Schyns, Z. O. G.; Franklin, T. W.; Shaver, M. P. (2024). "Defining quality by quantifying degradation in the mechanical recycling of polyethylene". Nature Communications. 15: 8733. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-52856-8.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ "Your 'Recycled' Grocery Bag Might Not Have Been Recycled". Undark. 20 March 2023. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  10. ↑ "Plastic bags turned into liquid fuel and wax". BBC News. October 2019. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  11. ↑ "Three ways to solve the plastics pollution crisis". Nature. 11 April 2023. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  12. ↑ "One Bin to Rule Them All". The University of Manchester Team Research. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  13. ↑ "Swinburne Medal". Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Shaver&oldid=1370727068"