Pete Dowding was appointed Chief Scientist at Infineum in 2016 acting as leader for the collaborative academic portfolio (currently ~45 projects) and for background/ fundamental studies of additives for future generations of lubricants and new business areas. Pete is responsible for bringing new science and analytical techniques into the company.

He has research interests in surfactant design/ self-assembly, computational modelling of structure/ performance relationships and characterisation techniques, particularly application of x-ray and neutron scattering to industrial systems. He has acted as industrial supervisor to >20 past/ present PhD students and 11 Post-Doctoral Researchers. He has secured over £2 million of external research funding for from UK and EU bodies. Pete holds 12 patents and has published >30 peer-reviewed papers and contributed to two books.

Pete currently holds the positions of Visiting Industrial Professor at Bristol University and Honorary Professor at Leeds University and is a Visiting Scientist at Diamond Light Source. Pete was awarded the RSC/ SCI McBain Medal for Colloid and Interface Science in 2009 and the RSC Inspiration in Industry Award in 2014. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Chartered Chemist & Chartered Scientist. Pete is an active member of RSC and SCI: serving twice on Faraday Council and as Chair, Treasurer and Honorary Secretary for the Joint RSC/ SCI Colloid Group.