Emeritus Professor Anthony (Tony) F Johnson - CEO
Tony Johnson has been CEO of Gluco Technology Limited (GTL) since it was founded in December 1998. A graduate of Nottingham University (BSc, PhD, Chemistry), much of Tony’s career has been in the academic field and GTL was established as a university spin-out company when he was Professor of Polymer Science and Technology at the University of Leeds.
His research interests have been in the field of polymer reaction engineering i.e. the synthesis of polymers and the quantification of the kinetics and thermodynamics of polymerisation taken through to full-scale synthesis employing modelling and simulation methods for reactor design and control and a wide range of polymer analytical and testing methods for the evaluation of products. The reactive processing of polymers has been a particular interest. GTL’s activities reflect these interests.
His career has included periods at Bradford University (Chair of Polymer Science; Chair of Chemistry), Bangor University (Visiting Professor), Glyndwr University (Research Professor), Waterloo University, Canada (Visiting Professor), and Beijing Technical University, China (Visiting Professor). He has supervised over 100 PhD programmes and has published extensively in the polymer field, including 15 patents.
His industrial experience has included periods working for the Ministry of Defence and the National Research Council of Canada as well as being on the Board of several other companies. He has acted as consultant for a number of multi-national companies and as an expert witness for patent and criminal cases. Awards include the Swinburne Gold Medal from the Institute of Materials for ‘Outstanding Contributions to the Polymer Field’ and two silver medals for best publications of the year.