Speakers

Dr Leon Prentice is Chief R&D Officer at SDI Limited in Bayswater, Victoria. He leads the development of new biomedical materials, including dental resin composites, for the global dental healthcare market. SDI Limited distributes in over 100 countries and has for the last four years been Victorian Exporter of the Year in International Health. Leon’s career has always focused on applied research, from his early internships with process engineering research, through an industry-supported PhD with SDI and the University of Melbourne, to 15 years in light metals research with CSIRO, and back to SDI.

He is Chartered and a Fellow of both IChemE (FIChemE CEng) and Engineers Australia (FIEAust CPEng EngExec) and a Certified Materials Professional (CMatP). In addition to building and supporting a high-performing team of fantastic and diverse scientists and engineers, Leon values connecting and building industry-academia collaborations. He currently co-supervising 6 PhD students and 2 post-docs, and he and his team engage internationally with students and academics across a wide range of projects.